Episcopal Church Tries To Market Their Denomination - Epic Fail

The Episcopal Church's Evangelism Advertising Materials Bomb

By David W. Virtue 
www.virtueonline.org
August 19, 2013

The Episcopal Church's new evangelistic advertising materials, designed to entice new people into its fold, has bombed.

A link to camera-ready evangelism materials (see above) produced by the Episcopal Church that can be used by congregations for postcards, ads and billboards has turned out very badly. Even liberals who are desperate to ward off closure and want nothing more than to see their parishes grow are up in arms over the ads.

One rector wrote, "Since I am always looking for helpful evangelism tools (what parish isn't?), I clicked the link. I moved quickly from shock to disappointment to anger that our church is still promoting messages that make sharing the good news with unchurched people more difficult." He headlined a memo, "Why We Won't Be Using the Episcopal Church's Advertising Materials."

"'Summer sermons will be shorter. Priests play golf, too.' I can't help but rephrasing this ad as, 'Our preaching is such a waste of your time that in the summer, when your leisure time is more valuable, we'll waste less of it.' If our preaching isn't helping people live out their Christian lives in important ways, then we shouldn't be preaching. If it is, let's advertise that: 'Hear a message that will change your life before your Sunday morning tee time.'"

Another ad: "Why not surprise us and show up this Sunday?" got the ire up of the same priest."'Why not surprise us and show up this Sunday?' When I showed this one to my deacon, he couldn't believe it. We pray daily for those who need a relationship with Christ to come to us," he said. "We're expecting them when they come; we're not surprised." 

Really, would anyone want to go to a church, or anywhere else, that would be surprised and unprepared for their arrival? Many people don't return to a church they visit for precisely that reason.

Sensing that the ads were not going down well and that criticism was coming at them from all quarters, church center leaders quickly back peddled saying, "We agree that the concept needs more work, and we are going back to the drawing board with your ideas in mind. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and encourage you to keep sharing your ideas and, when appropriate, your criticisms." 

The ads were immediately pulled.

Then we come to "Come see what goes on between Easter and Christmas."

Of this another irate rector wrote, "This message is a prime example of the insider language (interwoven with guilt) that turns newcomers off. An increasing number of the folks in my community aren't in church on Easter or Christmas. Some have never (.) been inside a church building, even for a wedding or funeral. If we want Christmas and Easter Christians to come back, probably having a church leader reach out and see how to meet their needs is more helpful than a generic message, and this ad couldn't realistically be targeted to anyone else."

One Episcopal blogger noted that the institution itself was at fault. "We need to move beyond ads coming from the institution itself. The hard truth is people don't trust ads coming from brands or companies saying 'buy me.'; they trust their friends. This is not news. And this holds true for The Episcopal Church as a "brand" as well. Sending out a postcard -- even a good one -- that comes from the institutional church saying, 'Hey, we're great. You should totally check us out.' is not going to be nearly as effective as helping the members of church talk positively about its place in our lives."

A chart on advertising and consumer habits revealed that people are most moved to buy something or go to something from people they knew and scored 92%. Ads from TV, radio, magazines, placements, sponsorship, newspapers etc. were in the low 40 percentile range.

Liberal Episcopal blogger Mark Harris said the ads were "glib...and doesn't cut it. So, let's say you go to the mail and get this card: How long would it take for it to go into the trash? Well, here inPreludium land, not long at all. The card borders on snide, but more, it is wrong headed.

"Snide because why not surprise us and show up... is a bit petulant and unwelcoming. And more, the movement of evangelism is not to bring people into the Church but to bring the Gospel out into the world. If the Good News is out there, then we really don't need to be worried about people in church. 'The Episcopal Church welcomes you' is OK I suppose, but better we find people, who because of our actions in the world, say 'The Episcopal Church welcome here.' Wouldn't it be wonderful if people put a sign on their window that said that. Well, dream on."

Other bloggers described the ads as "awful", "snarky", "ambivalent," "come for the pageantry, stay for the small slice of power in an otherwise impotent existence", "wine with a coffee chaser," "because politics are wayyyy more fun that theology", "come join our study group on the Biblical ethics of Breaking Bad", "ordaining women since 1977," and "we'll make room in the back pew for you." One truly cynical observer noted, "Your request for a postcard slogan has been referred to the Slogan Subcommittee." I especially liked this one, "We're not dead yet, come join us."

