The Intrepid Lutherans have a series on sectarian worship.
The difference is not between Lutheran and sectarian worship, but between worship and entertainment.
I will concede that sectarian worship is the springboard for this nonsense, since they often see the Sunday service as their recruiting and evangelism point.
Nevertheless, the model for Church and Change in WELS/ELS, Church Growth in Missouri, and Emerging Church everywhere is entertainment.
Pat Robertson happened to buy (with help from his father's affluent friends) a bankrupt UHF station, and he barely kept it going. Many credit Jim Bakker's tear-soaked plea for money with saving the Robertson dream.
Robertson, Bakker, and Paul Crouch, all connected at one time or another, shared the same model for their shows - entertainment.
The entertainment model took over Protestant churches through the growth of Fuller Seminary, which has about 4,500 students at a time. Fuller became the largest post-grad school for Missouri and most likely for WELS. The ELS did not stay pure, no matter what they claim. One member of the ELS board of doctrine sent a letter around, suggesting that everyone go to Fuller too! Kincaid Smith, borrowed from Missouri/LCA, got his DMin in Church Growth at Ft. Wayne.
He at least admitted in print that he hated my criticisms of Church Growth.
The CORE
The CORE (stealthy WELS) follows the entertainment model exclusively. Someone who leases a movie theatre, buys a popcorn machine, and gets a soda fountain is in show business. Ski conveys any and all false doctrine, cheered by his fellow Fox Valley pastors. It does not matter that all his content is from Craig Groeschel. Glende does the same thing, proving that contact sports do more brain damage than previously acknowledged.
That is also why their hero, Andy Stanley, hides his doctrinal bearings too. People go to the Drive conferences to be tickled and to hear the same management/leadership drivel I have heard at insurance meetings. A group of people may start dancing all of the sudden (sinful for Babtists) or may freeze in place. Organized, crafted coolness. People talk about gimmicks like that and come back for more. They want to go home and copy cool, relevant relationship gimmicks.
Victory of the Soccer Camp
This is another WELS fiasco. When people attend church, to stretch the term, they are handed a drink and a snack as they go in. People are less respectful than they would be in a movie theatre, which is where they gather.
They brag about their numbers. They should, because they are ashamed of being Lutheran and ashamed of the cross.
Why Am I Here?
That is all someone needs to ask when attending these circuses starring various clowns who all imitate one another: Am I here to be entertained?
WELS-ELS-LCMS inability to counter this will haunt their failing synods for decades to come.
They could end it by applying the Word and studying the Confessions. They could even begin by reading the overlooked book Entertaining Ourselves To Death.
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rhs (http://rhs.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Intrepids Off Course on This Set of Posts":
This is a beautiful synopsis of what is wrong with religion today. It is all show and but a stage. Too bad the synods do not see how foolish they look. If I can see it, God surely sees it, and despises it!
