Geoffrey Kieta - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Geoffrey Kieta

Presented to the SE Conference of the Michigan District at Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church of L... more Presented to the SE Conference of the Michigan District at Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church of Livonia on September 23, 2013.

Delivered at the WELS/ELS Latin American Missionaries' Conference, July 1518, 1996, Boca Rato... more Delivered at the WELS/ELS Latin American Missionaries' Conference, July 1518, 1996, Boca Raton, Florida. The author serves as a missionary in Bogota, Colombia.

Presented to the Southwest Pastors Conference of the Michigan District on September 13, 2004.

Words matter. I firmly believe this. Every year, I torment my catechism class with lots of terms.... more Words matter. I firmly believe this. Every year, I torment my catechism class with lots of terms. Sometimes I try to soften the blow by calling them BSTW’s: Big Scary Theological Words. But I still make them learn what justification and sanctification and many other words mean. I talk to them about the word pictures behind conversion and regeneration and illumination. Words matter. But then I entitle my convention essay “Properly Called: The Role of the ‘Laity’ in the Public Administration of the Gospel” and I have to put the word laity in quotation marks because, as we shall see, there’s no such thing as a lay person in the public administration of the gospel. It’s a little like saying “the role of an unemployed person in the workforce.” It’s a contradiction in terms. But it’s hard to express the concept that I want to talk about in quick and easy language. Sometimes words fail us. The point is the proper place of the members of our congregations in speaking, preaching and teaching...

Presented to the Southeast Pastors' Conference of the Michigan District at Good Shepherd Evan... more Presented to the Southeast Pastors' Conference of the Michigan District at Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in Novi, Michigan on May 2-3, 2011.

The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of MIchigan, one of the antecedent bodies of the Wisconsin Evangel... more The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of MIchigan, one of the antecedent bodies of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, struggled for decades to supply pastors to congregations. This paper details the various efforts the synod to secure those pastors through mission houses in Germany and through American Lutheran bodies until the decision was made to found their own seminary in Saginaw, Michigan.

Some conversations are hard to have. Dysfunctional families often avoid difficult issues and hope... more Some conversations are hard to have. Dysfunctional families often avoid difficult issues and hope they go away. Of course, they just get bigger. Eventually the family has to confront them. By the time that happens, the problem may be impossible to solve. Even if it can be, there is a whole new crisis of hurt and loss of love to deal with. A synod (like a congregation) has many characteristics of a family. Some conversations are hard to have. In a sinful world every family has moments when it is more dysfunctional and avoids important conversations. The same could be said for even the most doctrinally sound church body. We have moments of dysfunction. We are in one of those moments now. We have a crisis looming before us. The financial realities of the twenty-first century are changing the dynamics of nearly everything that we want to do as a church body. We are making changes, sometimes in a piece-meal fashion, sometimes in a wholesale fashion, without having the open and theologica...

Presented to the Southwest Pastors Conference of the Michigan District on September 13, 2004.