In none of the messages was there any mention of Jesus or of the Good News he came to proclaim. The Episcopal Church simply doesn't get it. Why not mention the Millennium Development Goals, much ballyhooed by Episcopal leaders or the Five Marks of Mission, the first one being To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom. Is the Episcopal Church too ashamed to spread this word and instead we get ads about golf?

Secondly, what exactly is there to show up for? A sermon on "inclusion" or the church's much vaunted talk of "diversity" or how many alphabet sexualities we can now cram down your throats. "What, if you are a trannie and have had a sex change operation, then you are truly welcome. If you stick round long enough, we'll make you a deacon, then a priest and if you look pretty enough or have felt enough pain of exclusion, we'll make you a bishop following in the path of Gene and Mary. God bless you. Come again." PS we even have special toilets for folk like you.

Does anyone really believe that Louie and Curly, Gene and Mary, Katharine and any of the other liberal glitterati in miters have anything worth saying that you would roll out of bed for on a Sunday morning? Watching reruns of As Time Goes By or The Vicar of Dibleyor even "The New York Times" might be more nourishing. A Ross Douthart column has more going for it than 90% of the sermons you will hear from Episcopal pulpits.

The sad truth is The Episcopal Church has NO MESSAGE that is distinctively different from what the world has to offer. The truth is no one is running to fill up Episcopal churches, that day is done. Liberal bishops know this. The older ones who are close enough to retirement are getting out before the balloon goes up leaving the messes of dying churches to the next generation, a generation that knows not the Lord and His saving might and power.

END

Lutherans Who Backpedal on JBFA and CGM Get Treated the Same. VirtueOnline - News

VirtueOnline - News:

Posted by David Virtue on 2013/8/17 7:20:00 (2075 reads)

African Anglican Bishop Learns Bitter Lesson in Hands of Western Gay Imperialists
Western Anglican infiltration of gay agenda into Africa heats up

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
August 17, 2013

The Bishop of Southern Malawi and chair of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga learned a bitter lesson this week: If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.

The African bishop got a wake-up call that if you oppose the whole pansexual agenda of western pan-Anglicanism and then try to soften your stance even the smallest bit in order to get a job, you're history.

Thus it was that Dartmouth College in New Hampshire called Tengatenga to be Dean of The Tucker Foundation that pays for the college, but suddenly his name was withdrawn by the new Dartmouth College President Dr. Philip Hanlon. "The withdrawal of Bishop Tengatenga's appointment came on the heels of mounting controversy surrounding his past and current views on matters of human sexuality," said a PR blurb.

Apparently, Tengatenga wasn't inclusive enough on gay sex, gay marriage and gay bishops and has been critical of The Episcopal Church's consecration of Gene Robinson. Two years ago, he pushed for the excommunication of any bishops who vocally support same-sex marriage, and angrily claimed betrayal at the ordination of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire back in 2003. He cited Lambeth 1:10, GAFCON I (Jerusalem Declaration) and the Global South's negativity towards homosexual behavior.

He claimed that it was his duty to hold the Church together even as a split over same-sex marriages has became more and more problematic within the Church.

So far, so good.

When he was picked for the job to be president of the Dartmouth Foundation, he was immediately criticized by students for his anti gay attitudes and positions.

Tengatenga immediately started to back peddle.

He fired off a statement saying that "The dignity of all should be honored and respected. As is the case with many people, my ideas about homosexuality have evolved over time."

He had not evolved enough apparently as he was quickly terminated by the president of the College.

One would have thought that would have been an end to it. Not so. Who should come to his defense but none other than Michael Ingham, outgoing Bishop of New Westminster, the most liberal Anglican bishop in Canada who single-handedly started the war in the Anglican Communion over his consent to rites for same-sex blessings in 2002. The war has only gotten hotter over time.

He wrote in a letter to Hanlon, "I believe [the decision to terminate Tengatenga] is quite wrong. I have known him for several years. He is an African first, proud of his roots and culture, but also widely travelled, scholarly, wise, and sophisticated in his grasp of the complex realities of justice. He has a far greater understanding of how to bridge cultural differences towards the goal of reconciliation than most of us in North America."

Ingham praised Tengatenga and said he recently came to Vancouver as the keynote speaker at their annual (Anglican) convention. "I am not sure what you know of church matters, particularly here in Canada, but both I and our Diocese in this city have been at the forefront globally of the struggle for justice and dignity for the LGBT community. We have endured and fought against intolerance and homophobia in the Christian Church for almost thirty years.

