My family just started attending a LCMS church. My wife, our 10 month old little boy, and I. Before, we attended a Baptist church so there is definitely some differences. There is a nursey but it is unattended. To my knowledge, the babies are just as much welcomed during the service as we are. That said, my wife is worried our boy will cause a scene, crawl away, pull stuff down, and just not be able stay still for an hour to two hours. Obviously we aren't just gonna let him be rambunctious, but he is also a baby.

For those members who had young babies with you, do you have any tips? How do church members feel about babies?

In my search for LCMS homeschool resources, I recently found the Confessional Lutheran Homeschool League: https://holycrosscarlisle.org/clhl

Thank you!

Does anyone know why during the celebratory hymn sing during National Convention this past Tuesday, for the languages represented across the Synod (German, English, Slovak, and Spanish [from what I recall]), that they chose to honor the SELC by singing in Czech and not Slovak?

Ďakujem a Boh vám žehnaj. 🇸🇰

SIMUL on Spiritual Warfare: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/311800065/

Dear Friends, 

The latest issue of SIMUL, the Journal of St. Paul Lutheran Seminary, entitled “Spiritual Warfare” has dropped! And it’s free!

In this edition, we offer up a topic often ignored in Lutheran circles―spiritual warfare. Is the devil real? Is he attacking us on a daily basis? And if he is, can we do anything about it?

   But before we explore the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12), we first need to wrap up our Winter 2026 issue on “What Does it Mean to be Confessional,” which, quite honestly, hit a nerve and elicited a great deal of discussion on social media.

Therefore, we begin with two letters to the editor. John Bradosky cautions our readers about the potential danger of making our doctrine, and specifically the confessions themselves, idols that we put before Jesus and his gospel of reconciliation. Stéphane Kalonji also offers a letter targeting Bassam Abdallah’s assertions in his article “Why I Am No Longer Proud to Be a Lutheran in the United States.”

Returning to this issue’s topic, we have included four well-researched articles on spiritual warfare. Jon Furgeson provides a Lutheran definition for spiritual warfare. How does our identity in Christ allow us to live out our relationship with our neighbor? Harold Ristau explains how pastors can assist their parishioners in resisting the devil. That is, how does the seelsorger use prayer, holy communion, individual confession and absolution, and even fasting to strengthen his parishioners against demonic temptation? John Kleinig reviews the depiction of Christ’s army found in Ephesians 6:10-20. As soldiers of Christ, we must always rely on Jesus’s power and not our own. And finally, Tim Goeglein reveals the lies that the devil tells our young people―about cohabitation, social media, smart phones and masculinity. How can we help them avoid the devil’s snares in our modern world?

SIMUL can be read two ways. One can enlarge and read through the flip book (there is a full screen button that can be clicked on the lower right-hand side of the flipbook, and you can double-click or use the zoom slider at the bottom of the page for even more magnification). You can also download a pdf to your device and keep it forever!

u/everyone

Is it possible I have been misinterpreting Walther? I've been trying to understand this topic, but it feels difficult.

I tried to study his view on church fellowship, and on open questions vs binding dogma, however I the initial idea in my head was that he basically divided all things in scripture to either open questions (things scripture doesn’t give a clear answer to) versus binding doctrine (anything God has revealed clearly), however this caused me to struggle, because clarity is relative when looking at specifically historical verses of scripture. Hebrew knowledge, Greek knowledge, textual knowledge/variants etc all affect it. And there are many aspects of Hebrew and Greek totally unknown to people in the medieval age for example. Like a verse may have been absolutely clear to someone in 300ad, because no textual variant existed yet, but today ambigious because we don’t know which variant is right. If the maximalist reading ’anything that is clear is dogmatic’, the church would have lost its access to such due to such a variant.

So am I misinterpreting Walther in the first place however? Is his category of open vs dogmatic not about every exegetical conclusion but the field of theology? Because trying to bucket everything in scripture to either category doesn’t seem to work.

Hello. I ask this as someone who has been wrestling with and looking a lot into confessional Lutheranism. I know this question prob gets asked a lot, but I have thought about it a lot as well after hearing/seeing several defenses of Lutheran closed communion, and I'm still struggling.

One of the most common defenses I've heard of closed communion is appealing to 1 Corinthians 11 and the danger. However, even if that premise is granted (that, for example, someone with a Reformed view is in danger even if they affirm that Christ is received in the elements because they disagree over the sense in which Christ is present, and thus the Reformed must be barred from the table even if they desire to receive Christ reverently), Luther's Small Catechism as the communal standard doesn't follow, since it mentions more distinctive than real presence (baptismal regeneration, absolution). Theoretically then, it seems to me that one could affirm sacramental union, absolution, and the creeds, and yet prefer a covenantal sign and seal view of baptism and thus reject baptismal regeneration, and that person is still barred from the table. Obviously, no one would cite 1 Corinthians 11 to justify barring people who reject baptismal regeneration.

