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| "ELCA is defintely a union church body, but all of them?" Not the Church of the Augsburg Confession. |
rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Pastor Bickel - "Please Explain Emergent Churches....":
Salem on the northwest side of Milwaukee was a union church. It was one of the founding congregations of the WELS. Its Reformed counterpart is still located across the street. The first pastor served both congregations.
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GJ - ELCA has started union congregations quite deliberately, but they are proud of it and put it on the signs.
The LCMS had a whole string of congregations, like St. John in Ellisville, Missouri, as joint members with the Willow Creek Association. I listed them long ago. Some of them went stealth officially, but not doctrinally or worshipfully - where it matters most.
WELS apes the Emergent Churches all over the map, from Indianapolis to Appleton to Chicago to Round Rock and beyond. The WELS staff spent so much dough at Trinity Divinity in Deerfield that the unionistic school named WELS twice in one of their bulletins. Willow Creek is another recipient of WELS donations.
The Little Sect on the Prairie has its movie screen, not-really-Lutheran congregation. Nathan Krause was there the last time I looked.
The CLC (sic) backs the unionism of its most troubled pair, David Koenig and Paul Tiefel, while calling itself...The Church of the Lutheran Confession. Koenig and Tiefel are the ideal unionists - they love every denomination except their own.
Characteristics of a Lutheran congregation and pastor, rare today:
- Historic liturgy.
- Closed communion.
- KJV or a least a version of the English Luther Bible.
- Lutheran hymns.
- Biblical, doctrinal sermon.
- Historic creeds.
- Knowledge and fidelity - Luther's works, the Book of Concord.
- Respect for the divine call and congregational property.
Characteristics of a union congregation and church body, almost universal today:
- No liturgy or a blended serviced aimed at no liturgy in the future.
- Open communion - or "Don't ask, don't tell" communion.
- NIV, NNIV, or worse.
- Pop songs shown on a movie screen.
- Fill-in-the blanks bulletins, so the vapid message is remembered better.
- A message or pep talk instead of a sermon, often plagiarized from a false teacher.
- Training at Fuller, Willow Creek, Granger, Trinity Deerfield, Mars Hill, etc.
- Protection and promotion for false teachers.
- Persecution of faithful congregations and pastors.
- Dependency on Thrivent, foundations, and commercialism to keep afloat.
- Works with various denominations, but despises Luther and the Book of Concord.
- No respect for the call, constant meddling, dishonest seizure of congregational property.
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| Except for the stuff they hide from the innocent: kidnapping, robbery, adultery, and pledging fidelity to a syphilitic bishop. |
