Pastor Jeff Gunn (known as Pastor Gun at Church and Change) at work.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Question on Community Churches":
Regarding the following FALSE comment: "CrossWalk Church in Phoenix, Arizona does not offer holy communion." We are members of CrossWalk Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and we receive the Lord's Supper twice a month.
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GJ - Here is a statement about the Holy Spirit on their watered-down doctrine page:
ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son in power, authority and majesty. Since we cannot by our own thoughts or choices believe in Christ or come to him, the Holy Spirit calls us to faith through the good news of Jesus Christ. He makes us aware of our sin and deep need for Christ. He also draws us to Christ by working through the word of God and Baptism. After drawing us to faith, the Holy Spirit then carries out the work of renewing us through word and sacrament – giving us power for Christian living, understanding spiritual truth, and guidance in doing what is pleasing to God. As Christians, we strive to live under his control daily. -- 2 Corinthians 3:17; John 16:7-13; John 14:16-17; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 1:13; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 5:18.
Their doctrinal page is so vague and non-Lutheran that a Methodist could agree with it.
This part has Universalism in it:
ABOUT SALVATION
Salvation is God’s free gift to us. It comes to us through no effort or decision on our part. We can never make up for our sin by self-improvement or a life of goodness and kindness. God won salvation for us by loving us, sending his son Jesus Christ to live a perfect life and die a sacrificial death as our substitute. It is through this act of Jesus that salvation became ours. Even faith is not to our credit, for there too God provides his Holy Spirit to create faith in our hearts and minds. Salvation comes to lost mankind by grace alone, through faith alone, in God’s word alone. -- Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 14:6; John 15:5-16, Romans 3:20-26; Acts 16:31; Romans 10:17.
The website has been re-designed, apparently. I have not found the services of Holy Communion. Maybe they are stealth services, held on Wednesdays (like Willow Crick's). I saw that the supposed member cannot sign his or her name. Stealth members of a stealth church. How existential!
The doctrinal page does not have a statement about the efficacy of the Word, the Real Presence, or justification by faith.
They brag about 350 people there on Sunday. Members? Seekers? Future Unitarians?
Rick Miller, Kelly Voigt, and Mark Freier started Crossroads Community Church in South Lyons, Michigan. WELS DP Robert Mueller and VP Paul Kuske loved it. Now the congregation is overtly non-Lutheran instead of being covertly anti-Lutheran.
I predict the same future for CrossWalk.
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NorthWest wrote: "You are right about [CrossRoads] not being Lutheran. Crossroads is a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Formerly Swedish Covenant. It began as a pietist movement in the Swedish Church, and then became influenced by Methodism. Today it is a more conservative Methodist church somewhat like the Nazarene."
So the Michigan District of WELS started an Evangelical Covenant Church? And that sect is also devoted to the Church Growth Movement. That is pretty neat. I never started a congregation for another denomination. Kuske, Mueller, Miller, Voigt, and Freier should be proud.
I once got an angry phone call from a Sausage Factory graduate. He shouted at me that CrossRoads never happened. I said, "I was there when it was developing." The facts matter little to those obsessed with Holy Mother WELS. However, the CrossRoads website does give credit to Miller, Voigt, and Freier, all lauded by WELS as stupor-stars of Church Growth at the time.
Are those three founders of CrossRoads still Lutheran?
That is the future of Church and Changers, too.
