Lutheran Carnival I

Welcome, my dear friends and neighbors, to the first incarnation of the Confessional Lutheran Blog Carnival. Above is the picture of Martin Chemnitz, the underappreciated man who, by God's Grace, kept this thing we know as Lutheranism from dying. Many have said that without the second Martin, the first would have never endured. That being said, we honor this man by giving thanks to God for him and pray that we may drive to bring about the unity he brought to the Lutheran faith when it was about to collapse.

Most carnivals have themes of one sort or another. They use the theme throughout, and it gives some continuity to the posts in general. That said, you would figure I would have some great idea of how I should unite these posts together and create this wonderful first carnival post that everyone will look upon me with admiration beyond description. Being that the above is a pipe dream I had while smoking crack, I decided that, for this first one, I'll post the links in the order I received them. I'll come up with something cool next week.

The first person to jump on this bandwagon is Rev. Tom Chryst from Preacherblog. His post Lex Hang-around-y, Lex Credendi asks does the LCMS recognize that associations affect theology?

Next, we have Rev. Alex Klages from A Beggar at the Table. His anti-brevary is a must see on the blogsphere. Montanus is part of his ongoing anti-brevary, where he researches and writes about heretics/heresies, with note to how they still apply and affect us today.

After this, we have Rev. Todd Peperkorn, Executive Editor of Higher Things, a fairly regular guest on Issues Etc, and author of the blog The Lutheran Logomaniac. In his post Peperkorn's Ponderings on Potter #6, he ponders death and stoicism in the latest installment of Harry Potter. WARNING: Evangelicals and Fundamentalists may not like what they read.

A blogger called Melancthon at Melancthon Sins Boldly posts on What Is Lutheranism?, which explores the relationship of the Lutheran Confessions to Lutheranism.

Kelly Klages, wife of the previously mentioned Pastor Klages, has some thoughts on her blog aptly called Kelly's Blog. In her post Hebrews 11... and some really big paintings!, she talks about a new art project she is starting upon. The number of Lutheran Church-Canada (LCC) related blogs I knew about just went from zero to two.

Gregg Alms of Incarnatus Est asks the question Is Adiaphora Adiaphora? He comments on how "Adiaphora" is not an escape hatch from the historic Lutheran liturgy but are intrinsically related to the Gospel and exist to serve and proclaim the Gospel.

Ryan of Wretched of the Earth has a post called Being the Church. He's been speaking to different Lutheran congregations in order to raise support for an 8-month mission to Thailand he's doing with LCMS world mission. Here he gives a description of the service he attended this past Sunday that was a microcosm of what he thinks the Church should look like.

Rich Richie blogs on Daylight, the blog of Old Solar Magazine. His post, A Show of Right, describes what the Small Catechism may have to say about development corporations taking property from people using the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Watersblogged, written by Bob Waters and slowly becoming one of my favorite blogs in the Lutheran blogsphere, writes The 'big tent' and the camel's nose: The ELCA and homosexuality. He gives us an analysis of the history, theology, and church politics of the ELCA debate over homosexuality by someone who spent twelve years as an ELCA pastor in the middle of it.

Andrew of God is the pilot fame gives us the post Nothing Without Him. This post talks about some things that he realized when reading God's No and God's Yes by Walther. It focuses mainly on the idea that without the Grace of God nothing we do has any value.

Dan at Necessary Roughness gives us the post Legislate What Our Society Will Bear. It is an exposition addressing a common attack that Christians wish to turn the USA into a "theocracy".

Rev. Walter Snyder of Ask the Pastor fame received and interesting question recently: Lutheran or Protestant? It is an examination of the use of the titles "Evangelical" and "Protestant" among the early reformers, showing that both of these were once exclusively held by the Lutheran party.

Aardvark of Aardvark Alley (really nice art) posts Slack Time, not Slacker Time. He gives us a Commentary on church attendance, particularly during the "dog days" of summer, and addresses the harm people do to themselves when they confuse spiritual sloth with Godly rest and recreation.

Mike Benoit of Amor et Labor, a new blog to me, sends a post called Augsburg Evangelical bloggers have changed my life. It is a shout-out and appreciation to the influences of Lutheran bloggers (especially Josh S. of Here We Stand) on his soul.

David of David Creates with Legos, God with Logos discuses Cancer, Shock, and Sin. It is a response to his friend's analogy of cancer to sin and a counter-analogy.

John Halton of Confessing Evangelical lets us know that the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book is A very English hymnal. Discover how British hymn-writers achieved their stranglehold on English-speaking Lutheran hymnody.

Peterson of Cyberstones gives us The Law is Good, which is a discussion of Law and Gospel.

Finally, we come to the people who are running this carnival (no clowns allowed, just so you know). Elle of IntolerantElle talks about her Impressions of a LCMS Church, which I happen to go to. Dan at Random Thoughts of a Confessional Lutheran writes His Impressions of a couple of WELS services he attended.

So, that wraps it up for this first installment of the Carnival of Lutherans. As to the schedule, next week, I have the honor of hosting this carnival at Random Thoughts of a Confessional Lutheran. On the 21st, IntolerantElle takes the reigns. After that, it is up in the air. If seeing this makes you wish you could host this, you can! Just contact either Elle or I and we'll put you on the schedule. It does take a little bit of time to put together, but you get to see everybody's posts before everybody else!