Speaking Up: Be Heard in the Din – Pamela Nielsen

Transcript (edited for readability).

It's a delight to be here. Although, I'll just be up front and honest — I am a little rattled by the short notice, and standing in for my tall friend Adriane, who speaks these days a lot more publicly than I do. We're trying to compensate for tallness — I'm standing on a couple of tables here. And I feel like I need a good bottle of wine and some music, but, um, maybe later.

The charge to Adriane, and now to me, was to give you some practical, hands-on help from a Lutheran perspective about communicating on these difficult issues in the world today. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what we do as a department, LCMS Communications, and I'm also going to talk about what you can do as an individual — maybe as a pastor, as a mom, as a neighbor.

And I first want to think about this whole onslaught. If you're like me, you woke up one day and the world was suddenly very different. Adriane and I have worked together about four years in the synod's communications department, and when I first came on, she was there a year before me. We were dealing with, you know, worship resources, disaster stuff, brochures about ministry. We put a lot of thought into that, but we were communicating largely to a friendly audience who just wanted more resources. And then things started happening.

And I kind of liken it to a lobster pot. How many of you have been to New England, to Maine, this time of year — or maybe in another month is about the best time to go for lobster? You know how they cook lobsters. They put them in a pot, a little bit of steam. They're alive. And that water gets hotter, that steam rises, they change color — they don't know what's happening. And that's kind of how we felt. Have you felt that way about all of this stuff that's coming? Whoa, we weren't ready for it.

We've spent a lot of time in the church talking about all kinds of things. I grew up LCMS. I don't remember a lot of Bible classes, or sermons, or courses at Concordia River Forest, or even at the seminary when I worked on my master's, that dealt with these issues of religious freedom, sexual sin, marriage. And as we were all working on other topics, you know, our kids were experimenting with the hookup culture. Our college kids were graduating and sliding into cohabitation. And in growing numbers, families were breaking apart in divorce. And then all of this onslaught in the world. So maybe we're a little behind, but we are not without hope.

This conference has been incredible. I signed up — I didn't come here to speak, I signed up because I came to learn. And I've learned a lot. And I think we've gotten great tools, great ideas for ways we can talk about these things. But there are still some practical things that we need.

When we work in LCMS Communications, there's about twenty-five or twenty-six of us — I've kind of lost count. We've got some people coming and going, and we're going to soon be adding a social media coordinator, somebody whose whole focus, their whole job, is to communicate on behalf of the synod through every wise use of social media. And that's really exciting, particularly as we look to reach these millennials that we've done so much talking about.

But when Adriane and I work together, we are kind of like Mary and Martha, and that's by choice, maybe a little bit by our personalities. Adriane is the Mary — she likes to read, dig in deep, she likes to write, she's good at that, that makes her very happy. I am the Martha — running around, making sure everything is all right, organizing, getting people to do their thing. And that works. We use our gifts. That works throughout our department. We have video people, we have good writers, we have good editors, we have graphic designers, and they work well in their vocations and callings so that you get the things that you get — The Lutheran Witness, The Reporter, Lutherans Engage the World. And I think that's what you can do too. You have your own unique vocations.

Maybe you're a pastor at a small rural church, maybe you're in a suburb, on a campus, maybe you're a father, a mother, a neighbor. God's put you somewhere, and he's put people in your life. You don't have to take on Congress, like President Harrison — that's part of his vocation, thank goodness. You don't have to speak on issues, et cetera — there's a whole line of people who do that well; some of those people are you, of course. But in your daily walk, that God has placed you in, the people that cross your path, he's giving you opportunities.

We heard from Sherif so beautifully. After I heard his second presentation, I really thought, I don't need to say anything — he kind of went through what's important. But there's a few things to add. I want to emphasize again what he has said, what Dr. Kleinig has said: know your audience. Know the people you're talking to.

And I'm reminded here of Nicodemus. Now, he went to find Jesus, but when did he go to find Jesus? At night. He didn't want to be seen talking to Jesus. Some of these people who most need to hear this, and maybe deep down want to hear what Jesus has to say about their sins, their life, their questions — they're not going to come into your church. They're not going to want to sit with you at Starbucks if you're obviously looking like the church. Some people will be glad for that, but I think we have to go to where people are and be willing to meet them where they are, and talk to them where it's safe for them — especially at first, as you get to know them, and as you grow a relationship, a friendship with them. That's so important.

