Friday, December 23, 2016

Squirrel Tales - As One Reader Describes Them

Shock or boredom?

Several readers suggested that I put a Slinky around the pole holding up the bird feeder. That solution appeared on Facebook, reminding me of the weed killer recipe (Dawn detergent, Epson salts, Agent Orange? Napalm?).

The problem with any solution concerning squirrels, as Dr. Bruce Church conceded, is that squirrels defeat the clever ruse in time.

Squirrels have range-finder eyes. If you have ever used one in a camera, the image is brought together when the focus is perfect. I had an Argus camera that did this and produced perfect photos. Now lasers do the job for us. God designed them for squirrels, and they work very well.

If squirrels are defeated on the pole, they simply land on top, even if they miss a few times. Once they have the distance, the feeder is theirs. As I wrote earlier, the squirrel-proof lever that kept the seed locked up - yes that one - it was jiggled to drop seed into the squirrels mouth below. One paw on the pole, one on the lever, open mouth, serve the sunflower seeds until full.

I had a solution once. I put tree stickum on the pole. That kept the squirrels off the pole for a long time, until they said "No way" and climbed through the goo and left it all over the house and window. I got to clean it off, which was time-consuming and sticky beyond belief.

No matter what I do to the pole, the squirrels will climb the Butterfly Bush next to the two poles (platform and squirrel-proof feeders). The main thing protecting the squirrel-proof feeder is its cargo of finch food. Squirrels will ravage that too, if nothing else is available.

They have:

  • Sunflower seeds.
  • Suet.
  • Thistle (nyjer).
  • Corn.

Squirrels are always entertaining: always energetic, gymnastic champions, high wire artists, and clowns.

 I once moved the wedding cake slice stored in a tree.
The squirrel fetched it earlier from the garbage can and saved it in the original zip-loc bag. I moved it and squirrel looked at me in a rage.

Church History and the History of Doctrine



I wrote on Facebook - about this post on Yale church historians.
"One can become too cynical from a studying church history alone. The history of doctrine is more enlightening because one must face the doctrine itself, as you say. Many avoid that because they will see the felons in their synodical family tree. They would rather boast about the heroic deeds of the founders. That is why the shallow approach to Luther annoys me no end. The emphasis is placed on what he did rather than what he taught."

Church history itself is more biographical and relies on the documents of the age.

The history of doctrine seeks to find out the origins of the various confessions of faith. That is more difficult - but more important - because it is an intellectual history.

Databases - even simple ones - are handy. As LI has said more than once, "Computers eliminate routine functions so we can concentrate on the more interesting ones. Doing the same thing over and over leads to mistakes from boredom."

Adam Mueller is also trans-doctrine-lite.


 Wayne Mueller's son must not have read Daddy's denial
about the absence of Church Growth in WELS.
But the Book of Concord encourages WELS to change doctrine,
dumping Gausewitz, and to wear dresses at church picnics.
Right? Right?


I began Megatron, the Database, immediately after Wayne Mueller claimed there was no Church Growth in WELS, and even if so, Church Growth was in harmony with the Book of Concord (which he clearly never glanced at).

Dunces quote other dunces,
and false teachers always find dubious justification
for their false doctrine.

The Great Wayne Mueller even said the Confessions encourage us to change doctrine.

Photoshop enabled me to cut and paste all the obvious
Church Growth stars into one graphic.

Most of the blokes above are retired now, but their toxic waste remains. Mark Schroeder, who pledged himself to clean up the stables, dropped his mask and donned his Stormtrooper uniform. He is the best friend Church and Change ever had, whether a Manchurian Candidate, or a convert to their cause.

