Bless Their Pea-Picking Little Hearts

Some pastors spend all their time trying to please the synod. An innocent may ask, "How can anyone know how to do that?" Believe me, pastors know instinctively that some things are never done. That is why they are so brave during the coffee break and so timid during formal sessions. They will swear to support something good, to oppose something bad, only to melt away faster than a July frost.

The agenda of every synod, from the four-letter groups to the micro-mini cults, is liberal. Organizations are pragmatic, not idealistic (at least not now). They are prime targets for apostates, who first argue for tolerance, then for an equal say. Finally, the apostates rule and show no mercy toward anyone who disagrees.

Denial is a good way to get along. WELS was deeply involved in promoting the Church Growth Movement when President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller denied it three times. Although a rooster did not crow, everyone knew it was a lie.

When I moved to Columbus, I already knew from a vicar's essay that LPR was established to promote the Church Growth Movement. The response of the officials was to exclaim, "What would a dumb vicar know about that?" They poured contempt on an eye-witness account of LPR being formed. A later vicar said, "I inherited the vicar's office and it was stacked with Church Growth books." The dumb vicar later enrolled in a doctoral program, to study the Reformation.

Pastors make a big mistake in recoiling from dissent. They should say, "Bless their pea-picking little hearts, I must be onto something." (Tennesse Ernie Ford) I published a little article on the origins of Church Growth - I was flooded with grateful mail. Getting one letter from publishing an article is unusual. I got dozens of positive letters.

Clergy opposition grew proportionately, especially from those with scarlet fever (the burning desire to become an official). Therefore, I had to study every aspect of Church Growth and the remedies for this toxin. Fortunately I already did a lot of comparitive dogmatics at Notre Dame. The only way to study the Book of Concord is when Lutheran doctrine is under attack. That is why so many clergy blogs are insipid. They want to tiptoe around every issue, to promote their careers, to avoid anything that would keep them from a free trip to Europe.

Always-Has-the-Last-Word Wayne got me to database every Church Growth quotation I could find - Fuller, Willow Creek, LCMS, WELS, ELCA. Five hundred in all. They matched up like, well, like peas in a pod. The WELS leaders were not liberals - they were plagiarists! They were parrots, repeating everyting they heard at Fuller and Willow Creek. When I visited a run-down congregation in Akron, the WELS worship bulletin said, "We don't expect visitors to contribute to the offering." Sure enough, the pastor had been pressed to study at Willow Creek for free - courtesy of the Mission Board of the Michigan District. Willow Creek invented that line, forgetting that no one ever expected visitor to give more than a token.

The pastors follow the synod line because they believe all good comes from the warming womb of Holy Mother Synod. That is a violation of the First Commandment, as Luther taught (and we confess) in the Large Catechism:

Let every one, then, see to it that he esteem this commandment great and high above all things, and do not regard it as a joke. Ask and examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it cleaves to God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that, moreover, renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God. If, on the contrary, it cleaves to anything else, of which it expects more good and help than of God, and does not take refuge in Him, but in adversity flees from Him, then you have an idol, another god. (The Large Catechism, The First Commandment, #28, The Book of Concord)

If a pastor believes in God, then he knows that only God can remove him from that call. If that happens, it is God's will. If God wills that he stay there, no one can move him. The idolatry begins when he connives to do and say those things that will preserve his comfort and security, as if they come from the synod rather than God. He may succeed in his manipulation of the truth, but this slowly turns a minister into a servant of his Father Below and his church into a Synagogue of Satan.

Job's Comforters will always show up when a minister is driven out. They are willing to scrape his sores with some broken pottery, pour salt in his wounds, and gloat. They are really angels in disguise. It is a good time to ask, "Is this what I want to be?" Their self-righteous gloating is a good sign that blessings will follow.

Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. 17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. 19 Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked; 20 For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.

False teachers in power are the surest sign of God's wrath, as Luther taught. If the pastors and members will not serve Christ, then they will serve Satan instead. The four-letter synods (ELCA, LCMS, WELS) are apostate. They comprise about 95% of the Lutherans. The only sect left of any size is the ELS, keeping itself busy as the Amen Corner of WELS. The micro-minis are the locked wards and padded cells of Lutheranism. That there are any Lutheran left in those dark corners is a miracle.

The course of action is to follow the Word and accept the consequences, which must be from God. He accomplishes His entire will through the Word. Luther had no plans, but the largest Protestant denomination in the world bears his name.

Opposition fuels study, writing, confessional thought. Turning oneself into synod-velcro induces torpor, intellectual shabbiness, and grotesque dishonesty.