Just the Facts

Patterson Readies SP Bid as the Next Doctrinal Pussycat, South Central Babtist District, WELS

Patterson hosted an Easter egg hunt, an odd bow to paganism from a Christian leader.
Oh I could write a funny, about our Easter bunny.
He'll be the grandest DP in the SP parade.
Kelm will be in clover, and when they look Don over,
I'll Photoshop dead zebras for the SP parade.
Oh Chicaneries, Chicaneries, the Ichabods are waiting,
And you'll find that you're in the next dozen posts.
And I could write a funny about our Kudu bunny,
And of the Shrinker campaign in the SP parade.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Outreach and Canvassing":

Word from the pew is that Gurgel is positioning Patterson to be the C&C presidential at the next synod convention.

Glaeske is about to retire and Patterson is poised to take over as district pope of the southcentral. Then watch the rock and roll churches grow.

Welcome Confirmation from the Shrinkers

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Trusting God's Will in His Word":

 "helping their Father Below"

Greg, strange that these words would come from your mouth since it seems this is exactly what you do, what this blog is for, all of your motivations come directly from a deep-seated need to please your Father in Hell.

***

GJ - Diablo (not his real name) just asked me about hate-mail from the Shrinkers. I stopped letting their comments through because they had two different blogs (anonymous, of course) and deleted both of them.

According to this brave soul:

1. Satan wants the best Lutheran hymns posted for people to read and sing.
   
2. Satan enjoys having Luther, the Book of Concord, Chemnitz, Chytraeus, Gerhard, Gerhardt, Walther, Jacobs, Schmauck, Loy, Reu, and Robert Preus quoted.
3. Satan prefers the KJV to the NIV, ESV, and the Living Bible.
   
4. Satan hates the Church Growth Movement and loathes hiding the liturgy, creeds, and Sacraments.
   

The Shrinkers think opposition to their faded fads is Satanic.

Outreach and Canvassing

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Are Valid, Orthodox Approaches to Outreach?":

Thank you so much Pastor G J! I have been meaning to ask you this question for some time. Could you provide some examples of out reach and canvassing? I am on the church evangelism comm. and would appreciate your helpful knowlege. Church and Change is not an option. We do not need the assistance of false teachers.



From WELS church lady


***

GJ - I provided some outreach examples before. With canvassing, I suggest picking a neighborhood and simply inviting people to church if they have none. Having a doctrinal piece to give them is a good idea - Not one that says "We are a friendly church with a lot of programs to suit your felt needs." Most churches are not that friendly; moreover, the Word converts - not love. I said to a WELS gathering that promoting the "friendliness of WELS" was not a good idea. M. Manthey said, "Greg, that was cruel."

Many are looking for solemn, digified, liturgical Christ-centered worship. Adults do not want kiddy sermons and arky-warky floody-muddy songs to sing. If they do, there is always a Shrinker sect to patronize.

We printed "We Still Believe" and used that all the time. We also paid for doctrinal ads in the newspapers.

Any approach should be Word-centered and not measured by man's concept of success.

Blogger on the Word

Psalm 91
Thinking Back
When your boy grows up and joins the military, you can not help but entertain a reverie of memories. In one letter from home, I told my son that I remember when he was a newborn baby, upset and crying, and I rocked him to sleep in the old rocking chair my grandmother gave me. She told me that my father had rocked me in that rocker when I was a baby. And that my grandfather rocked my father as a baby in it too. And that my great grandfather rocked my grandfather as a baby in the same rocker.

Here is what I remember clearly (and told my son): When I rocked him as a little baby in that rocker I spoke the words of Psalm 91 to him (I memorized the whole Psalm when I was in my early 20s). I patted his back, and rocked, and thanked God for this precious firstborn child, and I spoke Psalm 91 to him...and he would calm down and listen. On several occasions I did this. I told him as a baby that it was his life verse. And I told him as a 21-year-old Army recruit that it was his life verse.

I sent him a copy of Psalm 91 and I told him that the part I liked best is in the end, when God speaks:

“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high,
because he has known My name.
He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation.”

***

GJ - I do not know this man's confession of faith, but I have found many who believe in the efficacy of the Word with infants, something clearly taught throughout the Scriptures. I recall a Baptist writing in Christianity Today that dedicating a baby (Holy Baptism without water) stays with the child for life. As a result, most anti-pedobaptists (Pentecostals, Baptists, and Babtists) have infant dedication services. Oral Roberts did one on TV, but warned that he did not believe in infant baptism or baptismal regeneration. Tis funny that false teachers proclaim their opposition to the clearest Biblical doctrines.

Two Services Or One?

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?

***

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.

Trusting God's Will in His Word

Some Evangelicals mistakenly write about alter calls.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Are Valid, Orthodox Approaches to Outreach?":

Very well put Greg. Very well put. I think I'll print this out and put in on my fridge when tempted to listen to those who "fan the flames of discontent" and sow seeds of the same among the formerly faithful.

Rather than doing what you present here, and being discouraged with carrying the cross of rejection, the majority now rely on trying to make it more palitable to the masses and a world that they cannot believe is rejecting the beautiful Gospel. "How could they" they claim, "we must be doing something wrong in our approach. How can we make it more appealing?" At this point it is worthy to remember Jesus' words...Matthew 5:13-15

13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

So, why are so called "true to the Word" churches trying to hide their light? That is actually what is happening, when they have believed the deceptive words and works of those who have succeeded in telling them essentially that the Word is not enough.

Bullocks.

