Our digital pacifier. . .

A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple substitute given to infants and toddlers to suckle on between feedings, helping to soothe them by satisfying their natural sucking reflex.   So Wiki says.  According to the same, using a pacifier can provide several advantages for both babies and parents:

Comfort and Soothing

• Satisfies sucking reflex: Babies have a strong natural desire to suck, which can be calmed with a pacifier.
• Helps with sleep: Pacifiers can assist babies in falling asleep faster and may help them stay asleep longer.

Every parent knows the value of a good pacifier.  At the same time, every parent knows when the pacifier has to go.  While pacifiers can be beneficial for very specific uses, there are also potential downsides.  In the category of Dependency Issues, the problem is the pacifier can be habit-forming; babies may become reliant on pacifiers for comfort, leading to nighttime awakenings if the pacifier falls out.  Not mention the health concerns:  nipple confusion: introducing a pacifier too early can interfere with breastfeeding, as babies may prefer the easier sucking of a pacifier over nursing and dental problems: prolonged use of pacifiers can affect dental development, particularly if used beyond the age of two.  There are studies to suggest that children who use pacifiers may have a higher incidence of ear infections compared to those who do not.  In conclusion, pacifiers can be a helpful tool for soothing infants, but parents should weigh the benefits against potential drawbacks. It's essential to use them wisely and consider weaning off before significant dental issues arise.

Apparently we are wiser about pacifiers that you stick in the mouth than the ones you place in hands before eyes.  Have our screens become pacifiers?  Have we learned to turn to then for comfort and soothing in our time of angst, uncertainty, and fear of personal interaction?  Screens both create problems and become the solution kids and adults reach for, forming what some researchers call a “vicious cycle.”  Using smartphones as ‘digital pacifiers’ or ‘dummies’ is an increasing phenomenon in our modern society, where smartphones serve as soothing tools, digital pacifiers, for toddlers, teens, and adult.  While the term ‘pacifier’ or ‘dummy’ traditionally refers to a rubber object designed to calm babies by satisfying their innate sucking reflex, the concept has evolved in the digital age to include handheld electronic devices, particularly those with smaller screens -- smartphones and tablets.  

We all know that kids are glued to their devices.  The allure of smartphones as digital pacifiers is obvious. This is the generation who never allows themselves to be bored – or is it because we don’t allow them to be bored?  With vibrant screens, engaging apps, and an endless array of entertainment options, smartphones possess an inherent ability to captivate young minds and momentarily alleviate distress or boredom. Whether it’s the engaging visuals, interactive stories, educational videos, or soothing music, these devices offer an abundance of stimuli we have used to effectively distract, calm, or entertain children of all ages and this is what we carry into adulthood.  It has become our default.

In some ways, our digital devices have become tools that we use in place of religion, perhaps even the reason why the nones are growing.  We turn to the things we can hold in our hands and control in place of the God who comes in means and whom we must trust because He is in control. 

Small need not mean dying. . .

Surely you cannot help but be struck by the number of voices in alarm over the declining size of the average non-Roman Catholic congregation.  The reality is that these are small, some of them graying, but not all of them declining.  In fact, some of them remain vital and alive despite the obvious pressures placed upon them for their lack of size.  They can be found in the typical areas of the Midwest where LCMS Lutheranism has been historically strong, in the remains of a once vital Lutheran presence in the coast lands and inner cities of our nation, and in the places where you would be surprised to find them -- in the Bible belt of the South.  I tip my hat to them.   

The reality is that numbers are important and we should not say they are not simply because they are often headed in a direction that either embarrasses us or confound us.  At the same time, however, we should not equate small with dying or dead.  Small is often simply the surface judgment imposed by numbers that stand either below the average or median of a church body or a group of them.  It is not in and of itself a description of their life together or their ministry.  I am an example of one who was formed by a small congregation that was never big even though it was often bigger than it is today.  I am not alone.  There were many pastors and teachers raised up by that small congregation over the years.  They were the fruit of God's own work which is never small -- even though the font may be its power is not.  And these church workers stand tall together with the husbands, wives, parents, and children who in their own vocation seek to live out as fully as possible the promise of God's own divine life imparted by water and the Spirit in this new birth of water and the Word.

