Groeschel copy-cat.
"Mars Hill Church lives for Jesus as a city within the city - knowing culture, loving people,
and seeing lives transformed to live for Jesus. That's our mission."
Sound familiar? Ski, Glende, and Bishop Katie went to Mars Hill.I never heard of Craig Groeschel before various WELS members began directing my flinty gaze toward Appleton, Wisconsin - where WELS members are especially dense. I learned that pastors in WELS, always bragging about their superior education, copy Groeschel and other Enthusiasts verbatim, without giving credit. Appleton seems to be the epicenter of that phenomenon in WELS, thanks to the Church and Money Changers, who are also concentrated there.
Money Changer Chairman Ron Ash can look back on his career and say, "Look at all the plagiarists I have sponsored, protected, and promoted. It is well with my soul."
Do not forget, readers, that Appleton is also the home of amoral Thrivent Insurance, whose money pays for plenty of ecumenical programs, not just with ELCA but also with the Salvation Army. Their biggest charity is Habitat for Humanity, the only job Jimmy Carter was qualified to handle.
When I began researching Groeschel, whose training is United Methodist and Disciples of Christ, I learned that scads of ministers copy his sermon series, even his free graphics. These copy-cat pastors belong to many different denominations. They parrot his sermon series, use the same names, and offer the Groeschel sermons in the same order. They publish these stolen sermons on the Internet as their own.
These plagiarists also copy
Driscoll and
Hybels.
I have to wonder why these lazy, lying pastors skip the best part of the ministry - writing the sermon. Producing material for teaching and preaching the Word is demanding but also satisfying. For instance, I just created a PowerPoint on Creation, using the art of
Norma Boeckler. One of my employers encouraged the extra material for students, since they are sometimes new to the material discussed in class. My only thought was to use some ideas to make class more interesting. One student immediate wrote and asked if she could please offer the presentation to her church. (The arrangement is Open Source - "no charge, only giving credit to the author and artist, using the material as written.")
That is a good example of the Seed Growing Secretly, the unique parable from Mark 4.26ff. My initial work was done, but the Word took effect in one person so that she wanted to share my orthodox Lutheran thoughts with her congregation. Imagine a WELS member doing that and surviving!
My Lutheran perspective is always welcomed with gratitude in teaching at two universities. I post a Gerhardt hymn in each course I teach at one school, and I get notes of wonder and gratitude back - "Just what I needed right now" and "What a comforting hymn - never heard of him before."
Sermon writing means grappling with issues in the text. No matter what we think we know, absorbing a text and teaching it to a general audience is a great challenge. One must find the substance and communicate it so a range of ages can grasp it, from young children to great-grandparents. Every sermon exposes the minister to his lack of knowledge and sends him searching through the Word and useful commentaries.
I rely on Luther's Sermons, Lenski, and the Book of Concord. How delicious it must be for the fake Ichabod to plagiarize Groeschel mindlessly while denouncing me for using Lenski.
Publishing my own sermons - not another's I claim to be mine - is also satisfying. I find people forwarding them to their friends. On the Bethany site, which is used just for sermons and quotations, the audience is concentrated in the Third World. This costs nothing. The Internet service is saved each week, and the files are viewed thousands of times. One person asked for The Lutheran Hymnal so he could follow a Lutheran service - that, after being a non-Lutheran and looking for doctrinal clarity. One of my students just asked for a hymnal too, so when exactly does the Word stop working?
Unlike the lazy, lying Money Changers, I do not avoid doctrinal conflict. I welcome it. Every doctrinal battle makes me more aware of the issues and more informed about the Word of God and the Scriptures. I value the spiritual treasures of the Scriptures and Confessions so much that I would never trade them for a big parsonage, a housing allowance, a pension plan, or a paid trip to the Holy Land (Milwaukee).
The Holy Spirit works exclusively through the Word and God is always efficacious in this work. I do not need a synod or a secretive cabal within a synod to tell me I am effective. After all, I am not effective at all - God's Word is effective.
As someone noted years ago, we seldom have a forum where we can speak uninterrupted for 20 to 30 minutes in a row. The pulpit is the exception. That is similar to the unique role of pastoral visitation. No other professional can simply stop by and visit. A lawyer cannot. A doctor will not. Both privileges can be enjoyed and employed with great benefits for everyone, and they can also be abused by the minister and members.
The congregation can demand wolf-preaching, where the fake shepherd tells his congregation what their itching ears want to hear. Dysfunctional members can demand pastoral visits which either condone adultery or apply the doctrine of already being declared guilt-free saints. We all know that rich members appreciate an Evan-jellyfish approach to marrying one's hot secretary. Pastors corrupt the Word, and members often corrupt the pastor, placing the budget above the purity of the Word. Yes, members can be as sleazy as synod leaders.
Eventually one can hope that Luther's teaching of the cross will become valid in our own experience. That can only happen when we can agree that bearing the cross is good and valuable, the best part of preaching. The Old Adam never goes away, so we know how strong his voice is when the Word brings hardship, conflict, sorrow, insults, and shunning. However, on the other side of the storm, after the pain has subsided a bit, the blessings of the cross become clear, and we can see why Luther referred to "the holy, precious cross."
I wish the dishonest looters of the Lutheran treasury would face up to their crimes against the Word, against their congregations, against their synods - and repent. God will preserve a faithful remnant somewhere, but these wolves need to face their sins for their own sakes, because they are facing eternal damnation for their blasphemies.
Nor are the synod leaders, spineless seminary professors, and congregational enablers allowed any room for self-absolution. Every member can Google a sermon and see if it is verbatim from a clown like Groeschel. Every member is well qualified to discern the orthodoxy of the pastor's sermon.
I can only say "Bosch" to those who think they must preserve the reputation and sanctity of their whoring synod. The documentation is already published. Everyone knows the Synodical Conference has been promiscuously unfaithful to the Word while congratulating itself on being conservative. (The micro-mini sects are worse, not better.)
What do you call a synod that pays its pastors to attend Fuller and Willow Creek for training?
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