Issues Etc. coming back

For those who haven’t heard, Issues Etc. is coming back with Pastor Todd Wilken and his trusty sidekick Jeff Schwarz. But the Lutheran radio show about liturgy and worship is not coming back with KFUO, which abruptly sacked the two men back in March.

Instead, there’s plans to launch the show online in affiliation with Lutheran Public Radio and something called Brothers of John the Steadfast. The BJS group is marshalling a blue chip collection of advisors and participants, including Uwe Siemon-Netto (former UPI religion editor), Pastor Martin Noland (formerly head of the Concordia Historical Institute), and Get Religion blogger Mollie Hemingway.

This looks to be a nonprofit foundation and online portal of traditionalists unhappy with the drift of the LCMS. It has the potential to integrate all the efforts that (for continuing Anglicans) are fragmented between VirtueOnline, Stand Firm, and the Anglican Communion Network, among others.

Pastor Noland explains that John “the Steadfast,” Elector of Saxony, was the first German ruler to defend the Reformation, saving the Lutherans from a Hugenot-style massacre. John was also the first to sign the 1530 Augsburg Confession, one of the major pillars of the Lutheran faith.

On the Lutheran Public Radio website, Pastor Wilken offers a glimpse of what is planned, including the reiteration of his old tagline: “As always: Christ centered, cross-focused.” Stay tuned.