2007 National Youth Gathering
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2007 National Youth Gathering VOL.126 NO.8 SEPTEMBER 2007 7 15 16 ONE ROAD? IN HIS CORNER POSTER POWER www.lcms.org/witness VOL.126 NO.8 SEPTEMBER 2007 6 FAN INTO FLAME: IGNITING HEARTS 7 12 by Ron Nelson Expansion begins in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Mosaic—a multiethnic, multigenerational church start. 7 ONLY ONE ROAD TO HEAVEN? By Gene Edward Veith Christian exclusivity in a pluralistic age. 15 12 CHOSEN! Compiled by Vicki J. Biggs 2007 National Youth Gathering termed “the church at its best.” 15 IN HIS CORNER by Kim Plummer Krull 16 16 NFL Hall of Famer Roger Wehrli cites God’s abiding presence in enshrinement speech. 16 POSTER POWER by Diane Strzelecki Urban Sunday-school kids realize they, too, can reach out to children in other countries with the Good News of Jesus. 20 20 THINKING ABOUT YOUR FUNERAL by Jonathan C. Watt A funeral is a time to speak clearly about what we believe, teach, and confess as Lutheran Christians. TO THE READER least some curiosity about LCMS news? “pop-up boxes” enabling you to submit We can answer “Yes” to both questions. messages and letters to the editor as well as For years, an underlying premise of Witness readers have been encouraged ads for “Notices”; an “Online Only” section the Synod’s official periodicals has been in this space to check out the newly offering Web-exclusive material; and a that The Lutheran Witness, our monthly redesigned Witness website: beefed-up search engine that will comb features magazine, is for laypeople, while www.lcms.org/witness. Allow me now also to every print edition of Reporter back to 2003. Reporter, our monthly newspaper, is for encourage you to check out Reporter’s Reporter Online provides everything professional church workers and congre- newly renovated website, Reporter in the monthly print Reporter (except adver- gational lay leaders. This principle has Online: www.lcms.org/reporter tising), plus a number of stories and pictures served us well. There’s a lot going on at Reporter not found elsewhere. It is the Synod’s Still, don’t a number of pastors, teach- Online, where the content changes con- most comprehensive source of LCMS news. ers, and other church professionals and stantly. You’ll find a new “top story,” with If you’re curious, please give it a look. leaders read the Witness now and then? photo, each week; a “New This Week” sec- David L. Strand, Executive Director And don’t a number of laypeople have at tion spotlighting recently posted stories; Board for Communication Services DEPARTMENTS COMING IN OCTOBER... 3 LIFELINE 25 Q & A • Luther and World Mission 4 LETTERS 27 SHEDDING SOME LIGHT • The Reformation for Today 11 SEARCHING SCRIPTURE 28 FAMILY COUNSELOR • A House in Wittenberg 23 NOTICES 29 FROM THE PRESIDENT LIFELINE Saved from Death Three Times— to Hear God’s Word One Final Time By Linda Krueger n Aug. 7, 1999, a storm brought 12 inches of rain to Omaha, Neb. A debris-filled O creek overflowed near my parents’ home, causing a deep whirlpool to form around the house. My father went to the basement to check on water seepage. He was killed when the base- ment walls crashed in and the raging water washed him away. Meanwhile, rescue teams tried desperately to reach my mother, who was on the porch. A fireman rescued her just as the porch collapsed. Saved from death number one. My mother did not cope well. She had lost her husband the day before their 58th wedding made. Her living will made it clear what her wishes were. anniversary. She had lost her home and her will to live. The decision was how long to wait. Dec. 17, 2001, was a frigid, snowy Nebraska day. My I called our interim pastor. As I collapsed into his mother’s ground-level apartment faced the garage at the arms, I told him what I feared: that over the years my back of her complex. On a mid-afternoon cigarette mother had slipped away from God. I wanted her to hear break, she stepped outside, fell, and broke her hip. God’s Word one more time. We prayed and left it up to Eventually, two young men who normally were not at God. The hospital called the priest on duty. Mom was home during the day heard her cries and called for help. given the last rites. The ventilator was disconnected. Saved from death number two. Unexpectedly, Mom breathed on her own. Although The surgeons were reluctant to operate. Mom might unconscious, she was doing well enough that my hus- not survive. The other option: Keep her bedridden until band encouraged me to go home and get some sleep. the break healed. This could be a