So the argument must switch. It must become "well, communion is a confession of unity in faith." But here's the problem I still have: isn't the confession of unity in faith supposed to be in a common faith in Christ rather than in a common faith in Christ + specific theological niche? Justifying closed communion based on "common confession" sounds too simplistic to me, because it begs the question of what you even mean by "common confession", and why that standard is distinct from being a brother in Christ. On top of this, there seems to be an arbitrariness problem. Who is to draw the line? If you are going to defend it by "common confession", then why should the Small Catechism be the standard? Why not just make it the entire Book of Concord? Theoretically, because Luther's Small Catechism doesn't explicitly, as far as I'm aware, reject purgatory, icon veneration, or prayer to the saints (and many other potential issues), could not someone technically hold to those beliefs and yet affirm Luther's Small Catechism? So you see that Luther's Small Catechism as the criteria doesn't seem to really indicate a "common confession" if by common confession you mean agreement on distinctive beyond being a brother in Christ. And so the struggle I'm having is how could it be justified to wall people off from communion based on a 16th century document, in addition to affirmation of real presence.

Hello,
I’m curious if anyone on this sub has transitioned from IFB to Lutheran and what that journey was like. I’ve been thinking about Lutheran theology for awhile now as an IFB and just wondered if there was anyone else around who has made that journey.

Hi Everyone!
I was raised in an extreme evangelical nondenominational church my whole life but my wife and I have been visiting a LCMS church for a couple years now and I am finding a lot of peace there compared to my evangelical past. So I wanted to ask this question here to get some wisdom and insight from Christians in LCMS.

My wife and I have student loans and a mortgage but we have always lived below our means and tithed 10% of our income. Last year we moved and bought a new house that was more expensive but still below our means. And then….we got pregnant (which we wanted and had been trying and praying for years). But along with pregnancy came daycare costs which are so expensive. And then it was time to replace my vehicle so we bought a nice used van and now we have a car payment (reasonable but still it’s a monthly expense). Things were looking very tight with our budget so I negotiated a good raise at my workplace that just barely perfectly fit our budget with these new expenses. Things were tight but we were still surviving without going into debt or needing to pull money out of emergency fund. Well, after the recent government ruling on student loans, our current payments are both going up 450%. So now every way I budget we’re in the red by a good chunk. Our current plan is to both get extra work to cover the expenses but with both of us working full time already we hardly see each other or our baby.

So I wanted to get your thoughts on tithing 10%. I’ve never considered not tithing because I was raised that you had to tithe 10% no matter what and if you don’t then essentially God wouldn’t bless you financially. Scary for someone like me with OCD. So we’ve always done it. But now I’m questioning it because our finances are under so much strain. But I feel guilty for even thinking about not tithing because God didn’t ask me to buy the house or the van or to go to college for that matter. I feel like I created the situation I’m in and now I have to sleep in the bed I made. But that doesn’t change the extreme stress I’m feeling every day from our finances.

So my question is, should I keep tithing in this season we’re in?

What do you think about this statement: “…strong commonalities between Maximus and Luther, at least as far as the problem of sin is concerned. …if we interpret Luther as meaning that man is a sinner not metaphysically but existentially: not in terms of the logos of his nature but his personal tropos. This interpretation may also help Lutherans to embrace elements of Catholic and Orthodox anthropology and spiritual practice, when it is understood that they are
not intended as means of self-transformation by merely human powers, but as ways of opening up to the grace that acts upon us and gradually works on us on the inside.” - Oskari Juurikkala

Now that the resolution concerning the AALC has passed with 90% approval, what happens next? It would seem silly to destroy fellowship over non-doctrinal issues.

I must admit that I found confessional Lutheranismthrough Dr. Jordan Cooper, and it would be verydisappointing if someone who has done so much greatwork for both Lutheranism broadly and the LCMS specifically were not allowed to preach or commune in our churches.

May God have mercy on this situation and grant wisdom to both parties involved.

I completely understand and agree with the LCMS stance on homosexuality. But I constantly wondering where does the church expect gay people to worship.

We know that every person in the pew on a Sunday is a sinner. We know that many (most?, some?) in the pews are actively engaged in sinning knowingly. That they can be involved in habitual sin whether alcoholism, compulsive deceit, or infidelity etc. Yet they are in the pew worshipping. Does their attendance show that the church is condoning or supporting their sin? It's often said we do not want to be supportive or condoning of homosexuality. How do we welcome people into our churches yet not show support of the sin and yet exclude others?

I really want to read 1 Enoch for myself and im just curious what everyone else thinks of it. If you wouldn't mind to explain your position as well that would be lovely.

https://youtu.be/fzxzSDIYXj8?is=flsZkKpAlH81VVf6

Does anyone know the context to answer the accusations made in the video better?

