Standing Ovation Instead of Sitting, Waiting for Others

 Guys and girls can lead together. Look at how much they have done - together - already. Thrivent is proud of them.

My mother got me started on music, and my tutor was a favorite teacher in Moline - Mr. Youngdahl. I continued from fourth grade into college, where I was press-ganged into joining the percussion section. Although my musical skills were limited, I was exposed to a great deal of music, from the Stars and Stripes forever, when I played the piccolo solo, to Bach and the famous musicians of the past.

Christina and I loved going to Arizona Broadway, live musicals combined with dinner. Long before I had gone to Moline's musical theater, where our most famous star - Bonnie Bartlett - got her start. 

Musical performances end with key players enjoying applause from the audience, sometimes a standing ovation. No one can keep a solemn and dignified face when a standing ovation erupts.

This bothered me at Arizona Broadway, the reluctance of the audience to stand and clap. Some would wiggle a bit and start to stand, but sink into the seat of Conformity, Timidity, and Docility. People looked at each other like, "Are we all going to do this together?" They only clapped, most of the time, after a tremendous performance.

I told Christina that I would jump up at the end and clap vigorously with a big smile on my face. The troupe deserved it after all. She could rise right after me, getting the momentum going. Invariably the entire audience would rise, clapping, cheering, and smiling with abandon. We went to each new performance and led the audience. The veteran actors may have suspected I was a relative of one of the owners or the orchestra or the performers. 

Everyone exited in a state of happiness and enjoyment, talking to each other about how great the experience was.

Being a Lutheran is the sound of one hand clapping. The clergy are too worried about their comforts to object, even weakly. They are feasting on the remains and do not want to be bothered. They would rather be the worst than the first. It only takes a few to:

1. Demand the best and most accurate Bible - The King James Version.
2. Emphasize Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz, the greatest Biblical expositors of the Reformation - now almost entirely ignored or watered down by synodical experts of ill repute.
3. Replace the Objective (Faithless) Justification of - Bishop Martin Stephan STD, his pimp CFW Walther, and other illiterates with - the Chief Article of Christianity - Justification by Faith.
4. Use The Lutheran Hymnal instead of the increasingly Calvinist and dumb hymnals produced by ELCA, LCMS, and WELS.

United Left-Wing Churches Putting the Squeeze on Congregations Leaving

"So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Too bad it had to come to this." 
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

"Key points: The Lewis Center for Church Leadership has done a report that compares characteristics of disaffiliating churches with those remaining in The United Methodist Church. The large majority of exiting churches are in the South and Southwest. Disaffiliating churches are more likely than remaining churches to have a male pastor and to have a majority white membership. United Methodist Council of Bishops President Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton said the report has information that can help guide the denomination as it seeks to renew itself, including in areas where many churches have disaffiliated."

The United Methodist Church (or parts of it) backed the Social Gospel Movement at the very beginning of the 20th century. Every time a group of Methodist churches left Holy Mother Meth, the liberals cheered, increased their power, and Marxified their political agenda. Consequently, the conservative element within the United Methodists kept bringing up the Biblical errors being paraded by the denomination.

Like ELCA and the Episcopal Church, the Methodist leaders are making it as difficult as possible to leave with their buildings and savings. 

Similar exits among Lutherans have created congregations harkening back to the old days, with ELCA enjoying its emphasis on pride, empty churches, and failing seminaries.

One reader especially enjoys Nadia Bolz-Weber graphics and ELCA radicalism. Nadia tried to be a stand-up comedian, but Leftists have no sense of humor. Instead, she pioneered an ELCA congregation that "looks like her."

Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber