Pastoral Ministry – What Does This Mean?

Friedrich Wyneken’s Missionary Journey

Encore Post: On October 2nd, 1838, Young circuit rider Friedrich Wyneken set out along the Goshen Road towards Elkhart and South Bend (Now US Route 33). A severe cholera epidemic held Western Ohio and Northern Indiana in its grip at that time. Wyneken reported, “On the whole, from a human point of view, the time in which I traveled was an unfortunate time to work for God’s kingdom. Sickness raged everywhere. Often I entered a town where not one house was without a sick person: In many homes, everyone was sick, so that often my gatherings were very small.”

In Benton, Indiana, a town with forty German families in 1838, this deadly disease kept the size of the congregation down to twelve people. These settlers begged the missionary to return to them later, since they hoped to form a congregation. Promising to visit again, Wyneken continued on toward South Bend. At the junction of Goshen Road and the east/west section of the Michigan Road, near the town of Elkhart, and a few miles farther west at Harris Prairie, the missionary stopped to preach. He discovered many Germans in the area and resolved to return to form congregations.

Pressing further west along the Michigan Road, he traveled through South Bend and La Porte to Michigan City. Finding no German Lutherans to the west, he returned to South Bend and preached there on the 12th of October to a congregation of six hastily gathered people. Moving farther east, Wyneken preached again at Harris Prairie on October 13 and at Elkhart on the 14th. These communities asked him to return once more and help them to organize their congregations. Agreeing to do this, the missionary took the Michigan Road northeast to Mottville, Michigan, where he preached on the 16th and visited the sick. He baptized several children there the next day.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Pastor Wyneken’s Lima, Ohio Ministry

Encore Post: On September 10th, 1838, Friedrich Wyneken stopped in Lima, Ohio, for supplies. There he met a German, who pleaded in tears with Pastor Wyneken to stay in the area awhile and preach to his countrymen and women, many of whom had not heard God’s Word or received the Lord’s Supper in years. With his heart breaking, Wyneken could not pass them by.

For eight days, he conducted services in Lima, in Putnam County to the north of Lima, and in Wapakoneta, in Auglaize County, to the south. With wonder, he reported that he preached nine times in these settlements and baptized fifteen people. Thirteen of them were older children, one an eighteen-year-old young woman, and another, the forty-year-old mother of two. He even confirmed a young married man, catechized but never communed. With joy, Wyneken wrote to Haesbaert:

“The people were so delighted to receive God’s Word and the Bread of Life once more, that I couldn’t thank the Lord enough for His love, because, at the very beginning of my ministry, He had led me to such hungry hearts.

Very reluctantly, young Pastor Wyneken left Ohio for Adams County, Indiana. “I regret now, that I didn’t stay longer with the Germans in western part of the State of Ohio,” he wrote the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Mission Society, “and did not visit more settlements, because there are no pastors there, and also, as far as I can tell from what I’ve been told, none have been visited by a circuit rider to date”

Impelled by a sense of duty, he forced himself to travel northwest on the Piqua Road, along the St. Mary River toward Fort Wayne. Wyneken’s route took him past Willshire, Schumm, and Van Wert, settlements he would later serve from Fort Wayne and Decatur, beginning in 1839.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Wyneken Wanders in Baltimore

Encore Post: In early July 1838, Friedrich Wyneken and Christoph Wolf wandered around Baltimore, looking for Lutherans. After mistaking an Otterbein Methodist prayer meeting for a Lutheran worship service, they found their way to Second German Evangelical Lutheran st. Paul’s Congregation and her Pastor Johann Häsbärt.

Häsbärt was also an “awakened” pastor, who had led a group of Lutheran and Reformed Germans to secede from a congregation served by a Rationalist minister. He was very suspicious of Wyneken and Wolf, since in America, laymen, con-men, and “every expelled student or banished demagogue” regularly preyed on unsuspecting congregations to make some quick cash. It did not help at all that the two young men brought no written credentials or letters of introduction with them. Yet Wyneken’s warmth and sincerity inclined Häsbärt to put aside his misgivings. Häsbärt’s fears were finally set to rest when Captain Stuerje testified to their character.

