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Pastor Tim Christensen of Gold Hill Lutheran Church in Montana was put in a difficult situation on Sunday morning. ...49ers fan Pastor Christensen decided to perform a one-minute service then rush out to catch the game on television. "Would you all like to be forgiven for your sins? OK, that's great. You are," before adding "there's some bread and some wine up here on the table. Feel free to help yourself if you'd like to." Opening up his vestment to reveal a 49ers T-shirt, the pastor then shouts, "I'm out of here".

YORK, Pa. (AP) — At 89, Helen Behler still drives into York from her West Manchester condo every Sunday to worship at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. The oldest member of a dwindling congregation, Behler cut the cake a few weeks ago when Trinity completed its centennial celebration. She is part of a fading community of churchgoers, staunchly Lutheran worshippers who trace their faith to German-born ancestors who flocked to central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries. Christ Lutheran on South George Street is said to have been the first church built west of the Susquehanna River. It was followed...

The closest a Christian comes to hearing the literal voice of God is when their familiarity with scripture evokes verses in answer to life’s queries. For instance, when confronted with the Washington Post’s profile of “tatted up, foul-mouthed” Lutheran minister Nadia Bolz-Weber, something like 2 Timothy 4:3-4 comes to mind: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. The Post provides little from Bolz-Weber which passes for...

AUSTIN — Nadia Bolz-Weber bounds into the University United Methodist Church sanctuary like a superhero from Planet Alternative Christian. Her 6-foot-1 frame is plastered with tattoos, her arms are sculpted by competitive weightlifting and, to show it all off, this pastor is wearing a tight tank top and jeans. Looking out at the hundreds of people crowded into the pews to hear her present the gospel of Jesus Christ, she sees: Dockers and blazers. Sensible shoes. Grandmothers and soccer moms. Nary a facial piercing. To Bolz-Weber’s bafflement, this is now her congregation: mainstream America. These are the people who put...

(I received this the other day. It's written by Pastor Tom Brock) -Today I walked through my old alma mater, Luther Theological Seminary in St Paul, Mn. It is known as probably the most conservative of the ELCA seminaries. You wouldn’t know it from the number of gay/lesbian bumper stickers in the parking lot. Upon entering the main building a sign was up promoting a new book at Luther’s Bookstore, “Pastrix” by ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. She was a favorite speaker at the ELCA Youth Assembly and a few months ago spoke at the historic Central Lutheran Church in downtown...

Almost no elected Republicans support giving gays the right to marry. The party’s influential social-conservative wing sees “traditional marriage” as a defining issue. And while most major Democrats are rushing to embrace same-sex marriage, none of the most prominent potential Republican presidential candidates have taken that step.But a powerful group of Republican donors, who see the GOP’s staunch opposition to gay rights as a major problem, is trying to push the party toward a more welcoming middle ground — where candidates who oppose marriage rights can do so without seeming hateful.The behind-the-scenes effort is being led largely by GOP mega-donor...

Fifty years ago, the Grand Forks Air Force Base was just getting geared up and Ascension Lutheran Church, in its shadow, opened its doors with its own kind of military mission. The base got its first Cold War mission in 1957 but didn’t start really booming until the early 1960s into the strategic giant it became for a quarter century, with long-range bombers, fighter planes, missile crews and midair-refueling tankers all vying for space. Last weekend, Ascension Lutheran marked its 50th anniversary, and like the base, it has far fewer personnel. At its peak in the 1970s, with 8,000 or...

Last week the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America installed Rev. Guy Erwin as Bishop of the Southwest California Synod. Rev. Erwin is the first practicing homosexual to be a bishop in the ELCA. The ELCA's Living Lutheran website reported that there were at least 10 ELCA bishops in attendance. (see here) Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson, the highest ranking ELCA leader, delivered the sermon at the installation. Bishop Hanson's sermon made it clear that there is no more debate in the denomination about whether homosexuality is sinful or godly. He then proclaimed the ELCA's repentance for once holding the Biblical...

How did Elizabeth Eaton pull off the year's biggest surprise in Pittsburgh, not counting the Pirates? The unheralded bishop of Northeastern Ohio beat out the two-term incumbent, Mark Hanson, by better than 2-1 for the office of presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, despite trailing him by a 19-1 margin on the first (nominating) ballot. Let us count the ways. These Mainline Lutherans turned out to be literalists. The convention theme, as veteran attendee Eric Shafer pointed out last week, was "Always Being Made New." Thus many delegates decided to uphold Isaiah 43:19 and "do a new...