We also have to channel a little of St. Paul, I think — Acts 17. Remember the scene? He's in the midst of the Areopagus, and he says: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man." And, of course, he goes on. He went to where they were. He noted what was important to them. He took that, made that comment, connected it to what he knew, and brought them to Jesus. We've been talking about that for two days now — so important, knowing your audience.

If you're Facebook friends with me, you've probably noticed that I have a diversity of friends. And I have one friend who has been a challenge for me since the first year I was a deaconess. I was sent to a little church in suburban Chicago to be the youth person, and I had an eager bunch of young people. And really, you know, when you're just out of college, you're not much older than the youth group you're called to take care of. So there were these kids, and one that really latched onto me, a young gal named Becky. Becky had an interesting life — her parents were divorced, she always has had a chip on her shoulder. She went to college, decided Catholicism was more right for her, and since then has kind of given up on the whole religious thing, and has become quite a liberal mind, embracing really all the Kool-Aid of the day, drinking it deeply. And full of rage.

So you sometimes see her ranting and raging on my Facebook, and the old Eve in me, the old Adam, I want a zinger, I want a pouncer. And sometimes some of my friends do it too, or my kids, and I'm like, oh… Let's love Becky. That was in 1985 that I first met Becky, and we've been dialoguing — it's a long time. She's not there yet. And I try to answer her with truth and love, I try to be patient. There are times I want to punch her in the face, I want to shake her. She's a mom, she teaches girls in a Catholic school, and she's full of all of this. I pray for her. Patience, forgiveness. I've had to apologize to her for saying what I shouldn't have said, or the tone that I took with her. We've got to be willing to do that — to apologize, to think back on how we interact with people.

Family members — how many of you have a family member who's wrestling with these issues? How many of them are wrestling — it's a real personal wrestle, not just them singing the song of the day. That's tough. I have a daughter who's cohabitating. I don't know how to talk to her. I've yelled at her. I've shamed her. I repent of that. Hasn't worked. I've zinged her — that hasn't worked, of course. I love her. I spend time with her, and I pray for the window to talk to her.

I was really helped, Dr. Kleinig, a couple weeks ago, talked about the three-legged stool of marriage, and that book, I Married You — that's here for sale. I think it's a real gem in talking with someone about this. It's now a book I'm going to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. God goes with you, he goes with me, when you face your children, your brother, whoever it is — and it's terrifying, you don't want to get it wrong. And for me, this has been going on for almost ten years. That's scary. I want to fix it now. In God's time, in God's time. We live in a world that it's all about hurry up, you know, win the argument, conquer, conquer the day, seize the day, take prisoners, maybe take no prisoners, I don't know. But we are a different people. We have a different message. We have an eternal message. And God, who had time for us, who waits on us in our sin, waits for us to repent — he has time for them, and he'll give you and me patience.

And we get on our knees and we pray, don't we? We confess our sins to our Lord. We receive his absolution, and the next time we encounter that person, we try again. But we keep trying. And all of the things that we've heard this weekend about how to approach our family, our neighbor — what's the one word you heard over and over again? Tone, right? That's hard to gauge when your emotions inside are jumbled and mixed up. You're a parent, and, darn it, I raised you better — you're a parent, you're like, how did I mess this up, Lord — so you're dealing with your own guilt. Tone. God will guide, God will lead. But that child is your audience.

Another audience that you may come upon: the stranger. And there our friend Sherif was, I think, particularly good. You're not going to win the stranger over — the protester on the street, the angry young person — until you get to know them and you befriend them. And sometimes that's hard too. When you think about people wrestling with these sexual sins, transgender, homosexuality — we are uncomfortable, aren't we, in that world? I don't know how to talk to somebody like that, I don't know how to be comfortable with them. And yet he, she, they are our neighbors, and our Lord died for them too. He suffered for them, he loves them, and we can love them in Christ.

