WELS President: Church Growth Q & A
November 10, 2008 by Rick
This question and answer recently appeared on the WELS Q & A website. Normally the questions are answered anonymously, but this question was answered and signed by WELS President Mark Schroeder:
"Q: I have one grandfather that was an LCMS minister and another was a WELS minister. I understand the history of their division and I accept the need. What I fear there is a trend in WELS to follow the same route as LCMS. In the desire to increase church attendance many WELS congregations are not making a solid doctrinal stand. Law and Gospel are still present but one must look for it. Do these same concerns exist at our seminaries and synod offices?
A: Thank you for your concern about the centrality of Law and Gospel in our preaching and teaching. God has promised that his Church will endure until Jesus returns again, but he has made no promises that individual church bodies or synods will always be blessed with the pure doctrine. That is why the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:2 are such an important reminder for our synod: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel which I preached to you and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.” In other words, our synod and its congregations will need to be vigilant in holding on to the truth of Scripture and careful to preach solid Law and Gospel boldly and consistently.
I assure you that I share these concerns, and I know that our seminary faculty would say the same. As we face declining numbers in worship and in church membership, we will want to avoid the temptation to resort to methods or “quick fixes” which rely on something other than the means of grace, which alone can bring people to know their Savior and through which the Holy Spirit will work. All efforts to increase church attendance and membership need to be carefully evaluated in the light of God’s Word, not on the basis of “what works.” If we water down the message of Law and Gospel, if we change the message to a generic message that simply tells people what they want to hear (instead of what they need to hear), we will eventually have no gospel message left. We may fill churches, but the danger is that those churches will be filled with people whose true spiritual needs—the call to repentance and the assurance of full forgiveness in Christ—will not be met.
Please keep our synod, its congregations, and its pastors in your prayers as we address these important matters. Thank you for your concern.
In Christ,
Mark Schroeder, WELS president
[e-mail: mark.schroeder[at]sab.wels[dot]net]"
The watering down of Law and Gospel in our preaching and teaching is an extremely serious matter. In these difficult times, please pray also for President Schroeder, all laymen, and the one true Christian Church. We need God’s help.
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GJ - This was copied from Rick, who copied it from WELS.net. There are some hints that Schroeder got his ideas from the Book of Concord. He sure did not learn this at the last Church and Change conference or at the WELS Airport.
Kelm may copy me on this: Faithfulness to the Word is success. I copied that from the ending of Walther's Law and Gospel, and Walther got it from Luther, so you can borrow it from me and pretend you made it up on your own.
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Anonymous said...
I didn't take it that Ben had already sold out to C&C, just as bored with his traditional service and curious about contemporary. I also took him seriously inquiring as Freddy did, and thought he was approaching it rationally. That is unlike many C&C advocates who I think would find Freddy's argument difficult to refute.It's interesting to me, in viewing a bit about Ed Stetzer, it seems his battle is against the conservatives in the Southern Baptist denomination as well, not unlike what the church growth crowd finds in WELS. That really defines it as a methodology for me.And, as kind of an aside, it is curious to me that WELS (even conservative WELS) would rather read something from outside of Lutheranism than something from someone from Missouri. Just an observation. I read Parton's article about white-wine pietists, written over a decade ago, and things haven't changed much. An interesting short read if you have the time.Rob
November 19, 2008 7:51 PM
rlschultz said...
Rob,Your observation about conservative WELS laity reading outside of Lutheranism is spot on. I have noticed that in my own WELS congregation. Lifelong WELS members quickly jump on the latest evangelical book offering without being faithful Bereans. It is very disheartening. One explanation that I heard is that that there is so much that is wrong in the secular realm, that we should use whatever we can from "Christian" resources. All that glitters is not gold. As a WELS lifer, I can say with a great degree of certainty that we have been taught in a subtle way to hate Missouri. Yes, NPH sells some of the more common books of Walther, etc. Apparently, the synodical conference breakup has created a lot of bad blood. Still, it would be great to see WELS members think outside of the synod box. Unfortunately, my assessment is that there is a great degree of ignorance of the Lutheran Confessions among WELS laity. This may explain why we are in the current mess.
November 20, 2008 7:00 AM
Anonymous said...
"my assessment is that there is a great degree of ignorance of the Lutheran Confessions among WELS laity."Which comes from their pastors which comes from the Seminary. Sad, but true.
November 20, 2008 8:48 AM
Anonymous said...
To be honest, I think you are seeing a subtle shift in some of the younger fresh-out-of-seminary pastors, who seem to be taking a more confessional stance. Maybe it's just me, but that's my take.Also, I would suggest that anyone who has any interest in worship (and it seems like most here do) read "Gathered Guests" by Timothy Maschke. It is wonderful book that I found I couldn't put down. It is a book that the worship mavens in WELS think highly of (the Aaron Christies etc.), and is considered to be one of the top resources on Lutheran liturgical worship.Mr. Humility Police
November 20, 2008 10:19 AM
