Bloghardt's Reflector

An Open Letter to Christian Parents

2010-08-17T03:01:45-04:00

In the name of Jesus. Amen. Dear Parents, I know you love your children. I can see by the clothes they wear, the iPods and phones they have, and how much time you give to them. They go from school to band to football to soccer. You take them everywhere and give them everything they need. Sometimes it seems that you have given up your lives for them, doesn't it?

Christ. He literally gave up his life for you, me, our children, for all. He died for our sins and was raised so that we would stand before God, forever forgiven. That is the Christian Faith into which you and your children were baptized.

Holy Baptism. You were baptized into the faith of Jesus. Your whole life was washed, made clean, and forgiven by the Blood of Christ. Your children too.

Yet studies show that these days more young people are falling out of the faith than ever before. Only fifty percent of adults who attended church weekly as a child still attend church weekly as an adult. Only thirty-five percent of adults are currently attending church weekly who attended church two to three times a month as children.

It’s more telling when you consider teenagers: of those teenagers who attended church weekly as teenagers, only fifty-eight percent attend church weekly as adults. And if they attended church less than two to three times a month? The number of weekly attendance for those teenagers when they become adults drops to a staggering thirty percent.

The answer isn’t simply take them every week to church. It isn’t even to take them to Sunday School, Weekday School, Youth Group, and Bible Class. You already know that you should be doing these things!

I'm asking - I'm pleading with you - to take the time to teach your children this Faith. Pray with them. Read the Word with them. Sing hymns with them. Practice their Confirmation memory work with them. Discuss with what you believe and why Jesus is your Savior.

Receive Jesus in the Word at church, washed down your forehead in baptism, and put into your mouth at His Supper. Receive Him for their salvation too - modeling the Faith to them, living it out right there with them.

When they sin, forgive them in Christ. When you sin, ask them to forgive you in Christ. Live your lives as the baptized - forgiven, washed, made holy by Jesus.

I know you love your children, dear Parents. I can see you do. I'm writing to remind you to love them in Christ. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Sola 2009: "We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God"

2009-07-13T02:48:58-04:00

This is Higher Things. This is SOLA. 800+ Lutheran youth singing praise to the Lord who saved them. This is what it looks like to look down on heaven.

(That's Chris Loemker, HT's organist and choir director, who has like six hands. Props to Lynea for getting this recorded. Way to go!)

Never Alone at Sola San Antonio.....

2009-07-11T17:06:46-04:00

Family. Higher Things is a family. A family of youth, parents, grandparents, pastors, deaconesses, youth leaders, and congregations daring the young people around them to be Lutheran. As Pastor Cwirla says, "I dare you, dare you, double dare you, to be Lutheran!"

I volunteer my free time as the Conference Executive of Higher Things. I oversee a staff of volunteers who work tirelessly all year for a youth conference. Some things are more important than being paid what you are worth. We get everything ready, check the beds, make sure the meals are prepared, set the crucifixes in the “chapel,” and wait...

Then, it happens. The Lord gathers youth together from all over the United States. They arrive tired and excited. They’ve worked all year, too. They’ve had fundraisers, lockins, studied, prayed, and washed cars. All for the opportunity to go somewhere they’ve never been to hear about how they are saved by Christ alone, by grace alone, received by faith alone, solely from Scripture alone.

When we get together, the conference resumes. It’s like it never stopped! Opening vespers, catechesis, more catechesis, supper, evening prayer, free time, compline, then sleep. From the opening vespers to the closing Divine Service in one place to opening vespers in another. The Lord takes His words and impacts the lives of young people. And we, even old people like me, hear the Gospel - sung by young people - and we are changed.

The last few days, the conference resumed in San Antonio. Man, was it hot! But, thankfully, it ended with a cool front. The high temperature on Friday was 98 degrees! Woohoo!

Some memories that I will take from the conference...

“Never have I have had to look so far down to see heaven as I did during the Te Deum,” Rev. Brad Drew. Pastor Drew’s comment was referring to the Te Deum sung at Matins on Wednesday. It was unbelievable!

“Te Deum laudamus, te Dominum confitemur.” As Pastor Weedon was teaching in his plenary, he broke into a hymn of praise to Christ - only in Latin. Amazing!

“Faith is receiving,” Pastor Bruce Keseman’s plenary. He engaged the youth with the Gospel as they learned about sola gratia, sola fide, and sola Scriptura. Man, he’s tall. Funny too. But most importantly, He delivered Jesus to us!