Sow weed seeds, harvest weeds.
Isn't that Steve Witte, a Founder of Church and Change,
jointly teaching with an ELCA pastor?
 So glad John Lawrenz did not let the Asian mini-seminary
slip away from the grasp of Church and Change.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Church History at Yale. We Met Pelikan and Ahlstrom at Church Each Week.
Bainton Helped Me with My Dissertation

 Kenneth Scott Latourette


 History of the Expansion of Christianity


“The single work for which Latourette is most remembered is the seven-volume "A History of the Expansion of Christianity".[9]Latourette noted within Volume 4 that only 5% of Americans in 1790 had formal ties to churches or synagogues.” Wiki

Latourette was prolific in writing, very much loved by students at Yale, and a genuine believer.


 Jaroslav Pelikan,
LCMS, ELCA, Eastern Orthodox


Jaroslav Pelikan was very famous. We often saw him at Bethesda Lutheran Church. I think he was more of an opportunist. He became “senior editor” of Luther’s Works then left that to be at Yale, if I remember the facts correctly. Someone else continued the work, and Pelikan got most of the credit.

One long-term history professor at Yale thought Pelikan’s history of Christianity was not good at all. He published a tough review in the Yale Divinity magazine. It was a shock for Yale to have a Yale professor say the Great Pelikan was not that good. Pelikan wanted to be Yale President, I think, and devoted a lot of time to that. Pelikan became Eastern Orthodox after leaving the LCMS for ELCA. He won a $500,000 prize and gave it to the Russian Orthodoxy Seminary in America.




Sydney Ahlstrom, (Augustana Synod) another Lutheran, wrote his famous American Church History book. A bit too general for me. The joke was “A elephant conceived and bore a mouse.” Ahlstrom had serious neurological problems and that may have blunted his efforts. Still, it was a best seller.

Day Missions Library, Yale Divinity School

Yale Divinity School,
New Haven, Connecticut

 




More Feeding Stations - Clustered around the Bedroom Window,
Near the Tall Butterfly Bush

 I bought a second one at Lowe's for $7.
Multiple birds sit on it and eat, and the feeder is easy to fill.

The squirrels dominated most of the feeding stations because they stood on two of them while eating from the hanging feeder from Lowe's. That also tied up the suet hanging from the squirrel-proof feeder filled with finch seed. Only the squirrels were eating for a time.

I needed sunflower seed, so I stopped at Lowe's for a large bag and looked for a second hanging feeder, which is popular with the small birds and easy to fill. The price dropped from $10 to $7, so I grabbed one, bought a rake, and tossed a bag of seed on the cart.

My ideal is the set-up at the home of Michigander, who has an array of feeders near a large window, where his cat sits and watches patiently. Sassy ignores our animal life altogether.

 "A new feeder - just for us."


Now we have:

  • Two hanging feeders with sunflower seeds.
  • One platform feeder with corn.
  • One finch feeder with thistle seed.
  • One Jackson EZ Bird Swing.
  • Two large, hanging baskets of suet.
The squirrels are having fun with the abundance of food and eating more of the corn. That comes from a large bag of deer corn sold to hunters. I toyed with buying a sack of field corn ears, but they wanted $10 for a bag of gleaned corn, which calculates to $50 a bushel, a bit pricey for the cuteness of the feeder below. They used up an ear a day, so a bag was good for one week. When I stopped filling it, they placed empty corn cobs near the bird feeder to remind me of my duties.

 "Squirrel, you are not worth $10 for a bag of ears."

After a brush with snow, we have mild autumn days again. The ground is not frozen, so I tripped over a fresh mole run. Their shallow ones are for feeding, so the soil creatures are active now.

Meanwhile our helper is planning on adding another layer of leaves and needles to the newly covered areas, far in the back. We have a lot of Morning Glory seeds there now, so we should have a fence full of Morning Glories next year and relatively few rank tall, rank weeds. I have nothing against most weeds, but I liked the effect of cardboard and leaves between the Butterfly Bushes in the back. That made them stand out as they strive to reach their designated 12 foot height.


I can also attract the right creatures with buckwheat sown in the wild areas. The buckwheat grows and flowers quickly, attracting bees and butterflies. Unlike some magical plants (easy to establish - or, wildly rampant and invasive) buckwheat is tame, small and attractive.

