Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Are Valid, Orthodox Approaches to Outreach?":
Good comments, Greg! Refreshing: "1.2.3." That's it! That's "all" you need to do as a pastor.
The elders committee at my parish want to go from two services to one because for various reasons we have been shrinking in numbers. The pastor's opinion is to keep it at two because with the choice of two services more people will be in contact with the Word, giving more opportunities for the Word to work. Fewer choices for Sunday Divine Service times usually means fewer people in Sunday Divine Service, taking away more opportunities for the Word to work.
The elders want one service so that we can have a feeling of being full and vibrant again and that will generate enthusiasm, which will lead to growth.
Comments?
Oh, and what about whether the service or Sunday School should be first? And at what time?
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GJ - Once we bought pews from a Shrinker WELS church, because they spread out their pews to hide the loss of members.
One ELCA church turned the worship area 180 degrees. I told the pastor that was great because he could say, "I really turned this church around!"
Combining services usually means losing those who like the time they picked before. More broadcasting of the Word means more fruitfulness.
I don't know when Sunday School should be. I do think parents should train children to sit quietly through the whole service. Times vary with the location. We don't need canon law on that issue.
By the way, when some pastors read the last chapter of Thy Strong Word, they said it changed their entire view of pastoral ministry. I said essentially what I did in the earlier post.
In the name of success, Lutheran churches have given up the two approaches guaranteed to be effective because God's Word is efficacious:
1. Preaching and teaching the Word.
2. Taking the Word to people's homes.
Effective can also include making people angry, alienating apostates high and low, inciting adulterers to riot, etc. The Word and the holy cross go together. That is why, perhaps, so many avoid the Word in favor of entertainment.
