Luther - On Judging Whether a WorkIs God-Pleasing

Word and Sacrament, by Norma Boeckler

(Luther makes the following general comment on Romans 2:6-10): "Patient continuance is so altogether necessary that no work can be good in which patient continuance is lacking. The world is so utterly perverse and Satan is so heinously wicked that he cannot allow any good work to be done, but he must persecute it. However, in this very way God, in His wonderful wisdom, proves what work is good and pleasing to Him. Here the rule holds: As long as we do good and for our good do not encounter contradiction, hatred, and all manner of disagreeable and disadvantageous things, so we must fear that our good work as yet is not pleasing to God; for just so long it is not yet done with patient continuance."
Luther's Commentary on Romans, trans. J. Theodore Mueller, Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1976, p. 55. Romans 2:6-10.

Wu Who!

Wu

From Senior Pastor Bill Hybels’ childhood trips to Chicago to Willow Creek’s 20th anniversary event at the United Center, Willow Creek has had a long history in the city of Chicago. On January 19 at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Hybels began a new chapter in that history when he introduced Steve Wu as the pastor of the church’s Chicago campus.

According to Hybels, when Jim Tomberlin resigned as Willow Creek Chicago’s pastor last summer, it became clear that the church’s vision for the Chicago campus had to be put on hold until the church found another campus pastor. As soon as Hybels met Wu, he said he knew God had spoken.

“There’s this huge confirmation in my spirit that not only is he is the right guy, he’s God’s man for the job,” added Jeff Small, who served as the Chicago campus’ interim pastor during the search for a new pastor.

Though Hybels and Small immediately knew Wu was the right man for the job, Wu admitted he was not so convinced. Wu first became familiar with the Chicago campus when he briefly visited a monthly gathering last October. The next day, driving back to Chicago after meeting with Small in Barrington, Wu said he felt the tap of the Holy Spirit and knew God was calling him to Chicago. Wu said he initially had objections about moving to Chicago, and was particularly opposed to the prospect of leaving California’s warm weather and fishing.

“In the weeks to come, my heart completely changed,” Wu told the gathering of approximately 250 congregants. “I fell in love with the city.”

Wu spent years working in California’s Silicon Valley providing leadership in various capacities to Genesis Technology, Inc. and Twin Peaks Software. Then, twelve years ago, he started a church and most recently served as a pastor at Crosswinds Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. With his initial objections about moving to Chicago behind him, Wu is now committed to building Willow Creek’s Chicago campus.

“I so look forward to the day we can say, ‘Look what God has done in this place,’” Wu said. “I am thrilled to the core about Willow Chicago.”

For details on the Chicago Regional gatherings, visit http://www.willowcreek.org/chicago/

Steve Wu
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Steve spent years working in California’s Silicon Valley providing leadership in various capacities to Genesis Technology, Inc. and Twin Peaks Software. Then, 12 years ago, he started a church and most recently served as a pastor at Crosswinds Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wu is now committed to building Willow Creek’s Chicago regional campus.

Who?

Willow Creek Community Church's Senior Pastor Bill Hybels has announced the resignation of the head of the church's Chicago campus because of "sexual impurity."

The Rev. Steve Wu has left as campus pastor of the Chicago branch of the South Barrington megachurch. He's "taken full responsibility for his sin," according to a church statement.

Hybels, who founded Willow Creek, hired Wu in 2006 to lead and help establish Willow Creek Chicago, which held its first service that year.

A church elder read a statement on Jan. 25 during services at the Chicago congregation announcing Wu's resignation. Church spokesman Ted Allen Miller said the church's staff was told of Wu's departure the next day, while Hybels told the South Barrington campus the news earlier this month.

Willow Creek, with its 20,000 members, is routinely listed as one of the most influential Evangelical churches in the country.

The church's statement also read that Wu wants to participate in a restoration process. Miller didn't have details of what that would entail.

"Our desire is we reconcile and restore," Miller said.

Miller would not provide further details.

According to Willow Creek's Web site Wu worked for years in California's Silicon Valley and also started his own church in California. He also served as pastor Crosswinds Church near San Francisco.

Willow Creek Chicago convenes inside the city's historic Auditorium Theater. Todd Katter is serving as interim campus pastor while church officials search for Wu's replacement.

"We would ask you to pray diligently for Steve in these difficult days," the church's statement concludes.

