Their children are Little Rockers. Next - recruiting for the KISS Army.
The Open Letter to WELS has a statement that may puzzle some, as it did me:
"Worship is not a Means of Grace."
Many WELS members have not heard the term Means of Grace for 20 years, unless they stumbled upon my websites. Now worship is not?
I did some questioning for clarification, and the answers were satisfying. The authors drew upon a pastor saying this, meaning - and this is important -
Worship is not an event for recruiting new members.
Following is my explanation and why this distinction is crucial.
Calvin, following Zwingli, declared that the Holy Spirit operates independently from the Word and Sacraments. That is what Luther and the Book of Concord editors called Enthusiasm - the foundation for all doctrinal error. For example, the LCMS pastors leaving Missouri for Rome or Constantinople are just leaving one Enthusiasm franchise for another.
Because the Church Growth gurus are all trained in some form of Calvinism, whether Double Dutch TULIP or watered down Arminian, Baptist or Babtist, not one of them believes in the efficacy of the Word. The Holy Spirit works independently of the Word, as they imagine, so they must make the Word effective, germane, and attractive to others.
Thus every service is an attempt to apply man's wisdom to make the dead, lifeless Word of God become real, relevant, and relational (Ski channeling Groeschel).
Thus the WELS Friendship Service parroted Fuller Seminary, and Valleskey urged his loyal followers not to use the Biblical, Aaronic blessing.
Nothing should turn off unchurched Harry, as Willow Creek's Hybels solemnly declared, and WELS paid people to learn from the Obi-Wan of Chicago. So WELS pastors began posting a notice in their bulletins that "We don't expect visitors to donate to the offering." The same bulletin often marketed Thrivent insurance.
The Rock N Roll services at St. Marcus (Milwaukee), St. Mark (Depere, WI), and Round Rock (TX) are all affirmations of Calvinist doctrine. The Word is dead by itself, so they must goose it up with exciting music.
The Sacraments? Sunday is for recruiting, so the altar and baptismal font are replaced by a performance stage. I heard Hybels tongue-lash his Sunday audience for not showing up for the real worship service on Wednesday, when they offer communion. (I know - not the real thing - but their version - a memorial meal, symbolic, an ordinance.) So Ski was excited that his movie theatre was getting a performance stage.
Why do the Church and Change pastors used plagiarized sermons from false teachers? The false teachers like Groeschel, Stanley, and Driscoll know how to market themselves to those nominal members who hate church and love entertainment. Almost all the CG membership comes from other churches. It is not skimming the cream, but skimming the skimmed milk. Nevertheless, the effect is to adulterate and diminish the Word in all congregations. The contagion spreads.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Worship Is Not a Means of Grace--Explained":
This explanation is a great way to explain the difference between the "Church and Changers" in the WELS and the liturgical Lutherans in the WELS. Just how they see Sunday worship is so different that there actually is a "different spirit". My husband is a WELS pastor and he and I will be teaching our children who are close to being on their own how to look for a church since you no longer can just look for the WELS affiliation. We will look on the Evangelical-Lutheran Liturgical Congregations website. (The ELLC directory.)This is more helpful than which synod the church belongs to. Sorry, WELS, you really blew it as a synod.
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GJ - That's nothing. One WELS pastor told his congregation, "If you move to a town without a WELS church, join a Baptist church." This WELS pastor was Church Growthy. When his comment got back to him, he denied saying it.
When Ski and Katie were at Granger Community Church for more training--they leave town a lot--they met a former member of St. Marcus, who had joined GCC. Ain't that cute? So WELS has done a great job of training members and pastors to leave Lutheran doctrine and worship altogether. St. Marcus seems to be central in this effort, and WELS promotes LutheranTime of Grace twice on its WELS.net website.