To seal their newly formed friendship, Wolf preached the following Sunday. Soon after that, Häsbärt fell sick and was confined to his bed. Wyneken served his congregation as substitute pastor for several weeks. Sometime during this period, Wolf went West ahead of his companion, settling in Marietta, Ohio. When Häsbärt had recovered, he tried to convince his new Hanoverian friend to stay in the east. Failing to talk Wyneken into remaining, the Baltimore pastor advised, “You must not travel on to the West under your own authority. I will write the Missions Committee of the Pennsylvania Synod, advising that they should send you out as their missionary.”

The timing was providential. At the 1839 Convention of the German-Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, its Missionary Society met. The executive committee reported that in the latter part of 1838, Missionary Kohler had decided to accept a call to Eastern Pennsylvania and was therefore unavailable for continued service in the West. During the Summer of 1838, Adam Wesel’s letter from Fort Wayne likely reached their hands.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Early Years of Friedrich Wyneken

Encore Post: 216 years ago, on May 13, 1810, Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken was born in what would soon become the Kingdom of Hanover. On the 22nd, Fritz’s proud father, Pastor Heinrich Christoph Wyneken, baptized his youngest son at his parish, St. Andreas of Verden.

The Young Fritz Wyneken was the tenth of eleven children. He joined a family of dedicated and prominent servants of heavenly and earthly kingdoms. When Fritz was five years old, his father died, leaving his mother, Louise, to raise their eleven children. To accomplish this, she depended on a meager church pension, took in boarders, and called on family and friends to make ends meet.

Friedrich attended a Gymnasium in his hometown of Verden. At age seventeen, he enrolled at the University of Göttingen, the traditional Wyneken alma mater. After one year in Göttingen, Friedrich enrolled in the Theological Faculty at the University of Halle, where he remained until he graduated two and a half years later. At Halle, Friedrich found a mentor in Augustus Tholuck, a leader of the 19th-century German Awakening and supporter of the Prussian Union. During Friedrich’s years at Halle, Tholuck taught courses in New Testament, Dogmatics, and the History of Doctrine. Through his influence, Wyneken became an “awakened” and “believing” Christian.

Upon graduation, Wyneken served as a private instructor in the home of Consistorial Counselor von Henfstengel at Leesum, a town near Bremen. The area was a stronghold for the Awakening and a place where Friedrich Wyneken would grow both in his faith in Christ and zeal for missions. After four years in Leesum, he briefly served in a few other positions. His education and experience had made him into a strong, convinced pietist.

Wyneken returned to Germany in 1837, fully groomed for a promising career in the Church. He would soon read accounts of the spiritual needs of German Lutherans on the American frontier in mission societies’ journals. Perhaps he read the reports of survey missionaries, sent out by the Pennsylvania Ministerium to measure the need and do what they could to meet it. Perhaps it was the letters of F. A. Schmidt, pastor in southwest Michigan, who served as a missionary of the Basil
Mission Society. In any case, what Wyneken learned about German Lutherans in America set off a struggle in the young man’s heart. He came to the conclusion that God was calling him to serve on the American frontier.

At peace with God and sure of his decision, Friedrich Wyneken obtained release from his duties as a tutor. After a memorable candidate’s examination, he was ordained at Stade with fellow candidate C. W. Wolf. General Superintendent Ruperti, his sister’s father-in-law, conducted the rite at St. Wilhadi Church of Stade on 8 May 1837. With the help of Gottfried Treviranus, the Reformed pastor of St. Martin Church in Bremen, Wyneken and Wolf made the acquaintance of Captain Stuerje, who provided the pair of missionaries free passage to America on his ship, the Brig Apollo.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Church Words: Congregation

[Seventh in a series of posts on church words]

Encore Post:

From the very beginning of the church, Christians gathered together to read scripture, sing the praises of God, hear their pastors preach, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This should not surprise us — Jews had been doing that for centuries, beginning sometime during the Babylonian Exile. Those gatherings became known in Greek as συναγωγή — Synagogues — meaning “to lead, gather together; assemble.” The New Testament calls these groups ἐκκλησία — churches — literally “called up” (to assemble). The Greeks used the word for civil assemblies and the calling up of militias. The word “Congregation” is the Latin translation of these words and means “to gather together.”