"Tengatenga came here to build bridges between Africa and Canada on the contentious matter of homosexuality. He received three standing ovations. Mr. President, I can assure you no one with homophobic opinions would have received such a welcome here. His wisdom, humour, intelligence, and grace far transcends the narrow confines of a single issue."

With friends like Ingham, you don't need enemies. Apparently that didn't do the trick and Tengatenga is history. The basic lesson to learn from Tengatenga's troubles is that there is no middle ground. None.

Other African Anglican leaders are also trying to keep a foot in both camps. Archbishop Albert Chama of Central Africa (an archbishop who won't be attending GAFCON II, VOL was told) is the new chairman of the Anglican Alliance an advocacy group of Development, Relief & Advocacy across the Communion heavily funded by the Episcopal Church.

"I will draw from the life and witness of the Church in Central Africa in my new role as Chair of the Anglican Alliance board of trustees, Anglicans from all parts of the Communion, with expertise in development relief and advocacy."

Two of the board members include Anthony Radtke President of the Episcopal Relief and Development Agency and Kenneth Kearon Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, the ultra liberal arm of the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Alliance board will be developing its new program for action during the coming months for consultation and agreement early next year, said Chama. There is no hint that this is gospel driven, just an R&D arm of the communion that focuses solely on physical amelioration but offers nothing by way of spiritual sustenance. Chama likes to say that gay sex is okay in Western culture, but it is not okay in African culture. He is dead wrong. He, like Tengatenga and others, fails to read the absolutism of gay imperialism. Read the bellicose push of "inclusion" and "diversity" and the nazification language of revisionist sodomites who, if they hear just the slightest hint of antagonism towards their behavior, yell and scream homophobia and hate at orthodox Christians. (The destruction of churches in Egypt by Muslim Brotherhood extremists is nothing compared to the spiritual destruction of the church militant by activist homosexuals). The seduction through liberal pro-gay conferences (Cape Town and more recently Limuru, Kenya) drawing in Africans with large dollops of money is more proof that TEC is doing its utmost to twist the African Church into a sexual pretzel.

An astute observer noted that "it begins to look like this province (Central Africa) is a recruiting ground for 'useful' Africans." If so, it would mean that the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which rolled over years ago to TEC's thinking on sexuality, and gets paid handsomely for it, now has a fellow province in Central Africa. Are Central Tanganyika and Tanzania far behind?

Witness Uganda archbishop Robert Ntagali's slam at The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada http://tinyurl.com/k45ubmc recently. He said gay clergymen don't belong in the Anglican Communion. The idea of having gay bishops is an "unbiblical decision" and a "spiritual cancer" in the Anglican Communion.

The whole idea of the Anglican Alliance is part of Lambeth's "soft power" strategy. Infiltrate, charm, pour tons of western money from liberal provinces into it and then turn the communion away from gospel proclamation to focus on social justice issues dealing with this life and not on the next.

The new Director for Mission at the Anglican Communion Office is the Rev. John Kafwanka, another African who is being seduced into believing that liberals will really go along with evangelism and church growth initiatives in the Anglican Communion.

To underscore the ACC's commitment to this aspect of work, the Rev. Robert Sihubwa, an experienced and passionate leader in ministry among children and young people, was appointed to join the Core Group to bring in relevant experience and strategic thinking.

Let me spell this out. African Anglican provinces like Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda don't need lectures or lessons from an organization like the ACO and their African patsies; they know perfectly well how to make their provinces grow. Dynamic evangelistic outreach is going on all the time with millions coming to Christ each year. Nothing the ACO office in London is selling can remotely interest them in buying. In fact, the ACO should be going to those provinces to learn how to do it.

Western Anglicanism has no ability whatever to attract youth, children or Millenials because they have "another gospel" that is no gospel at all. Nearly all the Western Anglican provinces like TEC, ACoC, the CofE, Wales, Scotland, Europe, NZ etc. are dying with no hope of spiritual recovery. Katharine Jefferts Schori has made it abundantly clear that personal faith is unimportant, nay unnecessary, for unbelievers. So the question must be asked, what is the point of the Anglican Alliance except to take in millions of dollars that will be spent on "structures" with small amounts going to assist people. This is nothing more than a repeat of the WCC and NCC and The Episcopal Church's own Relief and Development Agency.

