A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy
If you are unfamiliar with Anthony Esolen, he is a modern Roman Catholic scholar and thinker, and friend of the LCMS who was given an honorary doctorate by Concordia Theological Seminary. His writings on modern culture, art, hymns, and liturgy would make him an honorary member of The Gottesdienst Crowd as well. His book Out of the Ashes is one that I recommend to all Christians.
Read MoreI’ve recently been working my way through Roger Scruton’s How to Be a Conservative (2019), and I’ve found it to be quite engaging, thoughtful and thought-provoking, and very helpful. He’s a clear thinker and a great writer, and I look forward to reading more of his books in the future.
Read MoreToday we call to mind our Lord’s ascension into heaven. And the Ascension is more than just our Lord vanishing into the skies. This is the hasty graduation, ordination, and call service of the Eleven rolled into one. And Jesus begins by rebuking them “for their unbelief and hardness of heart.”
Read MoreSubversive movements often take perfectly good words and redefine them, spin them, and change them into something else.
Read MoreThe Daily Office tradition has a multitude of excellent hymn texts, and one such is provided below. Its proper place is at Lauds during Ascensiontide, so if you happen to have Matins or Morning Prayer at any point from Ascension Day until Pentecost, be sure to make use of it. It also makes a great addition to mass on Ascension Day or on Exaudi, the Sunday in the Octave of the Ascension.
Read MoreOur latest Gottesdienst conference in Fort Wayne (May 5-7, 2025) featured the Rev. Joshua Schooping, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Russellville, Arkansas. Fr. Schooping spent five years as an Eastern Orthodox priest. In his presentation, he explains his journey to confessional Lutheranism and shares with us his reasons - both from the Orthodox and Lutheran confessional documents.
Read More“What to do?” asked Pliny the Younger, Roman Governor of Pontus and Bithynia in the year 112 A.D. He wrote a quick letter to the Emperor Trajan in Rome, asking for advice. By all accounts Trajan was a good and just Caesar.
Read MoreA pastor recently made the argument defending his own personal bona fides as a Lutheran. This was used to support his assertions about what it truly means to be a Lutheran…
Read MoreRead the first section of this essay for one of the best examples of explanatory hermeneutics I have ever read.
Read MoreThe Rev. Zach Zehnder has recently posted this video in which he makes an argument for changing the way we train and form pastors based on his experience as a businessman.
Here is why I think he is wrong.
Read MoreWhat concerns me about the sudden explosion of making pastors by means of a thousand different routes is that, while it appears we have an increase in numbers, formation isn’t happening. It can’t happen under the direction of one pastor, and it certainly can’t happen through a computer screen.
Read MoreThere are many reasons: historically, liturgically, and also as a general cry for help.
Read MoreOur Lutheran identity is not merely some kind of tribal identification. Rather, the hymnody from our own tradition confesses our own theology - which is often missing when we borrow hymnody (or even worse, “songs”) from outside of our tradition…
Read MoreThe article is a reflection on President Harrison’s admonition to pastors to smile more often and the Orwell quote that a man of 50 is responsible for his face. The thesis is that the Gospel gives joy and that that joy is reflected not only in a Christian’s words and actions but also in his countenance.
Read MoreIn response to Dr. Eckardt’s advice to seminarians to “Show yourself a man,” a younger pastor disagreed. He said that it would be better to tell them to “Be humble.” I found this perception of incompatibility between manliness and humility illustrative, both of generational disagreement about masculinity, as well as differences as to how we see the office of the holy ministry.
Read MoreAmong the Orthodox, theosis refers to a process of becoming one with God, generally by way of spiritual exercise. For Confessional Lutheranism, by contrast, theosis is not a process at all, but another, beautiful way of looking at what we have received in Christ. The difference is ultimately as simple as the difference between works and faith.
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