Monday, April 29, 2013

The Gulf between Christ-Centered Means of Grace Worship and Entertainment Seeker Shows



twissted_sisster has left a new comment on your post "Facebook Discussion about Koine Crowding Chancel E...":

It's conversations such as this one on FB that only serve to point out the great divide in the WELS. There are those who obviously love this type of touchy/feely emotion-laced entertainment in lieu of confession and absolution in a liturgical worship service. Fine and dandy - have at it. For those of us who would have turned around and left immediately upon seeing this praise band set up in the front of your church, especially on Easter Sunday of all times, we know we are cut from a different cloth. We cannot sit there and stomach that. We cannot and should not be forced to accept it. We must not be complacent sitting in the pews. Each of us has a voice and now is the time to use it. We cannot all be WELS together. It is an either/or, apples/oranges situation. But we can NOT all be unequally yoked.

***

Make sure everyone knows you
are passionate about sharing Jesus,
so they overlook your drinking habit.


GJ - The SynCons (WELS-LCMS-ELS) have deliberated polarized their own sects by making Gospel entertainment shows the gold standard of their dying denominations.They are consciously imitating the Pentecostal shows of 50 years ago--minus the beehive hairstyles--that made Lutherans ask, "What are we doing wrong?"

A Lutheran who returned from the Assemblies of God reported that the Pentecostals order obedience. They demand that "real Christians" attend all their services and educational programs - and pay up. Imagine this - "You must take this program. Leave your kids in the church basement to fend for themselves. Pay us $50 for that notebook we are giving you. We expect everyone to be there."

The same law motivation is at work in LCMS-WELS-ELS. "You don't like this? Then you do not love Jesus or your neighbor." And - "This is very important for the Savior's work, so we need money to pay  for it."

Of course there is gloating over those who do not get it. The scattered mega-churches that draw thousands are their model, but I heard a retired minister say he felt completely lost in the one he joined, so he stayed home.

Luther's point about pastors versus physicians argued that a town needed many more ministers than doctors. A doctor could take care of a large number of people at once, but a pastor spent more time with each person.

The wolf-preachers like the mega-style of walking out of their posh office and letting the thousands gasp at their jumbo-screen image in awe and wonder. They do not visit their members. They do not spend time in real evangelism. They covet and copy one another until I cannot tell them apart or offer any difference between them and the motivational gasbag named John Maxwell.

Their most repulsive trait, among many others, is boasting about all they doing to rescue the lost. They will get down in the mud for Jesus, but they will not write a Biblical sermon - since copying another motivational coaching session from the Net is so much easier.

They are not content to slaughter and scatter the flock. They must also silence anyone who questions their divine intent and passionate love for sharing Jesus.
And yet they

  • Mangle the Means of Grace:
  • Abandon the Scriptural liturgy and Confessions.
  • Mock faithful hymns.
  • Exchange the Gospel sermon for a Law rant.
  • Remove the baptismal font to make room for the praise band.
  • Drop the embarrassment of Holy Communion, but
  • Make the coffee bar the ultimate requirement for their hideous covens.