Dear friends,
We continue our survey of Church History from the book of Professor E.A.W. Krauss from our St. Louis seminary of a century ago. This month we continue our look at the life and work of Pastor F.K.D Wyneken as he worked bringing the Gospel to scattered groupings of German speaking settlers in the wild west of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. As we read his accounts, we see that it is absolutely vital that we remain closely connected to the word of God and the Sacraments because it is so easy to fall into heathenism, or as we might say today “to adopt the ways and attitudes of the prevailing culture.”
- 1. [part 3] Friedrich Konrad Dietrich Wyneken
Wyneken began his mission trip in September 1838. He could use the train as far as Pittsburgh[1] and then he used the canal. In Zelienople, PA he bought a horse “and then trotted lively and joyfully through the wooded land.” Several weeks later he wrote about his trip: it “had many troubles for me as a foreigner completely unaccustomed to riding and such wooded paths. But it also had much that was pleasant, in particular when a Christian brother would strengthen me. Although I was not yet supposed to start my mission work in Ohio, I was accidently, as the world says, compelled to do so in Allen and Putnam counties when several German settlements that had not heard any sermon for years tearfully asked me to remain with them for a time. I remained in the two settlements eight days, preached every day, and once twice in a day; confirmed a young husband who had indeed been instructed but still had not yet shared in the Lord’s Supper, baptized 13 children (ten of them at once, most of them already somewhat grown up), a mother of two of children and a grown girl 18 years old upon whom the grace of the Lord appears to have especially worked. The people were so joyful once again to receive the word and the bread of Life that I could not thank the Lord enough for His love in leading me to such hungry hearts right at the beginning of my work.”
As instructed, he then went to Decatur in Adams County, Indiana. From there he would seek out the Germans who lived in the vicinity. In the wilderness he met an American and asked him about Germans. The American wanted to find out from him what he wanted with them, why he came to the country, etc. Then the American said, “If you are a true pastor, then go there into that house. A very sick man is laying in it. But if you are one like most of them who come from Germany, then go over there to the rich carter.”
“I would prefer to go first to the sick man.” Wyneken responded. He did so and entered Loeffler’s house.
The man was very sick. When the wife learned that the stranger was a pastor, she said to him, “Well, you should have stayed in Germany.”
Wyneken then asked her how her husband was.
She responded, “Oh, he no longer hears and sees anything. You can do nothing more with him.”
But he did not let himself be deterred from speaking with the sick man. He sat by him, spoke many comforting verses in his ear and then also prayed aloud for him.
This is how Wyneken acted as a missionary! – Later Loeffler again recovered and confessed that he understood every word and had been richly comforted.
In Loeffler’s house Wyneken asked about other German settlers. They directed him to “old Buuck” as a person who thought highly of the church and pastors. Wyneken went that way.
About 15 miles from the village, a small girl met him in the wilderness. He stood still and said, “My dear girl, can you tell me where Buuck’s father lives?” -- A bright joy suddenly beamed from the eyes of the child, whom the strange man first questioned with a certain fear. “O yes, she responded joyfully, “that is my father!” The child’s name was Luise. She then led the stranger to the house and “Buuck’s father” heartily welcomed the man who wanted to bring God’s Word not only to him but also to all neighbors far and wide.
Wyneken never forgot the friendly reception that he found with the Buucks. From then on this was his home whenever he came out to “dear Adams County.”
At that time a small, so-called Lutheran congregation already existed there. The same was also the case in Ft. Wayne, which at that time was only a very small town. Up until that time both congregations had been served by Pastor J. Huber, a Pennsylvania German who had died not long before Wyneken’s arrival. Thus at once Wyneken also set out for Ft. Wayne, visited the members of the congregation and they right away asked him to stay with them.
On 01 October, Wyneken wrote from Ft. Wayne to Pastor Haesbaert:
I arrived here in Ft. Wayne eight days ago, have already preached here and in two other neighboring settlements five times, baptized and buried and now the people would like to keep me. I told the church council of this congregation that they might want to write to the executive committee of your society. I am leaving tomorrow and will return in four weeks to meet the answer here. I will gladly do the Lord’s will and may He gladly now lead the heart of the committee as He wills. I am content with everything if only I know for sure that wherever I work, I am working according to the Lord’s will.
On 02 October, Wyneken began his first greater missionary trip. From Ft. Wayne he went “into the western portion of the state of Ohio;” from there “northwest as far as Michigan City;” then he “again returned into the area of South Bend (to St. Joseph’s City and Elkhart), Indiana;” from there he made “an excursion to Michigan, from Mottville to Niles;” he then turned south and came “to Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana;” from there he took the path “through Clinton County” and “returned on the Wabash up to Fort Wayne,” which he again entered on 16 November. He met many churchless Germans, motivated several to start congregations and promised help to others, when it pleases God.
