September 2001 (Volume 1 Issue 1)
[1] Tiefel asks three questions of us: What sort of language we should use when speaking of stem cells outside of science, what place does the religious voice have in the public arena in this matter, and how can we speak of the moral ambiguity which has been called to our attention. Three questions about […]
Cain, a millennial in seminary, writes about how news coverage of millennials seems to be entirely negative. However, Cain challenges non-millennials to examine why millennials might be jumping ship and eschewing things like mortgages and church membership. The amount of young people who say they believe in God has not dropped significantly when compared to other generations, but rather their participation in organized religion has decreased significantly. Cain notes we our focus should be spreading the gospel, not creating gimmicks to increase young adult numbers. We don’t need the “next big thing,” the gospel is the Big Thing. Sharing the gospel with sincerity is the way to connect with young people, as it has been for centuries.
In the midst of those threats of life in this not-yet world that give rise to anxiety, even debilitating or all-consuming anxiety, Jesus calls for his followers to make the promise of God’s kingdom their ultimate concern. We experience the threats of life as real and anxiety producing; they are often essentials that need to be tended to. Yet we are still called to make trust in God’s promises the paramount force in our lives. Wolfhart Pannenberg in his early and still very useful lectures on anthropology, contrasts security and trust. The drive for security is the drive to control one’s life and one’s world. When this striving for control becomes an end in itself then security and one’s own efforts becomes the ultimate concern, perversely, the object of trust. The opposite is the trust of faith in the promises of God, an openness to God’s future kingdom made present in the Christ.
[1] A mere decade ago the quickest form of online communication was an AOL Messenger or email. Chat rooms were generally for those who were more tech savvy, while emails were growing in popularity in the business world and in higher education. Now if personal news has not been communicated via Facebook, Twitter, other social […]
[1]The debate over what constitutes and how to live “family values” continues and revolves primarily around the meanings and practices of marriage. Receiving less attention is how Christian families, in whatever form, strive to live with justice and compassion in a culture that is increasingly characterized by individualism, unsustainable patterns of consumption, and competition.1 Rather […]
This essay is slightly revised from a paper delivered at a meeting of the Faith and Order Commission, National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, St. Louis, Missouri, October 11, 2002. [1] According to current statistics, there are over 65 million Lutherans in the world. Most of these (61.7 million) are members of […]
