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The Story: “David Ellefson plays bass for the heavy metal rock band Megadeth,” reports Whitney Williams in WORLD magazine. “He also takes online classes from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.”

“Most people want to become a rock star,” said Ellefson’s pastor, Jon Bjorgaard of Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran Church, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation in Scottsdale, Ariz. “David’s a rock star who wants to become a pastor.”

The Background: In the 1980s, Megadeth—-whose name is taken from the unit of measurement equal to the death of 1 million people by nuclear explosion—-helped to create and popularize the thrash metal subgenre of heavy metal. Since then the band has released 16 albums, sold more than 30 million records, and received 10 Grammy nominations.

According to St. Louis Today, by the time Ellefson was 25, the rock star lifestyle had caught up to him and he entered a 12-step recovery program, where he was reintroduced to the faith of his childhood. After moving to Arizona and starting a family, he began attending church at Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran Church, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation in Scottsdale.

“I came from a good family, not a broken home,” said Ellefson, 47. “That became a model for me, and I saw church at center of it.”

Ellefson started a new music ministry at the church that he dubbed MEGA Life, “partially a play on Megadeth. But it’s also a reference to a verse from the Gospel of John: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Why It Matters: The news has sparked some controversy in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod—-but not for the reason you might think.

As Gene Veith, provost of Patrick Henry College, notes, the problem is not that Ellefson is a heavy metal musician wants to become a pastor: “Lutherans generally wouldn’t have a problem with such things—but because the route he is taking, an online seminary lite, that qualifies him to serve just in a specific place, is taken by many confessional Lutherans as violating the pastoral office.”

“If you’ve been ordained, you are ordained and should be able to serve anywhere and should have the thorough seminary training all other pastors have,” Veith says on his blog, Cranach. “Also, some Lutherans who don’t mind heavy metal DO mind contemporary Christian music, and the suspicion is that the future Rev. Ellefson is being trained to go from Megadeth to Megachurch.”

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