The hilarious video posted below should encourage people to study the genre of Contemporary Christian Music, better described as Contemporary Charismatic Music, or even Contemporary Cult Music.
The Way International is a quasi-Christian cult. Their videos, linked here, are exactly like the entertainments of the Church Shrinkage Movement.
The Tendrils paper, mildly critical of Church Shrinkage in WELS, lavished praise professional quality of the CGM services. Supposedly the Church Shrinkage congregations offer high production values in their entertainments.
I have attended two of the most famous: Willow Creek in Chicago, Community of Joy in Phoenix. Their Seeker (or Sneaker) Services were boring, superficial, slick, and dull to the point of nausea: Amateur Hour...far far far Off-Broadway.
The services were entirely lacking in the Gospel. That is the only important point.
WELS members should be alarmed that their own ministers are training members to drift over to The Way International, Pentecostalism, the Charismatic Movement (Pentecostalism in the mainline denominations), and Mormonism.
"There he goes, exagerating again."
- Item - Mark Freier, once a WELS pastor highly promoted by dunderheads in the synod, is now performing weddings for atheists and Hindu couples. Daddy Rev. Ron Freier was deep into CCM. I saw the set-up, the pit band, the audio equipment.
- Item - Crossroads in South Lyons, Michigan, started by WELS pastors, is now completely or honestly unLutheran. So are those three pastors.
- Item - Coral Gables, Florida. The church building was sold to the Roman Catholics.
- Item - the closeted Calvinists in WELS have been persecuting Lutheran doctrine for 30 years.
- Item - the unionists of WELS have arranged a bevy of union programs and services, from the pan-denominational worship conference at an ELCA college to the various ELCA-LCMS-WELS evangelism and worship programs (Joy Radio show) over the years.
- Item - WELS had a bunch of missionaries turn Pentecostal at once. It was somewhere in the Pacific, so no one noticed. Those who did notice were told not to talk. Shall Pentecostalism in WELS be told to speak softly in the Pacific, lest they be heard on the streets of Milwaukee?
Liturgical Lutheran worship is Christ-centered and glorifies God through the Means of Grace. The liturgy is Scriptural. The hymns are doctrinal, inspiring, and uplifting. The sermon brings the Savior together with the individual, because the efficacious Word conveys Christ to the listener and the listener to Christ.
Closeted Calvinists make fun of traditional worship because they do not believe in the efficacy of the Word. They do not wish to glorify God but themselves. Thus they are always scornful of traditional Lutheran practices. They substitute what they have copied from their Pentecostal-Evangelical pals, who copy from the world of entertainment.
