Hey, I just noticed that the number of visits to this blog just went over 25,000, and that's since last September when I started it. So, thank you, readers, for frequenting this place of pastoral ponderings and other things!
Also, why don't you introduce yourselves, especially those of you who may normally "lurk." Please let me know who you are and where you're writing from! I know some of you (well, as far as "knowing" can happen in the blogosphere, I suppose), but I'd love to know who else is visiting and reading. So, don't be shy! :-)
I live in Houston, Tx and I am a life long LCMS member. My father is a retired Lutheran school teacher.
ReplyDeletePastor Jared Tucher
ReplyDeleteTrinity Lutheran, Gillette, WY (you're old stomping grounds)
http://revtucher.wordpress.com
I live in Evansville, Illinois (not Indiana) about an hour south by southeast of St. Louis. Pastor of a dual parish. (And I think one of my members told me she enjoys lurking on this site. Are you going to say "Hi", Glenna?)
ReplyDeleteI heard of you through Weedon. Saw you on the LSB intro DVD.
The little guy in my profile picture is 9 month old Timothy. He, his mommy and I met Pastor Asburry in person at the Purple Palace Protest. (Laura and I also have Emma, 5, and Jonathan, 3, but they stayed home with grandma that day.)
I'm Michael Paul, '96 csl MDiv grad, called first to Macau and Taiwan as evangelistic missionary, cut in 2002 (along with 20 some others), since then have been a full-time PhD student (Doctrinal Theology) at csl, though for the past 2 1/2 years have been living in Taiwan, next door to my wife's parents who are not yet Christian. I thank you for your commentary here, especially on issues like Issues.
ReplyDeleteI'm Allen...just a plain ol' layman in OKC. I came to your blog by way of Pr. Weedon's, I believe, especially after all the "Issues" we are having as a synod.
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you, Pr. Asburry, for your efforts (among many others) in this crazy time for our synod.
Susan R from Tupelo, MS.
ReplyDeleteAs the alarms rang back in March, I hopped so many links, I can't remember how I got here, but I've stayed not just for your commentary about Issues,Etc. but for your homilies, meditations, etc.
I know a faithful voice, even when reading it.
Thanks for boldly proclaiming.
You know me. :D
ReplyDeletewww.beallwashedup.blogspot.com
Hello from Plano, Texas! I'm a fairly recent convert to Lutheranism and I found your blog sometime around last Christmas. Thanks for a terrific blog.
ReplyDeletePastor Thomas Fast.
ReplyDeleteI serve St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fairmont, MN. I am thankful to know Pr. Asburry as a friend and very much enjoy reading his excellent blog.
Hi! I enjoy reading your blog as well! Thanks for the thoughtful posts.
ReplyDeleteCarla (wife of Tom Fast)
Hi, from a Chicago area cabinetmaker. I met you 15 or so years ago through Pastor Wilken. I found your blog after the sad events of Holy Tuesday and have enjoyed your posts ever since.
ReplyDeletePeace be with you,
Ross
Hi;
ReplyDeleteI'm from Michigan and found your website through Pastor's Weedon and Stuckwisch.. enjoy your posts and am very thankful for your commitment to being a faithful shepherd of God's sheep.
Blessings
Karen
Long time confessional Lutheran and LCMS.
ReplyDeleteNew member of Hope
1 Grandfather was a Lutheran pastor.
2 Uncles are Lutheran pastors.
Enjoy your Blog very much.
Thank you for taking "the point" and leading
the way.
Greetings from Winnipeg MB like many here I found your blog when Issues Etc. became an issue. I thought it was the best radio show ever. I am a life-long lutheran LC-MS and now LCC in Canada. I enjoy reading the many interesting and inspiring stories and quotes from lutherans, I sincerely hope that all will go well and we can keep our LC-MS/LCC a strong historial church. My grandfather was a lutheran minister in Saskatchwan, he served several small congregations.
ReplyDeleteHi,Pastor I am relatively new to the computer world but you know me. I am Donna O'Neal one of your members at Hope. I really enjoy your blog. I thank God for your faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel of Christ.
ReplyDeleteGood evening Pastor. Brad from North Fond du Lac, WI. I came across your blog as a result of the "Issues, Etc." situation. Enjoy reading your blog and a number of other confessional blogs as it helps me gain a greater understanding of being a true Lutheran. I've added a link to you on my own blog, Try2Focus.
ReplyDeleteMark Young (and famiy) from Austin, TX (we just moved from Seattle, WA). Also recently discovered your blog and other excellent Lutheran blogs as a result of the Issues, Etc issue. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDelete-Mark
My family attended a Lutheran Church (LCMS) for a couple of years. (I remember the pastor praying for peace during the Cuban Missle Crisis.)
