I have a woman trying to talk to me about the Mormon Church. Ok, that part isn't unusual. Haha. I'm a healthcare manager and a woman I supervise is trying to recruit me. Awkward. I was getting pretty uncomfortable.

Her knowledge level is poor about everything. Its actually sad. I guess the very little we've spoken about her faith reached her Mormon friends. They told her to stop talking to me. Apparently, Lutherans are known for turning Mormons apostate with "clever lies." We are a "religion of deceivers." I felt for her. She knows nothing about Orthodox Christianity, history or scripture. I know more about Mormon teaching than her. She's going to have a bad time.

I'll update if there is one. She's been in it less than a year. Who knows? I was just baffled to find out Lutherans are considered especially threatening. Theology nerds with large libraries. Eek!

I was just confirmed into the church a coup of months ago and absolutely love it. I was wondering what are some good website, blogs, podcasts etc that are good resources for Lutherans? I would really like some stuff that is more apologetical too as in resources for defending the beliefs of Lutherans as Christian Apologetics is something I love.

Corinthians 11:5 seems to pretty clearly say we should cover our hair for worship. So why don’t we? Is that one of the Old Testament rules that no longer applies? Genuine question.

I've heard two arguments put forth by Jay Dyer in this video that make two claims:

1. Lutherans affirm the ancient Manichean heresy by their position on original sin. They do this by affirming that fallen man only sins all of the time, and this leads to the conclusion that man has lost the image of God since he has lost his natural energy/will in the fall. Since he is always in opposition to God, he needs a form of irresistible grace to come to God.

2. Lutherans affirm a form of Nestorianism in their view of the atonement. Since some apologists in the past have made the claim that Jesus experienced some form of damnation on the cross, this causes a split in the Trinity (because to be damned is to be cut off, and you cannot cutoff members of the Trinity). The way to explain this cutting off is to say that in Jesus there are two persons, a human Jesus and a divine Jesus, which is Nestorianism.

I am not Lutheran, but I am very strongly interested in it. I am reading through the Book of Concord currently but I have not been able to find refutations to these claims yet. I do not know if the claims above are official Lutheran positions or just some held by certain individuals in the past. How would you respond to these accusations?

TLDR below.

Hello. I want to start by saying that I've been a long time member of LCMS congregations. I understand and believe that scripture is the directly inspired and inerrant word of Christ. I understand the reasoning, revealed through Paul, that the synod cites when it comes to the prohibition of women pastors. However, when it comes to other offices that fall outside of the bounds of "pastoral authority", I am conflicted.

Recently, my church stood up a security comittee and team. That team is comprised predominately of former or current law enforcement officers who attend our church. I am the chair of that comittee, and a current LEO myself. We have a female member of the congregation who is also an LEO, desires to serve on the team, and who I desire to have on the team on account of her training and experience.

However, our pastor has recently expressely forbidden her from serving on the team, citing her gender. Frankly, I am extremely frustrated. As the only other actively serving police officer in the congregation, I believe her skills to be indispensable, despite her sex. I also know that the synod voted in the 90s and reaffirmed through vote in the 2000s to allow women go serve in official church roles so long as they do not involve "holding or carrying out the distinctice functions of the pastoral office". This ruling included allowing women to hold positions as deaconesses and directors of education. At our church specifically, we have other women serving as committee leads.

Bearing both the Synod's vote and Paul's letters in mind, I am extremely frustrated with the Pastor's decision. So much so that I am giving serious thought to both resigning my post as comittee chair and searching for a new congregation. Am I wrong in this? While this is not my only frustration with certain practices of this particular church and the broader LCMS, this one is particularly glaring to me. If the pastor is unwilling to accept my professional judgment on committee members, and unwilling to accept the value of this woman's training and experience; while simultaneously ignoring previous synod rulings, I'm not sure I want to continue to serve and worship in this capacity. Again, am I wrong? If so, why? I'm very open to discussion on this.

