Part 4
Fads can be successful in bringing in members for a period of time. In the long run they leave behind large buildings devoted to social events and suppers, an apathetic congregation indifferent to doctrine and tired of being busy. Trying to turn an activity-oriented congregation into one which honors the Word is very difficult. The fun and games members will leave in droves. In contrast, a congregation devoted primarily to the Means of Grace will generate enjoyable activities without the pressure of trying to get something from it. One woman argued against having a voting booth in the congregation this way, “We have done that for several years and we did not get one member from it. So I say let’s stop.” The voting booth was a convenience for the neighborhood, but it seemed odd to me that one would expect people to say, “While we are voting, let’s join that church.” Similarly, members have been angry when people did not join after they built a new building or after they installed pews for the first time.
Pastors, no less than anyone else, tend to think in terms of material success. They would also like to see droves of people, a treasurer exasperated by having too much money, respectful handshakes at the Kiwanis’ luncheon, and hymns of praise from synodical officials. However, this pattern of thought must be constantly countered with the reality of the cross always being attached to the Word. We can easily give up the cross, as Willow Creek Community Church has done, but we must also give up the Word of God with it and be ashamed of the Gospel, as all the creek jumpers are. It does not take very long for a shift in mentality to take place in a minister, to become a man-pleaser, to resent the cross, to think only in terms of the unbelievers, to forsake the spiritual needs of the congregation in favor of keeping a worldly peace. Doctrinal turmoil and family crises can shake this Old Adam and Old Nick attitude loose, but family and friends will often make that response burdensome by scorning the difficulties involved in taking up the cross daily.
J-1033
"If only the preachers remain orthodox and the doctrine is preserved, God will grant grace that among the multitude there will always be some who will accept the Word; for where the Word is pure and unadulterated, it cannot be without fruit."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1125. 1 Corinthians 15. Letter to town council and congregation, Creuzburg, 1543.
Crisis: The Alleged Pastoral Shortage
Opponents of independent congregations used to say, “Where will you get pastors?” Now they are saying, “Where will we get pastors?” The Missouri Synod has projected a collapse of clergy vocations in the next 20 years, which they seem to be addressing with quickie non-degree programs. They are also closing and merging congregations.
J-1034
“If the downward trend in the number of clergy continues as it did during the 1988-1997 period, the study suggests, there could be only 2,220 parish pastors in the Synod (compared with the 5,187 reported for the end of 1998) by 2017.”
LCMS News, January 24, 2000.
The Wisconsin Synod has closed down half of its seminary, graduating 60 seniors in 1987 and about 30 now.519 The shortage is already so noticeable in WELS, they have more requests for assignments than they have graduates, both among pastors and teachers. In the 1980s, when I was trolling for orthodox books at Trinity Seminary (ELCA) in Columbus, a bookstore employee said the school had turned into a ghost-town. ELCA has the advantage of ordaining both sexes and the undecided as well.
What has caused this incredible shortage? It is pan-denominational and beyond hope of an easy fix. I believe Martin Marty and Richard Jungkuntz, starting their careers in the Synodical Conference and retiring in ELCA, both identified the problem when they retired. Both made the observation that their fathers were impoverished church workers when they were growing up. Each man pointed out that his father was respected, both in the church and in the community. Neither son admitted his role in tearing apart his denomination in the name of promoting Unitarian doctrine. But we seldom get a cure from the people who identify the disease. That requires a different doctor.
In the past, all denominations respected the Word of God to a great degree. Yale University once taught the historical accuracy of John’s Gospel and accepted Adam and Eve as individuals rather than symbols. The shift away from the authority and inerrancy of the Bible was subtle, beginning in the early 1900s and accelerating after the Depression, when cost reductions centralized denominational power and leveraged the mischief caused by key figures. The efficacy of the Word did not fade away overnight. As many Lutherans know, the Seminex crisis in the 1970s galvanized the Missouri Synod to such an extent that conservative leaders could pack a huge church just by announcing a meeting about the issues. Previously, the Wisconsin Synod and Evangelical Lutheran Synod had many special meetings about the doctrinal issues going back to the 1950s. During those decades, many held their heads about the pain and suffering caused by the doctrinal conflict. They remind me of the pastors who used to complain about how many packed the church for confirmation day, how many suddenly showed up for Christmas and Easter services, and then longed for the day to return when they saw banks of empty pews that once were filled. The ennui is universal in the Lutheran Church now.