The church continued to worship after the pattern of the synagogue, with two exceptions — they met for worship on the Lord’s Day (Sunday), not the Sabbath (Saturday), because it was the day on which Christ rose from the dead. They also added readings from the Gospels and letters from the Apostles and other respected leaders. These are the books that would be very quickly (for the most part) recognized as Holy Scripture, along with the Old Testament.

For the first generation of Missouri Synod leaders, the distinction between the local congregation and the universal church was crucial. They used the German word Gemeinde only for a local church and the word Kirche for the universal church. They deliberately did not call their church body a church. They called it a Synode — a Synod.

Why were they so picky? Because most of the action in God’s kingdom is not done in Church Bodies, which get most of the press, but in the local congregation. They represent the universal Church, the invisible Church. On behalf of the Church, congregations baptize, teach the Word of God, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, use the Office of the Keys to forgive and retain sins, and extend God’s call to men to exercise the Office of the Holy Ministry and other church workers to support it. The work of synods is done as local congregations band together to do things no one can do alone.

Congregations are much more than social clubs or private charities. They are God’s kingdom on earth, proclaiming the gospel and giving his gifts to all. In them, the lost get to meet Jesus, and through the word preached by them, people are saved. So come! God is waiting to meet you — and we are too!

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Vocations: Working out from Ground Zero

[Sixty-Ninth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Encore Post: In Holy Baptism, we are made God’s children. This is perhaps the greatest and most wonderful vocation into which we are placed. Let’s call baptism ground zero for vocations. Moving from ground zero, there are other vocations that are built into the kingdom of God. The vocation or calling of a pastor comes to mind.

In the Old Testament, God commanded the men of the tribe of Levi to serve in his tabernacle and later temple as priests, and the specific men who would do the bulk of the public preaching and teaching concerning the Lord and his wonderful works of salvation, like the Exodus events of the Passover Lamb and the Red Sea.

In the New Testament, it is no longer about tribal bloodlines. Jesus calls 12 men to be his disciples, and we are not really told much about their tribal relationships. The original 12 disciples who were with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, from his baptism to his ascension into heaven, were then sent to proclaim their testimony concerning what they had seen. They were to proclaim the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension. They did this publicly. Paul was a late comer but chosen by the risen Christ, Himself to be the voice to the Gentiles.

Jesus called these 12 apostles to preach and to proclaim the saving Gospel. They also wrote letters and the Gospels that are in our Bible, as John so aptly puts it, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in His Name.” Today’s pastors are placed into a very related office of the apostles. Pastors are called to preach the Word, as it has been handed down by the apostles in Scripture. For by this preaching of Jesus’ salvific work, faith is created in the hearer. Baptisms are administered. The Lord’s Body and Blood is given to the body of believers. The baptized child of God is then ministered to by the next vocation in the line.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

What is Absolution?

Encore Post:

[Fifty-Seventh in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Lutherans cherish absolution as a way that the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus on the cross is applied to Christians when they confess their sins. It is a form of preaching the Gospel that takes what God has promised to all who believe in him and announces it to specific individuals. All Christians may assure their brothers and sisters that their sins are forgiven, but ordinarily it is pastors who hear confessions of sin and pronounce forgiveness to specific individuals or congregations. This is done for the sake of good order and for the assurance of troubled souls that their sins are really forgiven. Pastors are men that God calls through a local congregation to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments on their behalf and as an instrument of their Lord Jesus.

The form that Lutheran pastors use to absolve sins sounds odd to many Protestants and even offensive to some. Yet they do so at the command of Jesus, who instituted absolution and gave the church the power to forgive sins or retain them. (Matthew 18:18-20, John 20:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21) This power Jesus gives is called by theologians the Office of the Keys.