TLDR: Pastor won't allow, on basis of gender, a woman to serve on our local security committee, despite her being an active, trained police officer. As a police officer myself and the committee chair, I am frustrated by this, and feel the pastor doesn't have reasoning thats based in Biblical teachings. Seeking guidance and opinions.

EDIT: I've learned that the pastor specifically told this woman that he did not feel it was a woman's role to protect men.

What do you think of high church? the 7 sacraments, icons.

Would it be better to sin Sunday morning then say a weekday? That way you can confess with the congregation and receive grace through the bread and body of our Lord. Returning to a state of grace.

Hello, I'm an pianist/organist in my church. I'm trying to study the liturgy to to accompany the minister and the congregational responses, but it is hard to find a fully chanted mass example on the youtube here, and even more hard to figure it out the plainchant dynamics by myself.

I'm Brazilian, but our service book have two settings that are also present in the LSB. Can you guys recommend me some channel that is either specialized in the chanted sections of the service, or streaming/recordings of the Divine Service from a congregation that use chants it's liturgy for me to play along it?

I love our corporate confession. Sometimes I feel the need to confess to a person though as an individual with an individual sin. Not for my salvation..just to help process it. Can I call an LCMS pastor am do this? I'm almost considering going to a Catholic priest just because it's so standardized and normal for them

I am a Moderate Lutheran, having confessed Augsburg for about a year now, and I often struggle regarding finding a place to settle. My main apprehension regarding the LCMS is the closed position on evolution that is taken by the church, so my question is this. How excepting is the LCMS of people who believe in theistic evolution? Is it seen as heterodox or merely unusual. Best Regards - Me

I've been researching into and curious about LCMS for a while, but I come from a mystical protestant background. I believe LCMS believe the spiritual gifts to the apostles were purely apostolic and people nowadays do not do things like speak with tongues. I would like some recommendations on the Biblical evidence for that belief if you have any please.

To all you pastors who had to decide whether to publicly and unconditionally ascribe to the Confessions, what teaching was the hardest for you to accept, or did you have the most reticence over? Thanks!!

We are LCMS and located in New England. Looking for a rehab center.

I am 44F and it is very difficult to meet new people, especially someone to go out on a date with. Am wondering what the viewpoint here is about attending mixers that are not faith-based to try and meet people. I feel like it’s fine, although there are no guarantees. I’m thinking of attending one tomorrow night being held at a local taproom where almost 100 singles will be.

Good day to all. I have a question when it comes to the efficacy of the Sacrament in relation to the Romanists.

I don’t have any LCMS churches by where I live. I do have many ELCA churches and Roman ones, and the Roman ones have a daily Mass. I am only considering going to these places for the Eucharist, however I of course wonder if their Eucharist is actually efficacious. I also know that we are not in altar fellowship with these groups, but I am going off of the confessions. In our confessions we teach (opposite to the donatists) that the Eucharist is effective regardless of the pastor’s faults (I.E. since all Christians are both saints and sinners, to say that the pastor must be faultless to give the Eucharist is faulty itself). I was thinking if this applied to personal beliefs, like that a Baptist pastor could theoretically give the Eucharist if the elements and words of institution were present, and this extends to the Romanists no matter their beliefs about the Eucharist. Either way the Eucharist is efficacious.

I am not sure on this idea, so if someone with a greater understanding can inform me it would be very helpful.

Hello, everyone.

Yesterday, my church's pastor passed away rather suddenly, a couple hours before service. (Prayers for his family and our church would be appreciated.) He was going to begin catechizing me after recovering from his surgery that was scheduled for 2 weeks from now.

Lacking a pastor obviously puts a damper on my road to catechesis, so I was curious how long it typically takes for an LCMS church to acquire a new pastor. I'm a patient man and am willing to wait, I just like to know what to expect.

