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Re: What's in a name? | JWINTERS.COM

jwinterscom — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:19:57 -0000

I hear that, but for all of the fuss we make over our theology, shouldn't it have some outward manifestation? I'm not even saying that it doesn't, I'm just saying I'm not sure how I would define it.

Re: What's in a name? | JWINTERS.COM

jwinterscom — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:17:36 -0000

Wow. I'm sorry to hear the LCMS church you visited dropped the ball. I think it maybe goes with what Craig wrote above about how the church "acts" Lutheran. It is a huge win for you and your whole family that your daughter came back with a memory verse on her heart - how awesome is that?!

Could I ask a further question about the theology of your church. You said it "matches what I would expect to find in a Lutheran church," can you define a little more of what you mean by that?

And again, prayers for you and I definitely admire your strength in the midst of your struggle.

Re: What's in a name? | JWINTERS.COM

jwinterscom — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:04:52 -0000

Man, Craig, that's a big question - mostly because defining what "acting Lutheran" could be really difficult. I mean, aren't we supposed to just act Christian? Hah. Interesting that we're very eager to define, delineate, differentiate, and defend our "orthodoxy" and when it comes to our "orthopraxy" (right doing) even I as an LCMS pastor couldn't give you any differentiation there, and I don't know that you could do any better as a veteran of the church work scene.

Re: Mayday! | JWINTERS.COM

jwinterscom — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 09:58:56 -0000

test comment

Re: http://jwinters.tumblr.com/post/11397326218

jwinterscom — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:07:45 -0000

Hey Rob. I don't. At least not anymore.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Portraits of Abandoned YMCA Taken by St. Louis Pastry Chef (PHOTOS)

jwinterscom — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 11:50:39 -0000

This is amazing. I basically grew up at this YMCA. So surreal seeing it like this. So many memories.

Re: Can we stop bitching about how hard it is to be a pastor now? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Fri, 09 May 2014 15:13:22 -0000

Hey Jason, Thanks for your perspective. Very clearly stated.

My hope is that you can believe me when I say that what I was hoping to call out through a "hearty helping of the Law" here was more the systemic issues of these complaints cropping up in our vocational circles as pastors - not necessarily the human frailties that we all share together along with our non-pastor brothers and sisters in Christ.

I also did hope that by way of Gospel, I pointed to a strength that was not our own as pastors - full of piety or weak and heavy laden - a strength found exactly in finding one's self at the foot of the cross and from there encouraged once again to try to face the vocation again.

However, hopes are not words, and I did not effectively communicate those hopes, I fear, and I do apologize and ask for your forgiveness and the forgiveness of others that I led into a path of desolation with seemingly no Gospel. That was not my intent, but rather it was to encourage - perhaps through some rough means - but to encourage.

Re: Can we stop bitching about how hard it is to be a pastor now? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Fri, 09 May 2014 10:36:08 -0000

Hey Michael,
First of all, "JWieners"...bwahaha...hilarious.

Secondly, you do bring up a point that it appears many have been questioned - that being, who am I referring to?

I am referring to all pastors, including myself, when we get into this wound-scratching behavior, especially when we do so in public. I do think there is a time and place for acknowledging and releasing our woes in the ministry - prayer is first and foremost, also within the consolation and consultation of our brother-shepherds which doesn't happen nearly often or deep enough in my perspective and is likely the reason that many of these blog posts are out there, and lastly, in private confession and absolution, where my confessor could tell you that I'm a whiny little baby in at times.

I think the specific blog posts in which I have seen this done in is somewhat immaterial, and is pretty wide-spread throughout evangelicalism as a whole. I've wanted to write this post for at least a year now. It spans the posts in which I have seen this behavior since then and up to now.

I hope that is helpful to your understanding of what I have written here.

Re: Can we stop bitching about how hard it is to be a pastor now? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 08 May 2014 13:36:59 -0000

Yep, sure does. That's what I was thinking, but didn't want to assume too much.

Re: Can we stop bitching about how hard it is to be a pastor now? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 08 May 2014 12:04:31 -0000

Mnn...fair point about the mask thing. That certainly wasn't my intention.

I'm not sure I fully understand your second paragraph - I think I do, but this confuses me: "We don't have some special kind of right to treat a pastor any different than we would treat anyone in the church." and then "Pastors aren't CEO's or teachers." I'm not getting where the "same" and the "different" is leading there. Help? Thanks!

Re: Assessments? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 08:41:41 -0000

Hah. Yeah, I suppose I was meaning the standardized test looking approach to assessment there. Actually, to prove your point, I haven't put together one of those for myself since we've started to do the annual foci at University Lutheran. Something about a blind chicken finding feed there. I should actually (knocking on the proverbial internet wood) be around for all of February except for one retreat with the students. Looking forward to lunch!

Re: 7 Church Predictions Applied to the LCMS | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:03:08 -0000

Thanks for reading Mark. Yeah, and I think that we have a real time of leadership in American Christendom coming up which we haven't experienced in quite some time - as long as trends continue and we're faithful to doing what we feel we should be.

Re: 7 Church Predictions Applied to the LCMS | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:01:15 -0000

Hah, I guess "my LCMS is showin'" - in Rainer's article he says "weekly attendance" too. I guess I just "translated" that into LCMS by making it a membership number. Nice catch and interesting article.