Small may be the condition of the place -- there are plenty of places across America which are not growing or even staying the same size but declining in the overall numbers of people who live there.  That often describes the rural areas in which the resource of manual labor has been replaced by expensive mechanized agriculture.  They probably will not grow back to their glory days but that does not mean that the people there and the communities of faith that serve them are without mission or purpose or glory.  Wherever God is at work, there is His glory -- calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying His Church.  There are often closer to the two or three gathered in His name but He is there among them true to His promise and with His boundless gifts.  Small may be an accurate descriptor of everything except God's work among them in Word and Sacrament.  That is never small.

So today I laud those places which are small by numbers but not declining or dead.  God bless them and those whom they serve.  God bless the pastors who serve them, the volunteer musicians who serve them, the people who do the labor that larger congregations hire out to do.  God is not done with you yet unless you are already done with Him.  Trust remains the most valuable commodity for small congregations when the signs of earthly success are few.  God remains true and His work is without limit in growing His Church in the most surprising places and where number crunchers might have given up.  Small need not mean dying and dying congregations are often filled with plenty of people who have lost the hope into which they were planted until they trust in things more than in God's Word and promises.  So lift high the cross where you are and the work will not be finished until God says it it.  God bless you. 

God's voice is always musical. . .

One thing I learned from J. S. Bach is that God's voice is music, always musical.  The voice of God is not strictly words but the sound of music – complete with all its harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, form, etc...  It is a language that accompanies the words. I think it a rather modern idea that music exists as its own idiom and that it exists for the purpose of pleasure or the expression of emotion.  Bach taught me that the voice of God is music and this is the language of God.  His Word literally sings.  As a Lutheran Bach came by this naturally.  For us liturgy is simply sung Scripture –whether word for word as it appears in the book or paraphrased.

While for many of us or even most music is a soundtrack and not the screenplay, the success of it all is measured by the words and music that fuse together to become one.  It is surely that way for music in service to the Word.  It does not provide a sound but rather becomes something new when wedded to the Word of God.  The two become one.  It pulls you in and fills you with its peace and harmony.  How sad that it is now almost universally divorced from the context that gives it meaning and power, purpose and majesty. 

Though some reformers were hesitant about music, not Luther.  “First then, looking at music itself, you will find that from the beginning of the world it has been instilled and implanted in all creatures, individually and collectively.  For nothing is without sound or harmony.  Even the air, which of itself is invisible and imperceptible to all our senses, and which, since it lacks both voice and speech, is the least musical of all things, becomes sonorous, audible, and comprehensible when it is set in motion….Music is still more wonderful in living things, especially birds….And yet, compared to the human voice, all this hardly deserves the name of music, so abundant and incomprehensible is here the munificence and wisdom of our most gracious Creator.” in Luther’s Works, vol. 53, pp. 322. 

He commended music as the supreme gift of the divine -- second only to His Word.  “We can mention only one point (which experience confirms), namely, that next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise.  She is mistress and governess of those human emotions….which as masters govern men or more often overwhelm them….For whether you wish to comfort the sad, to terrify the happy, to encourage the despairing, to humble the proud, to calm the passionate, or to appease those full of hate….what more effective means than music could you find?” Ibid., 323. 

