The Liturgy in the Book of Revelation, by Timothy Rossow
This book will help the reader appreciate the scriptural ground of the liturgy while growing in understanding of this difficult book of the Bible. You will be amazed at how prominent the liturgy is in the Apocalypse. The booklet makes the point that formal liturgy is prominent in the Old Testament and in Heaven and so it ought to be prominent among us as well in the New Testament era.
Can be used for Bible classes.
42 pages
What's Emerging in the Emerging Church, by Scott Diekmann
Diekmann writes the apologetics column for the Brothers of John the Steadfast website. This booklet is a compilation of his series on the emerging church. The emerging church is a postmodern version of Christianity that is big on accommodating the culture and short on doctrinal purity. It has affected many Lutheran parishes. This booklet will help you better understand the problems with adjusting church to match the culture and will encourage you to work for a more authentic and historical form of the church in your own parish. This would be a great book for an elders Bible study.
Can be used for Bible classes.
29 pages
Why We Practice Closed Communion, by Klemet Preus
Few authors write with the boldness and clarity of Klemet Preus In his usual down-to-earth style Preus explains the difference between "close" and "closed" communion. He explains why the LCMS practices closed communion. He also explores the reasons why some pastors practice open communion. In the concluding section he talks about why it is important that the church act like the body of Christ that it is. This would be a great book for an elders Bible study.
24 pages
Can be used for Bible classes
Wittenberg Confessions, Testimonies of Converts to Confessional Lutheranism, by Jim Pierce, Edited by Elaine Gavin
The institutional church is drifting further and further from the historic liturgy and the proclamation of the pure Gospel. It is devolving into a pop culture version of the faith that emphasizes "feel good" worship over the historic liturgy and tolerance over the truth of the pure Gospel. But all is not lost. Internet blogs like the Brothers of John the Steadfast and radio programs like Issues, Etc. and Pirate Christian Radio are being used by God to raise up a new generation of committed believers.
Wittenberg Confessions presents the testimony of eight of these new converts to Confessional Lutheranism. Reading these testimonies of what God has done in these lives will give you hope that Christ continues to build His Holy, Catholic Church, despite man's foibles in the institutional church.
Jim Pierce is a layman from Seattle, Washington. He wrote the introduction and conclusion and also organized the other essayists. He leads off the collection of essays with his own odyssey of faith. He voyaged away from Pentecostalism into atheism and is now at peace as a Confessional Lutheran at Messiah Lutheran Church in the north Seattle neighborhood. Elaine Gavin edited the collection. She is a lifelong confessional Lutheran. She is a member of Bethany Lutheran Church, Naperville, Illinois.
ISBN: 978-0-9844594-1-4