Having a fervent love, the missionary already wanted to start his second missionary journey three weeks before Christmas (1838), but it could not happen since his and Mr. Rudisill’s horse was lame. On 02 January 1839 however, he set out to visit the congregations in South Bend and Elkhart and in Mottville. He said of this trip: “Already on the first day I had to lead my horse and go the entire rest of the journey on foot. This journey was made on foot along the slippery paths and in great haste to preach because in many places the church services had already been arranged. It made me so sick that I had to stay two miles outside Elkhart so that I could not visit either the congregation on the Harris Prairie or the first one that formed. I was so extremely sorry but what could I have done when I was expected back at a certain time in Fort Wayne, in Benton, and at another place not far from Wolf Lake, and I had to set out on the way back even though I was still not again feeling completely well?”
After he had returned, he wrote on 25 January to Pastor Friedrich Schmidt, the editor of the Lutherische Kirchenzeitung:
I believe the only way to do something orderly in the Lord’s vineyard is precisely this: to appoint missionaries in smaller circuits. The General Synod should just issue an appeal to the Lutheran congregations. It is truly not right that 2000 churches and probably even more congregations cannot support more missionaries. I fear that these mere patrols and skirmishes in this territory of Satan really help little. We must in an orderly way grab a foothold and step by step take this land away from the devil and establish outposts from the occupied land. If we do not have enough fighters for Christ here I have the firm conviction that an orderly summons to the German brethren in Europe, namely, to the mission societies there (for the consistories do not always have the proper sorts on hand) would place enough fighters in our gaps. Now, may the Lord help; one must only place the need upon His shoulders in fervent prayer, or, as old Luther says, throw the beggar’s sack at His feet, and the Church is already helped. Praise God that she has awakened and begun to stir and rub her eyes. Then She will also certainly at once see and behold what has happened both outwardly and inwardly while she slept and be ashamed. It is good that the Lord, the true Shepherd of Israel lives and reigns and does not sleep or slumber.
At least Wyneken should explain to us in his own words what kind of experiences he had on his mission journeys. He reports in his little book that is still very worthwhile to read, The Distress of the German Lutherans in North America:
One day after riding around in a continuous rainstorm in order to seek out a settlement I had heard about in the far west, around noon I finally met a man in the thicket across the river. He was a German. I told him of my call as missionary of the Pennsylvania Synod and that I was ready to preach in the area. The man rejoiced to hear a German Lutheran preacher after seven years; he was also glad for his children who were not baptized. When I asked him, though, to inform the neighbors who lived in the woods to gather in a house, it turned out that it was too wet in the thicket for the hunter who had just come out of the thicket. When I urged him, he didn’t have time although the next cabin was hardly half an hour from the path. He directed me to a house on the path. The mother with six or seven children, both small and large, came to the door; the same joy, the same proposal, the same answer; ‘but over there a hundred paces further is her husband chopping wood.’ I rode over. He hardly looked up from his work and had just as little time, and because I could not even scrounge up someone simply to bring me to the path, I had to pass by a settlement that for seven years had neither sermon nor sacraments. A man from Hamburg whom I soon found busy in front of his house calmly went into his house with a “really?” when he heard why I had come, leaving me to stand outside in the rain. In a city on the Wabash Canal I had to get the men out of a tavern on a Sunday afternoon. I was successful here only after a lot of talk back and forth, although most of them never had heard a German sermon as long as they were in America and understood no English.
I often baptized at one time twelve or more children of various ages, often between ages of ten to twelve.” –“In one settlement I came to, as the world would say ‘coincidently,’ I had the joy of baptizing a 40 year old mother, after her husband had brought his two children, because she asked for it fervently and with tears.” –“In the same settlement I also baptized a young woman 18 years old who believed in the Lord but still did not know the importance of baptism and had not found the opportunity for it.
