Steadfast Lutherans » Great Stuff — Missional Moments?

Steadfast Lutherans » Great Stuff — Missional Moments?:

GJ - In WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect: Missional, Transforming, Contagious, Purpose-Driven, and Emergent are derived from the Fuller Seminary template.

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Ski and Glende Close on Porky's Bar: Ski Preaches Same Sermon Set as Gunn at CrossWalk

The signage should be impressive.

Mo-mentality at Jeff Gunn's CrossWalk - Plagiarism endorsed by DP Jon Buchholz

Moses was a man's man. He yelled at people, went on long desert hikes, hit things when he was upset, and beat people up. On the other hand, he was sometimes a wimp, a coward, and made a lot of excuses, yet God made him into a leader. What can we learn from Moses?

Mo-mentality at The CORE - Plagiarism endorsed by DP Doug Engelbrecht

GJ - Gunn produced his series in 2011, but it was longer than Ski's in number. They seem to have a common origin.

Preaching about Moses  (Ski) and the kings of the Old Testament (Glende)? That is typical of Decision Theology services, when churches really go downhill. Sermons about people of the Bible are gimmicky. I asked Keith Free if a pastor dressed as the Woman at the Well for a Lenten service at his church. He refused to say.

It is inappropriate to focus on people of the Bible when the one and only topic of the Word of God is - Christ and His Gospel - justification by faith.

 

Steadfast Lutherans » When Vision Becomes Reality

Steadfast Lutherans » When Vision Becomes Reality:


The advocates of “Missional Leadership” in the LCMS like to make their visions into reality.

The missional leadership of the Minnesota South District of the LCMS has succeeded in implementing its vision for campus ministry and for the congregation of University Lutheran Chapel. ULC was a Christian font, altar and pulpit on the doorstep of the University of Minnesota. The vision of the District’s missional leaders was to sell ULC’s font, altar and pulpit (and the building that houses them) and use the proceeds to fund campus ministry without fonts, altars or pulpits.

Conventions are unpredictable. The MN South District convention obviously didn’t “catch” the vision its missional leaders were “casting.” The convention directed $2 million of the estimated $3.25 million proceeds to go to the congregation of ULC to pay for the relocation the sale of the property will require. Oops.

Still, the missional leaders’ vision has become reality. What does it look like?

1) an unnecessary forced relocation of a faithful congregation;
2) a pointless waste of time and money;
3) an unneeded division and breech of trust.

I’m sure that’s not the reality the missional leaders of the MN South District envisioned. But, it is the reality they created.

What has been gained? Nothing –except proof of the lengths to which missional leaders will go to make their visions our reality.

Space


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GJ - Confidential to Todd and Company. I disagree completely with Minnesota South, but you are in no position to complain. Everyone who supports UOJ - as you do - is in same sleeping bag as the missional/church growth people. In fact, there is no difference between you and ELCA. You are complaining about a vote you lost - not about doctrine. You agree in doctrine.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - 'Where there is no vision the people perish.' Why there are no TEC heresy trials

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - 'Where there is no vision the people perish.' Why there are no TEC heresy trials:


'Where there is no vision the people perish.' Why there are no heresy trials in The Episcopal Church
Episcopal Bishops line up on Rites for blessing same sex marriage

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
June 15, 2012

"Western civilization at the present day is passing through a crisis which is essentially different from anything that has been previously experienced. Other societies in the past have changed their social institutions or their religious beliefs under the influence of external forces or the slow development of internal growth. But none, like our own, has ever consciously faced the prospect of a fundamental alteration of the beliefs and institutions on which the whole fabric of social life rests ... Civilization is being uprooted from its foundations in nature and tradition and is being reconstituted in a new organization which is as artificial and mechanical as a modern factory." Thus wrote Christopher Dawson in Enquiries into Religion and Culture.

Ross Douthat in his book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics says the biggest threat facing America is not a faltering economy or a spate of books by famed atheists. Rather, the country meets new challenges due to the decline of traditional Christianity.

