When I Had Cancer

My wife gets upset when I announce, "I am a cancer survivor." I did have a small basal cell carcinoma on my forehead. Surviving that is pretty easy.

I bumped my head while doing some work in the basement in St. Louis. Then, when I noticed a mark on my forehead, I thought, "Oh yes, I bumped it." The mark did not heal. I touched it with Kleenex and got a little bit of blood, not like a cut or wound. I looked up my symptoms in an insurance book and settled on BCC rather than squamous.

Wishing it away did not work so I went to the doctor. He took some off and sent it to the lab for a proper diagnosis. They agreed with me, so I was scheduled for surgery. A fine surgeon took it off in his office. The operation went well, thanks to a local anaethetic and sturdy leather restraints.

KJV 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. 17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Canker in this passage can be translated as cancer or gangrene. Both disorders share the same need for a complete cure. When the adventurer who was trapped by a boulder knew he had gas gangrene in his hand, he used his own knife to cut off his arm.

Today people want to massage, finesse, and spin false doctrine. God's Word says it is a cancer or gangrene. False doctrine must be removed completely.

WELS AnswerMan Needs an Editor

Half my posts used to be aimed at AnswerMan, who seemed to be like one of those Japanese soldiers who were still in the jungles fighting WWII years after they lost.

Once Schroeder became SP, AnswerMan toned down. He still cannot spell. Apparently, the graduates of Wisconsin's superb educational system have not told him that Church is spelled with a C, not a D.

The link and the post both read:

WELS Topical Q&A: Gender Roles Submission in the Dhurch and World?

WELS Giving Up

From the Shepherd's Voice

The special offering being planned will address the synod’s capital debt of $22.4 million. Currently, we are budgeting nearly $3 million to make payments on that debt. If the debt is retired, we will have $3 available for missions and ministry. If the debt is not retired in full, we will continue to budget whatever is necessary to make payments on it.

There are plans under discussion right now to consolidate and restructure that debt. This step will reduce our payments by about $500,000 per year and will pay the debt off in ten years (this assumes that we receive NOTHING in the special offering.) So that is the first step of “Plan B,” if one is needed. On the spending side, we will be looking at many other possible solutions, including increased efficiencies in the way that we do things, potential staffing reductions where possible. On the income side, we have already seen a number of very positive signs that the support for the synod’s work is increasing dramatically. Early reports of congregational mission offerings are very positive. Gifts from individuals are running well ahead of projections. And gifts for the debt offering are already coming in, even before we have begun organized debt reduction efforts.

In other words, even as we plan for the offering to be successful, alternatives are being considered and plans put into place. Those plans will develop and change as more information comes to us during the next several months.

Rev. Schroeder

***

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Giving Up":

Does the title mean that WELS is giving up in the sense of "throwing in the towel" or "offerings are up. I suppose you would maybe have put WELS' Giving Up if you meant more offerings... Can you please clarify? Thanks.

Michael Schottey has left a new comment on your post "WELS Giving Up":

So...what would you have posted if the opposite was said.

Schroeder has said many times the WELS is going to look at every possible way to cut costs and be more efficient at spending. Good stewardship principles.

Consolidating debt...eliminating payments and paying ahead of schedule. Also good stewardship principle.

The truth it, the WELS isn't giving up, the Special Offering hasn't even started and has already collected money.

You know, there are some pieces of information that as you try to put your negative spin on at all costs, it just looks foolish.

***

GJ - It all depends on where the understood is goes. Right away, after I posted SP Schroeder's remarks verbatim, one person asked about the word play and another one VIOLATED THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT! My motives were impugned.

The headline can be understood correctly. (If one draws out the can, the proper WELS spin is achieved.) WELS Giving Is Up. Did anything in Schroeder's remarks suggest that WELS Is Giving Up? I do not think so. And I did not pour contempt on the next fund drive.

My intention has never been to give a negative spin on anything. As I pointed out before, I am providing a vast amount of material for all Lutherans, about all the synods. Most of the information is negative because the leadership is apostate. (I am giving SP Schroeder two years of grace, knowing only faintly what a pigsty he inherited.)

Some of the time I am just having fun, which is what I did with the headline. I used to do that in parish newsletters because the work could be tedious, remembering all the birthdays and cat-hangings in the congregation. Once I spelled out Go Bengals in the first two paragraphs of the newsletter, left-hand margin. Most read some very tangled and nonsensical sentences. A few saw "Go Bengals" clearly. Imagine what that did to the congregation, when I printed in the newsletter, "Congregation Giving Up."

Once we got free fans to use in hot, humid Midland, Michigan. I published an article in the paper: "St. Timothy Installs Energy-Efficient Air Conditioning System." That appeared on Saturday. One growly layman got very upset on Saturday. The congregation thought it was pretty funny on Sunday. Later, people in town said, "Why do they have air conditioning and we don't?" I put an article in The Lutheran magazine about it, since the hand-held fans promoted the magazine. When that appeared, I put another article in the Midland paper about the AC joke.

I could put a postive spin on the doctrinal, moral, and financial bankruptcy of the "conservative" synods, but they already have highly paid staff to do that for them. And even then they cannot spell correctly or fix obvious errors.

There's my answer - SP Schroeder, in my opinion, is wisely tackling the financial disaster first. WELS members and pastors seem to have growing confidence in his leadership. AnswerMan has been tethered, but not taught to spell.