I had two organized congregations in the circuit I served. Although they took up quite a bit of my time, I could not neglect the many requests to preach to other settlements on weekdays. I could not accept them as congregations, in part, because there was a heathen ignorance dominating them that first had to be overcome; and in part because, due to lack of time, I was not in a position to take upon myself the special care for their souls. One of these settlements had a married couple, which had in fact had been confirmed but the wife could read only a little while the husband could not read at all, three or four unbaptized, married daughters, a 20 year old son, at least twelve younger children and grandchildren under 16 years of age. Not one of the children or grandchildren could read. Although I preached there at least every three weeks, conversed with them after the sermon about the way of salvation, I could not find any time to instruct them and so I had to watch helplessly as an entire German settlement with its descendants sink into heathendom. In another settlement lived at least 16 Pennsylvania German families. They had been baptized in Pennsylvania but now, together with their children and grandchildren, had clearly fallen into heathendom due to lack of instruction. There were three other settlements, quite similar, where some of the parents were not baptized, others not confirmed. Although the parents had tearfully asked that I might still come to prepare their children, even those who were married, for Holy Communion by instructing them, I, too, tearfully had to refuse them and could only promise that I would visit them now and then and point them to pray for help from Germany.
This is how the spiritual condition appeared at that time for the Germans in northern Indiana. These were Wyneken’s experiences on his repeated mission journeys. He looked upon the same immense spiritual distress; however his preaching was not in vain. For many, he became God’s saving messenger and still today hundreds of fathers and mothers in Allen, Adams, Noble, Kendall, Whitley and Marshall counties remember the fearless, kind man who avoided neither bad weather nor bad roads in order to be able to announce to them the joyous message of Christ; who himself became poorer in order to make them rich; who endured the greatest discomforts and adversities in order to bring them to the peace with God.
So far Professor Krauss
NEWS FROM OUR LADIES' GROUP
We had a nice short meeting last Sunday. Our Fifth Sunday Dinner on July 30th has a picnic theme and we are ordering fried chicken and hot dogs plus what everyone is bringing. It should be good. See you there.
We want to thank Dieter for all his help with the Altar.
Our church picnic is August 27 after church at Kinsella Park in Painted Post.
We also called about Ladies Day Out Oct. 9. If any ladies have any ideals as to where they would like to go please let me know.
That is all for the month, thank you and have a great month. --Carol
A prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274
Grant me, I beg You, Almighty and most Merciful God, fervently to desire, wisely to search out, and perfectly to fulfill, all that is well-pleasing unto You. Order my worldly condition to the glory of Your name; and, of all that You require me to do, grant me the knowledge, the desire, and the ability, that I may fulfill it as I ought, and may my path to You, I pray, be safe, straightforward, and perfect to the end. Give me, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give me an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon me also, O Lord my God, understanding to know You, diligence to seek You, wisdom to find You, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace You. Amen.
[From The Lord Will Answer: A Daily Prayer Catechism, CPH, pg. 248]
LCMS STEWARDSHIP ARTICLE:
Winston Churchill reportedly said that “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” According to Churchill then, our lives are defined less by what we have gotten, and more by what we give away.
Our Lord’s life is defined in this way. He gave completely of Himself for us. He became man for us. He taught the truth of God’s Word. He healed those with many and various diseases. He died the death that we deserve because of sin. He gave of Himself in order to save us from sin, death, and hell. And so, it is that by giving completely of Himself, He got for Himself us, making us citizens of His eternal kingdom by grace.
As it was for Jesus, so it is also for us. We get more from giving than we do from simply getting. For giving softens our hearts and frees us from the grip which the worries of this world and making a living has on us. For when we are singularly focused on making a living, we are singularly focused on what we get. That mindset begins to bleed into all areas of our lives—our relationships with friends and family, with neighbors and coworkers, and with the Lord. It shifts our focus from asking the question—How can I be a friend, family member, neighbor, and servant to others—to asking the question—what have they done for me lately. We become more selfish instead of selfless.
But when we give, we do not have less, we have more because when we give we join in the bond of friendship and family, the bond of service to those around us out of love for them. And love is the fulfillment of the Law. It is the nature of God Himself, for God is Love. Thus we are reflecting the divine nature. As Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT FROM LUTHER
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. St. John 14.27
Luther comments: You seek and indeed desire peace but the wrong way because you seek it as the world gives it, not as Christ gives it. Know, too, that God, then, is wondrously in His people because He has placed His peace in the middle of where there is no peace, that is, in the midst of all temptations, as He says: Rule in the midst of Your enemies![Psalm 110.3] That means He does not have a peace which no one disturbs—because that is the peace of the world—but He has such a peace, which, when everything disturbs it and it is disturbed by everything, it endures everything quietly with peace. You speak with Israel, “Peace, peace, and there is no peace” [Jer. 6.14] Instead say with Christ: “Cross, cross and there is no cross” because the cross is no longer a cross when you joyfully say: “Blessed cross, there is nothing that can be compared with you.” [Wegweiser, 05 March]
FROM THE WISCONSIN SYNOD, OUR FORMER PARTNERS IN THE SYNODICAL CONFERENCE
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT REFORMATION HISTORY?