One of the leading culprits in that decline is The Episcopal Church, once America's premier denomination that numbers amongst its devoted supporters 11 US presidents, untold senators and leading intellectual thinkers from the great universities of the day.

No longer. It is now an aging, shriveling, sexually obsessed church that is foisting a variety of sexual behaviors (LGBTQI) that no church in history has ever done or would have deemed remotely acceptable, (or even discussed) on its diminishing 700,000 parishioners in 100 dioceses. The 10,000 or so Episcopalians who show up at GC2012 in Indianapolis next month have no idea the damage they will do if Rites for the blessing of same sex marriage passes (which it is guaranteed will).

Already Episcopal bishops are lining up how they will cope with this new reality. The more revisionist ones, like PA Bishop Charles E. Bennison, are demanding that their clergy be prepared to administer such rites if asked to do do or face their personal judgment if they do not.

Clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania will soon have the option of blessing same-gender couples, the Right Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, bishop of the diocese, said recently. Baxter said that if trial liturgies for same-sex blessings are approved at Next month's General Convention of the Episcopal Church, his diocese would use them.

Bishops with a remnant of Christian conscience like Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle plan to navigate around a proposed Rite by allowing those parishes who want to use them to do so, but traditionally minded parishes will not be forced to use or implement them.

"My plan does not ask for further debate or require approval," Bishop Doyle told the clergy gathered at Camp Allen recently. "I have not asked people to change their positions or even to like the plan that I am setting before us," he explained. "It is my deepest desire to offer a generous breadth of pastoral care for our members throughout the diocese."

However, Diocese of Dallas Bishop James Stanton is not expected to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships even if a resolution allowing the blessings passes at the July General Convention in Indianapolis. The new Bishop of Central Florida Gregory O. Brewer is expected to hold this position, as well. Both men are evangelicals with a high view of Scripture. They will not compromise. Unfortunately, they are only among half a dozen bishops expected to take a hard line. The vast majority of bishops will go along with it. Somewhere down the road, perhaps as early as the 2015 General Convention, the blessing of same-sex relationships will be made mandatory upon all dioceses like women's ordination.

Concurrent with this apostasy is news that The Episcopal Church is in a financial mess. Few seem to get the connection between the church's declining finances and sexual apostasy. The truth is discussion of budgetary considerations might actually top that of gay Rites at GC2012. Pushing pansexuality is coming at a great price.

One of the main ideas of "pansexuality" developed by Sigmund Freud is to focus on the search for pleasure, the exploitation of the differences between the sexes, and the overthrowing of traditional relationships between men and women. Among his aims was to attack the authority of the father, deny the specific roles of father and mother, and wrest away from families their rights as primary educators of their children.

For Douthart, this is all about bad religion and the need to root it out. He wants to see America return to its confessional roots. No one is accusing him of being a fundamentalist. After all, he writes for the New York Times. Douthat reminds us that he was baptized Episcopalian, attended evangelical and Pentecostal churches as a child, and converted to Catholicism at age 17. He argues that prosperity preachers, self-esteem gurus, and politics operating as religion all contribute to the contemporary decline of America.

He is right. And in one word he calls it "heresy." No ifs, ands, or buts, just plain heresy. When asked what he meant when he said we were facing the threat of heresy, he responded, "I try to use an ecumenical definition, starting with what I see as the theological common ground shared by my own Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations. Then I look at forms of American religion that are influenced by Christianity, but depart in some significant way from this consensus. It's a C. S. Lewisian, Mere Christianity definition of orthodoxy or heresy. I'm trying to look at the ways the American religion today departs from theological and moral premises that traditional Protestants and Catholics have in common."

Our forefathers He wouldn't recognize the Episcopal Church today if they rose from the deadcompared to what its early founders believed, most of whom were true believers. Today, most Episcopalians are cultural Christians, playing the game, dressing up, saying the Creed (but do they really mean it?), and listening to sermons on diversity and inclusivity with a smattering of Bible verses twisted to substantiate unsustainable positions.