***

A. Nony Mouse has left a new comment on your post "WELS Giving Up":

wisdely tackling the financial disaster first. AnswerMan has been tethered, but not taught to spell.

funny one...please wisely check your spelling.

GJ - Before Mouse posted I fixed the typo. If he had refreshed his page, he would have seen that. Thus I have two Eighth Commandment violations from my innocent posting.

Mouse seemed to have missed several points. One is that I have no staff, but I spell better than The Love Shack. The entire Wisconsin Synod failed to see that obvious spelling error, after a fair number of days have elapsed. And no one at TLS saw it? Another point was hidden but can now be revealed. When I prepare a post, I go over it several times before publishing it. Then I read it over, looking for errors and lack of clarity. I may fix and re-post several more times. So before jumping to the keyboard and making a fool of yourself, make sure you are mocking the final editing of the post, not just the fourth draft.

The ancients had a saying, "Even good Homer nods." I am not Homer's equal.

I have yet to read a blog from Mouse. Maybe he can post a link, anonymously.

***

Michael Schottey has left a new comment on your post "WELS Giving Up":

Well Reverend,

If that was your intent "WELS Giving IS Up." Then you have my sincerest apologies.

But remember that next time you admonish a WELS pastor who speaks and is able to be misunderstood.

Once again my apologies.

Michael Schottey has left a new comment on your post "WELS Giving Up":

Also...perhaps next time you link to my site I will not be so ungrateful, in addition to my apologies, you have my thanks.

GJ - No need to apologize. I was just having some fun with your response. I was also having fun with the people who cover their false doctrine with the Eighth Commandment accusation. I was not serious about that. I did want to give SP Schroeder's efforts a boost with some positive information.

Walther wrote that pastors have an obligatin to be clear about doctrine when they speak or write. Do not turn that around. The audience does not have an obligation to understand correctly something that has been ambiguously communicated. I have published many instances of the WELS CG leaders writing, "We know that the Word of God is effective... but..." They follow with the Reformed view of the Word, which is actually an attack on the Word of God. That is plain deception and deserves to be treated as such. Paul Kelm has built his career on those tricks and has gotten away with it. People are justly tired of a cancer, false doctrine, being treated as a case of the sniffles.

ELCA-LCMS Feminist Communion Service at Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne

This was copied from LutherQuest (sic) because the original link did not work for me:

Here is an excerpt from the Newsletter of the Society of the Holy Trinity where Pastor David Poedel is a member. The Rev. David Poedel, STS, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Phoenix, is an LC-MS pastor:

"Content of the General Retreat 2007
The 2007 general retreat of the Society of the Holy Trinity will be held on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind., on August 21–23. Chaplain for the retreat will be David Wendel, STS, St. Luke Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colo. Preachers this year are Patrick Rooney, STS, Christ Lutheran Church, York, Pa.; Irma Wolf, STS, Brandon-Split Rock Lutheran Church, Brandon, S.Dak.; Troy Mulvaine, STS, Augustana Lutheran Church, Tonawanda, N.Y.; David Poedel, STS, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Phoenix, Ariz. Frank Senn, STS Senior, will give an opening address on "A Society of the Cross." Teaching theologians will be Amy Schifrin, STS, Interim Pastor in the Lower Susquehanna Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), on "Holy, Holy, Holy: God as Preacher," and Dr. Max Johnson, Professor of Liturgy, University of Notre Dame, on "Baptism Under the Sign of the Cross."

This is the tenth anniversary of the Society, and it will be celebrated with a banquet on Wednesday night. The banquet speaker will be Richard Niebanck, STS. Following the banquet address there will be a hymn festival organized around the marks of the Church led by Andrew Senn from the organ console of Kramer Chapel. Rising over 100 feet above the Upper Plaza, Kramer Chapel is the physical and spiritual center of the campus. We will appreciate the opportunity to worship in this impressive facility. It should be a good general retreat".

It certainly sounds like they intended to worship there.

***

GJ - The Holy Trinity Society was started by a high church ELCA pastor. Previously there was also a Society of St. James. The members of the Holy Trinity Society end their names with STS (Latin for their society, even if most of them could not read the Gospel of John in Latin).

Oh, I just saw Niebanck's name there. "Danger. Will Robinson. Danger." Niebanck is a friend of Father Neuhaus. Half the participants will pope (join the Church of Rome). The other half will semi-pope (join Eastern Orthodoxy).

Tug of War at Parker Lutheran High - Nearly Amputates Hands

The story is here.

Pep rally tug-of-war results in severed hands

Football players taken to hospital with ‘blood flying everywhere’

During a pep rally inside the school's gymnasium Friday afternoon, the senior football players took to the court to play a game of tug-of-war with the junior football players.

Lutheran High School, Parker, Colorado, LCMS.

Kurtzahn Prophetic Warning Repeated - BMs Anticipated in 1996

"But as you can see from the above references, ever so slyly, like a wolf in sheep's clothing, Valleskey is promoting the Church Growth Movement. [emphasis in original] I will argue that with anyone. God forbid, but my guess would be the next such book out of WELS will be even more CG oriented and even more blatant in its CG statements."

WELS Pastor Steve Kurtzahn, 1996, when he was still a Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) pastor

Of course, WELS leaders would rather buy their books from Fuller Seminary than write another one.


BM = Becoming Missional

Becoming Missional is the new fad out of Fuller, so neutral that Unitarian Universalists love it, too. Listen for key words spoken in reverence at your local Lutheran congregation: Reggie McNeal, Churchianity, Change, and even the Missional Test.

