with budget advice from Gurgel!
Patterson is once again having his annual youth service next Sunday.
ANNUAL YOUTH WORSHIP SERVICE:
On May 10, Mother’s Day, the high school youth of our congregation will be leading us in worship both 1st and 2nd services. If you are a high school youth and would like to be part of this service, please contact Chad White.
For the last few years Patterson has allowed a teenage girl to lead the children's message. That is happening again this year. Some vicars have questioned him about this. Parlow has done the same at St. Mark's of Willow Creek, and Randy Hunter has a young woman "administering the Means of Grace" at Latte Lutheran Church.
WELS AnswerMan:
Q. Is it proper for a woman to give the children's sermon in the front of church during the church service? Also our church, in an effort to get more people involved with the work of the church, has set up worship teams, made up of men and women, to plan out the worship services. Is this in line with our stance on women's roles in the church? What about a woman who leads the opening devotion at a small (8-10 people) mixed meeting?
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A: There is, of course, no reason that a woman cannot teach children or that adults cannot witness a woman teaching children, as for example, in Sunday school, VBS, or a camp out. The sermon in the service, however, does not seem to be the place to do this. If there is going to be a children's sermon within the service proper, one of its chief purposes is to help the pastor establish a bond with the children and to connect the children more directly and more pointedly to the preaching of the pastor. We do not have other people besides the pastor preach sermons in the service under normal circumstances. It does not seem wise for a pastor to transfer to someone else this opportunity for him to connect his preaching to the children. We should not assume that it takes theological training to preach to adults but less to take the truths of the sermon and set them forth clearly on a level for children.
The ultimate responsibility for planning the services rests with the pastor. He naturally can consult with the musicians, choir directors, and with committees or congregation members concerning plans for the services and to obtain feed-back on what people find to be most helpful. Our pastors receive training concerning how to put the service together so that the parts re-inforce the main message of the day and season. Again, we should not assume that it takes theological training to preach the sermon but not to plan the service. This too is part of the work the pastor is trained to do.
In the last part, you are not very clear about what you mean by a mixed meeting. If it is a women's meeting that men happen to be present at, for example, when husbands might go along with their wives to an LWMS rally, the women can have their devotions as they normally do. In a family the father might have all of the members of the family including the children present devotions, so that they learn how to do it. A teacher might do the same thing in the classroom. The size of the group would not make a difference. The purpose and nature of the group and the purpose and nature of the devotions are the factors that have to be examined.
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God's tool belt for unity
A judgmental spirit on disputable matters.
Author: Donald W. Patterson
What needs to be fixed? A judgmental spirit on disputable matters.
What should a person wear to church? With which political party should a Christian align himself? Is contemporary or traditional worship more God pleasing? Can a Christian practice birth control? Should a Christian family send their child through secular education when their church has a Lutheran elementary school? Does God want us to give at least 10 percent of our income to him for gospel outreach? Should we cut staff at our church, school, or in the pastoral office? Should we close a prep school or not?
All of these questions at one time or another have divided Christians and upset church unity. And all of these questions are about disputable matters. The Bible does not settle them clearly. We shouldn’t either. We are certainly entitled to our opinion, but we cannot judge our siblings in Christ if they choose differently. Our unity comes from the love of Jesus that purchased our souls on Calvary, not on agreement on disputable matters.
The apostle Paul helped the church in Rome come together in Christian unity although they had differing opinions about eating meat. In his words we have a compass to help us navigate the waters of disagreement on disputable matters.
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand (Romans 14:1-4).
Familiarize yourself with the tool
How can a person who has a more strict personal habit have the weaker faith?
How is it that two people can have faith in Jesus but their faith will not allow them the same freedoms?
Reread verse 3. What reason did Paul give to people on both sides of the argument so they would not look down on each other?
Look at verse 4. What is really happening when we judge another Christian because he disagrees with us on a disputable matter?
Use the tool
Identify a disputable matter in your own Christian congregation or home. List at least three ways you could show the people on the other side of the issue that you accept them.
Why might you read this passage right before entering an important voter’s meeting for your congregation?
Find a Christian who has a strong opinion on a disputable matter. Listen to his opinion with an open mind. Find out what led him to that conclusion. Then ask him to read Romans 14:1-4 with you. Ponder how this passage creates unity between you.
List three reasons why it is important to keep disputable matters from becoming main topics of discussion in your congregation.
Contributing editor Donald Patterson is pastor at Holy Word, Austin, Texas.
This is the seventh article in a 10-part series on Christian unity.
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GJ - Nothing is more fascinating than canon law at work in WELS. On the one hand is a list of ordinances (AnswerMan). On the other is the escape clause (Timmerman other others saying: just about everything in worship is adiaphora).
For years, Church and Chicanery has been getting away with women teaching men, women usurping authority over men. Why vote on women's ordination? WELS considers ordination number 51 on its list of adiaphora. Besides, they started it a long time ago.
I doubt whether Vicar Tiefel has trouble with a teenage girl preaching in church. His father had that going on at the Sausage Factory chapel a long time ago. The ELS did the same at their famous Copper-top Chapel.
The pastoral office is primarily Predictamt - preaching service. The proper role of a pastor is to preach, teach, and visit. Transferring the role of preaching to a girl for the Mother's Day service is an intentional violation of 1 Timothy 2:12.
KJV 1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
The official WELS ecumenical NIV is no different:
NIV 1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
Has anyone objected to Patterson organizing last year's WELS pilgrimage to Exponential, the Merchandise Mart of Enthusiasm in Orlando? The theme this year is The Art of Movements, ideal for BMers - Becoming Missionals.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "SP Candidate Patterson To Feature Teen Girl Preach...":
No one objected to Patterson going to Exponential. They used the tool just like they were told to do.
