The short answer is - "No." ELCA is just farther along the Pietistic path, in the area known as mindless political activism, agitation in search of a cause.
The new LCMS President, Matthew Harrison, was installed last weekend. In looking for a group photo I found two of my Photoshops in Google images. Harrison must not be using the Google blocker that Tim Glende recommends so highly.
The vote for Harrison was close to 50%. The vote to continue working with ELCA was overwhelmingly in favor of it. Whatever Harrison's intentions, he will begin as a minority SP, working with DPs enabled by Kieschnick, all of them softened by decades of working under Bohlmann and Barry.
When Jack Preus was elected after a similar palace revolution, doors slammed shut when he entered a floor in the synod office building. He got the biggest liars to march out of the St. Louis seminary and to form their own micro-synod "with a portable seminary and a superfluity of mini-bishops," in the words of Neuhaus.
The Left is pan-denominational, with many causes, and they have worked together to ruin all the synods.
Appleton, Wisconsin has 20 WELS churches, yet a fortune has been spent on one new mission--The SORE--which is nothing more than an evening meeting for WELS youth and a few nostalgic Boomers.
If Appleton were turned into a Lutheran circuit, which Englebrecht would never allow, the other New Age circuits would take the lead. The energy driving this beast is Enthusiasm. When one head is nicked, three more grow in its place. No one has the nerve to chop off a head. The most action has been to move one set of devouring fangs to a new position on the body, sometimes for a raise. Oh cruel WELS discipline!
Likewise, Missouri has the same blasphemies paraded as evangelism in the shadow of the Purple Palace. They have had champagne for Easter communion (how festive!), women preaching and consecrating Holy Communion (even before WELS women), and the rest of the rot.
Someone pointed out on the ALPB discussion forum that the majority of an ELCA congregation can disagree with the recent convention decisions and still vote to remain in ELCA. People still find warmth and security in Holy Mother Synod rather than in sound doctrine, even when the senior pastor is working to take them out of their Babylonian Captivity.
of Lutheran should be grounds for dismay.
Cheeseheads care more about the Packers than doctrine and practice.
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WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "Is ELCA Different from the Rest of the Synods?":
"Casual about church?" Christ IS the church! "The growth of church coffee houses?" This is a prime of example of emergent church, which by its own definition, is a new way of "doing church." "Grounds for dismay?" How about grounds for dismissal! St. Andrew, Christ The Rock, Victory of the Lamb, Core, and that new church in Oconomowoc are false churches.
Let me tell you what the pastor at Christ The Rock has been up to! Mark Driscoll wrote the Rebel's Guide To Joy Series. The pastor at Christ The Rock did a "series of sermons" titled The Rebel's Guide to Joy. Even worse is the Bible Information class given by this pastor. It is called, "Life In God's Family." This study is written by Woodrow Kroll. Kroll served as president of Practical Bible College in Binghamton, NY. In other words, this guy "ain't" Lutheran! He endorses cell groups and teaches Descision Theology! The Christ The Rock pastor also did a sermon series on The Role of John. One of Kroll's series books is about the role of John. Kroll also teaches Spiritual Conditioning.
Our Christ The Rock pastor is friends with Ski, wears bluejeans, and hides his communion.(they call it communion devotion) As you can see, the name "Lutheran" is not in the church title. Did I mention that this same pastor was a speaker at a WELS Church And Change Conference?
Where is the discipline? Is anyone reminded of what happened to Richard Stadler and Iver C. Johnson? Yes, these guys were given the left foot of fellowship. Stadler, Albrecht, and Johnson had a little problem with the inerrancy of the Scriptures. These guys, in an essay in 1991, claim that Adam was NOT the head of Eve. Orthodox Lutherans teach the "Order of Creation." These three pastors disputed the doctrine. Read page three of the essay.
WELS used to be strict, did not allow many many things, and was always good for haten' on the women folks. It is time for the WELS to start livin' up to its old reputation again!
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