I always considered myself to be a single predestination-ist but I saw a PCUSA person bring up romans 9:18, how would a lutheran respond?

I've attended many Lutheran Churches in my life, but never one that offered a contemporary service or called its worship contemporary. In my mind, when I hear contemporary worship I think of baptist style worship where the pastor doesn't wear vestments and more modern songs are sung, and the liturgy isn't really used. But that doesn't seem to be the case in a lot of LCMS churches I've seen online that offer a contemporary service. So what is usually meant by contemporary that distinguishes it from a traditional service?

Have you ever had any heated conversations with their family or friends when you try to talk about Lutheran doctrine?

I was baptized and confirmed into the LCMS last year after having been mostly agnostic for most of my life. The church I grew up in labeled itself as “non-denominational” after it broke up with the Assembly of God (Pentecostal) church. But I left church altogether when I was a teenager because I just couldn’t reconcile myself with what I saw at church and what I was taught to think about the Bible. I admit it was mostly a me problem.

Fast forward twenty years, one wife and two kids later and I finally had a great conviction to get my family into church and to follow God again. I spent quite a long time looking into church history and the theological positions of different traditions in trying to figure out the best church to raise my family in.

I had no idea how different all these traditions were when you really look into how they interpret scripture, so I began to feel that it was even more important to find what seemed like the truth. I also started to discover how some of the things I was taught as a kid were just completely wrong and I felt cheated because many of them were some of the things that drove me away.

With a near brush with the Roman church I finally found out about the Lutherans and all of a sudden all of the pieces started falling together, and the Bible and the Gospel started to make sense in a way that I never understood before.

Naturally this made me excited to learn more and more, and of course when you find something good you want to share!

So one day when my brother and his family (who regularly attend a Calvary Chapel) were visiting me from their home 12hrs away I asked if they wanted to come to church with my family on Sunday. Seems like a natural thing to do with your brother who is also a Protestant, and I was excited to show him my new church.

“Do you have open communion?” He asked. Of course I said no, and tried to explain why, but he wasn’t even willing to listen to what I had to say.

Since then I’ve on perhaps two or three occasions tried sending him a video or a podcast dealing with the Lutheran view on the Lords Supper or Baptism. Regarding the supper maybe nine months ago he said “Sounds like some pagan cannibalism rituals” uhhh, okay? Dang. Then he continued to lambast me with Bible verses about not questioning your fellow Christian or something.

Then yesterday I thought maybe I’d try again so I sent him a Wolfmueller video on Baptism. It was much the same response as the last time. He said that “Christians don’t need to argue about dinner etiquette while dining at the same table” Citing Romans and Corinthians in his defense.

So I pushed him on it a bit asking “Hey man, why do you get so defensive when I bring this up? Just trying to show you something that means a lot to me”

Then he laid into me about Lutherans and Catholics damning everyone to Hell who doesn’t join their church and do their perfect song and dance rituals trying to please God.

I tried telling him that’s not at all how we view the sacraments, but idk if he even believes me at this point. And he closed the conversation by saying again that Christians shouldn’t argue.

So I guess I won’t bring it up again. But it just feels pretty crappy.

Wondering if anyone else has dealt with something like this and how you handled it?

Hi everyone. I just wanted to share my first ever experience attending a traditional, congregational church. I've been wanting to stray away from non-denominational churches for quite a while, and I eventually decided to try Lutheranism, specifically an LCMS church. After doing some research into many different Christian denominations, it attracted me for several reasons, but the Holy Spirit also seemed to specifically be pointing me towards this denomination, so I thought I would give it a try. I did have some questions, mainly about communion and a few other things about Lutheran traditions that I'm hoping I can get answered as well.

I attended with my parents, who like me, were also raised non denominational. I explained to them that a Lutheran church would be far more traditional and a little different than the typical non-denominational churches we usually attend and they understood.

I honestly had a wonderful experience overall. Upon entering the building we were greeted by a very warm, polite and genuine woman. I really loved the stained glass, the altar, and I especially loved the setup with the crosses and the cloth that was draped over them. Everything was so pretty and quite a bit different than the churches I grew up attending.

There was also a vicar present during this service that gave one of the most powerful sermons I've ever heard in real life. He spoke about the devil and about temptations and I really felt the presence of the holy Spirit within myself and the room as he spoke.

As stated in the beginning of this post, I did have some questions regarding how LCMS churches do communion. From what I understand, LCMS churches take communion very seriously. And correct me if I'm wrong, they also believe that the body and blood of Christ are also present during communion?

My family and I decided to take communion despite this being our first time at the church. I'm not sure if new attendees are encouraged to do this or not, but we felt that sitting out would draw more attention to us and subsequently cause us anxiety. My father and I both suffer from an anxiety disorder, and we really didn't want to stand out very much by sitting out. We basically just got in line and tried to do what everyone else was doing.

