Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "St. Matthew in Appleton":
“the ignorant membership drives out the excellent confessional pastor by making his life miserable and constantly pressuring him to change (i.e. why can't we be like those nifty modern churches?), replaces him with a series of young, "hip," CG apostates, and then sits back and watches the church shrink.”
While this no doubt happened in some cases, it flows counter to church governance where ideas and initiatives are cascaded down from the pastor through the board of elders, to the church council, and to the members for ratification. CG apostates generally infect other pastors, churches, and members with their swill about being like other growing congregations. It spreads like cancer until it is removed or killed. Frequently ‘confessional pastors’ get pressure to alter direction. There is a lot of peer pressure amongst pastors to go along to get along. That is how survival works in the synod.
Then, are ignorant members really the root cause? No, it comes in from other hotbeds of CG advocates. They get to the pastor in one way or another to adopt CG claptrap. While at it, they infect the members, too.
A truly confessional pastor has the support of the elders and council, and he does not allow the apostasy to take root. The process is complicated and stealthy, certainly not simply the result of “ignorant membership.”
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GJ - I know of many cases where WELS Shrinker pastors have meddled in target congregations. It is true that the members should not cooperate with those who meddle, but the wolves know which members are vulnerable to flattery and manipulation. A few people can be used to make life miserable for the pastor. A case in point is The Love Shack, previously known as 2929. There the Gurgle-appointed Shrinkers fight against the duly elected Synod President.
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Survival of the synod and member churches hinges on their ability to disinfect themselves of the Church Growth Movement. CGM becomes all consuming and takes many forms loaded with false promises and pontification. The CGM works tirelessly to replace the Word and work of the Lord with new tools and techniques, more plant and equipment, and their own twisted thinking. None of these things work of course.
In my experience, its usually a combination of factors which cause a normal congregation to descend into church growth madness. The usual case is that of an orthodox, but weak-willed pastor being intimidated by a district president. He opens the door to the shrinkers just a tiny bit and then the shrinkers find their allies in the congregation, usually retired little-old ladies who stay at home too much watching the nutcase TV preachers and are influenced, deeply, by their theology and phoney charisma. I saw the case once of a congregation president that disparaged liturgical worship and then indignantly demanded its return a few months later due to the fact that the rock n' roll wasn't "working." No one in lay authority ever defends anything on theological principles...good or bad, just "what works." I quoted the Augsburg confession in church council meetings and people looked at me like I was some kind of kook. Its enough to make one weep.
Doesn't anyone know "what works" anymore? Christ provided living examples yet hardly anyone will go out and share the Gospel with the lost.
Apparently doing so does not provide the sought-after secular rewards of instant gratification and more money. Christ never promised a rose garden. He said that followers need to take up His Cross.
Substitution of man-law, foolishness, and egotistical claims do not work.
Is a split in the works yet? I cannot think of another way we can get our synod back to it's former self and get rid of those who've strived for years to change it into something that is no longer God-pleasing. These folks should have just left in the first place to make their own With it and Hip Lutheran Church instead of hijacking the WELS. That way they wouldn't run into any opposition. Oh wait minute.. they haven't run into any yet anyway.
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