Last week, the pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod met in Bloomington, Minnesota, (near Minneapolis) for its annual General Pastoral Conference for continuing education, worship, synodical news updates and to discuss our teachings. The theme of the devotions was “Meditations on Election”, and all of the readings and hymn selections highlighted the that wondrous, mysterious and yet truly comforting doctrine: That God is about bringing to pass the heavenward journey His elect. The President highlighted the progress of our home mission starts and the Military Monument Committee and presented the response of the Circuit Visitors to the memorial that was sent to last year’s Convention regarding the proper practice of closed communion in our congregations. On the first evening of the Conference, a communion service was held at Heritage Evangelical Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Five essays were presented: “Pastoral Care for the Demon-Possessed” by the Rev. Karl Anderson, “Centennial of the Austin Agreement” by Pres. John Moldstad, Jr., “Freedom and Its Implications” by the Rev. Timothy Bartels, “From De Servo Arbitrio to Opgjør” by Prof. Erling Teigen and “How to Teach Our Members Regarding Variant Readings in Scripture” by the Rev. Matthew Moldstad. [Editor’s Note: We hope to post these essays in their entirety soon.] Various difficult pastoral cases were also discussed.
