Introduction

I've thought about making a blog like this a few times now over the past couple of months, and I've decided to go for it. This is where I will talk about my questions and insights about Lutheranism. I don't expect it to be a very active blog but I do like having a medium to express what's on my mind.

I am a Christian. That is what I identify myself as primarily. Although my history as a Christian is short, it's rather flavorful. In December of 2007 I converted from atheism to Christianity. I wasn't a militant atheist - I respected what others believed and supported their right to do so. The reason for my atheism was that I had not been given any reason to believe otherwise. It was a documentary on the History Channel about the supposed 2012 apocalypse (I can't make this up!) that pushed me to faith.

From there I spent four years in the Assemblies of God. During the latter part of those years I made friends who were Southern Baptist and during the third and fourth year I would attend the Wednesday night youth group at their church on and off. I went to two AG churches. I was at the first one for one year and the other for three. I didn't feel comfortable with their style of worship, and I also started disagreeing with the doctrines. Thus I sought out to find a new type of church.

Before switching churches I had a deep crisis of faith where I teetered on agnosticism. When I was introduced to apologetics by a pastor, my faith was rebuilt. Apologetics also became a passion of mine which remains to today.

In my desire to find a new church I wanted a denomination that was older. The Assemblies of God are vibrant but also young - early 1900s. I felt that an older denomination would be more connected doctrinally with the early Christian church. Because I disagree with the Catholic "faith plus works" theology as well as non-essential practices like asking the deceased to intercede for us, veneration of Mary, and elevation of tradition with the Bible, I didn't want to go to that kind of church. The next oldest was Lutheranism.

During my studies of Lutheranism I found that the denomination as a whole is split into a great many branches called synods. They could be classified broadly as being confessional, moderate, and evangelical. Confessional Lutherans are theologically conservative, while evangelicals are more theologically liberal. Being a theologically conservative person, I wanted a church type that would fit me.

What I found was the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS). It's one of the biggest synods in America and is confessional in nature. Long story short, I've come to really enjoy it and I hope to stick around in it for life. I still don't understand a lot of their beliefs, nor do I agree with all of it. I call this site The Lutheran Noob because that's what I am when it comes to Lutheran doctrine and style - a noob. But I'm willing to learn.