ReplyDeleteI attended an LCMS church 1 or 2 times after I graduated from college.
Other than that, I am completely innocent of any accusations of being a Lutheran. (My French is much better than my German!)
I discovered Issues, ETC thanks to the link from White Horse Inn and Rod Rosenblatt.
There's no other radio show comparable to Issues.
I found myself longing for a church home which was seriously confessional and which had a gospel-focused liturgy.
Let's just say that I'm a reformed whale beached in a pop-evangelical swamp who was inching towards Wittenberg until the bureaucracy in the purple palace showed the "true colors" of a significant and powerful subset of LCMS.
I remember Francis Schaeffer mention during the summer of 1970 that he was going to address the LCMS on the importance of inerrancy.
I thought that your synod got itself straightened out 30 years ago. But without constant vigilance we'll all fall back into our natural law-based religion.
(Thank you Rev. Wilken for bringing to me the categories "Law/Gospel", "Christ-Centered, Cross-focused", "left hand kingdom/ right hand kingdom".)
But if the "powers that be" are intent upon growing pop-evangelical megachurches, why not just go to a real megachurch? Lutherans are toooo boring. (Reminds me of an evangelical conference I went to a couple of months ago. The "praise band" with grey ponytails appeared to have a median age of about 58. If D.A. Carson hadn't been speaking, I wouldn't have stayed around.)
I'll probably stay on this side of Geneva. At least until you guys get things sorted out.
I came to your blog in the aftermath of the Holy Tuesday Massacre. Best wishes!
BTW, Gene Veith's blog link is now http://www.geneveith.com/
I came across your blog when grazing through all the IE information - and referred other IE-deprived friends to it. I still desperately miss IE on my drive home from work every day. I appreciate what you and all faithful pastors are doing for our Lord and His church.
ReplyDeleteTerry Maher from Omaha. Came from Weedon's Blog. Grew up pre-conciliar RC, bailed after Vatican II (think Seminex with roid rage), hung around Orthodox Judaism for 20 some years, married an LCMS bailer after Seminex, professed the Lutheran faith in WELS in 1996, served as an elder (there's the past elder thing), joined LCMS in 2006.
ReplyDeleteDedicated to the proposition that Vatican II For Lutherans is just as much "contemporary worship" as Saddleback or Willow Creek For Lutherans, and equally a turning from confessional Lutheranism.
Thank you, one and all, for your kind comments and for "introducing" yourselves! I am humbled and honored to have you reading and following my blog, especially from so many "far off" places ;-), and I greatly appreciate your attention to God's message of mercy in Christ Jesus given here.
ReplyDeleteThanks also for the links to other blogs. I'll be sure to check them out.
For those of you you haven't yet done so, please keep the introductions coming!
Bob Myers thanking you from Milton, in the Florida panhandle.
ReplyDeleteNew to the blogging community since Holy Tuesday. I am thankful for your blog as well as those of Pastor Weedon and Pastor Cwirla. (I also check in on those blogs to which you all link!)
Thank you all for increasing our exposure to the rich history of the church and for speaking Christ crucified for us!
I'm Michelle from Kansas. I had not really read many blogs until Issues was cancelled. In my search for answers I stumbled across your blog and now have it in my "Lutheran Page" bookmark folder. I'm a lifelong Lutheran. My grandfather was a pastor. I finally found a confessional Lutheran church home 6 1/2 years ago. My husband and I have 3 girls. We are both music teachers, but I stay at home and homeschool our girls.
ReplyDeleteShawn and Wendy Nettleton
ReplyDeleteFormer STL fieldwork sem student
Hi Pastor, I'm Frank Gillespie from Raleigh, NC. Like many folks, I had you in my blogroll but you weren't a daily read until the whole Issues, Etc. thingy came up. Now that I know you're here, you are a daily read.
ReplyDeleteWell, Pastor, I'm a fairly new reader of the site and I live just down the street. So, you know me but probably not as well as you know my wife and kids. I enjoy reading what you have to say, just as I find value listening to your homilies on the occasional Sunday mornings I am in attendance.
ReplyDeleteMike
Welcome aboard, Mike! (Just down the street, eh? :-)
ReplyDeleteHey there. You know me too and my water gun :-) Glad you got a lot of responses. And just why is my website not one of your favorite links hmmmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteTiggerr,
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you (just down the street!). As for the website thing: probably because I just put a few sites in when I started the blog a few months ago, and I've just never updated the list. Nothing personal, I promise. :-)