WASHINGTON — Although Martin Luther likely simply sent his Ninety-Five Theses — his harsh critique of contemporary Catholicism — to the local archbishop instead of dramatically nailing them to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, the event is commonly regarded as marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. A new document, “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017,” has been released to pave the way for joint observances of Luther’s action by both Lutherans and Catholics, a development that certainly could not have been foreseen in previous centuries.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) first openly gay bishop, Guy Erwin, presided over a highly heterodox worship service on August 14, 2013, during ELCA’s 2013 Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh. Erwin’s subsequent dismissal of the service’s doctrinal significance notwithstanding, the bishop’s presence amidst such liturgical revisionism raises disturbing questions about proper theological formation in the ELCA. This Festival Worship took place in the Omni William Penn Hotel’s Grand Ballroom after the ELCA assembly’s events had concluded that day in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center blocks away. For the unsuspecting churchgoer, the service’s liturgical program printed by the gay...

The numbers are in and they are not good for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Yet they do show that a faithful remnant have placed God's Word over their affinity for the ELCA. The 2012 numbers show that there are now 9,533 ELCA congregations. (this includes “155 congregations under development”) In 2011, the ELCA had 9,638 congregations. That means there has been a loss of 105 ELCA congregations (happening for a variety of reasons) in one year. The total number of baptized members in the ELCA as of 2012 is 3,950,924. This is significant in that the ELCA is...

There is a new bishop in town, a new leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The old bishop, Mark S. Hanson, has been sent packing and none too soon. Under Bishop Hanson's watch, the ELCA has: - decided God was wrong, so they “unsinned” homosexuality - taken no step to protect the lives of the unborn - continued to gender neutralize God and also invented female names for Him - taken no steps to end goddess worship happening in their churches - continually called on government leaders to take actions that would harm Israel and seek to turn...

The nation’s largest Lutheran group elected its first woman as presiding bishop on Wednesday. The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton was chosen as head of the liberal-leaning Evangelical Lutheran Church in America during its national legislative meeting in Pittsburgh. Eaton won on the fifth ballot with 600 votes, defeating the incumbent, the Rev. Mark Hanson, who is finishing his second six-year term. Hanson received 287 votes. Eaton, a bishop from the northeastern Ohio district, is taking over leadership of the more than 4 million-member denomination at a time of major transition. In 2009, the denomination cleared the way for openly gay and...

My notes from the press conference: Bishop Hanson was first introduced, but it was announced he would not be taking questions: Hanson: Great honor to sit with bp elect Eaton. “Always being made new” theme of this assembly, and this call process was a call process for new leadership. In 25 years we’ve never looked back, always looked ahead. “A young church is a very mature church”—we have confidence we can engage in decisions that will not lead to divisions. It is wonderful to pass on mantle of leadership with confidence. We have a staff that will receive her as...

[ . . . ] . . . Christian authorities need to stop thinking and writing as though the categories of homosexual and Christian can be joined—as though the Church could tolerate or accommodate, or speak gently of, much less bless or sanctify, anything peculiar to the garment stained by the flesh that those who come to Christ throw off in their baptism. In that baptism we become penitents, and as such divided from our sins. St. Paul tells us here that no penitent is to be named by, identified by, what he has abjured. Those injured people who have...

Promoting acceptance of sexual behavior has replaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the primary mission. On the one hand, the world will never be satisfied–until Christians completely renounce their faith. More importantly, the Lord will never bless such unfaithfulness to Him and His Word. We see from the sad example of what’s happened to the ELCA–the biggest split in American church history–that whatever churches and other organizations such as the Boy Scouts imagine they will gain by giving in to the world is dwarfed by what they will surely lose.

Since shortly after its formation in 1988 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been fixated on deviant sexual behavior, culminating in the endorsement of homosexual pastors in 2009, homosexual “marriage” in 2011, and the election last month of their first homosexual bishop. Dr. James Nestingen, a highly respected scholar and retired ELCA seminary professor, recently concluded that promoting acceptance of deviant sexual behavior has actually replaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the primary mission and message of the ELCA. Those within the ELCA demanding these radical changes asserted it is necessary for the ELCA’s very survival. Supposedly, they...

ELCA seminary marks 150th anniversary of Battle of Gettysburg 13-48-MRC GETTYSBURG, Pa. (ELCA) -- Exactly 150 years ago on July 1, 1863, Union cavalry commander Gen. John Buford observed Confederate soldiers advancing on Gettysburg from the west. He surveyed the advance from the cupola of a Lutheran seminary building. Within a few hours the fields surrounding the seminary became a battleground, turning the seminary building into perhaps the largest field hospital of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. The Seminary Ridge Museum opened July 1, 2013, inside that building, historically known as Schmucker Hall on the campus of the Lutheran Theological...

Recently, Christian Bible translators considered changes that would make Christian scriptures more palatable to Muslim audiences. Instead of "in the name of the Father," they put forth the phrase "in the name of Allah." "Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit" was reformulated as "Cleanse them in the name of Allah, his Messiah, and his Holy Spirit." In addition, Isa a prophet of Allah in the Koran who is superseded by Mohammed, has been equated with Jesus in the Christian Bible. Of course, many Christians view this as blasphemy. The push...