Mark Jeske as Parody (WELS)

Pastor puts faith in Internet outreach

Online ministry reaches beyond his flock

By TOM HEINEN

theinen@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 12, 2007
Competing against Rusty the narcoleptic dog, comedian Judson Laipply's evolution-of-dance routine and enough other video vignettes to stretch from here to eternity, Milwaukee Pastor Mark Jeske's earnestness seems a bit of an odd fit for YouTube.

Pastor Mark Jeske


Photo/Karen Sherlock

Time of Grace producer Dwayne Gates and technician Sean Floeter (right) film Pastor Mark Jeske of St. Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. Through Time of Grace and YouTube, Jeske likes the potential to reach unchurched people.

On the Web
For more information and all of Pastor Mark Jeske's YouTube videos, go to timeofgrace.org and click on "Updates" at the top of the page.

www.timeofgrace.org

Watch the Videos
To see "Baby Got Book" and other popular GodTube videos, go to www.GodTube.com, click on "Videos" and then "Most Viewed."


It's not exactly the kind of digital neighborhood where one would expect to find a conservative Lutheran evangelist hanging out, offering two- or three-minute video messages of faith and hope.

But then, normality is a moving target these days.

Inspired by the immense popularity of YouTube, which Google recently bought for $1.65 billion, Christian entrepreneurs launched GodTube in August. It offers online chats by topic and free sharing of amateur videos, church videos, music videos and movie trailers. It was the fastest-growing Web site in the United States that month and claims more than 3 million unique views each month.

GodTube's most popular video, of a girl reciting Psalm 23, has tallied almost 4 million views.

Its next most-viewed video, with nearly 380,000 views, is "Baby Got Book," a faith-oriented spoof of "Baby Got Back," Sir Mix-A-Lot's 1992 hit in praise of women with big derrieres. Only in this case, instead of talking about booty, the song opens with a woman exclaiming in a Valley girl voice, "Oh, my, goodness, Becky! Look at her Bible. It is so big. She looks like one of those preacher guys' girlfriends."

[GJ - The video of white guys trying to be rappers, almost impossible to watch, reminds me of a Black stand-up routine. The comic said, "Everyone wants to walk like us, dress like us, sing like us, dance like us. Everyone wants to be Black until the police arrive." Apparently none of the young Black men at Jeske's parish wanted to be in the video. Good for them.

One line is that the huge Bible "makes me so horney." The white guy starts the phrase and it is finished with a close-up of a white female. Did anyone notice that the most viewed video is one of a girl reading Psalm 23? The Word of God is effective.]

Jeske, pastor of St. Marcus Lutheran Church near N. Palmer St. and E. North Ave., doesn't draw even a fraction of those views, but he is a multimedia kind of guy who reaches far beyond his church's central-city neighborhood. In addition to the YouTube videos, his Time of Grace ministry offers an Internet blog, podcasts, daily e-mail devotionals and streaming video and audio from its Web site. The ministry mails more than 10,000 booklets or magazines monthly and, as a cornerstone, records weekly, 30-minute Bible-study messages by Jeske in front of his congregation for broadcast.

That television ministry, already in nearly 20 U.S. markets, has expanded within the last two weeks to become available across the U.S. and around the world on cable television and satellite-dish systems over the Daystar Television Network.

"My passion is to connect people with Jesus in a way that makes sense to them on their turf, in their home, on their computer, wherever they like to receive religious information, without the stress and fear of having to cross a threshold and enter a room full of strangers," Jeske said.

Most of his half-dozen YouTube videos have drawn about 60 views apiece, with one on "real hope" getting about 400 views. They are a small part of his efforts, but others have found that this medium - YouTube streams more than 100 million videos a day - packs the potential of a mustard seed.

YouTube videos with Wisconsin roots include:

• Senior Pastor Mel Lawrenz of Elmbrook Church in Waukesha County impersonating Johnny Cash and singing "Ring of Fire" at a congregational meeting. That's garnered almost 5,200 views.

• Children at an Elmbrook camp clapping and dancing to the song "We're All in this Together," from "High School Musical" (about 785 views).

• A performance by the award-winning Sanctus Real band at Fox River Christian Church in Waukesha (more than 10,570 views).

By comparison, Laipply's gyrating demonstration of the evolution of American dance styles, widely cited as the most-viewed video on YouTube, has more than 60 million views.

Pastors using traditional broadcast models are mainly symbolic on YouTube, said Lynn Clark, director of the University of Denver's Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media.

"It seems to me that a thing like 'Baby Got Book' has more legs, in the sense that it really fits with the YouTube sensibility, because it's all about the pass-along, tripping onto something, (thinking) 'Oh, you've got to see this,' and you forward it to 40 of your friends."

At Time of Grace, Jeske likes YouTube's potential to reach unchurched people. With the average U.S. church attracting fewer than 90 adults on a typical weekend, according to Barna Group research, Internet and broadcast audiences that are small by commercial standards can still greatly leverage a pastor's impact.

That was part of the idea in 2001 when a group of businessmen who worship at Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran churches gathered $500,000 in start-up money in hopes of making Jeske the nation's most visible spokesman for conservative Lutheranism. Six years later, the private nonprofit ministry has grown from one employee to five and cites at least 200,000 viewers a week.

