Christopher Heren's Page

Hey Chris,

Yepper, I wanted to get the latest scuttlebutt on this issue, and WT definitely seems to be the "water cooler' for confessional Lutherans!

I am struggling now with whether to go forward with my plenary address at the synod's national worship conference this summer. While I will certainly continue to serve my wonderful congregation and faithful pastors here at Bethany, I simply don't want to be associated with the LCMS right now. On the other hand, the executive director of the Commission on Worship is a personal friend of mine and a very faithful pastor. I certainly don't want to hurt him in any way. But it appears the new Commission is moving away from good worship practices [at least that is what I can tell of their moves so far], and so maybe my time of involvement with the synod nationally is coming to an end anyway. The Lord has given me a great congregation to serve, and so maybe I just need to focus my efforts on proclaming the Gospel out here in the 'burbs.

And all this during Holy Week, no less! Makes me wonder if the Ablaze! types decided to do this to Wilken & Schwartz because they figured that us confessional types would be too busy with our 'liturgical stuff' to spend much time on this.

But seeing how this faction operates - what they did to Wallace Schultz, how they moved Paul McCain over at CPH, and now how they've treated Pastor Wilken and Mr. Schwarz - my conerns are now much larger. At first, I thought this was a disagreement with brothers in the faith over how best to apply doctrine into practice. Now I see that this differences between me & the Ablaze! leaders of synod are more profound: they view the church as a business, I view it as a family. If this is how things are going to be, I definitely don't want to associate myself with them - even if I am given a little platform for sharing some of the good work I am permitted by the Lord's hand to do.

You know, when Dr. Barry was president of the synod, he disagreed with many of these same people on how best to put our doctrine into practice. But he never fired anyone.

As you pray for our synod, please also pray for me that I may make the best decision regarding my scheduled speech to the church's musicians this summer.

And blessings on your Holy Week, Chris.

In Christ,

phil

Hi Chris,

As you gathered, the last comment was from Phil, not me! He and I have both joined WT, but when he left his comment I was apparently still signed in on our computer. So if you want, you can add Phil as a friend, too!

it's the burgandy red one. ;)
I think it's the latest 'readers edition.
Hard to imagine, I get paid to hang around with Todd and have fun and have folks hear the Gospel. Thank you Jesus!

No, I did not know that he was on here - all I know is that you are on here.

Nice to meet another CID and future seminarian

Yes, I'll be going to CTS in about 2 years

Finally, back at work...wonder how long it will take to get Todd trained again :)

I think the 'Todd Project' might take awhile. But it does give me something to do at work :)

Hi Chris,

Long time no communication - so I thought I'd check in.

Would love to get together again sometime.....

Cheers!

Phillip