The Trouble with Unlearned Clergy Pooling Their Ignorance at a Synod Seminary


Jay Webber (ELS) finally got his STM from an online, ELCA school, one where Jack Kilcrease, Roman Catholic adjunct teaches the wisdom of UOJ.

Webber complained to me about the weakness of the Bethany Lutheran Seminary faculty. I have fervently wished for them to hire him, because God's wrath is shown most clearly in letting false teachers flay and oppress those who have abandoned God's Word.

There are two kinds of theological education. The most important is to dwell in the Word and to trust in the plain message of the Scriptures. The laity I know have this training on their own and thirst for even more knowledge. No clergy have asked me to train them in Greek, but seven laity have.

The second kind is formal education, which is significant for training a new generation of pastors. That is where the "conservative" synods have utterly failed, because both kinds of education must be brought together.

The LCMS is better about formal education, but they want their faculty members immersed in synodical correctness, not in the Scriptures.

 When a Disciples of Christ apostate and promoter of Planned Parenthoodgives a guy goosebumps, it is time to shut down the so-called educational system.


The smaller "Lutheran" sects are worse, lacking formal education and only a superficial knowledge of the Scriptures. Their in-house publications show their deficits. But these also become the new additions to the canon, so who can object and remain within the synodical coral?

From Missouri on down, the academic incest is deplorable. Universities abhor having their own graduates immediately become teachers at the same school. That turns the faculty into ring-knockers, a quaint term that applies to those who never left the womb of the sect, have family connections with everyone, and show off their power by knocking their rings on the table (figuratively speaking) when a different idea comes up.

WELS-ELS-CLC-ELDONA - All are so pure, in their own minds, that they can easily use their own MDiv graduates to train their future pastors. The same is true at the college level, if they are big enough to have colleges. Larry Otto Olson monopolizes one area of their only synodical college. He lacks a real doctorate and had a miserable parish experience. So he is simply stamping out more versions of LOO.

ELDONA has one seminary student and one poorly educated MDiv to serve as the dean, registrar, faculty, baseball coach, music director, and cafeteria crew for the entire student body. They fly in or online their varied MDivs to provide a rich soup of Ft Waynianism. Their Lord High Bishop, the Right Reverend Jim Heiser, STM, tells everyone what to do and think, so they have re-imagined the original Stephanite model, minus the young women and the STDs. What is the chance of having real Biblical studies under such high church Stalinism?

The main ingredient for the Christian Church is Biblical studies. Exegetical sermons are mostly absent now, a great chance to provide year around training for the pastor and members. Coptied cutsy sermons and canned cutsy-wutsy adult classes have made people impatient with Biblical classes.


Luther Quotation Refutes UOJ - Sent by Lutheran Laity


"We see what a wretched thing the human heart is when it begins to waver so that it cannot be lifted up. The apostles and Thomas had seen not only that the Lord had risen but also that He had raised three others: Lazarus, and before that the daughter of Jairus and the widow’s son. Among all of them, Thomas was the boldest and bravest and said, “Let us also go with Him and die” [John 11:16]. They were such fine folk . . . and yet they could not believe that the Lord Himself had risen. And so we see in the apostles what things of nothing we are when we are left to ourselves and [God] withdraws His hand. . . . The dear apostle chooses to be damned, because there is no forgiveness of sins or salvation when there is no faith in the resurrection of Christ. . . . 
So Thomas insists; he refuses to be saved, because he refuses to believe that Christ is risen."
Martin Luther
Luther's Works

Volume 69



***

GJ - 

I was happy to get this quotation. Recently the UOJ Stormtroopers have encountered excellent refutations of their folly - each time from laity who did this on their own and shared with me what they wrote.

That led me to consider one of the most worn-out excuses for UOJ, which is really circular reasoning of the worst kind.

The grossest expression comes from the timeless treasury of Tiefel, CLC (sic) bon vivant and theologian. He interviewed one of the troglodyte pioneers of his sect who said this about Universal Absolution - the key dogma of Universalism - "If it wasn't so, I would blow my brains out." See their "Hewn from the Rock" video, which should be renamed "Dredged from the Swamp of Enthusiasm."