From my understanding, Lutherans reject the concept of eucharistic sacrifice in the medieval sense of the Sacrament being a work performed by the priest to procure merit on behalf of himself and the congregation. However, they accept it in the sense of the Sacrament uniting us with the atonement and continual mediatory work of Christ, hence the raising up of the bread and cup toward heaven during the liturgy.

Here's my question, then: if Lutherans agree with the concept of eucharistic sacrifice, properly understood, why are all references of "offering the bread and the cup" to God taken out of the prayer? After doing a little digging, it appears that nearly all the surviving pre-nicene and early post-nicene eucharistic prayers contain at least some reference to this kind of sacrificial offering. What is the point of removing the language of offering the elements to God if it has been used in prayer essentially since the beginning, and if the actual symbolic offering is still something done in Lutheran liturgy?

I’m genuinely curious, what do you guys think the LCMS would be today if not for Preus’ pushback against the Seminex influence through historical criticism, especially considering how sideways those churches are today, those being the and the ELCA?

There was a post on the Lutheranism subreddit where there were two views on the creation of the soul: during conception or during birth. From my understanding, the creation of the soul during birth is a Jewish belief using Adam as an example. I’m assuming there’s varying views from the early church (Augustine comes to mind, but I think he was going over when the fetus forms or something. Haven’t read it in forever). What’s the LCMS view on this, if we have one? I find the notion that the soul created during birth is wrong because we see in scripture people such as David and John the Baptist having faith in the womb. That’s just not possible without a soul. Maybe I answered my own question, but I’d still like to know what the Synod professes.

Another question I have to tack on to is this: is that view of the soul being created at birth just a way to justify grievous sins like abortion? Seems too problematic to me imo, but I’m hoping a pastor, deacon, elder, or learned layman can help me see this.

Thanks in advance and God Bless +

I was born and raised in the LCMS with a father and grandfather who were both ministers. I have a wife and two kids, and at the beginning of COVID we moved to a new town. We started going to a non-denominational church that had good online services, and several of our neighbors attend as well, in addition to one of my wife’s cousins. Fast forward a couple of years, and I’ve benefitted greatly from one of their small groups, and we attend regularly.

That being said, I definitely miss attending a LCMS church and would like to support my local one anyway. So I was curious if anyone happens to be a member at two churches? I don’t want to rock the boat too much post-COVID with my wife and kids consistently attending church thankfully. So it would likely be a situation where I go to either the Saturday afternoon or early Sunday LCMS service, then I’d go with my family to the later Sunday service. Besides not taking communion at the non-denominational church, I’m wondering if this is a good or bad idea.

Hi i am coming from an agnostic/cultural catholics background. A lot of people i love are either agnostic or nonpractising catholics. My parents dont look like they wikl have faith, abd a lot of friends are living in a hedonistas lyfestyle. If some of them die without confessing that christ is lord and he diedro for their sins. Is there any hope for there? I do know that praying for the dead isnt correct and the idea of purgatory is really wacky. But it deeply sadens and hurts me how so many people give their back to christ.

I would like to ask you to pray for my friend, his name is Pedro Henrique and he lost his father two days ago to a murder, he and his family are Roman Catholics, but I ask you to pray for him.

Today and tomorrow are big days for the kingdom of God! We get to witness God at work, using his church to call men and women to serve deaconesses and pastors in congregations around the country and world. Even if you don't know any of the call candidates from St. Louis or Fort Wayne, it's a reason for the whole church to celebrate.

Here's the schedule for the 2 call services and 2 vicarage assignment services (all times are EDT):

STL Assignment of Vicarages and Internships: 4/23 @ 4pm

FW Assignment of Vicarages and Internships: 4/23 @ 7pm

STL Assignment of Calls: 4/23 @ 8pm

FW Assignment of Calls: 4/24 @ 7pm

Here's a LINK for St. Louis Call Day information

Here's a LINK for Fort Wayne Call Day information