Jeske's Time of Grace program airs in the Milwaukee area at 8 a.m. Sundays on WVTV-TV (Channel 18) and draws about 15,000 viewers in southeastern Wisconsin.

"Americans, in spite of the shame brought to my tribe, the televangelists, by some real boneheads . . . still really want to receive religious information through mass media," Jeske said. "And so I would like to be there to . . . help people enjoy getting into Bible study, just find the fun of it, and really enjoy a relationship with God, one that's not based on fear and guilt, but one that's based on really enjoying the love that God has for people."

***

Time of Grace information from Daily Kos:

Eight laymen and a Milwaukee pastor have launched an independent weekly television broadcast here with the goal of offering Lutheran programming to 95% of the households in the United States within five years.
....
Bolstered by a business plan and start-up funding of nearly $500,000, the non-profit organization hopes to make Jeske the nation's most visible spokesman for conservative Lutheranism.
....
Jeske's church is 60% white and 40% African-American.
"We just had the look of a universal place, and they liked that," said Jeske, 49.
....
Time of Grace Ministry is incorporated in Virginia. Both the idea and its implementation have come from the laymen, and officials of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, or WELS, have encouraged them.

Other board members include: Tom Baxter, Television Division chief of the U.S. Army Visual Information Center at the Pentagon; John E. Bauer, longtime chief academic officer of Wisconsin Lutheran College and current vice president for academic affairs; Steve Boettcher, president of Boettcher Productions, a five-time Emmy-winning television production firm in Hartland.

Also, Cliff Buelow, of the Milwaukee law firm of Davis & Kuelthau; Bruce Eberle, president of Eberle Communications Group, a national fund-raising firm in McLean, Va.; Arvid Schwartz of Green Isle, Minn., a farmer, former corporate treasurer, and chairman of the Wisconsin Lutheran College board; and John C. Zimdars, president of The Zimdars Co., Inc., a life insurance consulting firm in Madison.

All belong to the theologically conservative WELS, which is based in Wauwatosa. WELS has more than 400,000 members and is the nation's third-largest Lutheran denomination.

The idea for the ministry came from Eberle, who sits on the Wisconsin Lutheran College board with Jeske, Buelow, Raabe, Schwartz and Zimdars.

The Cancer Grows in WELS BMs Are the Next Big Thing

What makes Fuller Seminary instructor Reggie McNeal, pictured left, the man to teach Lutherans? Read more below.

The pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Madison, Wisconsin, Robert Knippel, WELS, is using a Fuller Seminary book for an adult study.

Here is the WELS church blurb:

CHRISTIANITY OR CHURCHIANITY?

Robert Knippel 12/29/2006 10:32:33 AM

THE PRESENT FUTURE~Six Tough Questions For The Church

Steeped in tradition, many churches are caught up in a game of numbers and attendance tally sheets in an attempt to prove ‘success’ in the religious community. Often, when new members cannot be recruited, the bottom falls out of a church's ministry. In The Present Future, church consultant and church leadership trainer Reggie McNeal clarifies the importance of getting a church out of the ‘traditional rut’ and focused back on building God's kingdom according to His purposes.

In order to meet people's physical, spiritual and emotional needs, McNeil says that current church members will need to be released from some of their church offices and duties in order to have the time (and energy) to be effective outreach personnel in workplaces and expanded communities. He feels that the training of these outreach people should be patterned on the model used by Jesus.

McNeil knows that his book may seem demanding, even harsh; so, he has inserted a section meant to thwart negative feelings he may have unintentionally stirred. This book is important reading for anyone with a heart for Christian outreach.

Join Pastor Knippel for this 10-week challenging and invigorating discussion on the state of the church! Do we practice “Christianity” or “Church-ianity”?

Friday Morning Bible Class
Begins February 2, 2007 at 6:30 AM
Reserve your copy of this important book by emailing Pastor Knippel or signing up on the sign up sheet on the board.

***

When I searched for more about McNeal, I found this at the Fuller Seminary site:

Fuller Theological Seminary Presents a Dynamic Workshop Experience


"The Present Future:
Tackling Six Tough Questions for the Church"

with Dr. Reggie McNeal


"...McNeal identifies the six most important realities that church
leaders must address...
[He] contends that by changing
the questions church leaders
ask themselves about their congregations and their plans,
they can frame the core issues
and approach the future with
new eyes, new purpose,
and new ideas."
- The Present Future
***

The Church of the Nazarene likes McNeal:

Dr. Reggie McNeal is the Director of the Leadership Development Office at the South Carolina Baptist Convention. His past experience involves twenty years in local church leadership, ten years in various staff roles and ten years as a founding pastor of a new church. Reggie has lectured or served as adjunct faculty for multiple seminaries, including Southwestern Baptist (Ft. Worth, TX), Golden Gate Baptist (San Francisco, CA), Fuller Theological (Pasadena, CA), Trinity Divinity School (Deerfield, IL), and Columbia International (Columbia, SC).

In addition, Reggie has served as a consultant to local church, denomination, and para-church leadership teams, as well as seminar developer and presenter for thousands of church leaders across North America. He has also resourced the United States Army Chief of Chaplains Office, Air Force chaplains, and the Air Force Education and Training Command. Reggie’s work also extends to the business sector, including The Gallup Organization.

Reggie has contributed to numerous denominational publications and church leadership journals, including Leadership and Net Results. His books include Revolution in Leadership (Abingdon Press, 1998), A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders (Jossey-Bass, 2000), The Present Future (Jossey-Bass, 2003) and Practicing Greatness (Release date – Spring 2006).