Christian News proposed some answers for the clergy shortage, all dead wrong. Every solution was a Law remedy, including forcing the Missouri Synod district presidents back into the parish. The clergy shortage has been caused by a lack of respect for the Word and therefore a lack of respect for the people who preach and teach the Word. One of the first signs of this lack of respect was the greed of the synods in forcing the cost of seminary onto the students. Seminary tuition was once free but now costs as much as graduate school. Many have taken on crippling debt to become a pastor, but at some point people just say, “I cannot do this.”
J-1035
"Just so it is also at present: Where true pastors and preachers are so poorly supported that no one donates anything to them, and moreover what they have is snatched out of their mouths by a shameless and unthankful world, by princes, noblemen, townsmen and farmers, so that they with their poor wives and children must suffer need, and when they die leave behind them pitiable, rejected widows and orphans. By this very many good-hearted and very clever people are more and more discouraged from becoming pastors and preachers."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, IV, p. 214. Seventh Sunday after Trinity, Mark 8:1-9.
All the large congregations could easily adopt students and pay their tuition, but they are, for the most part, too self-centered to care. I interned in a congregation where the highly paid senior pastor took away the annual gift given to seminary students, saying they did not need it. My home congregation asked for a small gift back once, because I began working as an intern for the princely sum of $300 a month. Shepherd of Peace gave $100 a year to prep school students but decided that was too much and took that away. It was roughly two weeks tuition at that time. That behavior would encourage children to rush off to an expensive prep school and become a pastor! A WELS prep school was costing over $5,000 per year in 2000. Bethany College (ELS) was $15,000 per year. Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary charged around $6,000 per year. Previously, someone who graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and received a call was given a refund of all his tuition, a tidy nest egg for establishing a home. The refund was canceled at the peak of seminary enrollment because it was “expensive.” Tuition costs are much higher in 2011. A WELS prep year is $8,700. Martin Luther College is $15,250 per year.
J-1036
"Who would want to enter the ministry for the sake of money and assume the trouble of bothering with people by comforting or rebuking and excommunicating them? It is a very irksome office. I had rather learn a trade than for the sake of money incur the disfavor that befalls a preacher. For he has to be like an owl, which is picked on by all the other birds."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 951. Matthew 18:18.
The amount of money paid in salaries is not the key issue, since full-time ministers can now earn a decent salary and benefits. The problem is a general lack of respect for the Word being translated into contempt for pastors. (Teachers also feel the brunt of this contempt and many refuse to become parochial school principals, aggravating the pastoral shortage since pastors are often moved into these positions.) The lack of respect is communicated in many different ways, both on the synodical level and at the congregational level. The synods have all signaled their rejection of the divine call by stepping into congregations and meddling, deliberately causing problems and encouraging destructive members to fire their pastors. The old Lutheran Church in America protected pastors against this abuse at first but, just before merger, gave every bishop the power to remove ministers without cause or compensation. This meddling is especially corrupting, because genuine complaints against pastors who are grossly negligent or sexual predators are turned aside by Lutheran church officials if the pastor is their buddy. However, if the pastor has irked these very sensitive church officials, any destructive member, who may be a Pentecostal or an adulterer or an alcoholic, can become the official’s channel into the congregation’s life. I know a number of critics of the Church Growth Movement who have been driven out of the ministry for good by synod officials. They were faithful ministers who did their work, but the synodical Pharisees could not tolerate their astute observations (which were far milder than anything I have written).520
J-1037
"We have the comfort of this victory of Christ—that He maintains His Church against the wrath and power of the devil; but in the meantime we must endure such stabs and cruel wounds from the devil as are necessarily painful to our flesh and blood. The hardest part is that we must see and suffer all these things from those who call themselves the people of God and the Christian Church. We must learn to accept these things calmly, for neither Christ nor the saints have fared better."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 263.
Some clergy meddle in congregations where they do not have a call. It even happens among independent congregations, where outsiders see a chance to step in and harvest something for their feeble egos. Nevertheless, if someone tries to interfere, he can get nowhere if he is identified and repudiated for his attempts. When Pastor Gerry Abenth met secretly with members of my LCA congregation and bragged about it in a letter, the council responded by rejecting him as a supply preacher. They regarded his behavior as disgraceful. If this attitude prevailed, there would be more ministers and less meddling by clergy.