But I think we've got to get past our little filters, our little walls, and roll up our sleeves, go be where the people are, talk to them, find out what's on their heart, find out what they like, find out where we have common ground, and not judge them in a way that puts up a wall that keeps them from hearing us. That takes time, and we're going to get it wrong. We're going to say something that offends them, no doubt, because we're new at this, and because they're listening for us to say something. They want us to step right in it, and then they want to be able to say, "You're a hater, you don't care about me." When we do that, we've got to ask forgiveness. We've got to acknowledge it, and we've got to go back to speaking the truth in love.

Pastors, how many of you are in a small town where there's maybe a local newspaper, maybe a local news station, a radio reporter — have you engaged that neighbor on these topics? That's a little scary too, isn't it? "They wouldn't want to hear from me, the Lutheran pastor." Well, actually, I think those small towns are kind of gems, those small-town newspapers, because they're looking for news. You know, after you get the Friday night football or basketball scores, the marriage notices, how many people were pulled over for speeding and who they were, the people who died — not a lot of news. There's a few pastors out there that have been dabbling in just sending in an op-ed, writing something on one of these topics, and they're getting published. That's something you can do. You might be surprised how the local paper picks you up and runs your piece, and then you might be surprised at the dialogues that open when you head down to the barbershop in the middle of town, or the diner, or wherever it is people hang out, anywhere USA.

That local newsman — the other thing to know about him: I mean, we all watch Fox, right, CNN — they're terrifying, and we sort of come to feel like they've got something against us. And maybe some of them do. But they also just have a job to do. They need to get a story. They've been sent out by an editor to cover something. They've been given maybe even an editorial direction. And so they don't hate you — they're doing their job, they're living in their vocation. And I think it's helpful not to see them as the enemy, but also as a person who might be confused, who might need to know the truth themselves. And you never know when what you say, even though it gets printed, twisted, whatever, how that affects that individual reporter.

A few weeks ago, when all the Planned Parenthood stuff started blowing up, it was really God's providence that the LCMS Life Committee happened to be here in St. Louis for a meeting. We thought, we've got to respond. We found out they were here, and we said, what an opportunity — let's have a press conference. Let's invite the local media. And two TV stations came, which, that's huge. And one of the guys — they sent cub reporters, the guy's been here for three months, you know — but he said to me, "Well, I grew up Missouri Synod." And I thought, wow. And I was really praying for the Life Committee, and what they would say, because I thought, whatever happens, if this makes it on air or not, here's somebody who's, like, looking now back at his old church body, and wondering, how are they going to handle this, how are they going to speak about it? And I'm thrilled to report that we spoke the truth in love. Our wonderful Life Committee — Pastor Esget gets here and got put on the spot, did a great job. It was beautiful.

And I guess those are the times, maybe, when we're most scared, when we see someone in front of us and we think they're out to get us. God uses — God uses you. He uses his word in ways that we can't imagine. We make the bold confession, we make the faithful witness, and we trust our Lord to carry it into the hearts that he designs it to go.

In our work, in LCMS Communications, we don't think we're experts — in fact, we know we're not. You know, that whole lobster pot thing — we weren't ready for this, not like the rest of the church. So we call on outside experts, especially in dealing with the media. We've had a few bumps with the media, and we said, we need someone who can help us with this, and help President Harrison and our other leaders. So we asked Mollie Hemingway — I mean, you know, Mollie knows someone who can help us, living in D.C. and doing what she does; no one does it better. And she sent us a great gal — her name's Beverly, Beverly Hallberg. She works in D.C., runs a PR firm, and she works with people. I can always tell the Republicans on Meet the Press who have been trained by Beverly, because she's got a formula for dealing with the press.

We flew her into St. Louis for a couple of days, and we put President Harrison and Reverend Bart Day through it, who both said, "Yeah, yeah, I want to be trained how to talk to the media." Well, that was hard. It was painful, and I'm amused thinking back on it. For the first part of the day, Beverly gave us pointers and walked us through things. And then she said, okay, and she pulls out of her duffel bag a video camera and a little monitor, and she becomes, you know, Anderson Cooper or whoever, your favorite face on the big-time media. And she had President Harrison in front of her first, and then Bart, and was not their friend. They squirmed, they wiggled. She said, sit up in your chair, don't wear that colored tie, don't waffle, don't say "no comment." It was quite a day, right? You remember it, John, don't you? We didn't let the whole synod watch, thankfully. But we learned a lot, and it's good to practice — that's the point there, it's good to practice.