Reggie’s education includes a B.A. degree from the University of South Carolina and the M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees both from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Reggie and his wife Cathy, have two daughters, Jessica and Susanna, and make their home in Columbia, South Carolina.

***

In a puff interview at Becoming Missional, McNeal tells all:

Friday, December 29, 2006
Missional Interview with Reggie McNeal
I had the privilege to sit and talk with Reggie McNeal over lunch during one of his conferences.


Reggie is best known for his book The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church you can also get a copy of his seminar on the book here. I would highly recommend both.

You can also find his bio here.
We talked and then I asked him several questions.

The following is the answers he gave me.

Q. 1. Reggie how do you define missional?

A. Joining God in His redemptive work, here and now. It's something to be done and not just talked about.

Q. 2. What flipped your missional switch?

A. It's always been on my mind. I did the church growth "thing" during that movement, but I was never really satisfied with it. I've always been about asking the question "How can the Church be the Church?" that answer is not found in a bigger institution or better leadership. So I've always been moving towards a missional mindset.

Q. 3. How will missional change come to the church?

A. It will come in stages. It will not happen overnite but will slow and dramatically change. But I must say this, renewal will not happen for the church, when we are trying to renew the church. If making a greater church is our goal, then we will fail. Renewal will come when we ourselves have been renewed with God's missional passion and we in turn pass that along to our churches.

What will happen to the institutional church?

A. The IC will become just one form among many. There will be many different forms of church meeting many different needs. Maybe a family will move into a high rise of 300 apartments and claim that as their mission field and start an organic group there. Knowing that 95% of the people in that building don't go to church. That family will becoming the church to that place.

Q. 5. What one book would you recommend?

A. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church

Thanks Reggie for taking the time to answer and share these insights with us! In my opinion Reggie is really one of the fathers of the missional church movement. His thoughts are practical and moving. If you've not read 6 questions you need to.

***

[GJ - The author of the Becoming Missional blog does not reveal his denomination.] I did find there was a Missional Community. That is the apparent tie between the blog and the author. This seems to be another avatar of the Church Growth Movement, like Purpose-Driven. I would be wary of acronyms. Who wants to join the BMs?

***

A lovely young woman--studying for her degree at Fuller Seminary--has this excited commentary on her class with McNeal:

Today I'm focusing on Reggie...we're going missional! Advancing into the Present Future. One of Reggie's premises is that God is always up to something new.

Key to taking your church missional is asking the right questions. Reggie reviews six wrong questions, and then asks six tough questions:

How do we 'deconvert' from 'Churchianity' to Christianity?
How do we transform our Community?
How do we turn members into missionaries?
How do we develop followers of Jesus?
How do we prepare for the future?
How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?

If you've not read Present Future order one today! Read it and let Reggie take you missional. His humor, thoughts and tough questions are sure to fast forward you to your future today.

***

Eureka! I found the castle keep of Becoming Missional - Fuller Seminary:

Missional God, Missional Church (Unabridged) by Fuller Theological Seminary
Learn from Michael Frost as he shares his studies, discoveries, and missional experiences. It addresses the questions of what does it mean for a church to be missional?, �what does it mean to live incarnationally?, and what does it truly mean to live in community?

FTS - The Purposeful Church (Unabridged) by Rick Warren, John Maxwell, Peter Wagner, Reggie McNeal
Does your congregation view the church as a refuge for believers or as a mission for the unchurched? This series examines today�s cultural shifts that drive the church to search for new paradigms of effective ministry.

And -

7/1/2007 - New Course with Reggie McNeal
Fuller's Doctor of Ministry Program and Continuing Education Office will offer a new course Monday-Friday, August 6-10, Missional Leadership: Character, Context and Challenge, led by leadership expert Reggie McNeal. Those in pastoral ministry can audit at substantial savings. Pre-course work will be required. For details, email dmin-office@dept.fuller.edu or guy@fuller.edu.

***

Covenant churches like McNeal too:

From Pastor Art: This note was sent to all Covenant churches within a
two hour drive of MCC. Please plan to attend. THIS GUY IS "OFF THE TABLE."

Marin Covenant is hosting a two day gathering with Reggie McNeal, author
of the much read book, _Present Future_.

I wanted to make sure that our Covenant churches knew about this and
could do everything to get here for it.

Gary Gaddini, from Peninsula Covenant in Redwood City, attended a
similar gathering with him last month and was so excited about it that
he is bringing more from his church up to this meeting in Marin.

Here are the specifics:

*Reggie's point:* There are some things the church had better get figured
out about why she is here. There will be discussion revolving around
what is in the book, but even if you haven't yet read it, you won't feel
left out. If you have read it, you won't feel like this is redundant,
according to those who have been at other venues.

*Dates and times:* Monday, August 8th, 8-5, Tuesday, August 9th , 8-noon.

*Location:* Marin Covenant Church, 195 North Redwood Drive, San Rafael.
415-479-1360

***

More BMs from a Fuller Seminary professor, who noted that McNeal is hosting the BM workshop.

And a Presbyterian BMer has much to say on this.

***

GJ - Stick with me, even if this is like getting root canal work without any pain killer. The evidence on the Net suggests that McNeal and his Fuller cronies are the energy behind the WELS Church and Change apostasy. Like Orwell's Animal Farm, we peek in the window and cannot tell the Baptists from the Presbyterians from the Covenanters from the Pentecostals from the Wisconsin Synod Lutherans.