J-1038
"Let the preacher of the Gospel be sure that he has a divine call. Moreover, it is expedient for him to follow the example of Paul and highly praise and exalt his calling before the people (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:14) so that he may gain the respect of those who hear him, just as a royal ambassador highly commends his embassy. This is not vainglory but a necessary glorying, because he is glorying, not in himself but in the King Who sent him, whose authority he desires to have honored and held in holy respect. And when in the name of the King he wants anything done by the subjects, he does not say: We pray you, but We command; we want this done. But for his own son he says: We pray, etc.”
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 925. W 40 I, 56f.
Remarkably, pastors who have retired from a congregation or accepted another call often sin worse than synod officials in making themselves important, injecting themselves into a situation where they do not belong. This attitude also shows contempt for the divine call and the Means of Grace. It accelerates the decline of the learned ministry. Many people who would like to attend a congregation drop out when they become sickened by the nastiness created from meddling pastors. Conversely, ugly conflict attracts the worst kind of member and generates a false sense of unity based upon a common love of creating conflict.521
J-1039
District presidents: "A bad situation exists when a pastor retires but stays in the congregation where he served, and then continues to interfere in the ministry of his successor... Some retired pastors do what they should not—conduct funerals, weddings, etc. without the permission of the pastor or the congregation affected... Some retirees keep their nose in the business of their last parish... Some retirees meddle in the parish and undercut... the pastor of the congregation (where they last held membership)."
Kurt Brink, Overcoming Pastoral Pitfalls, Albuquerque: 1992, p. 125.
J-1040
"But one thing no retired pastor who loves the Lord and his brother pastors will do IS INTERFERE IN THEIR MINISTRY! The retiree must 'let go' altogether of any and all interference in the parish from which he retired; failing or refusing to do this may result in resentment, disunity and bad feelings which can seriously disrupt the progress of a congregation."
Kurt Brink, Overcoming Pastoral Pitfalls, Albuquerque: 1992, p. 126.
J-1041
"Here are examples, in some cases already alluded to by District Presidents:
1. Performing weddings, funerals and Baptism without first consulting his successor or the pastor of the congregation;
2. Still striving to retain a leadership role in the congregation from which he retired. RX: The retiree is essentially and actually a lay member and must not serve in any pastoral role unless he is requested or directed so to do;
3. Giving counsel or advice to his successor, or the pastor where he is a member in retirement. RX: If the latter wants or seeks counsel or help, let him ask for it.
4. Giving comfort or support to malcontents who are not satisfied with the present pastor. RX: Be courteous and advise the dissatisfied individuals that you are not the pastor and that they need to bring their concerns to the shepherd of the flock."
Kurt Brink, Overcoming Pastoral Pitfalls, Albuquerque: 1992, p. 126.
Lyle Schaller, a liberal Methodist, made some interesting observations in his newsletter. One was that ministers never used to move. They accepted a call and stayed in the same community for life. He also noticed (and this coming from a non-doctrinal writer) that ministers who stay in the same congregation for a long time also accomplish the most and have the strongest lay leadership. Finally, he also observed that the decline in respect for the ministry can be measured by the almost complete absence of ordination anniversaries. Previously, congregations held big celebrations for important anniversaries of a pastor’s ordination, banquets with invited guests and printed booklets. Now this seldom happens at all. Doubtless many a minister and his family felt a lift from having a special day showing gratitude for his work and his family’s share in it. Most ministers and parochial school teachers came from the families of church workers—in the past. Now there is a dramatic decrease in vocations among children who grew up with a parent working for the church.
For those who prevail and remain ministers, this word from Luther is especially encouraging:
J-1042
"The preaching of this message may be likened to a stone thrown into the water, producing ripples which circle outward from it, the waves rolling always on and on, one driving the other, till they come to the shore. Although the center becomes quiet, the waves do not rest, but move forward. So it is with the preaching of the Word. It was begun by the apostles, and it constantly goes forward, is pushed on farther and farther by the preachers, driven hither and thither into the world, yet always being made known to those who never heard it before, although it be arrested in the midst of its course and is condemned as heresy."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 202. Ascension Day, Mark 16:14-20.