Again, in a 1530 letter, Luther wrote,“Except for theology, [music] alone produces what otherwise only theology can do, namely a calm and joyful disposition” (Robin A. Leaver, “Luther on Music.” Lutheran Quarterly, 2006).  Luther did not speak of music as the domain for the learned alone nor of something distant but as immediate and profound, for the commoner and peasant equal to the scholar.  From Bernard of Clairvaux to Thomas Aquinas plus those who went before (David and his harp) right down to the modern day, music is given by God from His own heart of congregational song.  Even more than giving a voice back to the congregation again, Luther sought to teach the whole counsel of Scripture through the music of the worship service. Luther said, “God has His gospel preached through music, too.”  He was fond of the rubric “say and sing”  -- not simply as God's directive to us but as God's practice for us, too.

It is God's medium to us in such way that the simple words become song and it is our medium to God in such way that our words become praise.  Can we say too much about it?   For the God who sings is the God we know in Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Henkel time again!!!

This year's Henkel Conference is scheduled for August 17-18, 2026.

Register through Eventbrite by clicking here.  You can be added to the conference email distribution list by sending a request to: henkel@ascensionmadison.com.

Those scheduled to present include:

•  Mollie Hemingway, Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist, Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College, Fox News contributor, and best-selling author
• Scott Yenor, Chair of the American Citizenship Initiative at The Heritage Foundation and Professor of Political Science at Boise State University
• Alex Newman, president of Liberty Sentinel Media
• Noelle Mering, Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in the Life and Family Initiative and columnist for the Catholic Herald
• Korey Maas, Chairman and Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College
• plus more TBA! 

Not a straight line downward trend. . .

A friend sent me some numbers regarding the enrollments at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne and Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Although we often think that there has been a long and gradual decline in the graduates presented for ordination, the reality is slightly different and it does not quite fit the scenarios offered by those who would like to make radical changes in the way Missouri forms pastors.  I thought it might be worth a look.

Taking Liberty University out of the mix (for what I would call obvious reasons), the whole of the schools covered by the Association of Theological Schools (the accrediting agency) shows that numbers for the total combined enrollment did, indeed, gradually decline year by year from 2016 through 2024.  

2016—29,282
2017—28,597
2018—28,597
2019—28,531
2020—28,183* Covid Year
2021—26,828
2022—25,437
2023—23,926
2024—23,812

That represents an 18%+ decline overall.  Now, if you did figure in Liberty when it acquired ATS accreditation in 2018, the numbers would be slightly different but typically American seminaries counted by ATS dropped steadily and rather evenly over the years.  For Missouri the situation is a little different.  Yes, there was some decline but not nearly as pronounced nor as predictable as the ATS numbers reveal.

Average enrollments for Ft. Wayne and St. Louis are rather steady.  A decline at Ft. Wayne of 8% and at St. Louis of a little over 15% and for the two together a little more than 12%.  This means that we are in a holding pattern more than a crash and burn scenario.  Those who wish to reshape how we train our pastors need to pay attention.

2016—    159            209
2017—    157            208
2018—    158            191
2019—    145            191
2020—    152            201
2021—    158            179
2022—    160            179
2023—    161            188
2024—    146            176       

We should not be consoled by these numbers nor should we slack in our efforts to recruit men for the pastoral ministry but neither should we presume that this decline is a continuous trajectory that signals a need for radical action.  If anything, it should give us a bit of breathing room to be deliberate and careful to make sure that we don't screw things up in an effort to fix something that may not be quite as urgently in need of repair as some presume. 

So I am suggesting that we not listen to the chicken littles who are predicting the demise of everything as we know it nor should we be complacent.  My radical thought is don't screw this up in the name of progress or urgency.  We are seeing good numbers with the Set Apart to Serve (for all church workers).  The recruitment task lies largely with pastors and congregations and not with programs or seminaries.  We identity and support men for the cause and the seminaries form them with help from a vicarage year and good, solid examples within their home congregations.  Is what we are doing perfect?  Of course not.  But it is not so bad it justifies wholesale change and that is my fear.  Those who advocate opening up the doors to a very different way we train and certify graduates are counting on fear ruling the day.  Lets make sure that we are not uninformed so that what we do will not have to be undone down the road -- when it may be too late.