Symptoms of Lutheran Pietism

Note the liberal, unionistic links at the WELS Prayer Institute.

Symptoms of Lutheran Pietism

One must generalize about Pietism, since its influence has been so extensive and damaging. But generalizing is an effort deeply resented by Lutheran Pietists, because it implies extensive reading, study, and years of experience. If we recognize the undercurrent of Enthusiasm among Lutherans, especially in the conservative synods, we can see why rejecting the efficacy of the Word and welcoming the doctrines and methods of Pietism go claw in claw.

Lay Led Cell Groups

The conventicle, as it was called then, was the chief method for promoting Pietism. Claiming that the visible church was dead or not active enough, Pietists gathered to study and pray. The ideal was and continues to be a higher or deeper spiritual life with an abundance of good works. Such gatherings can be very intense, intimate, and binding. A reader has pointed out that a small group is used quite effectively for Marxist cell groups and Navy SEAL teams. Since the Means of Grace are set aside in cell groups, prayer becomes the only means of grace.[43] The Reformed emphasize prayer groups and prayer as a means of grace, so Reformed material is extremely attractive to Lutheran Pietists.[44] In addition, since these groups tend to be open to outsiders, false teachers gladly participate. One Adventist minister attended a Missouri Synod Bible study group and dominated all the meetings until I complained!

When I warned a Missouri Synod congregation against all lay led cell groups, since they are typically anti-Means of Grace, one woman was very angry. She attended a Lutheran study group and did not see what was wrong with it. Later, she attended the lay-led group and brought up Baptism as a sacrament. The leader of the Lutheran cell group became very hostile and did not want to discuss the topic. The cell group leader did not believe in Baptism. Much later the woman admitted her anger about my comments and what had happened subsequently. She said, “Now I know what you meant.” She was impressed by the hostility expressed by a Lutheran leader about something so basic to all Lutherans.

J-767

"We probably think first of such groups coming into being in the late 1600s in connection with Pietism. Spener promoted them as a vehicle by which pious laypeople could be a leaven for good in reforming the 'dead orthodoxy' of a congregation and its pastor."[45]
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126.

J-768

"The point being made here is that the reason for having home Bible study in small groups seems to have shifted from the Pietists' or parachurch groups goal of creating cells of people who will reform the church to having small groups as an integral part of a congregation's work."
Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 127.

Whenever cell groups meet, Pentecostals or charismatics see these groups as fertile ground for promoting tongue-speaking. If one can fervently pray for God’s grace and forgiveness, then how much better would it be to speak in tongues? Every glossolalia salesman acts as if he swallowed the Holy Ghost feathers and all, so innocent people are easily swindled by the talk of “love” and “Jesus” and “do not let them quench the Holy Spirit.” Many WELS and LCMS pastors enamored of the Church Growth Movement have abandoned Lutheran doctrine to be non-denominational, Reformed, or charismatic.

Whether the cell group is Pentecostal or not, spiritual pride soon sets in. The group is superior to the rest of the congregation, more loving, more generous, and more willing to witness. One advocate for koinonia groups in the LCA said, “ Who was in church every Sunday? The koinonia groups. Who showed up for work day? The koinonia groups. Who gave most of the offering? The koinonia groups. Before we had the koinonia groups, nothing was going on.”

J-769

"The church is no longer the community of those who have been called by the Word and the Sacraments, but the association of the reborn, of those who 'earnestly desire to be Christians'...The church in the true sense consists of the small circles of pietists, the 'conventicles,' where everyone knows everyone else and where experiences are freely exchanged. The man who is really pious can and must stand on his own feet. Only little weight is attached to the ministry of the Word, to worship services, the Sacraments, to confession and absolution, and to the observance of Christian customs; a thoroughly regenerated person does not need these crutches at all. Pietism stressed the personal element over against the institutional; voluntariness versus compulsion; the present versus tradition, and the rights of the laity over against the pastors.”
Martin Schmidt, "Pietism," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1899.

Cell groups are also extremely divisive. They not only act superior, but also set themselves up against the congregation and pastor. Many Baptists will admit sheepishly that they have Sunday School leaders who have never set foot in church for decades and never plan to do so. Obviously, for them, the lay-led group is the real church. These words are often spoken by Lutheran Pietists: my church is the home Bible study group. The group leader often conducts himself as an opponent of the called pastor. At the very least, the Means of Grace are scorned or diminished in favor of experience, feelings, and the intimacy of the group.

Doctrinal Indifference

Spener’s program made personal experience the norm of the Christian. What someone thought, felt, or experienced was more significant than what the Bible revealed or the Confessions taught. Lack of trust in the efficacy of the Gospel was accompanied by an anxious need “to witness, to save all those lost souls.” In addition, Lutheran orthodoxy is seen as an enemy of evangelism, as cold and intellectual.

J-770

"But a cold heart can beat close to a correct mind. There are too many churches with impeccable credentials for orthodox theology whose outreach is almost nil. They are 'sound,' but they are sound asleep." Leighton Ford (Billy Graham’s in-law), The Christian Persuader. Valleskey asks: "true to a certain degree of us?"
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Pastoral Theology 358A, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, p. 24.[46]

Lutheran Pietists excuse their love of Reformed doctrine by saying, “Look at all the witnessing I am doing.” Their position is appealing, because it does not require much thought. Any adult could carry a handful of their books easily. Their works are physically and doctrinally light but long on emotions, appealing to the Me Generation. Their leaders learn to pipe their eyes, as one person described it so eloquently. At the right moment, they burst into tears. One pastor would wipe a tear from his eye, hold it up, and look at it during the sermon. The best sermons at that church were succinctly described in this way: “The treasurer wept.”