There are tips and things if you're going to be speaking on TV — if you have some notice and you're like, I've never done this before, they want me to come into the studio and talk about religious freedom here in my hometown — you can call us. We're not the experts, but we've heard from experts, and we can give you some things that we've learned by trial and error, and we're glad to.

But let me just say this, and I want you to memorize it, and you're all Lutherans, and you're good at memorizing: when a reporter calls, never say "no comment." Let's say that together — when a reporter calls, never say "no comment." You are the Lord's. You are his baptized, redeemed child of God. You have the truth on your side. You do have something to say. Even if it's a five-word sentence, say something. Trust God, pray, be ready for those calls, but never say "no comment." That just goes south really quickly.

Now, another thing that our dear friend Beverly taught us was a technique — and this is where I love now to watch Meet the Press, because some learned a lesson well, and some didn't — block and bridge. The reporter comes at you with what they want you to say, and they set you up, but you wanted to say this other thing. How do you move from this thing that's going to make you look like a monster, and get to this speaking-the-truth-in-love thing? You block, and you bridge.

Now, I'm just going to share one of the things — you can even sign up with Beverly Hallberg, she sends out weekly lessons in block and bridge. So this was her lesson on the Planned Parenthood thing. She says, the reporter's going to come at you and say, "Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, has repeatedly said the videos are heavily edited. So is this just another right-wing attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade?" What are you going to say to that? She says, here's the answer: "Though hard to watch, anyone who has seen this footage knows it speaks for itself, and most Americans, whether pro-life or pro-choice, agree that…" and then you insert the thing you want to say. You've now stopped her, and you've moved over, and you now have the floor and you own the discussion. Really a great technique, but it requires practice.

Find another pastor, do this at your Winkel meetings — pick these questions, you know, the questions are there in the media all the time, you can just pull one of them and then practice: how would you answer it, how would you block it? Acknowledge what they're saying, but then move them to the truth, to what you want to say. It's a sweet technique, not always easy to do.

Now I'm going to quote Adriane — true confession, she sent me a fully written-out paper, but it was an Adriane paper, and besides the fact that she's about a foot taller than me, we present differently. So I pulled out bits and pieces, and this one I'm just going to read straight, about knowing your audience.

"As we focus on the person — we heard Sherif say that, and Dr. Kleinig say that — we remember that Christ came for people, and that they have hope, and that hope has a name. And the name is attached to a flesh-and-blood man, and he is Jesus. In finding our voice, we look to him, to the one who is physically nailed to the cross, bloodied and gasping for breath. We look to that Jesus, the one who knows the fears and worries, sins, and dark thoughts of every sinner better than we know ourselves. We look to him, to the one who tangibly and in real time endures the ridicule of the crowd, the torture of his captors, the taunts of the devil. We look to Jesus, who cries out in words we feel like crying out too: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' He is Jesus, the man, broken, wounded, hurt, and suffering, just as he is the Jesus who came for the man secretly addicted to pornography, the lesbian who champions her homosexuality loudly and proudly, the teenager who is attracted to other boys even as he is attracted to girls. Jesus suffers all, so that each of us sinners, in our rawest, messiest moments — just as much as in our contented, happy ones — may always have the assurance that he has taken those sins unto himself."

That's great stuff. You're not talking to anybody on your own. You've got the sign of the cross upon your forehead and your breast. You are never alone — even though, all appearances aside, even if you're that Christian in Iraq, kneeling blindfolded, and they're lopping your head off, you are never alone.

Another tip, I guess: know the message. We've been learning the message, haven't we? Really great stuff, I'm not going to hash over that again, I couldn't do it justice. But it does bring to mind another scripture verse, in 1 Peter. Peter, the text says: "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."

He wrote that for us. I don't know who else thinks that in the whole two thousand years of Christianity, but I'm sure he wrote that for me, and for you, in these tough times. It's good advice, it's what works, and it's God's word to us. That part about having a good conscience — you have a good conscience in Christ, you confess your sins weekly, you're absolved of those sins, you can be confident and cheerful in your message.

