The Gottesdienst Crowd

TGC 607 – Thinking Out Loud (Trinity 6)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 5:17–26.

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TGC 606 – What's in Today's Business?

Rev. Jason Braaten sits down with attorney and longtime LCMS delegate Mark Stern to walk through the first edition of Today's Business ahead of the upcoming Synod Convention. Stern explains how overtures become resolutions, how floor committees work, and what delegates and laypeople can do right now to weigh in. He highlights key resolutions on worship (including the proposed Commission on Worship), public reading of Scripture, the Specific Ministry Pastor program, partner church concerns (SELC and AALC), assisted suicide, and more. A practical, informed guide for anyone wanting to understand what's at stake in Phoenix.

Links:

• Today's Business
• Convention Workbook

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TGC 605 – Thinking Out Loud (Trinity 5)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Luke 5:1–11.

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TGC 604 – 1 Peter and Baptism, Part 2

Pastor Paul Schultz (filling in for Braaten) continues a two-part conversation with Pastor Joe Meunch on the baptismal theology of 1 Peter, this time working through Luther's catechism questions on baptism as a framework for the epistle. They trace how Peter's language of salvation, sonship, and the gift of the Holy Spirit echoes the Exodus pattern explored in part one, and dig into the notoriously difficult baptism passage in 1 Peter 3:21, weighing how Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz understood the "answer of a good conscience toward God" as the faith that clings to God's promise rather than any work performed in the rite. Along the way they consider the flood narrative as a type of baptism, the destructive and saving dimensions of water, and what it means for the baptized to be marked off from the world and tested through suffering, much as Israel was tested in the wilderness and Christ in his own baptism and temptation. A rich resource for preachers working through baptismal texts or the Easter-season lectionary readings from 1 Peter.

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TGC 603 – Thinking Out Loud (Trinity 4)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Luke 6:36–42.

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TGC 602 – CTCR Report Review: The Proper Administration of the Lord's Supper

Rev. Jason Braaten welcomes back Rev. John Bussman to work through the CTCR's December 2025 report, "The Proper Administration of the Lord's Supper: Applying Scripture and the Confessions to Contemporary Issues." Prompted by 2023 Synod Convention resolutions, the report addresses three practices that have crept into LCMS congregations: substituting grape juice for wine, using prepackaged communion elements, and substituting non-wheat bread for those with gluten intolerance. Braaten and Bussman walk through each section, weighing the report's appeal to the words of institution and the Lutheran Confessions against its reluctance to flatly call these practices illegitimate. They discuss why clarity—not nuance—serves the truth, how exceptions tend to become rules, and what faithful, pastoral care looks like when a congregation's practice doesn't match Christ's institution. A frank conversation for pastors who want to know not just what the document says, but where it falls short.

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TGC 601 – Thinking Out Loud (Trinity 3)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday after Trinity, Luke 15:1–10.

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TGC 600 – Honing the Craft of Preaching

Pastor Paul Schultz sits down with Pastor Zelwyn Heide of the North Dakota District to talk about one of the most neglected aspects of pastoral formation — the craft of preaching. The conversation moves from the theoretical to the practical: why content alone isn't enough, how persuasion is inseparable from faithful proclamation, an where to find the best resources outside LCMS circles for sharpening that craft. Heide walks through several key works, including John Broadus's classic Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, Hugh Oliphant Old's seven-volume history of preaching, and examples drawn from Chrysostom, the English Puritans, and others — all in service of helping Lutheran pastors preach with greater clarity, depth, and effect. The goal isn't imitation but formation: learning from the best so you can preach with your own voice, to your own people, in your own context.

 

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TGC 599 – Thinking Out Loud (Trinity 2)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday after Trinity, Luke 14:15–24.

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TGC 598 – 1 Peter and Baptism, Part 1

Pastor Paul Schultz sits down with Pastor Joseph Muench of Trinity Lutheran Church in Nokomis, Illinois to dig into the baptismal and Exodus theology running through 1 Peter. Before working through the text itself, they lay out two foundational hermeneutical commitments: the Old Testament is the primary background for New Testament language and imagery, and the word and sacrament life of the church is the native context in which documents like 1 Peter were written and heard. With those in place, they begin to show why a Lutheran reading of 1 Peter sees baptism not as an occasional reference but as the lens through which Peter addresses his readers throughout. Part one of two.

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