Confession and Absolution come in two forms: Private Confession and General Confession. Private Confession is available, especially when you commit a sin that you cannot shake, that Satan uses to accuse you, and that you feel God cannot possibly forgive. When he is ordained, a pastor promises before God that he will never reveal what is confessed to him — even to his wife. This seal of the confessional is absolute, unless the person who confesses the sin releases the pastor of the obligation. When you share the deepest of your sins, and the pastor forgives you, you can be at rest. Jesus promised you can believe this as if he himself spoke these words — because it is Jesus who is speaking through your pastor. (Luke 10:16)

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Why Confess Your Sins?

Encore Post:

[Fifty-Sixth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

After the Sacrament of Holy Baptism in Luther’s Small Catechism, we find the section on Confession. Pastors get the question from time to time: “Why do we keep confessing our sins? Especially if we are baptized?” Confession is the natural extension of our Baptism because in Confession and Absolution, we are brought back to the promises of our Baptism. Think back to the 3rd and 4th parts of Baptism. While we died with Christ in baptism, we still live in the body of sinful flesh. Only when we die do we stop sinning.

Sin is a fearful thing. And continuing to sin even after our baptism can catch up to us. Continuing to sin without a sign of contrition/repentance can lead a person to walk away from their Baptismal Identity and lose their faith. Confessing our sins is needed, even after baptism, for the forgiveness of sins and strengthening of our faith.

In Confession, we hear God’s two words plainly: Law and Gospel. He is the One who has given us the Ten Commandments. He is the one who tells us that we have fallen short of his glory due to our sins. But, He is also the One who promises us that even though we are sinners, He does love us and forgives us on account of the only begotten Son. He made that clear at our Baptism, but if we don’t hear the words of absolution spoken by the Pastor in the stead and mandate of Christ, we tend to forget God’s love for us in Christ.

Some Christians say that the Pastor cannot say, “You are forgiven.” But Christ our Lord commands his apostles to speak the forgiveness of sins to those men and women who repent of their sins. Confession of sins leads us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastors are uniquely positioned to be the very people God uses to speak this truth to the repentant sinner. They are also the ones who are called to retain the sins of the unrepentant.

Our Lord searches us out and calls us to the promise He made at our Baptism again. He does not want us to forget our baptism, so he speaks tenderly the same word to us each time we come to Him to confess our sins.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

Your Pastors Already Know

Encore Post: The data is out there. The trends are known. We know before we go about our duties. We know who is likely to remain in the church. We know who is likely to return to the church. We already know.

Will the married couple remain in the church after their wedding in our building? Will the family bring their baptized child into the Lord’s house regularly? Will the catechumens remain in the church after they’re admitted to the altar? Will the new visitors become a permanent fixture here after transfer or conversion? Will the family, newly invigorated by the death of a closely related blessed saint of the Lord, lose their zeal or keep it? Will the children keep coming when the duties, passions, and hormones of adolescence drag them around wildly in their own minds?

Your pastors pray that the data is more dire than reality.

In each case, it boils down to habits and patterns.

Newlyweds: What is their family background? Was the couple from a similar upbringing? LCMS, regularly attending as a child and adolescent, and both parents bringing them to church? It’s the same way that similar ideas about money, number of children, and, chiefly, whether moms and dads were married and remain married, improve the chances of a successful marriage. The commonality of faith also improves the chances that these kids will be and remain in the church.

Your pastor will coach you on the difficulties you will face in the future when the odds are not stacked in your favor. Only in scarce circumstances will he refuse marriage. Success is always possible. But, for that to blossom, we have to be honest about the poor odds. Your pastor prays the Lord will deliver you from misfortune and strife, even the foreseeable kind.

Baptized child: What’s the deal with Mom and Dad? If they are or become regular attenders, the kids will probably follow suit. If they are not, their kids will still likely follow suit. Your pastor will often baptize a child whose future in the church is uncertain. He prays that foreseeable apostasy does not befall your house.

Catechumens, again, what’s the deal with Mom and Dad? Here, there’s more data readily available. Did y’all attend regularly before confirmation was on the horizon? If not, there’s a mighty high chance the catechumens will peter out quickly following confirmation.