But that also comes with knowing the message. And before we know what the world thinks, we really have to know what we think. We have to know what it is we confess, what God's word says. You're all here because you know that's important. You wouldn't have taken two days of your life to come to something like this and take notes, like we're all doing.

Knowing the message also means getting the language of the message. We're Lutherans, and this was something that became very clear to me as I was editing Sunday school material for nine years at CPH. You've got to be a native speaker — you're a citizen of heaven, you're a Lutheran, and there's a way that we speak. And that way that we speak is rich and deep and wonderful. And if you want to know where you get those Lutheran words, there's three places: the Bible, of course, God's word; but your catechism, and your hymnal, our vocabulary books — their sentences, their paragraphs, their thought-starters, it's all there, and all of it flowing from God's word. Get familiar with it. Use those words of the catechism.

You know, when I'm with somebody who's scared — if they're afraid to talk to somebody, if they're facing sickness, death, whatever it is, and they think they're at their rope's end — you know, I remind them, and myself, when I have those moments, that we confess that he richly and daily provides all that I need for this body and life. You know those words, right? You memorized them long ago. I utter those, maybe, at least once a day. Wonderful vocabulary, and great comfort, not only to ourselves but to others — to that person struggling, "I don't know how to overcome this sin, I don't know how to stop giving in to my lusts for another man or another woman" — he richly and daily provides all that we need for this body and life. He'll provide what you need to face your sin, to face your temptation.

The words of hymns are such comfort — their comfort for broken sinners, their comfort for frightened children of God. They unpack who God is and what we believe in poetic and beautiful ways. Use them, learn them, they're rich — rich, they speak for you.

But just as much as you're going to be a native speaker, I think you've got to be bilingual too. Well, I don't mean Spanish or Chinese or anything like that, but I think you also have to know the language spoken by the person you're talking to. That millennial, that biker dude, that lesbian down at the corner laundromat — they have a whole different language too. You've got to know enough of it, again, to gain that common ground, to love them, to let them know that you really care about them — just as our language is part of who they are, their language is part of who they are. I'm not suggesting that we speak in ways that aren't pleasing to God, but understand what's forming them, understand their argument, be able to articulate it back to them in a way that resonates, and then block and bridge over to your language, in a loving way.

Get acquainted with the voices for and against. Again, Sherif, great on this — ten points, he said. There's just about, what, ten points of the other side's argument? Now I'm thinking, I've got to figure out what those ten are — were you thinking that? I've got some research to do. But ten points, we can figure that out, we can write that down, we can get familiar with it. And then we can spend some time in God's word, in our catechism, in Luther, and all the other places, and find a defense, find an answer for each of those ten points. So it's in our hearts, it's on our lips, it's ready to come out when we're called upon to speak it. Write it down, practice it, practice it with a brother clergy, find a millennial who loves you, but who will be honest with you and tell you, you know, "that ain't gonna fly."

My kids do that for me. You know, they've been thoroughly trained in all the world's Kool-Aid, going to public school and college, and, you know, they're some of my toughest critics when we sit around the dinner table. And I say things that all of you would have no problem with me saying, and you'd agree, and you'd think it was quite good, and they're like, "Mom, you can't say that. You cannot say that." And I'm like, "Why not? It's true." "It doesn't matter, Mom, you've got to find another way." So talk to those young people — they'll get in your face. It's not easy. We have some interesting table conversations. Get this stuff in your head.

You know, a way to do this is to watch, to listen, to read. This is one of the things I've learned from Adriane. She's a more planned person, I'm a little ADD, I kind of, you know, I'm all over the place, I like variety. But variety can keep you from getting down to business. Schedule a time — schedule a time to be in the Word for your own self, schedule another time to be in the Word as you wrestle with these issues. Schedule time to read, to listen to blog posts or podcasts, schedule time to read blogs, to hear what others are saying, to hear the arguments being made. You actually have to work at this, and you've got to plan for it. You can't shoot from the hip. This stuff's deep, this stuff's wide, and it's all-pervasive. It requires our effort. And so, setting aside time to do that.