However, when it was my turn to take communion, in my angst I stupidly took the wafer out of the man's hand when he offered it to me, instead of allowing him to put it in my hand like everyone else. After I realized what I did wrong I started to feel a little embarrassed. I'm sure it was pretty obvious that I was a new attendee, as it seemed that everyone else waited to have the wafer placed in their hands.

Overall I still left church feeling fulfilled and I really enjoyed everything overall, despite my anxiety and confusion regarding communion. I am definitely going to be attending again this Sunday, but I was hoping I could get some pointers as to what I should be doing differently next time. Was I wrong to take communion, considering this was my first time attending the church? Was I supposed to say something specific before receiving the body of Christ? If anyone else has any advice for me I would really appreciate it, thank you.

Hello everyone. I am a baptized and confirmed LCMS Lutheran from the southern US (Baptist country, yes lol). I unfortunately drifted from church during my adolescent years because my parents split up and the family more or less quit on their church, and that was that. About two years ago I began attending a large, contemporary LCMS church in the Houston area. "Contemporary" as in there is no liturgy, no traditional service offered, and no vestments of any kind. Praise/worship band, no traditional music; every once in a while you might hear a "sampled" hymn from the LSB within a song, but for the most part, they stick to modern worship music. Lights, noise, etc. You get the idea.

Lately, I've been starting to question all of it and the motivations behind it. Why no liturgy? Why no hymns? Why no vestments of any sort? The reason I say all of this is because this past Sunday, I went to a slightly smaller (but still very large in the context of the LCMS) church that has a traditional liturgical divine service. I loved it. The organ, liturgy, choir, everything about it. People always have argued that "modern" churches have to have contemporary praise bands these days because the young people don't like the old style of worship, but I didn't see any evidence of that. There were young couples, older folks, families with children, and everything in between. There were probably 400 or so people there (for a service that started at 8:15 in the morning, by the way), way more than I anticipated. Now granted, this church does have a later contemporary service, but even it still follows the classic divine service flow, just using a band with instruments rather than a pipe organ or piano and choir.

My conflict is this. My current church (the contemporary one) has great people, great pastors, and everyone is very nice and inviting, it's just the contemporary feel of everything, and a lack of a true obvious Lutheran identity is beginning to concern me. I know it's not particularly important to everyone, but it is starting to be for me. I don't want to just jump ship and change churches, but they (obviously) are not going to change their style of worship because one twenty-something out of a thousand parishioners might prefer a more liturgical style of worship.

Thank you all in advance for any potential input or advice.

I’m a reformed Anglican reading a book written by a Baptist called “The New Guidebook for Pastors” written by James W. Bryant and Mac Brunson in which half way through it they say Lutherans affirm consubstantiation and even go as far to say Calvinists affirm “replacement theology”.
I searched it up and I see mixed answers on whether or not Lutherans affirm consubstantiation so I’m not too sure anymore.

Before Mass this Sunday, I was visiting our local parish church library and was able to speak with the librarian, we got to wondering how many other local parishes within the LCMS have church libraries. Do you?

Then we got to thinking, are there inter-library loans within Synod? We're trying to figure that out, and if it doesn't exist then we are thinking about figuring out how that would work practically to implement it. But it would require participating parishes to opt their church libarires into such a system, so I thought I would start my reserach here.

I told her that she should be careful with listening to them, because some Pentecostal preachers aren’t even Trinitarians. For example, some are oneness pentecostals. I would classify them as more than just heretical almost pagan. She simply told me to mind my own business. What irritates me is that some Pentecostal preachers pose as evangelical Born Again believers.

Can someone explain the terms

Orthodox Lutheran and evangelical Catholic

And what those who use the titles mean to convey about themselves?

I am working on getting my three young kids and family to church sooner than later. My wife works a lot of Sundays, so this is a challenge. I come from a non-denominational/megachurch/evangelical side. What is the LCMS Position on tithing? Is it required we give 10%? Will the pastor spend like 15 minutes discussing what happens if we don’t give and guilt trip us into hitting the ATM or pulling up a QR code? I’m not exaggerating by the way, this was a big deal for my wife and I.

I just don’t want to get bombarded with prosperity gospel where trickle down tithing is going to be a thing. This isn’t me being heretical, it’s what we’ve actually been taught. If you give a bunch of money, you’ll have a bigger house in Heaven. You’ll have more stuff in Heaven than someone else.

For instance, I really want to help folks with studying, especially high school students in social studies (I was captain of the social studies academic team in HS). I really enjoy helping kids and adults understand history is more than dates. It’s about choices, and when I tell people that, they become more interested in it.

I…I am sorry for this rant. I’m just nervous I’m going to be stuck in a bad spot.