ELCA Convention - Everyone Is Meeting This Summer

Here is the boring ELCA agenda:

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, in his sixth year as ELCA presiding
bishop, will chair the assembly. Hanson is also president of the
66.7-million member Lutheran World Federation (LWF), based in
Geneva, Switzerland. Assisting Hanson during plenary will be the
Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, and Carlos Pena, ELCA vice
president, Galveston, Texas.
Hanson, who was elected presiding bishop in 2001, previously
announced he will be available for possible re-election at the
2007 assembly. Almen, who has served as secretary since the
formation of the ELCA in 1988, said he will not seek another
term.
Each of the ELCA's 10,389 congregations may send one
representative to the assembly as an official "congregational
observer."
In addition to the elections for presiding bishop and
secretary, the assembly will act on:
+ a proposed social statement, "Our Calling in Education," a
59-page proposal prepared by a task force with input from
throughout the church. Dr. Paul J. Dovre, retired president of
Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., and Christi Lines, principal,
St. Paul's Lutheran School, Waverly, Iowa, co-chaired the task
force. Social statements are social policy documents, adopted by
the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, addressing significant social
issues.
+ a "Blue Ribbon Committee on Mission Funding" proposal for
stewardship education and mission funding. The ELCA Church
Council formed the committee to study funding policies and
practices of the ELCA. The council is the ELCA's board of
directors.
+ a renewal initiative for the church, "Book of Faith:
Lutherans Read the Bible," aimed at helping members to engage the
Scriptures, and for intentional teaching, understanding and use
of Lutheran approaches to Scripture.
+ a proposal to affirm the church's work to introduce
"Evangelical Lutheran Worship," the ELCA's newest worship
materials introduced in 2006.
+ a proposal to commit the church to greater engagement in
response to HIV and AIDS through development of a churchwide
strategy for the coming decade.
+ budget recommendations for 2008 and 2009. For 2008 the
Church Council has proposed a budget of $81.67 million and an
ELCA World Hunger income proposal of $19.25 million. For 2009
the council recommended a budget of $81.92 million and an ELCA
World Hunger income proposal of $20 million.
In addition, the assembly will:
+ elect 11 new members to the Church Council, and others to
various boards and committees that work in partnership with the
churchwide organization.
+ act on several constitutional amendments to be presented
for consideration, along with resolutions or "memorials" from
synods, and proposals from assembly voting members. A churchwide
Memorials Committee will meet June 29-30 to determine its
recommendations on synod assembly memorials to the churchwide
assembly.
+ hear reports on multicultural ministries and justice for
women. The Church Council commended the content of each report
"for study, reflection and response throughout this church."
+ hear reports and greetings from representatives of the
ELCA's ecumenical partners, other church bodies and church
organizations.
+ recognize the 100th anniversary of Lutheran campus
ministry and the 60th anniversary of the LWF.

Turning the Liturgy into the Law Luther's Bear Story

Most people have not heard of Ulrich Leupold, my worship professor at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. He was a musical genius, earned a Ph.D. at the University of Berlin at the age of 23. He became a pastor after that. Persecuted for being part-Jewish, he escaped and settled in Canada.

My bride and I moved to Waterloo, Ontario, in December of 1969. Leupold only taught one more class before he began dying of a degenerative disorder. I was glad to have been one of his students.

Leupold spent the semester calming the students down about "must." Some thought the liturgy must be chanted. A few thought it must not be. Leupold admonished us not to make preferences into Law. About chanting, he said: "Chanting is fine as long it is does no harm to the throat of the pastor or the ears of the congregation."

The papalists were beginning their Long March (like Mao's) through the church. Soon everything was Law, especially in reaction to Fuller Seminary dogma. Some LCA pastors divided their congregations over such things as heaving themselves onto the altar and telling them they had never worship properly before. Their worship professor at Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, was fired for producing such divisive, Roman legalists.

Luther's bear story is instructive. He wrote about a bear who attacked two brothers. One got out a knife to stab the bear and killed his brother instead. Luther used the story, probably true (knowing German efficiency), to illustrate how the Anabaptists killed infant baptism in order to slay the pope. Ironically, Wayne Mueller used that story in an official letter to defend the use of Baptist sources, manipulating his quotation from Luther. When I answered his deception in Christian News, President-in-Waiting Mueller said to a group of pastors, "If I ever get my hands on the guy who gave Jackson that letter..." I was already free of WELS at that time, so someone obviously leaked. The name is on the tip of my tongue. Nope, I forgot.

Back to the live bear and dead brother. The more contagious the Fuller people have become, the worse the papalist party among the Lutherans. Proof is the number of Lutheran pastors who have poped to become priests or semi-poped to become Eastern Orthodox.

