● November 2024 "The Mountain Top Messenger" Newsletter
(please click on above link to open current newsletter)
Yuck! I am looking out my office window at the first rain/snow event of the year. I guess we really can’t complain, it has been a pretty decent fall, time for seasons to change and clocks to fall back an hour. It’s days like these when I wish I had a fireplace in my office. Advent begins in 4 short weeks and then on to Christmas. It seems like again the time is flying by. I met with the Evangelism commit-tee this past Monday and they are setting up a couple of Soup and Sandwich dinners for the first couple of Advent Wednesdays, (there are only 3 this year). I believe the first will be on December 4th and the second the following Wednesday the 11th. Another thing that is happening for Advent is that we are moving the Wednesday worship start time from 6:30 PM to 6:00 PM. We are going to try that for Advent and if it seems to work alright, we will continue with the 6:00 PM start time for our regular Wednesday evening worship services. For the regular Advent Sundays we are going to be doing a Sermon Series called “Savior of the Nations Come” This series is based on Isaiah 40:1-11. From this verses of this text we will look at the following Lineup of Sermon Messages:
Advent 1: Comfort, Comfort Ye My People (Isaiah 40:1-2)
Advent 2: Prepare the Royal Highway (Isaiah 40:3–5)
Advent 3: Hark the Glad Sound (Isaiah 40:6–8)
Advent 4: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Isaiah 40:9)
Christmas Eve: Joy to the World (Isaiah 40:10–11)
Overall I believe it will be a great series to help us welcome in our Saviors first Advent. I hope you will join us. We will also have a separate series for
our 3 Lenten Midweek services. This series is based on the three Songs from Luke Chapter 1, the Song of Zechariah, The Song of Elizabeth, and the Song of Mary.
Again, welcoming our Savior as seen through the eyes of those involved in His initial Advent.
As most of you know I was at the North Wisconsin District Pastor's Conference in Rothchild last week. It was an interesting conference for a number of reasons.
First, it was the first conference that I have attended that included pastors from both the North Wisconsin and South Wisconsin Districts. Met a lot of new
people and had some truly amazing worship services, until you have experienced the music of 400 pastors singing together you probably can't imagine what it is
like. Then we had a number of good speakers, one spoke of the Biblical roles and responsibility of men.
The other two speakers spoke about Seminex, which was also called the walkout at Concordia Seminary in 1974. In the summer of 1973 LCMS declared by convention
resolution that there was false teaching at Concordia Seminary and that such false teaching was not to be tolerated in the 'church of God'. Some of the actions
that followed in 1974 included the suspension of the Concordia Seminary President. Then on February 19, 1974 a majority of the faculty and students walked off
campus to form the Seminary in Exile (Seminex). This was a very challenging time for the Seminary and the Synod. One of the greatest items of contention focused
on the inerrancy* of scripture. The Seminary obviously survived that time of testing and continues to raise up pastors with a firm belief in scriptural inerrancy.
One of our speakers was one of the 45 students who did not walkout that day. And the other was a pastor who began his pastoral training at seminex beginning the
following year. They spoke of their journey through the respective seminaries and the pastor who graduated from the Seminex Seminary later became a pastor in the
LCMS. Seminex still exists in a form today as the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and is a seminary for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Well, enough on that, if you would like to know or hear more let me know, we can talk about it any time. I believe that's enough for now, God Bless.
The Lord Bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you, the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.
Pastor Rick
*Biblical inerrancy, or the belief the Bible is without error
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