Commercialism Strangles Congregational Stewardship

God must not bless commercialism in His Church, because the money-changers in the Temple always drive out good stewardship.

The biggest problem with selling to the public while remaining a church is the effect on the conscience of the congregation. Soon the church members and synodical leaders are not ashamed of anything.

They all fit the old Jewish joke which goes like this. Sadie says, "If I had Rockefeller's money, I would be richer than Rockefeller." The friend says, "How?" Sadie says, "Because I would do some sewing on the side."

So the congregation and synod think Thrivent gifts and pie sales are extras. In fact, the sewing on the side suppresses giving.

One congregation got $1,000 every year from the Dow Foundation. All they had to do was write a thank-you letter. Every year they said, "We are $1,000 behind, but we will get that from Dow."

When people relie on outside sources, they trim their giving back accordingly.

The double dose of poison from Thrivent and Schwan is this - The apostate leaders control the funds (their money) and grow very lax about reporting them. People think, "They have extra money." Giving slides downhill while the genuine needs grow.

The gap grows faster because the extra money goes for luxury Wild Hair projects. No one would fund them from offerings if they knew the truth about them. So the officials spend their money (in their febrile minds) on their projects and beat up the congregations for being so stingy and mean.

The late St. Marvin of Schwan actually enabled the bankruptcy of WELS and Missouri with his outlandish gifts. They blessed his divorce and second marriage, and this is how he repaid them!

Killing and Killers

Thou shalt not murder.

Secondly, under this commandment not only he is guilty who does evil to his neighbor, but he also who can do him good, prevent, resist evil, defend and save him, so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him, and yet does not do it. If, therefore, you send away one that is naked when you could clothe him, you have caused him to freeze to death; if you see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. So also, if you see any one innocently sentenced to death or in like distress, and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. And it will not avail you to make the pretext that you did not afford any help, counsel, or aid thereto, for you have withheld your love from him and deprived him of the benefit whereby his life would have been saved. (The Large Catechism, Fourth Commandment, #189f, Book of Concord)

First of all, there are the cases of two WELS church workers who killed their wives. Al Just was a teacher at Arizona Lutheran Academy when he claimed his wife rolled over on a steak knife so many times that she died from the wounds. The jury convicted him. Al married his children's babysitter while in the hoosegow. The president of Martin Luther College was a character witness for Al. Busloads of brainwashed sect members came to support good ol' Al at his trial. He was convicted but spent very little time in the slammer.

WELS Pastor William D. Tabor was found in Milwaukee with a dead wife on his hands. He was allowed to move from Salem, Milwaukee to a new call in Escanaba. He never served time, but his mistress did. WELS had accepted him by colloquy even though he was a known serial adulterer.

How much hatred or cowardice must church officials have... when they condone and cover up for murder?

There are other types of murders that take place routinely. Thanks to the meddling of church officials (ELS, WELS, ELCA, LCMS), faithful pastors are driven from the ministry. Church officials encourage the parish to be cold and merciless to the former pastor. Congregations are divided and wounded. Families are alienated. Friends are lost. The financial cost is enormous for the minister, but there are prices to pay in other areas. For instance, few children of church workers today want to follow their parents in the same vocations. The main problem - contempt for their parents expressed in so many ways by the church officials. Rather than serving as buffers between the pastor and congregation, the officials serve as Iagos, enabling the murder of Desdemona while clucking their pious tongues.

Lest we forget, ELCA pays for the murder of unborn babies in the denomination's health plan - for any reason. Only an apostate could sit in the same room with ELCA leaders and plan religious efforts with these corpse-cold murderers, whose outward compassion does not keep them from ending the lives of the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak, the unborn. Still, the old Synodical Conference (WELS, LCMS, ELS) gladly works with ELCA, especially through Thrivent grants for pan-Lutheran projects.

Praise Music Doesn't

"You Are My All in All"
copyright, Dennis Jernigan, 1991 Shepherd's Heart Music

You are my strength when I am weak,
You are the treasure that I seek,
You are my all in all.
Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord to give up I'd be a fool, [fuel is a better rhyme here]
You are my all in all.

Jesus, Lamb of God -- worthy is Your name.
Jesus, Lamb of God -- worthy is Your name.

Taking my sin, my cross, my shame,
Rising again, I bless Your name,
You are my all in all.
When I fall down, You pick me up,
When I am dry You fill my cup,
You are my all in all.

A columnist for The American Spectator Online has written a fine critique of praise music for a conservative, political magazine. Is that a recursive? - critique of praise.

Here is what he wrote:
"IT IS AN INTERESTING PARADOX. Churches devoted to rigorous, difficult theology -- real Christianity, in short -- have largely adopted praise music, mainly to get people in the doors. In doing so, they have denied their parishioners an intimate connection with the art, the music, the poetry, and the history of the faith of our fathers, embodied in hymns."

He did not name the pain - Church Growth - but his diagnosis is accurate. Ever since I was ordained in 1973 I have tried to introduce good Lutheran hymns to Lutheran congregations. Ministers often take the easy route and favor the Methodist-Baptist hymns found in Lutheran hymnals. Lutheran hymnal editors have increased the icky song content in each new edition. Add to that the pit bands in the chancel and Cousin Brunhilda singing ridiculous twaddle to a back-up tape. I was shown Ron Freier's church in Michigan. Very large. He featured pop music. His son, Mark Freier, carried things farther along, left the Lutheran church, and perhaps left the ministry. The Wisconsin Synod had nothing but praise for Mark as he apostacized.

The Freier saga could be retold with variations in many other WELS families. The father stays in the synod while turning Baptist. The son does an extreme version of the same routine, with hosannas from the synod hierarchy, and leaves the Lutheran Church he already abandoned in substance.

I can imagine more than one son saying, "Pop, I did what I learned from you. Besides, the synod printed me up in bulletin inserts and praised my holy name all the while. They sent me to Fuller and paid my tuition at Willow Creek."

The worse thing to befall any pastor is the praise, support, and encouragement of the Wisconsin Synod. "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" 2 Samuel 18:33

Let us turn our attention to the praise music copied above. I am teaching creative writing at the moment. I would give this ditty a D in a spirit of compassion. As a Christian song the hackneyed words deserve an F.

The song is really praise of self, like most praise music. Remember Augustine's great statement about two loves and two cities? This song represents the Love of Self and the City of Man. A Pharisee might cloud up during its rendition. A real church musician would cry in shame. A sincere Lutheran pastor would hide in the sacristy. Worship is the ultimate expression of a congregation's doctrine, a synod's doctrine. Lutherans have stampeded to study at Fuller and Willow Creek. Is it a wonder that they sound Baptist-Pentecostal and worship in the same spirit?

To get people in the doors, Lutheran churches have sold their heritage for a bowl of soup. They have denied their own doctrine so long that they hate it without knowing what to love. Twenty years ago, I told DP Robert Mueller what members experienced visiting WELS churches in Florida. Thanks to the frenzy of Church Growth there, the members said, "The only way we could tell those churches was Lutheran was by reading the sign outside." Mueller glared at me for questioning the wisdom of this anti-Lutheran, anti-Christian movement.