bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Getting Dirty with God - Church and Change at St. ...":
How Kieschnick put a nail in the coffin of LCMS.
Back in 2000 a study noted that within ten years half of LCMS clergy would be eligible to retire. So at some point the decision was made that pastors could be paid their pensions without retiring. This naturally drives up the overall age of pastors. At the same time, synodical funding of the seminaries went to almost nil, so the tuition rose to the point where only second career people who had a lot of money to burn could attend. Daniel's Preus' son quit seminary because it was too expensive. However, second careerists may be near or beyond retire age as soon as they enter the ministry!
Unfortunately, ministers attract people of their same age group, and more often than not turn off people who are younger (see the article below). So the LCMS's gray clergy means having a graying synod membership. It would be better for the LCMS to have a pastor shortage and non-retirement age pastorate than the alternative:
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/researcher.anticipates.further.church.decline.in.2010s/25949.htm
excerpt: He warned that aging clergy posed another challenge to the main denominations, as research has found that ministers tend to attract congregations of a similar age.
“The problem is that the ministerial age matches the congregation but not the people they need to reach,” he said.
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GJ - I am not sure that ministerial age equals congregational age. There is a general greying of the mainline denominations. That started in the 1970s in the LCA. The mainlines got scared decades ago and fell for the Church Growth Movement, which manipulated them into spending millions on tricks, gimmicks, foul doctrine, and bad music. Missouri and WELS fit into the mainline definition, so they joined with the LCA/ALC, then ELCA in lavishly funded idiocies together.
The Boomer executives are incredibly self-centered and greedy. They grab the offering money for themselves and their friends, calling it "missions" and "reaching out with the Gospel." They deny funds to the deserving in the name of shortages, using budget tricks. Then they brag about their wonderful good deeds.
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diet-o-worms (http://diet-o-worms.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Another Episode in Lutheran Self-Destruction":
http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=10368
LCMS estimates the average of congregations is 56. A few more years of Ablazin'-Cash, and the weighted average age should be north of 70.
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GJ - God has punished Missouri long enough with Kieschnick. Ablaze! (tm) has burned up more cash for less value than anything since the Schwan font of loot gushed over WELS. Ditto - the ELS. They did send Pope John the Malefactor around the world, but unfortunately it was a round trip.