- Luther was born and died in the same city. Which city?
a. Smalkald b. Magdeburg c. Eisleben d. Wittenberg
2. Which of these statements is true about Pope Julius II?
a. He dedicated the cornerstone for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s in Rome on April 18, 1506.
b. He was called the “Warrior Pope.”
c. He and the popes after him raised money by selling indulgences to rebuild St. Peter’s.
d. All of the above.
- Luther left the Wartburg with a rough draft of the New Testament in German. Who helped him with it when he returned to Wittenberg?
a. Frederick the Wise b. Philip Melanchton c. Johann Eck d. Paul Gerhardt
- Where in Luther’s writings can you find this quote: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all” [LW, Vol. 31, p. 344]?
a. The Ninety-five Theses
b. The Freedom of a Christian
c. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
d. To the Christian Nobility
- While Melanchton and the others were in Augsburg in 1530, Luther remained behind in the safety of which castle?
a. Coburg b. Torgau c. Wartburg d. Neuschwanstein
- While at the Wartburg, Luther translated the New Testament into German. Which of these statements is correct?
a. He translated from the Vulgate, St. Jerome’s Latin Bible
b. He used Tyndale’s English Bible
c. He translated from the Greek Testament Erasmus published in 1516
d. He had no books at the castle but translated from memory
- Where in Luther’s writing can you find this quote: “The temporal authority is under obligation to protect the innocent and prevent injustice, as Paul teaches in Romans 13 [LW, Vol. 44, p.157]?
a.The Ninety-five Theses
b.Treatise on Good Works
c. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
d. To the Christian Nobility
- Luther was married to Katherine von Bora. Which of these statements is true?
a. Katherine was a former nun.
b.They were married on June 13, 1525
c. Two daughters died before they reached adulthood.
d. All of the above.
- Where in Luther’s writing can you find this quote: “A Christian…does everything gladly and willingly….He simply serves God with no thought of reward, content that his service pleases God” [LW, Vol. 44, p. 27]?
a. The Ninety-five Theses
b.Treatise on Good Works
c. The Freedom of a Christian
d. To the Christian Nobility
- Luther’s Small Catechism and Large Catechism were published in which year?
a. 1517 b. 1529 c. 1535 d. 1546
- Melanchton wrote the first Lutheran doctrine textbook. What was its title?
a. Evangelical Lutheran Doctrine
b. Christian Doctrine
c. Loci Communes or Common Places
d. Bible Truths
- Lutherans became the first Protestants when…
a. Lutheran princes protested an imperial order to return to Roman Catholic practices and doctrine
b. Luther, at Worms, said he would not retract his teachings.
c. The Lutherans read their confession at the Diet of Augsburg
d. They were not the first; John Calvin was the first Protestant
- Henry VIII, King of England…
a. Defended the Roman Catholic sacraments and opposed Luther
b.Was married to Catherine, a relative of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
c. Left the Roman Catholic Church and became head of the English church
d. All of the above
- Where in Luther’s writing can you find this quote: “But whatever is without warrant of the Scriptures is most hazardous and should by no means be urged upon anyone, much less established as a common and public mode of life” [LW, Vol. 36, p. 76]?
a. The Ninety-five Theses
b. Treatise on Good Works
c. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
d. To the Christian NobilityANSWERS NEXT MONTH
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WHO CARES WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT US LUTHERANS?
In his encyclical, Militantis Ecclesiae, of 01 August 1897, Pope Leo XII [left] described Protestantism as the “Lutheran rebellion, whose evil virus goes wandering about in almost all nations.”
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This week on KFUO.org, we continue on weekdays with newly named Oratio and Sharper Iron (formerly known as His Time) beginning at 7am CT with Rev. Jonathan Fisk, study chapters 14-18 of the Gospel of John (Thy Strong Word @ 11am CT), and engage in rich conversation about our Lutheran Confessions on Concord Matters (8/1 @ 2:00pm CT). Listen on-demand at kfuo.org or wherever you get your podcasts!
Call 800-730-2727 or email letstalk@kfuo.org to join the conversation on "Let's Talk!"[1] At that time he also visited Fr. Schmidt, the publisher of the Luth. Kirchenzeitung. When, in 1876, he heard of Wyneken’s death, he wrote to his friend in B.: “I still remember as if it were today, the time I first saw Wyneken in 1838 or 1839 when he first went west as a missionary. Enegetic, courageous, relying on God he laid his hand on the plow and the Lord crowned his work. There are not many who are as self-denying as he was.”
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