Re: Missional Communities are....surprise!...communities | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 23:15:18 -0000

Hey "joggijohn",

Thanks for the reply! It does appear that my written communication has failed to adequately express my thoughts in a variety of ways. I think that is unfortunate and has caused an impasse of our own here. :-/

Acknowledging that, I would like to ask a question about what you've written. You state "it seems like we're supposed to hide our Christian identity until we make a friend and then rip our shirt open to expose our Superman (or Cross) emblem." I, too, have wondered about how this might be perceived as "bait and switch". Have you experienced this problem "in real life" out of persons involved in an MC or being engaged by those in an MC? I would be very interested in those stories.

Thanks again!

Re: Missional Communities are....wait for it...."missional!" | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 08:10:03 -0000

Dude, you rock for giving me all of these recommendations for reading :-)

Re: Missional Communities are....wait for it...."missional!" | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 08:09:12 -0000

Hey Perry! Thanks for the comment and sorry it took me so long, I was off at our pastors' conference here in FLGA.

Anyway, yeah, great question. I'm going to try to answer it a little more fully in my next post that should be coming out today or tomorrow. Although a fuller discussion of worship and MC's might be a good idea further down the road.

In short, I think that the answer might be found in how we see the worship service and its inherent design and function. Depending on the way that we see the design of worship and especially what we consider to be "chief parts" in the worship service it may mean an earlier or later inclusion of new people.

I would say that largely of the MC stuff that I've read and the people I've talked to, however, the "large worship service" is almost adiaphoric - which is something that I don't feel would fly in most Lutheran circles.

I probably just made that even MORE confusing, huh?

Re: Pastor Appreciation Month Wishlist | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 08:40:50 -0000

For what it's worth, I just started training the elders here to be able to take a service. We've got retired guys around, but sometimes I can't get one when I need one. I promised the elders it would be a once-a-year thing unless there was a disaster and they seemed pretty ok with it.

Re: What the %$&* is a "missional community"? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 08:29:24 -0000

Thanks! That's another thing I'm trying to get a handle on, the way that different MC's of the same "local church unit" get along - sort of like clans/tribes in the OT maybe. This is helpful. thanks.

Re: What the %$&* is a "missional community"? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:44:26 -0000

Hey Ted, Good seeing you. Dude, you're it! You're the person who has more experience with this than I do, so I'm asking for your help for the next couple of posts to keep me in line and explain stuff at a deeper level than what I'm at. Awesome that you stumbled on this!

I can totally see what you're talking about in terms of commitment and how that's a key component in describing it. Tomorrow I'll be posting about the "missional" part of "missional community" and hope to get across some of that.

So question - you're planting with MC's. How many do you have going at one time, and what was/is the reasoning for that?

Re: What the %$&* is a "missional community"? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 15:45:01 -0000

Hey Luke, Yeah, I would resonate with that - and my post for tomorrow about "Missional communities being missional" will address the difference between MC's and the Hybels-modeled small groups.

One of the difficulties that I've had with this topic, actually, has been how camouflaged MC's are sometimes. I could learn about Small Group dynamics very easily by attending a friend's small group, but MC dynamics are almost allergic to that kind of spectatorship (which is likely a good thing).

I think it's interesting that you link small groups with a counseling focus. That hasn't been my experience generally, and the small groups I've seen have been more about "Bible study programs". What were those counseling types like?

Re: A place for people like me | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 14:47:55 -0000

Hey Dave!
Good stuff.
1.a. This has been a perennial concern for us, especially in terms of worship because we have yet to do contemporary worship with any form of competence. A lot of our students come from backgrounds where our low-church liturgical style seems alien...like finding a "Red Burrito" in your Hardees. What we have done is to own our style, but there is still occasionally this concerned thought that makes us wonder if we're keeping folks away by owning our style.
1.b. This one is easier to answer. We graduate people off to all sorts of churches, and most of them seem to be disappointing [no brag, just fact] to most of our students. What we try to do is give our students the best of what church can be here and try to train them to be able to import that where they go. To prepare them to go out would be almost logistically impossible and almost certainly soul-killing.
2. That sounds like a Guy Chimeilesky (or however you spell his name) statement. It's a good one. For me, I'm listening to music that I can't stomach (see: Volcano Choir, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) from time to time, and doing my best to stay humble and learn from my students. Although I think I need something new to "discomfort" me....

Great thoughts. Thanks!

Re: Of conferences and church workers | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 11:02:07 -0000

Hey Vanessa! Sorry, I didn't get a notification about this until now. Anyway, yeah, I am looking forward to talking about this with the guy from my circuit that I went with. It's amazing however, how I never really thought about processing the stuff for so many years.

Re: The Pinocchio Problem | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:50:01 -0000

Oh yeah, like Pinocchio went back to being wooden...hmnn...messes with my illustration, but it's certainly a pervasive idea in a lot of churches. I wonder if maybe Cinderella might be the more appropriate Disney parable for that kind of thing, that they were "at the ball" and are now waiting for the Prince to come with the slipper...but then, what's the slipper? Matthew 25?

Re: Returning to your identity | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Mon, 27 May 2013 22:53:27 -0000

Thanks Nate!

Re: Why would you? | jWinters.com

jwinterscom — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:01:11 -0000

Ok, I got it. Sounds like your folks are tired and wanting to hand off the baton...but finding no one is there to hand it to. Certainly hope that you find that injection.