I have noticed that the UOJ fanatics always want to take their dogma another step, as if to prove how pure their teaching is.

This is the common argument, repeated without end - 

"I cannot believe unless I know I was already forgiven."



They connect this statement, drawn from the wells of Pietistic rationalism, to support the notion (LCMS Brief Statement; Ed Preuss, CFW Walther, David Valleskey, David Scaer) that God pronounced the world righteous when Christ died - or rose from the dead. They are not sure about the Moment of World Absolution. They are quite sure "everyone was saved 2000 years ago."

In fact, according to Ed Preuss and his acolytes, everyone is born forgiven.



The Big Distortion
The strangest aspect of this claim is its divorce from Scriptural teaching. They seize the basis and twist it into Universalism, which we can see in their jabbering about everyone being forgiven, even before repentance and confession, and their almost complete silence about the Means of Grace.

They also stutter and stammer about being forgiven absolutely and then being forgiven again when they believe the entire world is forgiven  and saved without faith.



Christ did take on all the sins of the world and atone for them. He became all sin so that we might have His righteousness through faith. The Gospel is the Atonement message of the Holy Spirit, which is true whether anyone believes it or not. 

The power of the efficacious Word is so great that those who are told of the Atonement believe this Gospel message and receive with joy the message of forgiveness. Likewise, those who waiver and doubt, after engaging in great and terrible sins, are strengthened to believe again in Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil. But this does not happen without repentance and faith in the Gospel. Preaching, visiting, and counseling depend upon the objective truth of Christ dying for our sins, for all sins, for the trivial sins and the ones we imagine we can conquer, and especially for great and terrible sins.

Forgiveness of sin brings healing and power to resist temptation. UOJ tells people they are already forgiven, so they have no reason to repent or believe. Faith - the purpose of the Biblical proclamation - is reduced to agreeing with the rationalists of Halle University, as Walther taught so plainly and absurdly. There is no greater danger to sound doctrine than taking a slice of the truth and using it to promote apostasy from the Truth.


ELCiC Pastor Horst W. Gutsch Buried by LC-C (Missouri Synod) Pastor.
Gutsche, a Man for All Synods, but Special for the CLC (sic)

"Do not be alone with minors while on probation."
"Required to disclose conviction..."
CLC (sic) Pastor David Koenig, on the extreme left, is a great friend of Church Growth
and simply loathes Lutheran doctrine.
Is Gutsche also a former WELS pastor? Yes. See below.

---

Lutheran Church - Canada Pastor Reinhard Dittmer made a point of sending me the funeral and sermon he prepared for Gutsche, showing that Horst was indeed a man for all synods, especially ELCA.

"He enjoyed learning and took a variety of theological, cultural and language courses at Northwestern College, Watertown, Wisconsin, USA; the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule in Oberursel, Germany; the Alliance Francaise in Paris, France; the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington USA and at the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Madrid, Spain.

Horst was ordained in 1975 as a pastor of the Lutheran Church in America at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Edmonton. He went on to serve as pastor for over 40 years in bilingual German – English congregations in Canada (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Vernon, Barrhead, Onoway and Mystery Lake) and in the United States (New York and San Francisco).  

He was active and held leadership positions in various church and cultural organizations including Secretary and President of the German Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America/ (delkina.org)."   


---


lfk.lutheranmissions.org" - LutherQuest


A study of the book of Revelation by Pastor David Koenig.

Koenig worked with Gutsche on this conference


A WELS pastor too?
Gutsche's LinkedIn profile links to
St. John WELS, Libertyville, Illinois
School and Preschool  
St. John connects children and families with Christ through our growing preschool and school.  We offer 3 year old Preschool through 8th Grade... 

"St. John Lutheran School exists to nurture children in faith and intellect, equipping them for Christian lives of service."

