There is a God has left a new comment on your post "Questioning the Consultant Business in WELS":
I wonder what we mean when we say a pastor "didn't do any evangelism ever"? Does that mean he didn't hang fliers on doors in the neighborhood every Saturday afternoon (that's marketing by the way, not evangelism). Maybe a small church becomes a tiny church because the pastor was faithful in Word and Sacrament ministry. Maybe the consumer culture surrounding the church rejected the pastor's faithful preaching of the Word and administration of the sacraments. Maybe the Pietistic UOJ members of the congregation despised the preaching of God's Word and reception of the Sacraments and so were not moved to share Christ with their neighbors (that's evangelism). Maybe the leadership of the congregation pressured the pastor to produce results (i.e. numerical growth) and so they started piling up "mission and vision" planning meetings during the week to gaze at their navels and lust after the mega church down the street, and so that's why he didn't have time for member visits (unless he neglected his family).
Certainly, laziness in ministry is a sin to be repented of. However, the litmus test to determine whether a pastor is "successful" is his faithfulness to the teaching of the Word. Let's not burden the conscience of the faithful pastor who is shepherding a parish that is experiencing decreasing membership by saying it's because he didn't do ministry hard enough or according to our preconceived notions of what we think a pastor ought to be doing when in fact there is little support in Scripture for our opinion.
***
GJ - I realize that the word evangelism is tainted by the hollow, phony, meretricious recruiting efforts of the Syn Conference professionals. Let's bracket that, as a drunken speaker said at a Notre Dame pastoral theology conference.
People Come for the Gospel Word
A faithful Lutheran pastor trusts in the Word, so he does not hesitate to broadcast it in every possible way. A Fox Valley pastor lunged for his great opportunity this morning - he found a typo in my sermon title. I tried to find the sermon he posted on the Net, but I did not find anything. Perhaps I did not look hard enough.
I post mine every Sunday, usually for every mid-week and special service. I also broadcast them free over Ustream. They go out through my emails and I Tweet them. Readers tell me they email and print them for others. The Bethany blog shows that they are being read all over the Third World, because that blog only posts sermons and quotations. How about that? - we do missionary work for free, without having expensive meetings in Rio and the French Riviera.
Pastors use the Net to plagiarize sermons instead of broadcasting them. They post Swindoll (is he still alive?) devotions instead of their own. They do not trust the Word of God, or they would be writing their own material every day.
The Word Goes Out with the Pastor
A pastor who trusts the Word also visits his members, because it is a special privilege few community leaders have. Priority should go to the sick and shut-in, the families with special problems, and spiritually inert.
A minister can look for opportunities, but most opportunities arise on their own. Hospitals and nursing homes are full of them. When a member dies, all the black sheep of the family show up for the funeral service - or make sure the black sheep is really gone. Either way, the minister has a captive audience, where the only topic should be the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Grieving family and friends have a felt need for comfort. They may imagine they have to perform moving eulogies - to preach their pal into heaven. The minister can guide them into the real meaning of a funeral, where God gives to man instead of asking for a report card with forged grades.
Not Evangelism at All
A former ELCA member told me her new LCMS congregation has done a study. "We have to get involved in the community." I heard the usual list, which was also promoted in the LCA.
Using the church as a community hall is not evangelism. Nor is the invocation at the city council meeting, the Kiwanis club, or the Shriners. Those are cheap substitutes used to prove that "we are reaching out with the Gospel and we are welcoming people to our church."
Patience
We may not see results for years, even for decades. The fruit of the Gospel proclamation will never disappoint in the long run. There is always opposition, especially if early, positives results are obvious. Nothing gets Satan's panties in a knot faster than a congregation with the pure Word of God.
That has to stop. Fortunately for him, he has a large staff at every denominational office and sub-franchise. They all work for him. You must know that by now or you would not be reading this blog.
The Holy Spirit is so strong that He can turn the worst evil into the greatest good. God turned the ultimate persecution of the Gospel, the crucifixion, into the Atonement of the world's sins.
When Satan seems to be driving away the Gospel, God is preparing new fields to broadcast the Word. The Word defeats Satan, and no weapon devised by man can stop the Gospel.
Our Modern Tragedy
Decades of UOJ have destroyed faith in the Word. WELS and Missouri taught justification by faith in their catechisms, until the leaven of the Pharisees (Halle U.) gradually took over.
The useless plagiarists of the Northern District, WELS, have shown the world what they think of the Word of God. Those who want to defeat the effect of false doctrine must first deal with the false doctrine itself.
