God uses false teachers to discipline the Church. When people tolerate despising the Word of God, punishment must necessarily follow.
What unites ELCA, WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie is false doctrine. All four groups have had considerable training in Church Growth from Fuller, Willow Creek, Trinity Deerfield, and other alma-mater-sows of Enthusiasm.
For example, when I attended the Ad Fontes LCA conference many years ago, the late Father Neuhaus spoke (just before joining Rome). He gave a witty critique of the Church Growth Movement because it was so strong in the LCA already, more than 20 years ago. Clergy got up to defend such things as "user-friendly liturgies."
I knew Mac Minnick, an LCA missions executive, who was just as deep into Church Growth as Norm Berg. They knew each other, too! Norm brought up Mac Minnick to me at a WELS conference.
Missouri, WELS, and the ELS have spent the last few decades praising themselves for being such staunch Lutherans while genuflecting to Rome. I was leaving the Purple Palace after visiting with Paul McCain just as Kent Hunter (DMin, Fuller; ThD, Lutheran School of Theology, LCA) was entering. We spoke a few moments. He hastened to tell me he was addressing the Conference of Missiouri Pussycats gathered inside. Where was the protest from Barry, McCain, or the District Pussycats? There was none - 15 years ago.
A clergy member of the ELS Board of Doctrine went to Fuller. He sent a letter to the entire Little Sect on the Prairie, praising Fuller and Church Growth. I believe Orvick eventually extended him the Left Foot of Fellowship, but the ELS continued to kneel before WELS CG teachers. He-who-slept-on-the-Trigotta is their Church and Change pastor now.
The WELS/LCMS Church Shrinkers are so obvious that I collected their quotations and matched them with the eructations of Fuller and Willow Creek. Then I contrasted them with Lutheran orthodoxy. The results were impressive. I was condemned and shunned while they sold two of my books. What would someone with a real doctorate and scholarly publications know - compared to a graduate of The Sausage Factory?
Most telling - the clergy known as conservative or confessional joined in the shunning, which spoke volumes about their doctrinal standards.
When WELS forced all the clergy to pay $100 to hear Larry Olson, James Huebner, and Paul Calvin Kelm speak, at special seminars all over WELS - where was the protest? They all showed up. I allowed that I would go - if someone held a machine gun to my head. They went and bellyached, but they went. Now they are alarmed? Ha.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Despising the Word of God - That Is the Energy Beh...":
It's good I look up words I meet on Ichabod. For instance, I figured that "eructations of Fuller and Willow Creek" was a synonym for "erudition," but I see it means "belching."
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GJ - If thou but suffer Ichabod to build up thy vocabulary, the rewards will be great. I thought eructation was fairly polite. Normally I would say flatulence. Or Dreck.