Horst Gutsche phoned me to claim the dismissal
of his court case made him innocent!
Why was he forbidden to be alone with minors?
The dismissal clearly states otherwise - it simply means
the court is done with the parole or any other stipulations
from his arrest and conviction.
He was an ELCA pastor in San Francisco at the time - and ELCA dumped him.
The Canadian version of ELCA hired him as a pastor.





Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Christmas Week Worship Schedule


Christmas Eve Carol Service - 7 PM Central
Christmas Day Holy Communion - 10 AM Central

Because of Christmas Eve falling on Saturday, we will have our Christmas Carol service on Saturday instead of the Wednesday mid-week service.

Christmas Day is Sunday, so we will have a Christmas Holy Communion service.


Winter Leaves:
Feed the Plants of Spring

 Autumn Leaves - by Norma Boeckler.

Our helper has recovered so much from his accident, a car running him down when he was on his bike, that he came over to do some work. I did not want to get him into serious physical work, but I had a plan.

"Your neighbor has a bunch of bags, probably leaf bags. Let's get them and spread them in the bird-feeding area."

I put on my camouflage: red winter jacket, Tilley hat. We saddled up, drove a half-block and began loading the bags. 100% leaves.

The bird-and-squirrel-feeding area was covered with cardboard months ago. Cardboard by itself is fairly good at stopping the growth of weeds and grass. A thick layer of leaves is ideal for blocking the sun even more, harboring insects for the birds to enjoy, and providing organic material for the soil.

 Feed Crepe Mytle bushes in the fall and winter,
enjoy the blooms all summer long.
The winter seeds also feed the birds.


The way to provide a new gardening space where the lawn is growing is to cover the area with cardboard in the fall, adding leaves or pine needles on top.

Large cardboard boxes are so easy to find that I begin with them, months ahead. Many large boxes come to neighbors and even to our home (medical supplies, for example). Leaves and needles are seasonal. Now I have large amounts of tree contributions to add to the cardboard.

The difficulty with cardboard first is the tendency of the wind to pick up large sheets and move them around. They may be dampened by rain, but the wind and sun dries the pieces out again. I have put so many logs on the butterfly garden cardboard - and yet they still move around. Leaves take away the aerodynamics of the cardboard and help in creating the soggy layer.

Overall I am working on building the fungi in the soil, feeding the soil creatures, and converting all the grass and weeds into compost. It is possible to plant in the lawn and build the layers of mulch around the new plants, but the composting of the lawn will use up a certain amount of energy and delay the arrival of the hordes of soil creatures to feed the roots.

Composting creates heat and the soil creatures work according to a divinely wrought plan. Earthworms run from heat, so forget them at first. The nitrogen loving bacteria create the heat, so that is way rabbit and chicken manure are considered hot additions to compost. Grass is hot, too.

However, the beauty of this plan is the wonderful combination, in place, of all the best ingredients of compost:

  1. Nitrogen in the grass 
  2. Bacteria and fungus already present
  3. Dead and dying organic matter, from the soil creatures to the roots of plants denied sunlight
  4. Moisture trapped beneath 

Bacteria loves the easy work of decomposition, and fungus excels at destroying woody products and delivering their components to plant roots.

In the spring, everyone wants the right seeds and plants, but the first goal should be soil in the best condition for planting.

 Veterans' Honor rose is a show-stopper:
fragrant, large in size, long in the vase.


Our neighbor began her rose garden with an extra Veterans Honor rose. Her daughter is even more exciting about the new plant. I told them not to expect much initially, since it had to re-establish itself.

The rose leafed out - a very good sign - and grew increasingly strong. I was pleased, since it was previously being choked by Blackberries.

I brought over a bag of shredded wood mulch and some pieces of cardboard. The cardboard collar keeps grassy weeds from springing up to choke the plant. The wood mulch holds down the cardboard and feeds the soil creatures, insulating the plant against cold too.

The recent snow means the mulch and cardboard around the rose got plenty soggy and much more prone to help the soil creatures below. They are busy feeding the root hairs of the rose, which is God's design for all plants. Bacteria are food for protozoa, and protozoa by eating bacteria make room for more. Fungi crave carbon and obtain it from the roots, and the rose craves various forms of nutrition and water.

