Let's Get Groupy at St. Louie

Elmer Gantry, filling a need in every denomination.


Steadfast Blog:


The following post will appear in the Concordia Seminary – St. Louis announcements tomorrow.

Small Groups TODAY!!!

Tuesday, September 28, there will be no daily chapel service. Everyone is encouraged to participate in a small group which will use the devotional tool SOAP: Scripture-Observation-Application-Prayer. Group lists and locations are posted on campus and shared are attached to the Daily Announcements today.

****IMPORTANT****

Attached to this email are the location and group listings in PDF format. Groups and Locations have been updated. Spouses, fiancées, and/or significant others should attend the same small group as their companion.

Dean Burreson (9/28/2010)

Well, first contemporary worship (the verdict is still out on that) and now small groups. There are ways in which these two things can be done in a Lutheran way but bringing them both onto the seminary campus in a matter of a couple of weeks really raises some questions.

Detailed critique will need to wait until we hear more about this new program. For now I will say this. It looks like an attempt to break the so-called “ivory tower syndrome” in which pastors are accused by their parishes of being out of touch with things like feelings, relationships and the real world. I am not sure there is such a problem and even if there is, this does not seem like the answer.

One more thing, I am a St. Louis graduate, so don’t take this as biased. I really believe the recent curriculum changes at Ft. Wayne, where they divide the classes into study and mentor groups, is a much better adjustment to make to the seminary program in order to better form pastors. That program was just going into effect at the Fort when I was finishing up my D Min and it seemed to be received very well. I look forward to our readers comments and insights on these developments. It just does not seem right to me that the seminary Walther founded is dabbling in contemporary worship and small groups.

***

GJ - We should expect Our Lady of Sorrows to turn to cell groups. The papist turned Calvinist Labadie kelmed cell groups from the Church of Rome. Spener kelmed cell groups (and denied it) from Labadie.

WELS/LCMS/ELS all kelm cell groups from Fuller and deny it.

The CLC (sic) kelms cell groups from WELS and...you get picture.

Rogue Lutheran and the LCMS

Dear Pastor Jackson,

This is a very disconcerting post on the NID page,    https://ni.lcms.org/Index.asp?PageID=13028.

If you follow the link you'll see a picture of Harrison with the NID DP Gilbert sitting at a table with 2 other pastors. DP Gilbert is second from the right in a suit.

The article was written by Jackie Bussert and includes the words "Emerging Church".  I don't much about church law, so I'm not too sure what resolution 3.04A means.

I have read enough of Shrinker propaganda that I know when they are overconfident and full of themselves, so much so that they like to telegraph their plans sometimes with disinformation and sometime not.  

 This meeting was in August,  2010, Diefenthaler is the main person on CTCR until 2013 and it was in his district, the SED,  where there is this ASHRAM going and Frank Gillespie was given the left foot and told that "contemplative is here to stay".

http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/WHAT%20IS%20THE%20CTCR-updated%2010-2010-with%20roster.pdf

I read this Bussert clip from the NID website as a veiled message to Shrinker troops that the Emergent Platform is safe and going forward or they are trying to make an idiot out of Harrison.

Also,  the brouhaha over at Steadfast on the hierarchical language to seize church property.

No one has any idea who is on the BOD,  very muchsecrecy going on,  and the suit with the 4 from California is still going forward, they all have their knickers in a knot, looks to be setting a precedent to grab real estate, not that I give a rip about the material side of things anyway.

http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=12379

So, pastor, perhaps I'm reading too much into this "Emergent" clip, but if you have some discretionary time, please let me know how you read it-- I could be over reacting.

Sincerely,

RL

This is the text of the clip but take a peek at the picture, too:

Emerging Churches Affirmed: President-elect Rev. Matthew Harrison, left, and his new director of church relations, Dr. Albert Collver (next to Harrison), met the week following convention in St. Louis with NID President Dan Gilbert and Rev. Torkild Masvie (right), leader of the new Lutheran Church in Norway that has been working with the NID.

 

It was the first official LCMS discussion with an "emerging church” after convention delegates authorized a new process (Res. 3-04A) whereby the Synod president can recognize these groups ahead of the lengthy and formal process denominations undergo in preparation for fellowship declared by an LCMS convention.

 

Recognition by an "official church” is sometimes helpful for emerging church bodies to gain a foothold within their own countries or access to certain benefits.

https://ni.lcms.org/Index.asp?PageID=13028.