“O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High...” as a few groups from Colorado and Texas were sitting around after Compline outside, suddenly a hymn broke out! We were all scrambling for our worship books to sing before we ran out of stanzas that we had memorized! Only at HT!

“Guard us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping...” The sound of Compline bouncing off the walls of the gym as the College Student Volunteers who had worked all week prayed with Pastor Dan Burhop.

Line Dancing! Texas youth taught youth from around the country how to line dance! It broke out in the karaoke room. We didn’t plan that (how could we?)! That’s called Texas youth being Texas youth!

Speaking of Texas youth, it was good seeing Faith Lutheran Church in Plano, TX. When you see a church every year, it makes the conference like a family reunion!

"Twilight" and "Arguing with Atheists." Ms. Sandra Ostapowich and Pastor Cwirla’s in-depths were over filled as they engaged topics that were of interest to young people. How does Edward treats Bella? Is there something off about it? Is it right? How do you discuss the Gospel and Christ with those who don’t believe? How do you protect yourself from losing your faith in college? WOW!

“It’s like things, only Higher,” was written on the shirts of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM. That sums it up, doesn’t it? The shirts were beautiful! Can you beat purple and gold? For some reason, they were my favorite shirts at the conference!

But... because we are all family in HT, I have a personal favorite moment from Sola San Antonio. It’s kinda selfish. So, bear with me. Seven years ago, I had to fly home on July 9 during the Duluth conference because of the premature birth of my daughter, Sophia.

Unknown to me, Pastor Cwirla knew that Sophia was turning seven on Thursday. My family had come up to the conference to see what Dad did with his free time. Before the plenary, the whole conference sang happy birthday to my Sophia.

Now Sophia was up on the third floor and didn’t catch what was going on at first. Then, when she was told they were singing for her, she waved and clapped. Seven’s a good number, not bad for someone who wasn’t supposed to see one. What better way to celebrating than singing with eight hundred youth? That’s something to smile at - and Sophia’s got a smile that can light up the universe.

That’s the sort of thing you do with family. You worship Jesus together. You rejoice in the gifts of Jesus in the Word together. You play together.

We’ll see our new family members from San Antonio at Given. But first, in a few days, the HT family will resuming its conferences in Grand Rapids.

Until then.... "I dare you, dare you, double dare you, to be Lutheran!" In the name of Jesus. Amen.

You knew...

2008-07-29T03:31:13-04:00

That HT conferences are run by Diet Coke... but a close second to Diet Coke is...

Two Thumbs Up for HT!

2008-07-24T02:39:44-04:00

Have you prayed for this man?

2008-03-26T16:27:49-04:00

My catechism instructor, whom the Lord used to saved me from the hell, once told me that every pastor has the danger of being carried into a “cause.” The cause may be just or honorable, but if it is too much the focus, it can take your eyes of Jesus Crucified for you.

No causes - not for those who would preach Christ crucified. We are given to direct people back to Jesus. Eyes on Him and what He did for us. He died on Good Friday. He rose again on Easter for us. He lives that you may never die.

“Be angry, but do not sin,” (Eph 4:26). When you are all revved up about things, it's easy to go too far! It's easy to get angry and in that anger sin. The devil does it to us all the time. We become right and wrong at the same time. Right in our fight, wrong in how we fight. All eyes on Jesus, even when you tussle!

The last thing that you want to do in the midst of all your anger is to sin against our Synodical President! Lord, forgive us for such things and preserve us from the temptations of the evil one!

So, to avoid such things.. pray all the more! Pastor Cwirla touched on this on the Underground Blogosphere. So, it's best that I just give a suggestion on what to pray.

And if you are evil like me, you might be a bit afraid that there might be too much of yourself in your prayers. So, when in doubt, open your hymnal and pray!

Nothing fancy, just a few words. Not your own, the Lord's words.

From Evening Prayer... (LSB pg 250)

Pastor “For President Kieschnick, for all pastors in Christ, for all servants of the Church, and for all the people, let us pray to the Lord.”

People “Lord, have mercy!”

St. Mark at FOR YOU Asheville

2007-08-08T13:39:02-04:00

My kids on the steps of Pritchell Hall at Ridgecrest....

What's Pastor Lofthus doing there?

Eight Myths about Confirmation

2006-01-22T02:17:10-05:00

Eight Myths about Confirmation

Here are eight false thoughts or statements that I've heard in my short time as a pastor. There are tons more. These are the ones

1. "I have a right to be confirmed." - Confirmation is a church rite, not a right given to all kids when they reach a certain age. Being taught everything our Lord mandated is not easy, it's very difficult. It takes study. It takes commitment. It even takes memorization. They are given to hear the Gospel.