long time. We opted for Reluctantly, I consented. surgery. In the middle of the night, my mother awoke and Although Catholic, my mother had not been involved asked for me. My husband witnessed to her, prayed with with the church for many years. On the day of the sur- her, and read God’s Word to her. It was the gift I had gery, there were no clergy available. So my youngest prayed for. daughter and I offered prayers. God heard them, and After a while, Mom slipped back into unconscious- Mom survived. We moved her to a care facility on ness. The next morning, my husband called. “Take your Christmas Eve and celebrated a blessed Christmas Day time. Things look good,” he said. with her there. Saved from death number three. Three days later the news turned bad. Complications. My mother was rushed to the hospital. Less than 15 minutes later I received another call. My oldest daughter arrived the same time I did. We Mom was slipping away. Please hurry. found Mom in good spirits. We held hands, said the By God’s grace I arrived in time. I lay next to her, Lord’s Prayer, and wished her good night. and God gave me the privilege of holding her as her life My home was 25 miles away. As I arrived, the phone on this earth ended. We buried her on New Year’s Eve was ringing. Mom had gone into cardiac arrest. 2001, just 15 days after her fall. Back in the car. The roads were icy. It seemed I And she was able to hear God’s Word one more would never arrive. When I walked into her room, the time. nurses were still trying to get her heart started. Mom had been placed on a ventilator. She had been without oxy- gen for too long, and the hospital staff did not believe Linda Krueger is a member of St. Peter’s she would breathe on her own. A decision had to be Lutheran Church, Scribner, Neb. Shutterstock SEPTEMBER 2007 2 LETTERS Reclaiming our young dence—rather, it is simply a mat- hostile opposition to our parental ter of degree. values, driving a relational wedge From my perspective, the arti- As a teenager in the 1960s, between parent and child. cle “Reclaiming the Church’s Young Tragically, only parents of consid- in a Culture of Change” by John W. I received terribly flawed advice, erable financial means, or those Oberdeck (June/July 2007) did a given with the best of intentions, who are willing to make tremen- great job of diagnosing youth today, from an adult friend of the family: dous financial sacrifices, are in a but I consider it weak in affirming “Tim,” he said, “enjoy this time. position to choose an alternative the power we have available for These are the best years of your educational system that builds a any and every problem that the life.” Predictably, with every harmonious relationship between devil throws at the church. inevitable adolescent mental and the student, teacher, and parent. I have been shepherding emotional pain that was to follow, The poor, of course, have no churches for more than a half-cen- I dwelled on those poignant words, choice. May God grant someday tury, spanning the dynamic years depressed in the thought that, like the implementation of a universal of church growth in the 1950s and Candide’s Dr. Pangloss, “this was education voucher for the sake of the turbulent years of the 1960s and the best of all possible worlds” troubled youth and anxious parents. 1970s, and I am privileged to still and, therefore, only the worst Tim Utter interact with God’s saints to this would follow. New Hope, Minn. day. During all those years, I have Conversely, the best advice observed that we Christians— I ever heard at that time was from Seeking Ablaze! I could not agree more with Arlynn Sanders (“Letters,” June/ “God’s answer to all our troubled times July 2007) about the lack of infor- is the same as the Spirit revealed in the mation about Ablaze!, not only in The Lutheran Witness, but espe- letters of Paul and Peter and John, namely, cially at the congregational level. the mighty Word of God.” Where are the weekly or Rev. Carl Pullmann monthly bulletin inserts that North Platte, Neb. explain what Ablaze! is and how the congregation is asked to become involved? Where are the whether we are grade-school-age, my sainted father. He took me CD video announcements and teenage, or adult—have had a aside one day and flattered me by segments that could be shown on streak of hypocrisy. Adults and saying, “Tim, I believe you’re more the projectors that almost every youth alike have hidden their intelligent than I am” (he obviously congregation now has? fears about the “bumpy roads” had my attention), “but I have one Where are the lesson plans, they were traveling.