I keep buying books at Doxology events, and my husband hasn't mentioned it — he follows me on the computer when I go shopping, and before I'm even home, he's like, "What do those shoes look like?" I don't think he's going to have a problem with the Doxology books, but I bought a few of them in the past few weeks, and I've got some reading to do. We all have some reading to do.

I'll tell you another story, of my husband, who is a layman. For many, many years, a paramedic, working twelve-hour shifts, sometimes twenty-four-hour shifts, and unlike firemen who sit in the station waiting for a call to come, he was a paramedic on an ambulance for a full twelve hours or twenty-four hours, and they would be stationed somewhere around town. Well, early on, his partner was a woman, and she was a lesbian. He's in an ambulance for twelve hours with a lesbian. And she saw that he had a good relationship with his wife, and she knew he was Christian. She knew very clearly where he stood on the whole lifestyle that she had chosen, and yet she sought him as counsel in the skirmishes with her and her partner. Wide-open opportunity, captive audience, lots of time. He faced that.

By being in the Word, and, like so many of us, listening to Issues, Etc. — he probably could get a seminary certificate, because he's, over the years, listened to every show multiple times. He's listened to all the speakers and wrestled with those things. It's in his head. And that was great — it gave him things to say. But he loved that gal, as the neighbor Christ put in front of him. She wasn't angry at him. He spoke to her, he spoke the truth in love, he didn't shrink back. I always admire him for that — that's harder for me to do, he's a much gentler spirit.

Watch, listen, read, repeat. Read those who've passed through similar waters — dear Luther, who was not popular in his day with many; Hermann Sasse, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who faced a changing culture, a changing government, a changing world. Read these greats, read the early church fathers, they give you deep insight. And follow thought leaders of our day that you can trust. And, you know, how many of you listen to Issues, Etc., right? We all know Issues, Etc. KFUO — growing programming on KFUO that goes deep, goes wide with the issues of the day. You can trust both of those audio resources — they're Lutheran, they're Missouri Synod, they have speakers on who echo what we confess.

There are bloggers out there we can follow. If you go to those radio stations, they link you to other people. If you go to the LCMS website, we have a whole section called Free to Be Faithful, and it's where we're sort of aggregating things on these public-square issues. We also have a section now called Social Issues — so if you Google search social issues by topic, we're just adding resources as fast as we can. Those things are vetted, they're solid. Take them, use them, turn them into other things. There's tools for you.

And again, talk to a millennial you can trust. If it's not your own teenager or grandchild, find someone who can keep you fresh on the world and the mind of the millennial. Find out where they're hanging out online. How many of you are on Facebook? How many of you follow the LCMS on Facebook? You're one of almost 78,000 followers. We think that's pretty cool, but there's over two million members in the LCMS, so, not so cool. But we are the largest Lutheran Facebook page — I feel good about that, but then I look at the demographics, and it's mostly people your age, and mostly women. Interesting.

So we're getting this new social media person, and the charge to this person will be: go where the millennials are, go where the under-thirty people are, let's push the button a little, let's get their interest, let's get their attention, let's bear witness, confess boldly. So, in the coming months, you're going to see some experimenting on social media. We're excited about that, and a little afraid too — it's a new venture, pray for us. Because I think that's a way we can reach people.

The other thing I know about our demographics is that we have followers from literally all over the world. And — I'll give this cowbell, no, I can't, it's not really mine to give — but who can tell me, if I haven't already told you, the second-largest following on the LCMS Facebook outside of the United States? Any guesses? Shout them out. Africa? Good guess, wrong. It's Brazil. Some 4,000 people in Brazil follow us. Now, we really ought to be thinking about Portuguese, right? This is something to consider. So these statistics — these are things that we use to think about our messaging, who we're targeting.

Maybe you've noticed we've tried some different things on social media — putting up some of Eric Lunsford's good pictures, maybe putting a Bible verse or prayer with that, just to see if that gives you and others a tool to share with your friends. We're trying to provide tools that help you bear witness in social media. We also put up things not so exciting — upcoming event or news items — but we're experimenting, and there's a lot you can do in social media.

