Stuff you missedPosted by Rick on February 2nd, 2004
Well, let me try to catch you up. Since we virtually disappeared from blogdom in early December, we’ve done a lot:
Went to Oklahoma…visited old friends and family. Rachel met my family for the first time. Went to New Year’s Eve party at Aunt’s house, Rachel learns to salsa. She’s kissed by thousands of my relatives. Went to really bad REC service. Went to sad Epiphany service at ELCA church. Went to Minco PCA and ate lunch at Mark and Jennifer Horne’s house afterwards. Went to Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater. Laughed at Oral Roberts’ praying hands. Took way too much video. Found out that I’m the last Owasso High starting lineman to get married. Even Bernie got married…and moved to Austin. Not fair that he gets to live near Mike and Kristen.
Went to Monroe, LA. Enjoyed Thomas and Emily’s wedding. Became demented from spending too much time with Matt Wilkins. Saw the Dirty Rotten Canuck that goes by Jad. Found out everyone is engaged. Yes, everyone. Walked around the Garden District a lot. Watched football with Rich Lusk at the home of his neighbor, a total stranger who invited us in to watch the game.
Honda Accord died. Bought Ford Taurus.
Celebrated two years with Rachel (January 23rd).
Got penguin shower curtain hooks from Evie as a wedding gift. Supposedly got measuring spoons, but haven’t seen them, and we don’t know who they are from. Curious.
Cell phone washed in washer, dried in dryer. Stops working. Buy new LG Vx3100 phone on ebay. Old phone starts working again. Apparently, drying the phone in the dryer saved it from total ruin. Selling new phone.
Rachel became Lutheran. I became Lutheran…again.
February 2nd, 2004 at 2:34 pm
We want to live near you! We’re working on it. That has to count for something. Amazingly, I learned stuff from this post. We need to call y’all more often.
February 2nd, 2004 at 4:45 pm
Everyone is getting engaged… do you mean even Matt Wilkins?
February 2nd, 2004 at 7:24 pm
And Matthew wonders why I’m fussing about not being engaged… So no, not everyone’s engaged… Yet.
February 2nd, 2004 at 10:33 pm
Well, I thought it was a given that MATT wasn’t engaged.
February 3rd, 2004 at 10:20 am
So y’all joined…what is it…Salem Lutheran? Cool. Did Rachel have to be (re)confirmed?
February 3rd, 2004 at 10:42 am
Welcome to the dark side. Your complimentary coffee cup and Luther bobblehead will probably be arriving shortly.
February 3rd, 2004 at 3:31 pm
Lutheran, Roman Catholic… same difference.
February 4th, 2004 at 1:21 pm
preach it beer
February 4th, 2004 at 2:58 pm
It kills me that I missed you all when you were in town. We didn’t even know y’all were here.
We were busy with pastor’s conference-related stuff that weekend, and because of a scheduling conflict couldn’t attend the wedding.
Sorry. Maybe next time.
February 5th, 2004 at 12:33 pm
Which denom did you join and are they paedocommunioning? We’re church-hunting again, having given up on the base chapel. We’ve visited the LCMS, which we like, but of course our children can’t commune there.
February 5th, 2004 at 4:54 pm
You can’t commune there, either, can you Kelly? I thought the LCMS was very strict about “You must believe exactly like us” regarding the Supper?
February 5th, 2004 at 7:10 pm
Apparantly some of the pastors are not so strict – this week I learned that they do want us to sign the card that says “I believe in the Real Presence,” but they don’t require you to believe precisely the Lutheran view and repudiate all others, so Mike and I could commune, but that would still leave out most of our kids.
February 5th, 2004 at 7:38 pm
Kelly,
How old are the kids ?
As you have found out , there are many LC-MS congregations that will allow a “non-Lutheran” Christian with a credible confession of faith and one who affirms that Christ is truly present with his people at the communion table (and really now , what Christian doesn’t believe that anyway ? ....but I digress…....) to commune , but this could probably extend to the children if they are of such an age that they could be “confirmed” in the faith . Do they know the Creed , the Lord’s Prayer, the Commandments, basically what is in Luther’s Small Catechism (a very good cathechism , by the way !) , and do they believe them ? Then that should be good enough.
(Baptism into Christ alone ought to be good enough …...but , again, I digress…..... ) I know that certain PCA congregations are getting around it by having young children come before the elders to make a credible , age-appropriate confession of faith (“Jesus loves me , this I know , for the Bible tells me so ” or such ) and affirm that they understand the reverence with which the Lord’s Table should be approached (do most adults truly understand the reverence with which the Lord’s Table should be approached ? ....... do I ? but , again….... I digress…........)
REC is another possibility , but those are few and far between.
I would invite you to the Orthodox Church (“where we never have problems, at least , very few” ......... ) , but I realize you’re looking for something in the Protestant spectrum .
I’m sure your children are blessed to have parents who care about such things .
February 5th, 2004 at 8:33 pm
David, thanks for your input – I’ll answer your questions in reverse order.
My husband actually met the pastor of one of the Orthodox churches here (ran into him in the grocery store!) and spoke to him about visiting, and of course they do commune the children but we’d have to join, which we don’t want to do since we have some issues with things like original sin and atonement, and our time here is temporary (we’re looking at maybe 1 1/2 – 2 more years), so while we wouldn’t mind worshiping there, we not interested in joining.
The closest REC is four hours away, and we’re considering joining their church and starting an REC here, but since we’re only going to be here for a little while, we’re just not sure whether that would be a wise thing to do.
The kids are 14, 13, 11, 9, 5, 3, and 1, they know the Lord’s Prayer, Apostles’ Creed, Commandments, and we’re working on the catechism.
The two oldest would probably be admitted, but not the younger ones, and since they’ve all been communing this past year and a half, I would surely hate to “excommunicate” them by joining a church that won’t admit them to the Lord’s Table!
It’s really strange that the only churches in town that we know of that will commune all our children are the credo-baptistic, charismatic ones.
February 5th, 2004 at 9:56 pm
Kelly,
Perhaps this might seem strange, or even completely crazy, but perhaps it’s worth considering those “credo-baptistic, charismatic” churches. Now, I’m by no means Reformed (I really don’t know what I am… ask Mike Stewart if you know him, he could probably tell you better), but I’ve spent a while worshipping with congregations that follow the Reformed tradition (PCA), the mainstream evangelical tradition (Methodist… meh), and the charismatic tradition (Assemblies of God). I’ve found that spending time with each of them has enriched and enlarged my understanding of God, even though I did not agree with all of the finer points of their theology. I found that the more charismatic congregations can be an incredible source of encouragement and fellowship, and even have a thing or two to teach the other traditions about who God is. The charismatics tend to be very real with where they are at and what God is doing in their lives. While you may have to spend some time correcting some of their doctrine, it might be a route worth exploring if you can find a church with a solid pastor. Just a thought.
February 6th, 2004 at 4:20 pm
Have you ever read Luther’s commentary on Galatians. I read portions of it. You may find it very good.
February 9th, 2004 at 8:15 pm
Too much video footage? I’ve been enjoying some of it!
February 12th, 2004 at 8:09 pm
“Rachel became Lutheran. I became Lutheran…again.” Believe it or not, that comment is being used by the PCA church session that we are still technically members of to prove that Rachel, my wife and I “has denied the doctrine of salvation by faith alone and embraced a form of sacerdotalism” Quoted from their document dated 2-11-04 charging us with breaking covenant and holding to the gross heresy of baptismal regeneration. Will the PCA at large sustain this charge that basically asserts that Lutherans are not Christians? Stay tuned.