This is one of Pastor Fisk's better, more understandable posts. Thanks! (and a sobering reminder of some facts that we don't always at the top of our minds.) I don't quite understand why he left the pastorate (I'm assuming he did or he wouldn't be asking for money to help ends meet).
I remain a communicant in good standing at an LCMS congregation.
I have not recanted my vows and I remain ordained.
I was not removed. I have walked away.
I am not seeking a call as a job. I remain called by the Gospel, enlightened with His gifts, and “woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel,” as Paul says.
I am excited to see where this new freedom takes my walk toward Zion.
I have not been public with further details than these because it involves private matters involving multiple people who are not me.
Turning the other cheek is neither pretty nor profitable.
So yes: I walked away from my c pension and then some. My new line of work in sales has potential to become a true vocation and I may not have to retire in poverty. But at the moment the ends are quite tight, there a no plan but provenance, and, to be frank, I’m in a great deal of pain.
So … those of you who throw me your loose change make a real difference in my monthly bottom line, which, so far as I’m concerned, remains not only about me but about my five children and wife.
Reminder: The moment we start living for others instead of ourselves is when the true growth can begin. On this side of heaven we're simply strangers, sojourners, and servants. (See Leviticus 25:23, 55). Christ alone builds the church, through various vocations we are fulfilling here in time.
Reprobation? Why is it so forgotten now? Seems like the word "usury." An important word by definition by its importance has certainly gone by the wayside. Many members of U.S. Congress probably are reprobates, and aren't almost all credit card companies practicing usury these days. For the federal government, the only important issue is debt, and, yet it is the one issue that always gets pushed on to the next generation. There is no way the debt is sustainable, but we keep spending away.
This is one of Pastor Fisk's better, more understandable posts. Thanks! (and a sobering reminder of some facts that we don't always at the top of our minds.) I don't quite understand why he left the pastorate (I'm assuming he did or he wouldn't be asking for money to help ends meet).
For clarity:
I am no longer rostered with the LCMS.
But.
I remain a communicant in good standing at an LCMS congregation.
I have not recanted my vows and I remain ordained.
I was not removed. I have walked away.
I am not seeking a call as a job. I remain called by the Gospel, enlightened with His gifts, and “woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel,” as Paul says.
I am excited to see where this new freedom takes my walk toward Zion.
I have not been public with further details than these because it involves private matters involving multiple people who are not me.
Turning the other cheek is neither pretty nor profitable.
So yes: I walked away from my c pension and then some. My new line of work in sales has potential to become a true vocation and I may not have to retire in poverty. But at the moment the ends are quite tight, there a no plan but provenance, and, to be frank, I’m in a great deal of pain.
So … those of you who throw me your loose change make a real difference in my monthly bottom line, which, so far as I’m concerned, remains not only about me but about my five children and wife.
Thank you for reading!
Reminder: The moment we start living for others instead of ourselves is when the true growth can begin. On this side of heaven we're simply strangers, sojourners, and servants. (See Leviticus 25:23, 55). Christ alone builds the church, through various vocations we are fulfilling here in time.
Very interesting read. Are the images from an AI Zelda game from 1993 Nintendo? and why go with those select five characters?
Jonah, Caleb, Ezra, Jude, Andrew?
Why not Enoch, Stephen, Elisha, Noah and Peter?
or Gideon, Samuel, Elijah, Philip and Nathanael?
Reprobation? Why is it so forgotten now? Seems like the word "usury." An important word by definition by its importance has certainly gone by the wayside. Many members of U.S. Congress probably are reprobates, and aren't almost all credit card companies practicing usury these days. For the federal government, the only important issue is debt, and, yet it is the one issue that always gets pushed on to the next generation. There is no way the debt is sustainable, but we keep spending away.
🤷