Your pastors will desperately attempt to instill new habits in the kids. He’ll impose strict attendance standards or require seemingly endless piles of sermon reports. He’s seen parents drop children off for required church attendance, while driving off themselves. He’s grieved to know the child may be lost already. He prays he’s wrong, keeps up with his efforts, and prays the Holy Spirit defeats those odds. Rarely would he withhold confirmation.

Transfers/Converts/Those motivated by a close death: Where were you before? Are you returning to lifelong patterns of attendance at the Lord’s house? Or are these attempts to develop a new pattern? Those who attended before are more likely to attend again. Those who did not are not.

Adolescents: This group gets the most attention, the most ink spilled over them, and even individualistic ministerial attention. How often have you heard of a church with a minister of newlywed Christianization, baptismal life, catechetical instruction, or newly returned Christian life instruction? Prob’ly never. But, we’ve all seen churches with a youth minister or a youth ministry team.

Sadly, that’s also an example of the poor return on those efforts. Again, data indicates that strong youth programs don’t predict strong Christian adults from within them. Worse, when those programs look distinctively different from the churches from which they spring, they serve as an offramp directly out of the church. By the time the youth are at that age, the patterns are well-established. It will take an earth-moving effort by their father, dragging to the entire family to church, consistently to develop a new pattern. That effort has a chance. The youth group or activities are woefully unlikely to move the needle.

Can’t we beat the odds? Yes, we can. Your pastor prays you do. He preaches, teaches, and conducts himself towards you, assuming the data is wrong in your case.

As a body of believers, we have data to help direct our efforts. Children follow the patterns established by their fathers regarding church. As we discussed before, the data is stark in this regard. If we want baptized babies in church, children in church following along and learning, catechumens attending to the Lord’s house, youth who remain in or return to church, newlyweds who attend regularly and bring their babies to the font, we must have fathers to build those patterns into their children.

Your pastors already know. We pray every day that the data is wrong in your case.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Meet Wilhelm Löhe

Encore Post: 154 years ago, Wilhelm Löhe was the pastor of a small, rural parish in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria. He was a leader in Germany’s then-new Confessionalist movement. Because of this role, he always had a strained relationship with the leaders of his church body and so was kept out of the way — or so they thought.

Löhe was a man of boundless energy, persuasive when advocating a cause, and highly skilled at marshaling talent and funds to accomplish a goal. In 1842, he read Friedrich Wyneken‘s appeals for the spiritual need of German Lutherans on the American frontier and his stirring plea for pastors. Löhe published his own appeal. He arranged to meet Wyneken to publish a polished version of the missionary’s appeal, titled Die Noth der deutschen Lutheraner in Nordamerika (The Need of the German Lutherans in North America). These appeals caused donations to flow in, and soon, second-career men volunteered to meet the need.

But Loha was just getting started. With his friend Johann Friedrich Wucherer, he provided a basic education to second-career men who volunteered to go to America. Soon they founded a mission society, raised funds, wrote manuals, instructions, and churchly books. He at first sent these men and donations to the Ohio Synod’s seminary in Columbus, Ohio. When cultural and theological differences made that no longer possible, he worked with Wilhelm Sihler, pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to found a “practical seminary” — an institution focused on providing pastors for the church as quickly as possible. In October 1846, this institution opened in his parsonage. This institution is now known as Concordia Theological Seminary — but that is another story!

Wilhelm Löhe, his friends, and his small parish were just getting started, though. Seeing the suffering of the poor, the ill, the widowed, and the orphaned, he revived the office of deaconess. He also sent men and material to the Wartburg Seminary and its church body, the Iowa Synod (now a part of the ELCA), to Australia, the German colonists of Russia, and other places. To provide a Christian witness to native Americans, he organized and founded Frankenmuth, Michigan, and neighboring communities. His liturgies and worship books became the foundation of the Missouri Synod’s liturgy.

At the age of 63, Wilhelm Löhe died still serving as the pastor of his rural parish on January 2, 1872. He is buried where he served. His institutions still continue to this day, serving God and his church worldwide.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana