rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Those Who Cannot Do - Consult":
It is abundantly clear that the Synods are suffering from Megachurch envy. Naturally, they are a day late and a dollar short. In fact, they look rather silly when they try to ape the nearby megachurches. As has been stated here on Ichabod, second rate Lutherans make fourth rate Babtists. Narrow-minded, you are correct about implementation. Employing the Means of Grace is all that we are asked to do. The Lord frustrates our efforts when we play that earthly numbers game.
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Those Who Cannot Do - Consult":
In the secular realm, it may be necessary to retain the services of a consultant or a consulting firm. It usually is only temporary. Even an attorney could be considered a consultant, since the legal world is often very complicated for the average person to unravel. These Shrinker consultants just do not seem to go away. One would wonder who would want to earn a living being a Shrinker consultant. If I were a pastor, I would want to take care of the flock with the Means of Grace. Since I am a layperson, I expect to be on the receiving end of the Means of Grace.
My theory is that Shrinker Consultants simply do not want to get their hands dirty. Serving as a pastor can get very ugly at times, especially in American Lutheranism. Synod politics has got to be distressing to those with the wrong last name. For those who would rather rub elbows with muckety-mucks, they actually have to expend little effort. Would you rather study a text in Greek or Hebrew, or Kelm a sermon? We know which is easier to do.
Even hobbies which satisfy require much time and work. Gardening used to be a necessity years ago. Many enjoy gardening because of what you learn about soil, weather, and growing conditions. Certainly, the aches and pains come along with it. Even when you have have bad rsults, you can learn much.
I just cannot comprehend what enjoyment a Shrinker Consultant can get by charging exorbitant fees, hanging out with unsavory characters and scamming the unsuspecting. It just seems so dishonest.
2 comments:
Even WELS pastors can avoid doing the dirty work. A pastor I know didn't do any evangelism ever, and in his 17 years at a somewhat small parish, he didn't make it though the member directory even once as far as pastoral visits go. No wonder the rather small church became a tiny church. When he came the church was a third full each Sunday, but when he left it was less than a sixth full, if that, and the church was well placed in a growing community!
Once he said from the pulpit that one would expect at least two new church seekers each Sunday, but that never happened, and he never made any effort to make it happen either, but nevertheless he wanted to collect a big salary.
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.
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