Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Third Martin?
No, The Third LCMS Seminary



Fuller is Third LCMS Seminary

Here's an interesting quote attributed to Richard John Neuhaus (then ELCA, now Roman Catholic) in regard to the Church Growth Movement:

"Then there is the church growth movement, which has made more devastating headway in LCMS than in ELCA (although it is evident enough in the latter). Today, it is said, Missouri has three seminaries -- St Louis, Ft Wayne and Fuller Seminary in California, the hothouse of church growth enthusiasms. The synodical and district mission offices are frequently controlled by church growth technocrats ... But the idea that Word and Sacrament ministry is somehow validated by calculable results is utterly alien to the Lutheran Reformation ... The triumph of style over substance, however, is all too evident in LCMS congregations that look like Baptists with vestments. As we have noted before, second-rate Lutherans make fourth-rate Baptists."

As quoted by Rev G. L. Jackson, "Truth on the Scaffold: The Fuller Influence on ELCA, WELS and LCMS" (New Ulm, MN: Martin Chemnitz Press, 1996): pp. 23-24.



Larry Oh! (Our Staff Infection) crowed about the same thing in WELS.