Grace, mercy and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Welcome to my blog site. My name is Paul T. McCain and I’m a Lutheran pastor, serving in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. I’m the Publisher at Concordia Publishing House, where I’m also the Executive Director of our Editorial Division. My interests include fine art, classical music, literature, history, digital photography, and the shooting sports, oh, and coffee, good coffee. I also enjoy the St. Louis Cardinals, particularly when they win.

Cyberbrethren is mainly about promoting, advancing, and advocating for, historic, confessional Lutheranism, as it is defined by the Book of Concord, which you can read online at bookofconcord.org. I do this by interacting with modern trends, culture and issues. It is a rather eclectic blog site, so look around a while and you’ll see the kinds of topics and issues that catch my attention the most frequently. I promote resources published by Concordia Publishing House, the world’s largest and oldest continually operating Lutheran publishing company.

You’ll also find me hanging out at the blog EVANGEL, as one of the contributors.

Disclaimer About This Site and About Comments Submitted to This Site: The content on this blog site does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Concordia Publishing House or The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. It may not reflect your opinion either, but thanks for reading anyway! If you have a comment to share, feel free to post it. I moderate comments and reserve the right to reject or edit comments. I think of comments as letters to the editor of a newspaper: those that are signed, short, to the point, and make a positive and/or interesting contribution to the post’s topic are much more likely to be be approved than those that aren’t. If you are looking for a place to argue your point ad infinitum, you won’t find Cyberbrethren to be your cup of tea, or coffee.

A More Formal Biographical Sketch

Rev. Paul T. McCain, was born and raised in Pensacola, Florida, the son of Lutheran teachers. He received an excellent “old school” education at Redeemer Lutheran School, then went on to attend Pensacola Catholic High School, where, as a Lutheran, he was awarded “Religion Student of the Year” in both his junior and senior years. He graduated from Concordia University, Chicago, with a B.A. in Biblical Languages and History, becoming member of Phi Alpha Theta national history honor society. From university, he entered Concordia Theological Seminary, receiving his Masters of Divinity Degree in 1988. He stayed on two extra years, the first as a graduate assistant in Systematic Theology, and the second, as an Instructor of Systematic Theology. His additional two years of graduate theological coursework included concentrations in Reformation history and theology. While at Concordia Theological Seminary, he was privileged to work closely with Dr. Robert Preus on the launch of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series, for which he served as managing editor. He became the managing editor for the International Lutheran Foundation for Confessional Lutheran Research, publishing their quarterly newsletter. He was instrumental in founding two Lutheran journals: LOGIA: A Journal of Lutheran Theology and Luther Digest, an annual survey and summary of worldwide Luther research.

Rev. McCain was assigned to serve as the pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, in Waverly, Iowa, where he was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry, on Pentecost Sunday, 1990. He delighted in the joys and challenges of ministry in a rural and small congregation. He was called to serve as Assistant to the President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in 1992. He completed his service in this role in 2001, and served as Interim Director of Concordia Historical Institute. He was called to serve at Concordia Publishing House as its Interim President and CEO, a position he filled until 2006, when he became Publisher at CPH, and also Executive Director of the Editorial Division, the position he presently holds.

His numerous publications include articles for WORLD Magazine, FIRST THINGS, The Lutheran Witness, Concordia Theological Quarterly, LOGIA: A Journal of Lutheran Theology, Modern Reformation magazine, and various other newspapers and periodicals. He is the general editor of Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions-A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord, and a contributor to The Lutheran Study Bible. He has edited and contributed to several essay and Festschrift collections. He serves as an editor of the quarterly devotional publication Portals of Prayer and has contributed to Teacher’s Interaction a resource for volunteer parish teachers. He is a regular guest on the Lutheran talk radio show Issues, Etc. and a frequent guest preacher and conference speaker.

He lives in Saint Louis with his wife and three children.