How many of you blog? A few of you. Kind of scary, the thought of that — maybe you don't have time. Blogs are a way to connect with people. And, you know, the whole way that social media works, it's all about sharing. So you put something up, your friends thought it was so cool that they shared it with their friends, and then somebody who's a friend of one of their friends, who you don't even know, thought it was great, profound, whatever, and shares it with their friends. And suddenly what you wrote has gotten to someone you could have never imagined. That's the gift of social media. It can be used for evil, but it's a tool for us in bearing witness and confessing boldly.

And here I'm going to talk about editing. Everybody needs an editor. I don't care if it's a blog, if it's a Facebook post, if it's a sermon prep. Adriane and I now have a running contest — who has the best blooper? I say she still wins. Maybe you've heard her tell the story of the lovely piece that President Harrison wrote for the front of The Lutheran Witness a few years ago. And he was waxing on these things, the importance of the church in the public square — only, when it was typeset, somehow the "l" fell out of the word "public." The editor of The Lutheran Witness, Adriane, she didn't notice it the first time she looked at it, she didn't notice it the second or third time, the copy editors at CPH missed it, everybody who has to read it internally at the synod before we say print — nobody caught it. Some little lady in Nebraska called and said… Adriane was mortified, and she'll always be mortified by that. So that was The Lutheran Witness — that's pretty big, and, you know, public square, whatever.

How many of you saw the Facebook post a few weeks ago, the lovely evening prayer, where I typed "the day is fart spent"? So even on social media, you need to be edited. Some nice person out there — well, a lot of nice people, maybe some of you — were grateful for the prayer, but also let me know there was an error. And thank goodness I could fix it, and did, as soon as I knew. So you've got to be able to laugh at yourself. You're going to make mistakes, you're going to trip up. But having an editor is important.

How many of you pastors preach your sermon to your wife, or someone else, or at least run things by people? Do you do that? Maybe you're veterans now and you don't need to — that's not a bad thing either. Practice. Try things out. Preparing, being in the Word.

2 Timothy: "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." I love that — the Word completes you, it equips you. Be in the Word, have it on your heart, on your lips, in your mind. Set aside that time to study, to craft your message, and be fed.

This is another wonderful thing that we know about who we are as Lutheran Christians. We have God's good gifts — they're not just reminders, they do what they say. God's word has power. Our baptism gives us life, salvation, it makes us children of God, and that holy meal that we partake of, for the forgiveness of sins, gives us that very thing. We need that. You need that. Never think that you don't. That's the armor of God, right there, those things. And confessing and being absolved — whether you do it publicly, in a group, in church, whether you do it one on one with a brother pastor, with your pastor, with a father confessor — confess your sins and receive the forgiveness that Christ has for you. All of those things prepare you for speaking the truth in love. Be confident.

Here's another verse that I think is really wonderful, Ephesians 4: "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin" — that's hard for me — "do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths." Whoa, you know where I see corrupting talk? Why, church workers — social media. It just kind of bubbles out, we forget our vocations, we forget who we are. It's all over the place on social media. "But only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." That's what we're called to, that's what God wants, and it's what he empowers us to do, and it's what he forgives us for when we don't do it.

We really have to be careful — people are watching on social media, and that's the thing. You make a post, and you forget who all are your friends, and you have no control over who's going to share your post. So if it was an angry rant, and someone thought it was really clever, and now they've shared it, and, "Oh, Reverend so-and-so said that?" Uh-oh — you just did a zinger and you didn't know it.

Be patient. Be patient with yourself as you prepare. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon, and a marathon requires a whole different type of preparation and living. I think back to my daughter, going on ten years, don't know how to crack that. And I cling, particularly, to the story of Joseph and his brothers. I've always loved that story from the time I was a kid, but one day someone pointed out to me that the span between when they ditched him and when they were reconciled to each other was about seventeen years. That's a long time. It's hard to be patient. You lose hope.

Joseph and his brothers — read that story again. At the end, he says to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near, and he said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt, and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve your life." God had a purpose for all that, and he used it. But he forgave his brothers. And that's, for me, the little nugget there — I've got to forgive. And pray for that reconciliation.