As Professor Reu stated so well, doctrinal indifference and unionism are closely allied. One requires or causes the other. Doctrinal indifference is so important to Pietists that they get angry when someone insists on doctrinal standards. The Pietistic rebuke is either, “You are loveless and divisive,” or “We all believe in the same Lord. Why can’t we get along?” However, this indifference is also a smokescreen. The Pietists are not ecumenical about anti-Pietists. They will travel over heaven and earth to silence one dissenter, often with personal attacks. Pietists have perfected the art of shunning and excommunication. Many a pastor or lay leader has found himself permanently excluded by these apostles of love and tolerance. They should consider it a blessing from heaven.

The Holiness Code

The Reformed view of sanctification leads to a list of rules for proving acceptable Christian behavior. The strictest codes bar dancing or the observation of anyone dancing, all forms of alcohol, including communion wine, all makeup and jewelry, all movies and theatre, girls wearing slacks or shorts, anything suggestive of gambling, and all forms of tobacco. Each group has its peculiar variations upon the holiness code, which tends to slacken over a period of time. At first the Methodists were very keen on the code but lax about doctrine. When the Methodists became more liberal, conservatives within their ranks broke away to form their own denominations, trying to recapture the buzz of the holiness tradition. Hence, we have such groups as the Wesleyan Methodists, the Nazarenes, and the Church of God.

Sanctification

J-771

"This doctrine concerning the inability and wickedness of our natural free will and concerning our conversion and regeneration, namely, that it is a work of God alone and not of our powers, is [impiously, shamefully, and maliciously] abused in an unchristian manner both by enthusiasts and by Epicureans; and by their speeches many persons have become disorderly and irregular, and idle and indolent in all Christian exercises of prayer, reading and devout meditation; for they say that, since they are unable from their own natural powers to convert themselves to God, they will always strive with all their might against God, or wait until God converts them by force against their will; or since they can do nothing in these spiritual things, but everything is the operation of God the Holy Ghost alone, they will regard, hear, or read neither the Word nor the Sacrament, but wait until God without means..."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II, Free Will, 46, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 899. Tappert, p. 530. Heiser, p. 246.

No Drinking or Cards

Germans have formed Pietistic groups, but no German group has ever banned alcohol. One member of a German Canadian congregation remembered the time when the pastor, John Reble, also the president of the synod, stopped by for a visit and saw the boys playing a game of cards. The pastor said nothing but delivered a blistering sermon on Sunday about the dangers of playing cards. The same pastor had a drink at every home he visited, because it was polite to offer beverages, often home-made, and horribly rude to refuse them. The Augustana Synod banned cards and would have considered one drink per pastoral visit a sign of Satan’s visitation.

My wife made the mistake of having a glass of wine at the company dinner of the engineering firm where she worked. Seated next to her was a Fundamentalist, a good friend of ours. My wife left the party early with me and learned later that the engineers had turned the gathering into a wild bash, crashing another party and getting themselves thrown out. The Fundamentalist had no problem with the drunken revelry. He spent a lot of time condemning that solitary glass of wine. “You are a Christian. They are not.” Similarly, he was deeply disturbed by the concept of the Means of Grace. He could not accept the sacraments as anything more than symbolic.

The holier-than-thou attitude of Pietists is seldom hidden away. It may be based on never drinking, never smoking, or always being better than others in certain ways. Otto Heick (History of Christian Thought) was an LCA Lutheran but also a member of a Pietistic group. He told me his Pietistic group raised a large amount of money for missions, “quietly, in a week’s time.” He left no doubt that his group was superior in that regard to an ordinary Lutheran congregation. And he was a Lutheran seminary professor, with dual church membership.[47]

Proud Pietists

J-772

"Another very repulsive concomitant of the Reformed false teaching is spiritual pride. Because those who harbor the conception of an activity of the Holy Ghost apart from the means of grace are dealing in an illusory, man-made quality, they regard themselves, as experience amply proves, as the truly spiritual people and first-class Christians, while they consider those who in simple faith abide by the divinely appointed means of grace, 'intellectualists,' having a mere Christianity of the head; at best, second-rate Christians."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 162.

Some people think that conservative Pietists turn liberal over a period of time, but instead they simply become liberal Pietists. Being dominated by the Law does not change for Pietists, but the focus of the Law does. Conservative Pietists condemn alcohol, but liberal Pietists condemn big business, Western democracies, and the Republican Party, while condemning conservative Pietists. Those who wish to understand liberal Pietism should read Walter Rauschenbusch’s swan song, The Theology of the Social Gospel. All the Biblical doctrines are re-interpreted to deny the divinity of Christ. The book eloquently makes fun of the old Pietists while stating that congregations should be more careful about the kind of person they take in as members. A conservative Baptist church would supposedly turn down someone known to be a drinker, but a liberal Social Gospel congregation should turn down someone who is openly anti-union, in the view of Rauschenbusch.

