Dear friends,

We have been working on a new updated website for Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. The reasons are many and varied, but first and foremost in making the website more functional, the upgrade would have required our current old website to be DOWN for a prolonged period of time. In order to prevent DOWN time, we decided to get another domain name (gelc-wels.org) and start building a new parallel website.

One of our most popular features is the sermon audio and the new website has a new audio / video engine that is much better. New sermons for 2013 and beyond will be posted on the new website at http://gelc-wels.org/grace-sermon-list/sermons-grace and the older sermons from 2011 and 2012 are still at http://grace-wels.org/index.php/component/content/category/20-sermons for listening. 

We will also be posting new stories on the new website going forward. That being said, the new website is still under construction in a few areas including galleries and some archives articles. We should complete the menu structure by the end of February. We can use help with ideas and content "copy and paste". Contact Perry Lund if you can assist or want to learn how to help out.

Thanks.

On June 1 - 2, Julie and Perry Lund attended a Lutheran Free Conference in Oshkosh, Wisconsin called Church and Continuity. Almost all the particiants were WELS and ELS pastors and laity who came to Bethlehem Lutheran Church. They came to listen to several presenters speak on topics realted to historic Christianity and the worship and practice that has been maintained since the time of the ancient church.

Listened here are the titles of the presentations and links to all the PDF files of the papers that were presented. Feel free to download and read those papers that look interesting to you or that you might pass along to others. Topics range from gender neutral translation to the beauty of the Western Church Rite to what it means to be a Dresden Lutheran.

Rev. Robert Koester offered an abbreviated review of his paper on the NIV2011 Bible translation matter, "Gender Neutral Translating and the Verbal Inspiration of Scripture." His expanded treatment of the topic was delivered to the January 2012  Metro-Milwaukee Pastor's Conference,  "A Brief Layman's Guide: Understanding the Problems of Gender Neutral Translating." Rev. Koester also made available last fall an eight page overview of several concerns on gender neutral translation.

Douglas Lindee delivered the paper, Why is this Happening to Us? How the culture wars become religious wars among us, to the first annual Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity. Much of this material would serve well in a course on church history as it is rich in references to orthodoxy and apologetics.

Rev. Luke Boehringer presented, “In Bondage to Expectations: Why Results Pull Us Away from the Cross.” Rev. Boehringer focused heavily on the fatal flaws of the Church Growth Movement, and demonstrated how the Church Growth philosophy and methods are diametrically opposed to the Lutheran emphases of the bound will, the theology of the cross and the doctrine of vocation.

Rev. Michael Berg: “The Beauty of the Western Rite, Part 1.” More than a simple explanation of the parts of the historic Divine Service, the first section of Rev. Berg’s paper explores the sacramental nature of Lutheran worship and how various worship forms are a response to the fundamental question, “Who is present?” in worship.

In "The Beauty of the Western Rite, Part 2," Rev. Berg tells a short story called, "Any Given Sunday," in which he illustrates in a very down-to-earth way how the Divine Service confronts real-life sinners in the midst of their troubles, struggles, joys and sorrows and brings the Word of God to them right where they need it.  This section also includes an explanation of the benefits of offering Holy Communion every Sunday.

Rev. Paul Rydecki finished up the conference with a paper entitled, “Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans?”, a reference to the Book of Concord, which was first printed in Dresden, Germany, in 1580. The paper highlighted the problem that develops when Lutherans become tied to the human institution of a synod rather than to the confession of Concord.