Veterans' Honor will have the advantage of well established roots in the spring, when a little pruning will promote early growth above and below ground.

Meanwhile, I am doting on the Crepe Mytle again, piling leaves, dead wood, and pine needles around its base. No matter what I do to add leaves, they go down, decomposing and feeding the soil. Spring pruning will ensure a glorious summer of enormous blooms.

Flowers will bloom in spite of our blunders, but they will flourish when we follow the principles of Creation, avoid toxins, and let His creatures do the work they were designed to accomplish.


 A cardboard collar around plants will discourage grassy weeds
and encourage soil creatures.





 No Leaf Left Behind

I took Mrs. Ichabod to Fayetteville for some shopping. I went to the bookstore. The beads and Dixon Street books are about two blocks apart. I tried a shortcut and encountered a dream, a mirage. no it was real.

Someone set out a large group of leaf bags on the curb, so many that they filled the Town Car (Icha-boat).

"Did you buy any books?" my wife asked.

"No, better." She looked in the car. "Where did you find all those leaves?"

Our helper came over to the house later for another round of spreading leaves over cardboard, this time around the dead tree that supports the Honeysuckle vines.


Monday, December 19, 2016

Why Did You Call Baylor University "Baptist"?
Answer - Because Baylor IS Baptist.
Why Do the ELDONUTs Lie about the Facts?

 The Right Reverend Bishop James Heiser, on the far left, 
seems to be swearing in new ELDONA members.
Where are all the robes?



Baylor - Wikipedia
Baylor University (BU) is a private Baptist university in Waco, Texas. Chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas, it is the oldest continuously-operating university in Texas and one of the first educational institutions west of the Mississippi River in the United States. It is among the largest Baptist universities in the world. The university's 1,000-acre campus is located on the banks of the Brazos River next to I-35, between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Austin. Baylor University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. 


During that time and into the Twenty-first Century, Baylor has remained one of the few to persist in the belief that not only can its Baptist heritage inform a vital approach to life in general, it can also inform the life of the mind specifically.

Colleges - US News The Waco, Texas, school is a private, Baptist institution, and its student body is particularly active in volunteerism. 

Baylor University's board on Friday voted to let up to 25 percent of its membership go to non-Baptist Christians, ending the tradition of allowing only Baptists on the governing body.
While a number of Baptist colleges and universities in recent years have loosened or ended ties to state Baptist conventions, the move by Baylor is notable because it is widely considered the flagship university of Southern Baptists.
***
GJ - The ELDONUTs were outraged that I called Baylor a Baptist University.
I rest my case on 
  1. Baylor's own website, 
  2. Inside Higher Education, and 
  3. The US News Report review of colleges. 

I haven't vetted Baylor's entire website but they seem to downplay the Baptist identity on the front pages, but everyone knows it is Baptist, except Heimbigner, who graduated in church history from BU.



 Robes! Fish hat, crosier,
chasuble, cope? 
---

Rev. Kent A. Heimbigner, Ph.D. has left a new comment on your post "Baptist Theologian Takes Congregation Out of LCMS:...": 

Hi Greg:

Thank you for your interest in what my good and faithful congregation has done. I have met you, and certainly appreciate your sense of humor, but for the sake of those who may not understand it, I offer a couple of points of clarification:

1) There is no such thing as "Baylor Baptist University." There is only "Baylor University," which has a Baptist history, but is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination. [GJ - Now that's a whopper.]

2) I am not a "Baptist theologian," nor am I going to join the Eastern Orthodox. I am getting a chuckle out of putting those together and imagining what it would be like to be an Easternizing Baptist. I guess they are both synergists, but I'm not. I will remain Lutheran. At ordination, I swore an oath. It matters to me. And my beloved congregation is on that same "we've got to stay Lutheran" page with me.

