Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: More Bilge from WELS Church Growth Stars:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007
More Bilge from WELS Church Growth Stars
The following is a verbatim quotation from Motley Magpie. Wisconsin Synod gave the Left Foot of Fellowship to the the Berg brothers, sons of Fuller veteran Norm Berg:
In businessman-like fashion, businessman Eberle predictably gets to the bottom line - the bottom line, “our outflow is greater than our inflow” (p. 8). While giving the Spirit his due he argues, “but numerous verses in Scripture can be quoted showing that the Lord expects results” (p. 10) that is, net growth. Given that he states, “I submit that any WELS congregation can grow as fast, or faster, than the fastest growing congregation in its community” (p. 9). He then adds the sweeping appraisal of an unidentified (and evidently well informed) WELS pastor,
Most [WELS pastors] are loathe (sic) to even consider that mega-churches in our area grow because they are well-led, high-performance, high-expectation, high-quality organizations. The fact that these [mega-churches] are theologically more conservative than us and more demanding of their members is conveniently ignored (p. 9)
- to which Mr. Eberle adds, “Since this is the case, it begs the question - Why aren’t there any WELS mega-churches?”
To state it syllogistically: conservative churches grow; the WELS is conservative; therefore, WELS churches should grow, and their “conservatism” should not be used as an excuse for “failure” (p. 11). Mr. Eberle is not the first to make this argument in the Wisconsin Synod. It was made in an 1985 essay with the admittedly improbable title “How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects” by the Rev. Paul Kelm and in a 1987 essay, “The Call into the Discipling (sic) Ministry” by the Rev. Joel Gerlach who cites, then WELS executive secretary of evangelism,
Kelm, who noted that it requires 103 WELS communicants to enlist one new adult confirmand per year… [for] the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod… 73 communicants for each new confirmand, [and] the figure for the Assemblies of God (currently the fastest growing Protestant denomination in the USA) is 20 for each new member2 (see the footnote examination of this “statistic”).
Rev. Gerlach concludes,
Thereby hangs the tale. Apparently WELS Lutherans (sic) are not as determined as members of other denominations to become involved personally in sharing their faith with others.
For himself Kelm dismisses the heterodoxy-is-why-the-heterodox-grow factor this way,
True, [fast-growing conservative, biblical churches] may not be fully orthodox; but I fail to see where baptism by immersion and assorted other Protestant departures are any drawing card. In fact, growing churches are typically those whose doctrines and expectations of members are strict” (p. 2).
As if reading from the same script, Mr. Eberle dismisses the “rationalization” that only the apostate grow,
Churches identified as fundamentalist or orthodox have grown, often at an amazing pace. For these churches, orthodoxy seems to be an asset that assists growth, rather than hinders it. Surely you and I don’t believe that the pure Gospel, as taught within the WELS, is an impediment to growth (p. 9)?
So - this naïve definition of “orthodox” aside - a commonality of conservatism (strictness!), a few “assorted Protestant departures” aside, shows that conservative WELS ought to grow, “citius, altius, fortius” - contingent, I suspect, on whether it ingests new church growth hormones, the methods of growing churches.
***
GJ - I know a WELS pastor who dared take issue with Eberle. Soon District Pope Jahnke fired him this way. "I can fire you on the spot or you can voluntarily resign and get three months pay."
Let us consider the solemn declarations of Mr. Eberle, an expert on all churches due to his experience in mass mailings. Kelm is now at the mega-church of Eberle's dreams. Is it Lutheran? No. Is it conservative? No. The congregation appears to be a clone of Robert Schuller's generic, liberal pan-Protestant congregation in California.
Studies have shown...I love to use that phrase. Studies have shown that mega-churches simply take people from other congregations, the way mega-stores take people from Mom and Pop stores. The Church Growth Movement has done nothing to increase the total number of Christians in America. The four-letter synods (ELCA, LCMS, WELS) have slavishly followed Church Growth for decades and they have failed. Once healthy denominations are strangled by high costs, membership decline, low clergy morale, and lawsuits from adulterous Church Growth pastors.
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