The fact that the whole event was given a boost by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, who on the first day unexpectedly called on them and shared his passion for evangelism and church growth, won't change anything. I recall an occasion when Archbishop George Carey tried to share ALPHA in Hong Kong at an ACO/Primates meeting and got shot down when an ACO lay member who stood up and shouted "the Church has AIDS." Carey was effectively silenced.

TEC INFILTRATION INTO AFRICA

Angel Collie, a transgendered Yale Divinity School graduate and TEC member, spent this past summer working in Uganda rewriting exclusive theological narratives-globally and locally -- for what she calls "gender non-conforming folks" in this orthodox province.

She said most of those hours were spent working with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI) community in Kampala, Uganda.

In an e-mail to friends which VOL obtained, she raised up the murder of a gay activist named David Kato, which we now know had nothing to do with his being gay, but his refusal to pay his gay lover and got himself murdered for non payment of sexual favors.

She writes, "I felt bringing a pastoral care framework in an attempt to re-write exclusive theological narratives in Uganda would be effective because the country is overwhelmingly religious. In the most recent census, only 0.9% of as the population identified as non-religious while 82.6% identified as Christian. This 'on the ground' reality of religiosity has been a breeding ground for Western Evangelical missionaries' importation of homophobia and transphobia with few dissenting voices. As a Christian convicted in the belief that God loves and affirms the lives of queer and trans people, I felt called to bring that news here."

There you have it in a nutshell. She then went on to say that Uganda is a country where homophobia, not homosexuality, is the Western import. For this reason, I believe the first step towards change is a new theology. She said she worked for two organizations: Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) and St. Paul's Reconciliation and Equality Center (SPREC).

"Uganda is a lesson in fighting for a movement that acknowledges we have more work to do. I'm thankful that YDS is a place where we can learn, explore, and are supported to take up the call to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God-locally and globally."

Not true. Ugandan Anglicans, mostly evangelicals, have said such BEHAVIOR is unacceptable and people with all kinds of sins are welcome in the church, but tolerating any kind of sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman is totally unacceptable. That is Scripture; that is history; and they will not change the received text of Holy Writ to suit a handful of pansexualists trying to twist millions of African Christians into accepting a very small group of people with same sex attractions.

The lesson in all of this is this. If African Anglicans compromise their faith for short term monetary gains from North America, they will ultimately lose. The seduction of Africa by Western pan Anglican money will continue, but one hopes that Africans will see through this and not bow before the Moloch god of money and mercifully maintain the faith in the face of a vicious, trenchant minority out to seduce them with behaviors that will destroy them just as fast as it is destroying the West.

FOLLOW-UP...NEW VOICES

The ultra-liberal Bishop Ian Douglas of the Diocese of Connecticut, who has known Tengatenga for years and serves with him on the Anglican Consultative Council, a worldwide representative elected body, said that Tengatenga played a crucial role in keeping the Anglican Communion from splitting apart in the last decade, following Robinson's election and controversies over other issues.

"It's an incredible lost opportunity - I would go so far as to say a travesty to justice with respect to James and a compromise of what academic institutions are supposed to stand for with respect to trying to seek a higher truth through academic freedom and genuine conversation," Douglas said.

The Rev. MacDonald Sembereka, a leading activist on LGBT issues in Malawi said: "This is sad and defeatist news from some of us who are on this side of the divide because Bishop James is an astute defender of rights for all. In our part of the world an advocate of rights of PLHIV [people living with HIV] cannot afford to just advance one side of the argument because evidence has it that we need to defend all vulnerabilities. HIV provides a huge platform or stepping stone for advocates of LGBTI in Africa that you cannot dismiss Bishop James on the premise being advanced by the President of Dartmouth and the nay sayers. Further, none of those who said a lot against the appointment ever consulted us on the ground so much so that we may end up fighting our own allies.

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Always Declining: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Stillborn Quarter Century of Existence

Always Declining: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Stillborn Quarter Century of Existence:

Always Declining: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Stillborn Quarter Century of Existence

by IRD StaffAugust 14, 2013

By Andrew E. Harrod (@AEHarrod)

Optimism literally projected on screen at theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA)2013 Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh running from August 12-17, 2013, cannot ultimately hide the membership decline that has accompanied this denomination since its origins in 1987.  Although much heralded 25 years ago as a unification of American Lutherans, the ELCA’s anniversary slogan of “Always Being Made New:  25 Years Together in Christ” on display at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center rings bitterly ironic in light of ECLA’s dwindling, aging congregants and sinking contributions.  Liberal theology and politics in America’s so-called Mainline Protestant denominations apparently just gets older and older.