I favor dignified worship over Baptist entertainment seeker services. Below are some opinions in harmony with the Leupold warnings:
1. The purpose of worship is to convey Christ to the congregation through the efficacious Word, not to recruit new members through seeker services, entertainment, gimmicks, being ashamed of the liturgy, Creeds, sermons, and Lutheran hymns.
2. If pastors and congregations do not trust the Word, they should stop using the name Lutheran, which fills them with shame, and find a new affiliation.
3. Holy Communion might be offered every Sunday, as it was during the Reformation, but no one should make that the Law, as if a congregation is less than Lutheran for having the Lord's Supper once a month.
4. Closed communion--not close communion, not demi-semi-open communion--is the only appropriate expression of the sacrament. Liberals love open communion, but boy can they excommunicate when they are crossed. And they excommunicate for life. Therefore, I favor excommunication for all false teachers.
5. Since the congregation chants, it is logical for the minister to chant. However, two things distract from worship - a horrible singer like me, and a performer like Opera Man.
6. Romanizing tendencies are just as contagious as Fuller addictions. The Lutheran Church should not make Rome the final word on anything, yet Lutheran pastors are following the three-year reading cycle of Rome, the new color schemes, and other mistakes. Would a straight ministerium change the colors? Ask yourselves that. The priests changed the colors. Why should Lutherans follow?
7. The Eucharistic Prayer (ELCA, Missouri) takes away from the simplicity of the Consecration. Can anyone deny that the idea is to create more of a performance and focus on the minister? Liberals can hide behind Romanizing trends because they can worship the concept of worship without trusting in the Object of worship, Christ. No one despises the Gospel more than a faithful priest of Rome while diligently mastering the art of the Mass. High church can turn into as much of a performance as a Fuller-Willow Creek Seeker Service.
8. Lutherans should avoid terms associated with the Church of Rome. Perhaps "Father" might be seen as neutral, but the word suggests Roman doctrine or Anglican tendencies today. The same is true of Mass and other terms. Insisting on these distincitive words in the name of Reformation-Fundamentalism is just another form of legalism. Luther wore the robes of an Augustinian monk for the first eight years of the Reformation. Must I as well?
9. I like incense, always have. I have never used incense and probably never will. I doubt whether most Lutherans associate incense with Lutheran worship. One ELS pastor said he knelt during the Consecration (like a priest) "to annoy the WELS pastors." That strikes me as a poor reason to ape Rome. A better way to annoy some WELS pastors is to quote Luther.
10. The sermon should never be neglected, no matter what the excuse. Most laity arrive at the Sunday service in need of the Gospel, not tarted-up pep talks, coaching, Law harangues, and begging for more money for the synod or other worthless causes. The congregation can only be built on the Word, not on social activities. The Law bears no fruit and offers no comfort.

Would You Buy a Used Synod from This Man?

President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller issued this formal denial in the midst of the WELS Church Growth tidal wave, which he supervised and promoted:

"There is no Church Growth Movement Program in our synod. Our church body is opposed to the false theology of the Church Growth Movement. We have no programs inside or outside the budget with that name. Nor do we have any programs with a different name which utilize Church Growth theology."
Wayne D. Mueller, Administrator for the Board of Parish Services, WELS, "A Response to 'Saving Souls vs. New Programs,'" The Northwestern Lutheran, November 1, 1991, February 1, 1992, p. 50.

In the same article, Wayne Mueller provided an escape clause for his previous official denial:

"There may be pastors or congregations which use methodology which church growth people use. This does not mean they have adopted the theology of the Church Growth Movement. Our Lutheran Confessions allow complete freedom among our churches in methodology that does not conflict with the gospel."

A few months earlier, the editor of The Northwestern Lutheran (now Forward in Contagion) solemnly declared:

"A number of experts on church growth principles added muscle to the conference. Among the experts were George Barna, George Gallup Jr., Lyle Schaller, and Tom Sine--icons in the church growth movement...Of the four church growth experts mentioned above, I have heard three of them speak at some length." [On opposing page is the letter about Church Growth which Wayne Mueller answered] James P. Schaefer, The Northwestern Lutheran, October 15, 1991, p. 63.

Just to make sure everyone knew how beloved the Church Growth Movement was and is in WELS, Jeb Schaefer, added with a twist of his meat cleaver:

"I share the judgment of Prof. David Valleskey that one 'can probably pick up a few helpful hints' from the church growth folks."

There you have it folks. The vote at the WELS convention will be for or against the Church Growth Movement.