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GJ - The whole Shrinker crew in WELS, ELS, Missouri, CLC (sic) and ELCA operate from the same assumptions. They even use the same words borrowed from Fuller, Willow Creek, and the new/old Emerging Church types - Leonard Sweet, Ed Stetzer, Andy Stanley, Driscoll, Groeschel, and Beeson.

These Shrinkers are simply training people to leave the Lutheran Church, one baby-step at a time.

To make matters worse, the WELS Shrinkers use Lutheran terms to adulterate them with the Shrinker toxins. For example, Bruce Becker, as head of Perish Services, asked, "What--besides the Means of Grace--are you doing to grow your church?" (Paraphrased)

James Huebner, now First VP, openly mocked the efficacy of the Word in print, but I do not recall him ever retracting his error.

The WELS Perish consultants or assistants, Mission Counselors, and staff were all hired to promote the Shrinkage movement. They skimmed WELS offering money to start Church and Chicanery. (Did Thrivent think it was too ludicrous to fund?) The Chicanery conferences and The Love Shack Staff overlap one other in personnel, but the core leaders are Mark Jeske, Don Patterson, and the Appleton bunch.

The foundational error of all these false teachers is denial of the efficacy of the Word alone. For that reason, they shun the Means of Grace (except as a rabbit's foot) in favor of salesmanship and entertainment.

Luther said, "Satan is enraged that a mere man could stand up to him with the Word."

The false teachers ignore the doctrinal questions and say, "You are a bad person, so your comments do not count." They have a variety of methods to do this, and they are as underhanded as possible when busy helping their Father Below. That is why so many pastors and laity mute themselves on the issues.

Muting has not worked well for the last 30 years. Nothing much is left. God has promised that anything is possible with the Word. Lutherans must begin with trusting the Word alone and not being ashamed of the Gospel.

What Are Valid, Orthodox Approaches to Outreach?

Anonymous

Anonymous said...

Just curious here, what is the valid, orthodox form of outreach? Say you keep the Divine Service and all things Lutheran (not running from your name and attempting to retain whatever form of confessional Lutheranism - even seeking greater alignment with our Symbols), what is a historical approach as far as community outreach and who should be conducting whatever that may be? I mean, what should pastors and lay people be doing with regards to reaching out in their communities?

Rob

***

GJ - A pastor has only three tasks:
1. Preaching the sermons.
2. Teaching adults and children.
3. Visiting his members and potential members.

The impact of the Church Growth Movement has been seen in two major areas:
A. Sermons are no longer sermons, but practical talks, and they are copied from various sources on the Internet.
B. Members are trained to do the pastor's work of visitation, while he stays in the study, downloading more cool stuff to borrow. Probably very little visitation of any kind takes place. Cell groups supposedly substitute for spiritual care.

If members are in the hospital, shut-ins, or dealing with grief, they should have pastoral visitation as a priority - above all other work. The modernists have substituted counseling in the office as a substitute for pastoral visitation. One liberal bishop discussed once how that inevitably led to trouble and pastoral downfall.

In the area of preaching and teaching, relying on the Means of Grace has always been the strength of Lutheran practice in those rare places where Lutherans were not copying the Reformed. Luther did not have a program of outreach, except to broadcast the Word as widely as possible. He trusted that God's Word was identical to God's will.

The opportunities are endless for teaching and preaching the Word of God. Sunday is a unique opportunity to speak without interruption for 20-30 minutes, in the sermon alone. The liturgy, Creeds, and hymns are additional proclamations of the Promises of God.

Email bulletins, blogs, websites, Internet broadcasts, local radio, and many more opportunities exist to teach the Word of God. Why wouldn't every pastor put his written sermon on a blog each week?

If the pastor and his members are well versed in Biblical doctrine, the question is not how outreach is done but whether it ever stops. The opportunities present themselves in many different ways. False teachers like the JWs and Mormons actually come to the parsonage to be tutored, even though they leave in a rage.

The attitude of the pastor, members, and synod should be an emphasis on faithfulness to the Word rather than results. The climax of Walther's Law and Gospel quotes Luther on this topic. The Word of God is always effective and always bears fruit.

Unfortunately, the mission counselors and alleged evangelism experts are always in a fever to get results. They fan the flames of discontent in the parish, so that members are not upset over blatant false doctrine but over "bad numbers." See Waldo Werning and Kent Hunter for many examples of this kind of thinking and Fuller-copied false doctrine.

Neighborhood surveys are a tough but worthwhile way to reach people. We had college students help once. They came into contact with a former member who had gone over to the Pentecostals. The woman was delighted to come back to Lutheran worship with her children. She pointed out how the Pentecostals required all their "successful programs" and made people buy $20 notebooks for each required program. It was all Law. So I would argue that one family rescued from legalistic Pentecostalism was success.

Every baptism and communion service is a success. How can the Andy Stanley robots talk about the Gospel and hide the visible Word of the sacraments? The hiding tells more about their attitude toward God's Word than all their blabber about outreach.

A Christian funeral is Gospel proclamation to an entire extended (and perhaps dysfunctional) family at once. Neighbors and friends from all confessions and no faith at all come and listen respectfully to a Gospel sermon.

Weddings, as difficult as they may be, are another chance to speak to a large crowd about the Gospel in marriage, the value of children. A faithful minister will find strangers nodding in agreement during the sermon, others frowning in opposition. Results!

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed (Mark 4) teaches us not to worry about the the Word landing in the right place, soil which is always affluent and suburban according to Shrinker mission counselors. Instead, the parable teaches us to scatter the Word without being anxious about where it lands. Franzmann wrote a hymn about that topic - "Preach Ye the Word."