Okay, you want to have a voice? Lots of tools out there — use them. We've talked about social media, blogging, the local paper, talk radio. I don't know if I'd go on WOWO here in town — is that Fort Wayne? Who's Fort Wayne — whoa. But it's a big station. KMOX here, I think it is. Anyway, but maybe in the middle of Iowa, that little local radio station, they're looking for someone to talk, and probably not so scary. Remember, know your audience. Be compelling, and make each word count.

Here's the other thing — Adriane and I have edited lots of other people's writing, and a lot of times it's for print, and so we have a very specific word count. Pastors like words, we figured this out — oh yeah, we get lots of words, and you say things, you make your point fifteen times in many and various ways. You know, so the 300-word limit delivers us a 1,200-word discourse, and we have to be your wordsmiths. That's tough. I like to take a scissors to other people's texts, that's really actually fun for me, but it would be much better if you edited yourself. Make every word count, and get someone else to read it. That's how you find out if you're tracking.

And be brief — Twitter thyself. How many characters do you have on Twitter? 140. Can you present the gospel in 140 characters? I think you can, but it takes some work.

Let me tell you about my professor, sainted now, Dr. Henry Lettermann. Freshman year at River Forest, literature class — he was assigning us to write a paper, and this was a very prim and proper guy, he wore bow ties and a tweed blazer, and he had little round glasses, and he was a bit of a nerd. And one day he said, "I want your papers to be like a woman's slip." And we're like — "Long enough to cover the subject, and short enough to be interesting." I've never forgotten that, although a few women wear slips anymore. It works. That's the challenge, right? When you write a blog, when you write a sermon, when you write a newspaper op-ed, make those words count. Be interesting.

And encourage and invite engagement. Don't hide — be out there where the people are. Be out there with your neighbor, show up at the local college campus. You've all got a campus near you, I know you do — twenty miles, half a mile, hang out. This is a huge, fertile mission field, with a lot of mixed-up kids being taught really mixed-up things, really bad things, and they're wrestling. Go out there and be with them. Sit down in the coffee shops and on the sidewalks. Don't be afraid — he richly and daily provides all that you need.

Frequently post. If you're going to be blogging, if you're going to be Facebooking — you know, I'm not talking ten posts a day, but one blog post a month, people forget you. There's sort of a rhythm to this — you want to keep before their eyes; if you're blogging, probably once a week is a good goal, maybe twice a month, I wouldn't go any less than that. Facebooking — if you have something to say, if you're just taking a picture of the steak you grilled, you know, you can determine frequency. But if you're working on a message, be frequent about it, keep the thought running.

And don't shut off comments. Let people jab you, let them accuse you, let them ask questions, be ready for that, answer them. You know, if you look at our Facebook, on LCMS, we let people go for a long time on there before we block them. There's a few that we block — there's a number now that we've hidden, because they just can't be nice, and they offend others in the way that they respond to our posts. But we don't like to do that, and we don't like to jump in. That's the cool thing about social media — other people are watching, and they jump in, and it's fun to watch all of you handle that difficult person on LCMS Facebook. It's wonderful. So we're watching, and if we have to, we block.

Keep your chin up, Adriane said in her outline. First John tells us: "Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God." That helps me when I am terrified. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world — we are from God. The church is always going to be part of the dialogue, because our Lord is the Lord of life, and we have that Word, we have his word, it's what we do, it's who we are. Speak it, speak it boldly.

I looked up that passage — "heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." How many times is that recorded in the New Testament? Anyone know? Three times — Matthew made sure to write it down, Mark and Luke. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." You've got truth, you've got God's word — not your word, but God's.

We're going to continue to teach about marriage. We're going to teach about these things in season and out of season. We're going to have to be savvier at times than others, it may be harder, but we go with Christ, and we continue as the people of God to be a place of forgiveness, acceptance, a place of love, and speaking the truth in love, and always — whether you're a pastor, a mom, a neighbor, a coworker — point people to where they can find the truth, and be wrapped in the truth, to the places where our Lord has promised to be: at the font, on the altar, at the pulpit. Point them there, drag them there, and, you know, if they're a particularly challenging person, and you've got them to come, call the pastor and let them know they're coming — give him some warning.

Thank you very much. Hope this was helpful.