On Sunday, Oct. 25, the 2009 Reformation Celebration, sponsored by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations of the greater Sheboygan area and the American Luther Association, will be at 3:30 p.m. at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Sheboygan.

The Rev. Dr. Timothy H. Maschke, professor of theology at Concordia University Wisconsin, will be the speaker. His sermon is titled, "Returning the RE to Reformation," based on the epistle for Reformation, Romans 3:19-28.

Maschke teaches courses in Biblical, doctrinal, historical and practical theology, with special interest in Luther and Lutheran worship. Prior to joining Concordia in 1982, he served parishes in Illinois.

Sheboygan County is home for Maschke, who is the son of the late Rev. Robert Maschke and Ruth Maschke. He grew up in Glenbeulah, where his father was pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, and he attended St. John's Lutheran School in Plymouth. He often traveled with his father when he preached at the mission site which became Grace Lutheran Church in Elkhart Lake.

Both his paternal and maternal grandparents lived in Kohler. Maschke and his wife, Sharon, live in Grafton and have three grown sons and two grandchildren.

A mass choir comprised of members of area LCMS churches and the Lutheran High School choir will be directed by Dr. Ken Kosche, who recently retired as professor of music at Concordia University.

A children's choir from Trinity Lutheran School in downtown Sheboygan and St. John Lutheran Schools in Plymouth and Sherman Center, under the direction of Timothy Huebschman, will also sing.

Organist Ron Kamprath of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Sheboygan and a brass ensemble will round out the special music.

The Christian church during the Dark Ages had lost its anchor, Jesus Christ, and was instead teaching man-made rules. The heart and core of Christianity is that man's salvation is a gift of God's grace (sola gratia) through faith in Jesus Christ as our only Savior (sola fide) given to us through the Scriptures (sola Scriptua). This foundation on which the church was built was being put aside by the selling of indulgences to remove the penalty for sins rather than relying on the work of the savior.

When Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, posted 95 Theses, or sentences, on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg 492 years ago, he wanted to debate this practice of the church.

Little did he know the ramifications of this act.

A few of the blessings of the Reformation, which Luther's Theses invoked, are that the Gospel, the Biblical view of salvation, was again placed front and center as the teaching of the church.

The Lutheran church sprang up, the Bible was translated into German and helped to develop a standard version of the German language and it influenced the translation into English of the King James Bible.

Luther also wrote "The Small Catechism" and "The Large Catechism" to provide an understanding of the chief parts of Christian doctrine from the Bible.

Doors to the theater will open at 2:45 p.m.

To make it as easy as possible for people who require help in accessing the theater, drivers should drop passengers off directly in front of the Weill Center entrance, where someone will give assistance.