Tag Archives: Lutheran

The Lutheran Study Bible: ESV++

After much anticipation, my copy of The Lutheran Study Bible arrived about two weeks ago and I’ve spent some time getting to know it.  The ESV has been my translation of choice since CPH released their hardback ESV Reference Bible a few years ago and I have appreciated the readable and rhythmic translation.

When I initially made my pre-order 8 months ago, I ordered a standard genuine leather edition for myself and a larger genuine leather edition for my mother.  I thought I had fairly decent eyesight — no glasses and pretty sharp vision.  Fortunately, CPH phased the release of the different editions and sent out the standard hardback edition weeks before the leather editions.  My church library received a hardback edition and I eagerly opened it and found that even for my eyes the study notes and footnotes were kind of small and densely situated on the page — readable, but small.  The font size for the Bible text wasn’t bad.  Hmm.  What should I do?   At just about the same time, Pastor McCain had a blog post about the larger print edition he got for his son.  Maybe the larger print edition would work for me.  Next step:  Called CPH to change my order BEFORE the leather editions shipped AND added two ribbon sets and Gerhard’s A Comprehensive Explanation of Holy Baptism and Lord’s Supper for good measure.

Then it was just a matter of waiting for CPH to ship and FedEx to deliver.

My initial reaction:

This is a BIG Bible (and that is not necessarily bad – keep reading).  8 1/8″ wide x 10 3/8″ long x 2 1/2″ deep and about 5.3 pounds (according to the kitchen scale).   It’s larger than my college dictionary which I thought was big.  BUT, I like it (referring to the Bible, not the dictionary).  There’s something to be said for having an imposing Bible like this in your life.

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A Liturgical and Outreach Oriented Church? Yes!

Floating across the Lutheran blogosphere the last few weeks have been several professional YouTube videos focusing on Grace Lutheran Church in Tulsa, OK – what appears to be a vibrant confessional Lutheran church.  I’d encourage you to spend a few minutes watching and learning.

One thing I found very striking in the videos was how people from non-Lutheran backgrounds were drawn to a traditional and liturgical church and their understanding of Lutheran worship.  Pastor Beecroft acknowledges that the church has its own language, is formed by it, and wrestles to understand it.  We constantly hear that the church growth paradigm says this traditional approach should be a “turn off” for “seekers”.  While the people interviewed expressed their initial culture shock, after a time of learning and understanding they had a deeper  appreciation for the traditions and confessional Lutheran faith.  These people seem to have a better grasp on Lutheran worship than many who have been Lutherans all their life.  Catechesis at work!

The Treasure of the Lutheran Church (according to Lohe)

For those of you not familiar with Wilhelm Lohe, the current edition of Logia focuses on the Lohe Bicentennial and has a number of good articles.

This evening I was reading the article entitled “Why Do I Declare Myself for the Lutheran Church?” by Lohe himself.  He enumerates a number of reasons of why he holds fast to the Lutheran Church.  The following excerpt caught my eye.

I declare myself for the Lutheran Church for the sake of the treasure.  The Lutheran Church lacks many things I would like to see in it, but it has something that lets it be the true church despite all shortcomings, and for the sake of which I find it easy and beautiful to be faithful to it in its outward misery.  Do you know what I am talking about?  I am talking about its utterly pure confession and its pure doctrine in conformity with its confession.  Who has ever proved that its confession is in error in any doctrinal article?  When speaking of its confession, I am not only talking about the Augsburg Confession, but about the entire Book of Concord from the Augsburg Confession all the way to the Formula of Concord.  You do not know these writings, dear reader, otherwise you would agree with me.  Get to know them and you will agree.  What is more beautiful, lovely, powerful, and lively than Luther’s catechisms?  What is more catholic than the Augsburg Confession and its Apology?  What is more thoughtful and bold than the Smalcald Articles?  And what is slandered more wrongfully than the beautiful Formula of Concord in its clean but mild definition of all teachings?  Dear reader, I repeat, you do not know your Church’s confessions of faith.  Get to know them in order to know why you adhere to your church.

One of Lohe’s strengths was his confessional committment which influenced the LCMS from its founding.  It seems he was quite passionate about the Lutheran Confessions and would encourage us as well to be familiar with what our Lutheran church “officially” believes, teaches, and confesses.

A few years ago Concordia Publishing House published a wonderful and accessible edition of the Book of Concord called “Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions-A Readers Edition of the Book of Concord – 2nd edition.” If you don’t have it, I would encourage you to consider getting it; and if you do have it, consider reading it.