bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Catholics and Greek Orthodox Give Better Education...":
Thanks for the comment Narrow-minded.
I propose that the pastoral ministry and financial situation of the LCMS seminaries, and synod, is so bad, and the funding priorities are so far off course in the LCMS, that the fat lady has sung for Walther's non-hierarchical church and ministry model. It's over. Finished. Kaput. It seems without a decently robust hierarchy, it's every congregation for itself, and the non-hierarchical synod has proven to be a sad joke on many levels, including discipline.
3 comments:
Heh. Because hierarchical church and ministry models are working so well for the ELCA and RCC, right?
The problem lies not in that man is not subservient to another man, but that we aren't subservient to the Word of God.
The hierarchical churches all have lower tuition rates for their seminaries, and all the clergy are fully trained. No SMP-types in the ELCA or in any church with a hierarchy. They also close down schools and churches when necessary, and don't allow churches and schools the right to basically determine when it will close, or whether it is needed or not.
In the LCMS, every man and every organization must fend for itself, and is more than willing to rob Peter to pay Paul. For example, because the LCMS only needs one seminary but has two, the defenseless seminarians get robbed blind to pay everyone's salaries. Also, the laymen are besieged by every entity aggressively raising funds instead of just one synod-wide office having that responsibility, and then divvying up what comes in.
I believe you both have valid points, Dan and Bruce. Although I'm not promoting episcopal polity, lest the "hyper-Euro" accusations come my way, it's hard to argue that the historic Lutheran Church did not utilize episcopal polity. As I have stated here several times, any form of governance in the Church can be screwed up with our sin. However, I would agree that episcopal polity is probably more efficient and cost-effective from an administrative standpoint.
What I get a kick out of is that the Walther-venerating LCMS essentially voted for hierarchical polity at the 2010 Convention, via Resolution 8-08A. The selling points were cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and less bureaucracy. I was actually against it, merely because I feared the next "Jesus First" SP would become a dictator and run the non-CG/CW parishes into the ground. After it became evident that the new "confessional" leadership was not really much different, we left the LCMS. This business reminds me of Republicans vs. Democrats: Two sides of the same coin.
It does ultimately come down to Lutheran Doctrine and Practice. The high churchers think they have to abandon Lutheran Doctrine and Practice to swing the thurible. Wrong-o. Those infatuated with CG/CW think they have to abandon Lutheran Doctrine and Practice to be "relevant and hip." Wrong-o. I grew tired of hearing the arrogance of, "It's all up to us to save the lost," as if the Holy Ghost can't do His work if we don't subscribe to the latest flavor-of-the-month gimmick.
How old was Lutheranism when it came to the States? Three-hundred-years-old? Should there even have been a debate in the early LCMS about the Doctrine of Election/Predestination? At lesat there was discipline, unlike "The Statement of the Forty-Four." But the European heresies came over on the ships, and this is the root cause of our problems.
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