My Doubts about the Quia Subscription to the Book of Concord

Someone wrote a correction to a comment where someone used "in so far as" in relation to Luther, the Book of Concord, and the Scriptures. That is known as a quatenus subscription to the Book of Concord, according to Dogmatics 101. If you do not remember the corrective comment about this, it is because I decided to pursue the topic later. As I recall, the original comment was not meant to diminish the Confessions in any way.

The quia subscription is defined as agreeing with the Book of Concord, because (quia) it is a proper exposition of the Scriptures. Supposedly, quatenus is the moderate position on the Confessions.

I do not like the distinctions or the practice of signing a statement, as some do when joining a congregation. Like the distinctions between one subscription and another, the practice has become meaningless.

If I can play the role of James, Brother of the Lord, on this topic - a quia subscription--without standing for the Confessions--is a dead and meaningless term.

Some LCMS pastors remember the Barry years through the filter of convenient memories, but SP Barry set the stage for the Kieschnick years by doing nothing about false doctrine. Not only that, the newly installed Barry experts tolerated no criticism from conservatives while the management team courted the liberals and empowered them. Unionist Benke was absolved instead of disciplined, so the spineless administration kicked the can down the street for others to handle without administrative support.

Kieschnick has shown how to discipline. He is taking the radio show Issues, Etc to court for using a name the synod abandoned years ago. The lawsuit may be entirely without merit, but simply explaining details to a lawyer can cost thousands of dollars before the case even starts. The St. Louis seminary almost buried Christian News under a frivolous lawsuit. Someone provided insider information to Otten, ending the matter, but that person will never be ordained by Missouri. No good deed goes unpunished in the Church Triumphalistic.

Paul McCain's blog marked the death of Luther, which was yesterday, reminding me of the WELS/ELS amen chorus for Gerhardt's hymns. Would Luther, who never backed down about doctrine, recognize McCain, who has no position, as one of his own? McCain recently praised apostate Richard J. Neuhaus for helping Missouri sit down with the Antichrist and offer their spin on Lutheran doctrine. According to McCain, B-16 was impressed.

Why would the ELS and WELS glorify Gerhardt when their seminary leaders are identical in character to those who drove Gerhardt out of the pulpit for being a Lutheran? The seminary leaders value empty sentimentalism over action against false doctrine. When Valleskey said aping Fuller Seminary was "spoiling the Egyptians," an ELS pastor gave an Amen! paper at the ELS conference. The ovine--in truth, lupine--pastors were silent. Both disgusting papers were published in the officious journals of their sects. Did anyone react? Did the faculties rebel in horror? I walked up to John (Sparky) Brenner and asked him how the Mequon faculty could publish such tripe. He said, "Write a letter," and "The editor has been sick." More telling was his shock that anyone could question their seminary publication, which should be renamed The Popes Speak. So Brenner too kicked the can down the street. The problem went away, if one ignores Leonard Sweet, Brother Stetzer, and the Emergent Churches springing up as if by magic.

The quia subscription of WELS, ELS, LCMS, and the micro-minis is set aside by the unwritten rules of each sect:

1. No one with an official position can ever be questioned.
   
2. No one related to a given family is ever wrong.
   
3. No one who rocks our little boat will be forgiven.
   
4. No false doctrine, once published, can ever be retracted by our little sect.
   

So what does a quia subscription mean after a layman or pastor goes through all the unwritten rules in his mind? The Book of Concord is a rabbit's foot for the vast majority of pastors today. Very few laity know the content of this great book of Biblical exposition. Many pastors are openly scornful of the Confessions and Luther, and they do not hesitate to communicate their attitudes.

Everyone would be better off with a thorough knowledge of Luther's Large Catechism. Most of the errors promoted by the clergy today are answered by that rather small work of supreme quality. That could be why the Large Catechism is shunned - too clear about each issue. Trying the Eighth Commandment ploy would be as difficult as an armed robbery at a gun store. The Matthew 18 gambit would be laughed at as people recited what the Large Catechism says about published errors and known miscreants.

I am suggesting that actual study of the Confessions is preferred over a rabbit's foot quia subscription. When I look at how often the pastors have retreated from the field of battle, I conclude they must have misundstood the term. They must have heard "an Ikea subscription."


Ikea is known for its cheap, do-it-yourself furniture.