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| The Communion Hymn by Huss |
German is such a wonderful language for combination words. That has been source of debate as we edit the very Germanic translation organized by John H. Lenker. Many German words translate into hyphenated words - or not.
Here is a good combination in German. The Confession of Sins in the liturgy is the Suendenbekentnis, while the Confession of Faith is the Glaubensbekenntnis.
There is so much we cannot do, but we can make an honest confess of faith wherever we are. The reason the "conservative" Lutherans are spiraling downward is simple - they play political games to get into power and live like princes and kings, or sometimes like princesses and queens. They know the spirit of the times and connect easily with other apostates.
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| Tell visitors they are study guides for the SAT. |
One devious way to defeat this system is to develop knowledgeable, confessing Christians in the congregation, who
- Understand and appreciate the historic liturgy;
- Love and sing the Lutheran hymns best of all;
- Study the books of the Bible;
- Know the basics of church history, especially the Reformation;
- Realize there are various good guys in American Lutheranism - Krauth, Loy, Passavant, Jacobs, Schmauk, and Reu.
- Can differentiate Lutheran, Catholic, and Protestant doctrine.
People still drive me a little crazy when they worry about low numbers. Jesus began with 12 in changing the entire world. We can do something with some dedicated members, but it is not up to us to judge, only to be faithful.
I am skeptical about numbers because I worked and vicared in the largest Lutheran congregation in Canada, with about 3,000 members. For that reason, all the numbers looked good - senior group, youth group, Bible class, membership class, Memorial Sunday. For the big events, like Good Friday, we could get 500 people for the German service alone.
But those percentages were quite small, given the total baptized membership. Apart from that, it is absurd to think we can decide, maneuver, develop, accomplish anything apart from the Word. The very Good News is that whatever we do faithfully with the Word of God will prosper His will.
Remember "This Phone's For You" - a Fulleroid program for instant growth. The basis was asking people to bring a dozen cookies, simply to make them obligated to come. The program's inventor admitted it was simply manipulation. Like all Fuller products, it was content free and aimed at marketing. Didja know Fuller had to cancel building plans because they were not doing so well? Why not get some phone banks going?
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| This Phone's for You. Thousands of calls will line up a bunch of new members for visitors' Sunday. Ask them to bring cookies, so they feel obligated to come. And be generic Protestant so they do not catch a whiff of the synod in the background. Hide the Hoenecke Dogmatics! Camouflage the Pieper! |