BTW, for my response to Fr. Fenton heading east, check out my blog on the website,http://www.confessionallutheran.org/content/view/142/91/

Todd, thanks for your clarifying posts. Greg, it's been too long, and I hope our paths cross again in due course. Peace be with you both.

***

GJ - Actually, Kent, you asked to stay here for the LCMS conference and didn't show up or explain.

I see you share Todd Wilken's sense of humor. Or, as Bruce Church suggested, "What's the point?"

***
GJ -

2016 Update.

Here is the original post, which still bothers ELDONA seven (7) years later.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2009/01/baptist-theologian-takes-congregation.html

Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is a private Baptist university, and a nationally ranked liberal arts institution. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas, Baylor is the oldest, continually operating university in the state. Though 80% of our students come from within Texas, we are home to students from all 50 states, and 70 countries.


Rev. Kent A Heimbigner, Ph.D., Senior Pastor
Home: 817-426-0783
Email: icxcnika@flash.net

Pastor Kent A. Heimbigner was born on 08 October 1961 in Anaheim, CA. He was baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost two weeks later, on 22 October 1961 at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Fullerton, CA. He was confirmed in that same congregation in 1975.

Pastor Heimbigner was installed as the Pastor of Charity Lutheran Church, Burleson, TX in October of 1997. He was ordained and installed at Grace Lutheran Church, Marlin, TX on 22 August 1990. Pr. Heimbigner served there as Pastor for seven years, prior to becoming Pastor of Charity Lutheran in Burleson.

A graduate of Point Loma College in San Diego, CA, Pr. Heimbigner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985. Thereafter he enrolled at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO, receiving his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 1989 and a Master of Sacred Theology degree (S.T.M.) in 1991. With a concentration in Dogmatic Theology, his primary research had to do with the relation of the Office of the Holy Ministry to the celebration of the Lord's Supper in Scripture and in the early liturgical writings of the ancient church.

While serving full-time as a Pastor, Pr. Heimbigner worked part time as a student at Baylor University in Waco, TX, earning a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in 2001, with a concentration in church history and a teaching minor in philosophy. His dissertation focused on the relation of Christ to Baptism and the Lord's Supper in selected dogmatic and devotional writings of Johann Gerhard (17th century orthodox Lutheran theologian).

As a clergyman of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod from 1990 through the end of 2008, Pr. Heimbigner served the Synod in various capacities, including being a member of the Texas District floor committee on theology and church relations for the 2003 Texas District convention, LWML zone counsellor, LFL pastoral advisor, Lutheran Music Enrichment instructor, and currently instructor for all religion and philosophy classes offered by Concordia University at Austin's extension campus in Fort Worth, TX. In November of 2008, he received the "Excellence in Teaching" award from the Commission on Accelerated Programs (CAP). Three times, he has been given the opportunity (and accepted it) to teach Reformation History at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. Pr. Heimbigner also served on the working group for Eucharistic Liturgies in connection with the Lutheran Hymnal Project, which project has now resulted in the production of the "Lutheran Service Book."


In his community, Pr. Heimbigner has long been a member of the Rotary Club, first in Marlin and now in Burleson. He has served on the board of directors of the Burleson Rotary Club in several different capacities. Pr. Heimbigner has also served as President, Vice-President, and Treasurer of the Dallas / Fort Worth Area Metro Beekeepers' Association.

Pastor Heimbigner has published one book (a reworking of his S.T.M. thesis), and anticipates publication of his Ph.D. dissertation in the not too distant future. He has also published articles in the Lutheran Witness, Logia, TableTalk, and other venues. Pastor Heimbigner occasionally is asked to be a guest on the radio talk show Issues Etc.

Pr. Heimbigner and his wife, Denise, celebrated their 22nd anniversary in August of 2008. They have five children, and live in a home they are purchasing in north Burleson.


***

GJ - Kent was on his way out of Missouri some years ago. He has been seen around ELDONA events. His bio says he worked on the new LCMS hymnal. Will he join the Eastern Orthodox, like Fenton?

The reasons given are here.