“Ordination into the Lutheran Word and Sacrament ministry occurred May 29, 1960 at his home congregation, St. Luke Lutheran, Wishek, ND.” These words come from the obituary of Pastor Russell Rudolf, longtime pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Owatonna, who died in Mankato on March 25. Although I did not know Pastor Rudolf well, I…
With our recent wintry weather the farmers in southern Minnesota have had to hit the pause button with harvest. God-willing they will be able to resume the harvest soon. The harvest of souls sometimes encounters a pause. It seems now that our country is on a pause. Something is holding us back from harvesting as…
One of the changes that was initiated by the Lutheran leaders of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century was to allow members of the clergy to be married. The recently-concluded summit on clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church has focused attention on that church’s requirement that its priests be celibate, that is, abstain…
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Prairie City, Missouri, the first church that I served after graduating from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. I was invited to preach at their kickoff celebration on April 22. The theme of the year-long celebration is “God’s Grace From Generation to Generation.” It…
There once was a man who kept being visited by a couple of Jehovah Witnesses (JW’s). As someone who had been raised a strict Catholic and who had now abandoned organized religion, the man steadfastly denied the JW’s the opportunity to talk to him. Finally one day he let them in and sat down and had a talk…
Bird flu is a dangerous thing. According to Yahoo News, “China’s premier on Sunday (April 28, 2013) urged authorities to be vigilant against a new strain of bird flu that has killed 23 people, while saying that efforts to tackle the virus have so far been effective.” According to the CDC web site: “Usually, “avian…
Mirror Neurons 