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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Lectures to my students: complete ... - Google Books

Lectures to my students: complete ... - Google Books Charles Spurgeon's lectures are something I've read only because they are quoted so often... this is my first time actually working through them. Reading it for a class with Will Willimon this January in Birmingham, Alabama. They're really refreshing and good. He's such a good writer. They're seldom "dated," although I tire of his attacks on "popery" and laughed when I read him make a "phrenological" observation.

Nevertheless, worth reading for anyone who preaches or serves in parish ministry.

|| LIRS || Donate Online and Get They Are Us Free

|| LIRS || Donate Online

If you haven't yet donated to the ministry of LIRS this year, do it now. If you give $100 to LIRS, you get a signed copy of Rallie Defenbaugh's book on Lutherans and Immigration. It's a great book, we're using it as the basis for a class at our church in January. Donate today.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bartimaeus

Matt Skinner's essay in WorkingPreacher.org is further proof that it is good to stick with the regular lectionary this Sunday rather than do the Reformation Day texts. The lectionary out Reformations the Reformation here.

Enter the Bible - New Testament: Galatians

Enter the Bible - New Testament: Galatians is a good place to start if you're interested in reading Luther Seminary's resource for intentional bible study. Our congregation is using some pilot materials from Augsburg Fortress to study Galatians in November, so I encourage anyone who will be participating in that study to consider taking a look at this on-line resource.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Lutheran World Relief: Church Leaders in Colombia

Lutheran World Relief: has been involved in an ongoing way in advocating for church leader's in Colombia. Consider signing this letter.

|| LIRS || Opportunities to Advocate

|| LIRS || Opportunities to Advocate

This advocacy resource on the LIRS site is new and improved and really spectacular. Once you log in (click Act Now! and choose to become a member and sign in) it automatically sets you up to send advocacy letters to the correct congresspeople/senators/etc. for your zip code.

This kind of advocacy is very important, effective, and central to Lutheran identity. Take a look!

A W.S. Merwin poem from his Pulitzer Prize winner

Lights Out

The old grieving autumn goes on calling to its summer
the valley is calling to other valleys beyond the ridge
each star is roaring alone into darkness
there is not a sound in the whole night

165th Anniversary Celebration

On October 11th, 2009, East Koshkonong will celebrate Covenant Sunday, 9 a.m. On this weekend 165 years ago, the first members of EKLC covenanted together around “Four Points” drafted by J.W.C. Dietrichson, their first pastor. We celebrate this anniversary by gathering together and making a covenant ourselves, committing ourselves to continuing the ministry that has been passed on to us through these many generations. You are formally invited to attend Covenant Sunday. Mark Granquist, professor of church history from Luther Seminary, will be our guest speaker for the day. He specializes in American church history and Scandinavian-American religion. All are welcome to attend!

After worship, we will host our annual, and now famous, pie auction. Bring a pie to donate for the auction, or a couple of pies to share and eat. Ice cream will be provided. We’ll enjoy fellowship, pie and ice cream, while one of our local auctioneers auctions off pies as a benefit for the East Koshkonong Building Fund.


The “Four Points"

At a meeting on October 10th, 1844, J.W.C. Dietrichson established these “Four Points” as the basis for organizing forty families into a congregation in what became known as East Koshkonong. Three days later, thirty families at West Koshkonong formally accepted the “Four Points.”

By December 19, 1844, the West Koshkonong congregation had erected a log church. East Church erected an identical log church by January 31, 1845.

1. Do you desire to become a member of the Norwegian Lutheran congregation in this place?
2. Will you to that end subject yourself to the church order that the Ritual of the Church of Norway prescribes?
3. Will you promise that you shall not call or accept any other minister and pastor than such as can clearly establish according to the Norwegian Lutheran Church Order that he is a regularly called and rightly consecrated pastor? And will you show the pastor thus called by you and the congregation to spiritual rulership the attention and obedience that a member of a congregation owes his pastor in all things that he requires and does according to the Ritual of the Church of Norway?
4. Will you, by signing your name or by permitting it to be signed, here make acknowledgment that you have joined the congregation on the above-named conditions?

Monday, October 05, 2009

East Koshkonong Lutheran Church

East Koshkonong Lutheran Church

If you're interested in listening to sermons from our Wednesday worship, past sermons are posted here. Let me know what you think of the web site!

Thursday, October 01, 2009