Lutherans know C. Peter Wagner better than Chytraeus, Chemnitz, and Gerhard.
As I recall, Robert Koester earned a DMin at Fuller Seminary but learned there how bezonkers the whole Church Growth Movement was.
He was often quoted in the background in the 1980s, because all the pastors understood they had to speak softly in Jerusalem, lest it be heard on the streets of Gath.
"Shall we permit this to be done! in the name of Christian unity! and by a latitudinarianism that is our own heritage, which rises ever anew from the embers of the past to find such veiled support and strength in the citadel of Zion that Confessionalism is told to whisper low in Jerusalem lest she be heard on the streets of Gath."
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 941.
I even had a colleague of Herman Otten tell me at his church how much he loved my rips on Church Growth. But when I began talking about CG in this pastor's large LCMS church, with staff around, he made it clear that I should skip over the topic.
This adult study is called:
A Brief Introduction to the Lutheran Confessions,
A Bible Study for Adults.
By Robert J. Koester.
The book follows the order of the Book of Concord. People are going to find that the Book of Concord is the best, one-volume commentary on the Bible they can find. They really have no business buying new Bible commentaries or new editions of the BOC until they know the basics of the Triglotta.
Unfortunately, the study uses the ELCA Kolb/Wengert Book of Concord for quotations and the wretched NIV.
That means two serious mistakes were made. The old Tappert was OK for a small version of the Book of Concord. At least Tappert knew what it meant to be a Lutheran. NPH prints the Triglotta, and Repristination has a one-volume, English-only Trigotta. Why would anyone to the right of Unitarianism want to sell ELCA books for them? Yuk.
It has been shown that the old classics can be reproduced and sold to great advantage. The Bente Historical Introductions to the Book of Concord was once sold as a single volume. The English-only could be reprinted in a more eye-pleasing form.
* - Kurt Marquart used to criticize the Tappert translation, but later Concordia, Ft. Wayne was promoting the ELCA edition, which some call a fantasy version - not the official text. I would rather order cockroaches for my home than an ELCA version of anything. ELCA dropped Sasse and Lenski from its list, but they published the rants of a female Jewish Rabbi! Augsburg/Fortress - a name that will live in infamy.
Look in the back of the ELS and WELS hymnals. They are full of credits for the Liberal Book of Weirdness, which they kelmed with gusto. Why? Publicly, they skewer ELCA. So why is ELCA a leader in hymnal publishing, an example to emulate? The WELS answer is that James Tiefel laid unclean hands on the project. Like his cousin Paul Tiefel (CLC), he is a true ecumenist: he loves every denomination except his own.
WELS CW is set up to look exactly like the LBW. Why? The ELCA leaders are especially good at graphics, flower arranging, and interior decoration. ELCA tried to keep Lutheran out of the LBW title. WELS succeeded. The LBW started the feminist trend with hymns. WELS took it into the Creeds - fully human and other barbarisms.