We have become a nation of heretics because our churches are heretical. The departure of mainline Protestant churches from the Reformed Faith to a social gospel started us down the road. It began in the late-1800s and early 1900s when American Baptist seminary professor Walter Rauchenbush developed what is now called the "social gospel," a biblically naïve attempt at mercy ministry to the poor. Instead of the Gospel of grace leading to transformed lives, and as a result, to social action and social betterment, the "social gospel" declares that the Gospel IS social action. Helping the poor, raising the standard of living of the oppressed is what the Gospel is all about. Mrs. Jefferts Schori would totally agree with Professor Rauchenbush.

Apostasy

The Bible is full of warnings about apostasy. The term means to deliberately renounce or reject one's faith commitment. It is an act of defiance and rebellion, which is taken very seriously indeed in Scripture. John Shelby Spong and TEC's mostly revisionist HOB should take note. Consider just a few of the many passages which address this issue:

Mathew 24:9-14: Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

1 Timothy 1:18-20: Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

I Timothy 4:1-2: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

Hebrews 3:12-14: "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first."

II Peter 2:20-22: If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud."

The warnings are clear. Yet that has not stopped The Episcopal Church HOB and HOD passing resolutions at one General Convention after another relating to human sexuality that deliberately go against Holy Writ. It seems that only adultery, pedophilia and bestiality remain as no no's.

Making a shipwreck of their souls comes easily to bishops like Gene Robinson, Mary Glasspool, J. Jon Bruno, Tom Shaw, et al the thing that is difficult - at least if you believe in biblical Christianity - is staying in. Jesus made it crystal clear that following him was no joy ride. Indeed, it made things very difficult for people to follow him. Jesus said the Christian life is about self-denial, crucifying the flesh, and carrying our cross daily. He even said this: "He that endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

What we have today in TEC is a bunch of false shepherds - male and female. In addition to the many warnings about unbelief and apostasy, the Bible also frequently warns against false shepherds, which these men and women obviously are. Here are just a few of these warnings:

Jeremiah, 23:1-2: "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture." says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings." says the Lord.

Matt. 7:15: Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Acts 20:28-31: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard.

2 John 1:7: Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

The need for perseverance in the Christian life is crucial. As St. John wrote in the Book of the Revelation 2:10: "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown." We have a perfect biblical summary of these tragic stories of apostasy found in 1 John 2:19: "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."

No one will talk about apostasy or heresy at General Convention. No one is interested much anymore in what Spong thinks, but his mindset lives on. His legacy will see the Episcopal Church go down like the Titanic. In the words of St. Athanasius, "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." The Episcopal Church is reaping what it has sown.

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SP Harrison Plays the University Lutheran Chapel Supporters, Pleasing Both Sides at Once

Those at the peak of their income do not care
if seminarians pay $100,000 for an education that is useless
outside of a Missouri Synod call
and too expensive even if they do get one.

Lutherans are so dumb, always looking forward to voting on something already decided. SP Harrison, in true Walther fashion, played both sides of the University Lutheran Chapel fight at once.

He sent out a letter, see below, long after the property had already been sold and the parties were in court. Did he finally wake up?

No, the over-paid officials make sure they know everything happening, down to who is playing the organ at which church.

By writing at the last minute, Harrison made sure that nothing would come of his piece of paper, but he earned lots of praise from the ULC supporters for his bold, courageous leadership. But in that letter he conceded (falsely) that the officials had a right to sell the property and evict their own members from it. He was also a tad irritated that he was quoted as supporting the sale - whatsoever support he affirmed in the letter. Nice double-talk, SP.

So he supported in writing this incredibly stupid and damaging action - and he condemned both sides for sinfulness. Therefore, he condemned the ULC supporters twice in the same letter -

1. They were in the wrong about the legal right of the district to evict them.
2. They were despicably sinful in the way they opposed this perfectly legal action.

In case no one knows at this stage - the money raised for that property was given to create that opportunity at the state university where so many members were in attendance, year after year. The "cost" of ULC was nothing compared to what the latest sex abuse lawsuit is going to cost everyone.

This is just another example of the on-going apostasy of the SynConference.

"Error loves ambiguities."
Harrison will not like my analysis.
He will roar - "Unleash the Plagiarist!"