ELCA’s slogan, taken from 2 Corinthians 5:17, is present throughout the convention hall, including a slide show highlighting ELCA milestones on a large screen during assembly breaks.  As the ELCA website explains, the denomination resulted from the January 1, 1988, merger of the American Lutheran Church, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and the Lutheran Church in America following a 1987 conference in Columbus, Ohio.  ELCA’s founding “was a heady time, producing the successful merger of two-thirds of America’s Lutherans gathered under one denomination,” wrote Pastor Russell E. Saltzman in 2011 at First Things after having broken away from ELCA with other conservative Lutherans to form theNorth American Lutheran Church (NALC).  “Lutherans had finally achieved part of the dream, all Lutherans in America in one Evangelical Lutheran Church.”

Yet since the launch of ELCA its course has been permanently downward.  The ELCA’s own statisticsshow that after 5,288,048 Lutherans came together in 1987 to form the denomination, only 4,059,785 remained in ELCA in 2011, the latest year of available data.  In all, this is a “staggering loss of over 1.2 million members, or 23% of their membership,” Rev. Kevin Vogts of the conservative Lutheran lay organization Steadfast Lutherans notes.  The number of ELCA congregations has also dropped from 11,138 at the 1987 founding to 9,638 in 2911, a loss of about 13%.  “As they ‘celebrate’ this year the 25th anniversary of the ELCA,” Vogts observes, “the fact is that during that time they have lost more members and congregations than make up many entire denominations!”

Almost every year of ELCA’s existence has witnessed membership loss, particularly the 270,349 and 212,903 leaving in the succeeding years 2010-2011.  The loss of each of these two years averaged more than five percent of ELCA’s total membership.  This followed the2009 Churchwide Assembly decisions to allow individual congregations “to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships” and for individuals in such relationships to serve as ELCA leaders.  Only the years 1990 and 1991 ever showed any ELCA membership growth of 1,941 and 4,438 congregants, respectively.

Such membership losses have financial consequences.  Vogts calculates that national ELCA donations in 2008 were $88 million, but dropped to $40 million in 2011.  Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, the ELCA’s largest, announced in 2012 a $6 million operating deficit on a $27 million budget.  Reportedly one couple had given $1 million annually to the seminary but stopped after ELCA’s pro-gay decisions.  Luther Seminary had to cancel programs and lay off a third of its staff as a result.

By comparison, the conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) counted 2,278,586 members in 2010.  The equally conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) claims over 300,000 communicants. The NALC now claims 130,000 members, mostly disaffected ELCA members like Saltzman.  Another destination for disappointed ELCA members is the Lutheran Congregations in Missions for Christ (LCMC), now listing 808 congregations, more than double NALC’s 345 congregations.

ELCA’s remaining members are getting older as well.  An October 2008 ELCA study found that the median age of denomination churchgoers between the ages of 15 and 99 was 58, while the general American population had a median of 39.  Assembly visitors in Pittsburgh might not know this, given that 110 or roughly one-in-nine voting members were born after 1988.  Yet the Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 2011 establish in 6.02.A09 a “goal of this church” of “at least 10 percent of the voting members of the Churchwide Assembly, Church Council, and churchwide boards and committees” being “youth” under 18 and “young adults” between 18 and 30.

ELCA’s stance on homosexuality and other matters has had international effects.  Vogts notes that “many of the largest and fastest-growing Lutheran church bodies in the world” have cut “historic ties” to ELCA” in favor of LCMS.  These include Ethiopia’s six million Lutherans, “nearly as many as all American Lutheran church bodies combined,” the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia, Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church of Togo.  The “center of world Lutheranism is shifting from Europe and America to Africa, Asia, and South America, and the LCMS is becoming the theological leader of these growing Lutheran church bodies.”  ELCA, meanwhile, “is becoming increasingly isolated in world Lutheranism.”

ELCA is thus repeating the ecumenical pattern of churches that abandon Biblical standards already manifested by the Episcopal Church’s 23% loss in average Sunday attendance across the decade 2000-2010.  Apparently, devote Christians do indeed heedRomans 12:2’s admonition to “be not conformed to this world.”  After all, it is obedience to eternal standards and not the latest societal mood that is truly novel.  Wherever churches no longer preserve the “salt” and “light” of the Bible and natural law, the faithful vote with their feet and finances.

Tagged with: Andrew Harrod • ELCA • Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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