2. "Confirmands today can't memorize." - Yeah, they do. They can. They just don't want to. They memorize passwords, the lyrics to their favorite songs, facts for school, and even phone numbers. The question is not, "Can youth memorize?" but, "Will they?"

3. "The material is boring" - My youth never cease to amaze me. This year, I decided to cut them some slack on their memory work. They work so hard and they were getting behind. So, trying to be a good guy (which is my sinful flesh), I decreased some of their work. Initially they rejoiced, then they showed up the next week having memorized more than I asked them to do, AND excitedly asked for the next section early.

Imagine that! They love to hear and read and memorize more and more about what Jesus did for them on the Cross and delivers to them in the Lord's Supper. Faith desires more and more gifts.

4. "Don't overload the kids, just give them the basics." - The way of faith is the way of wanting always more. There is never enough, never a limit, never a point in which the confirmands should sit back and say, "That's it, I've now learned all I need to know."

The more their pastors put into them, the more they learn. It's a crazy idea, but it's true. As pastors we are mandated to teach everything that the Lord has commanded. Why not do that while we have time?

5. "We should confirm kids who aren't coming to church because they might start again afterwards." - If they aren't coming to church now, they won't come to church after confirmation. Part of confirmation is learning about the Third Commandment.

6. "We must confirm at <insert age here>" - If Dr. Luther can speak with great certainty about how seven-year olds can know what the Church is, why not confirm earlier? If the Lord's Supper truly does deliver eternal life and salvation to our kids, why do we wait so long to deliver it to them?

7. "Parental participation is optional." - Oh no, no, no. Confirmation is not like having your oil changed, where you just drop off your car and let the mechanics do the work. Parents cannot simply drop their kids off to church and expect Pastor to do everything. It is given to each parent to teach their kids the faith. Parent participation is required.

Last class, one of my kids showed up sick. His mom caught me before class and explained his attendance this way, "He was feeling sick, Pastor, but I told him to pop a few Tums and buck up and go – this is confirmation." What a confession! In confirmation the Faith is taught to her son. She didn't want her son missing anything.

8. "No visitors in confirmation classes." - Why? I let my high school sit in class and listen. Why should confirmation stop with confirmation? Why not more give us more! Parents can come too!

Youth Ministry 101: The Lock-In

2005-09-19T05:06:02-04:00

Friday night at St. Mark, we had a lock-in. It seems like we always are having a lock-in. All we need is an excuse! It's a three day weekend, time for a lock-in! Visitor from out of town, it's time for a lock-in! College kids come home, lock-in! Seniors graduate, lock-in! We are about to go to a Higher Things conference, let's lock-in!

One day, I honestly expect my youth group president to come up to me and say, "its Friday, Pastor, it's time for a lock-in."

As a pastor, I love lock-ins. If the kids want to gather around the Lord's gifts at Church, I'm not gonna stop them! You see, lock-ins are more than just a time to gather kids for a "sleep over." Lock-ins are a time to gather around our Lord's gifts!

Pastor Zill often says, "Pizza is great, but it's not the Gospel." That's true. Lock-ins are great, but they aren't the Gospel too. But, they can be filled with the Gospel! So, at St. Mark, our lock-ins are filled with worship, our Lord's words, and then fun.

Worship: How could we possibly spend all night at the church and NOT hear our Lord's words and promises and then sing? Our Lord gathers us around His gifts for Vespers and Compline. We'd do Matins too, but we seem to all be asleep at 5 AM. Here's the bulletin from Friday night's lock-in.

Confession and Absolution: After Vespers, Confession and Absolution is offered. When I first offered this at St. Mark, I thought for sure that no one would come. Boy, was I wrong! Uber-Lutheran teenagers have sins that trouble them and they dump them where the Lord has given them to be dumped - in Confession and Absolution.

Bible Study: Faith desires always more. I thought that my kids were being worn out by Vespers and Compline. Again, I had to repent. This last lock-in, THEY ASKED FOR A BIBLE STUDY! Why not? We were at church for twelve hours, how could we not spend some time studying our Lord's words?

Fun and Food: Pizza, movies, midnight football, hide and go seek in the church, you name it, and they do it. Well, better, they name it and they do it. It's their fun time, not mine.

When our Lord gives us to worship, we worship. When He puts His words in our ears, we study. When He gives us time to play, boy do we play.