At first, in the 1960s, the Pietists of The American Lutheran Church (TALC) were shocked at the liberalism of the Lutheran Church in America. Soon TALC leaders launched their own in-house attack on inerrancy and brought their synod up to speed, as they like to say. TALC leaders backed Lutherans Concerned with monetary grants and beat the LCA in declaring altar fellowship with the Reformed. Needless to say, some of the same TALC leaders became conservative dissenters in ELCA, when they found themselves shunned and rejected for being old fuddy-duddies. The legalism of the holiness code never ends. Each fad of the liberals is made necessary for fellowship and salvation, but fads quickly become threadbare and boring.

"Deeds Not Creeds"

Anti-Confessionalism and Missions

The Pietists have long had a slogan, “Deeds, not creeds.” Spener began this with his emphasis on good works, which is in harmony with the Reformed view of sanctification. It is at first gratifying, then terrifying to have people demonstrate outward signs of living a Christian life. Many times, as we can see from the Swedish Lutheran experience, it begins with a voluntary rejection of a damaging aspect of society. In 19th century Sweden, the founder of a temperance society began his work after a drunken fight broke out in his church during the sermon, and the two pugilists were women![48] The Augustana Synod in America, openly influenced by Pietism and the temperance movement, shunned alcohol. In the 1960s, the dean of women at Augustana College said in a huff, “No one ever drinks alcohol on this campus.” Everyone knew that alcohol consumption was a major factor in dorm life and social events, but the college officials would never admit it in public. After the first generation has passed on its rules for Christian behavior, the next generation feels a need to obey it outwardly. Eventually, the legalism is thrown out and the Ten Commandments with them, but the guilt remains. More than one person has said to me, emphasizing their pretense about not using liquor in so many words: “We have hidden the liquor while dad is visiting. Do not mention it. Do not even joke about it. I am begging you.”[49] The same college that officially banned alcohol in the 1960s now supports a homosexual activist group called Lutherans Concerned. Augustana College now has a Roman Catholic priest on its payroll to serve the Roman Catholic students. Pietism consistently degenerates into Unitarianism.

Pietists began the first mission societies, which were ecumenical, parachurch groups. Cooperation went both ways. The Reformed supported Lutheran Pietistic efforts, and Lutherans participated in Reformed works. Needless to say, when so many good things were happening through cooperation, people could not stop and fight over the sacraments and the efficacy of the Word.

Pietists do not like schools. They will say, “Schools benefit us, so they are not missions.” Pietists close down Lutheran schools to generate more money for missions. The Missouri Synod took the lead in this area, decapitating all their prep schools, which were designed to support church vocations. It helps men to have a head-start in languages by starting Latin in high school and Greek and Hebrew in college. The purpose of a prep school is to have an atmosphere where church vocations are emphasized in the context of a high quality, classical, but low cost school.[50] WELS bemoaned the stupidity of the Missouri Synod in closing their prep schools and then closed two of their four prep schools, also in the name of missions.[51] Now both synods have millions of dollars of foundation and insurance grants but fewer pastors and declining educational standards. No matter how intelligent a man is, he will gain far more from seminary if he enters pastoral training without the need to start cold in Greek and Hebrew.

The early Lutheran Pietists were fanatical about studying the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, as Heick’s work shows, but over a period of time, the educational requirements for Pietistic ministers slacken. ELCA candidates enter and leave seminary with a dash of Greek and no Hebrew. ELCA officials now admit that their future pastors enter seminary without even knowing the Small Catechism! WELS and Missouri leaders, look at ELCA. That is your future.

Fuller Pietism

Fuller Seminary in Pasadena was formed to teach inerrancy, although its initial position was really quite soft. Nevertheless, the faculty went through a revolution and Fuller adopted an anti-inerrancy statement. When The Battle for the Bible, about Fuller, was published, Harold Lindsell, the author, was attacked by Fuller for being “bitter and jealous” that he did not become president. In fact, the author was offered the position and turned it down. Notice how the amazingly successful president of Fuller Seminary, the late David Hubbard, defined the problem of inerrancy. Like most liberals in the driver’s seat, his words drip with sarcasm and scorn. The words are taken directly from the brochure Fuller mailed the author during a vain effort to recruit him.[52]

Fuller: The Bible Does Not Consider God’s Word Inerrant

J-773

"Were we to distinguish our position from that of some of our brothers and sisters who perceive their view of Scripture as more orthodox than ours, several points could be made: 1) we would stress the need to be aware of the historical and literary process by which God brought the Word to us...4) we would urge that the emphasis be placed where the Bible itself places it - on its message of salvation and its instruction for living, not on its details of geography or science, though we acknowledge the wonderful reliability of the Bible as a historical source book; 5) we would strive to develop our doctrine of Scripture by hearing all that the Bible says, rather than by imposing on the Bible a philosophical judgment of our own as to how God ought to have inspired the Word."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Inerrancy Misleading and Inappropriate

J-774

"Where inerrancy refers to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its use. Where the focus switches to an undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, the precise sequence of events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and inappropriate. Its dangers, when improperly defined, are: 1) that it implies a precision alien to the minds of the Bible writers and their own use of Scriptures; 2) that it diverts attention from the message of salvation and the instruction in righteousness which are the Bible's key themes;...5) that too often it has undermined our confidence in the Bible we have... 6)that it prompts us to an inordinate defensiveness of Scripture which seems out of keeping with the bold confidence with which the prophets, the apostles and our Lord proclaimed it."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Inerrancy Advocates Are Against the Bible and Tick Me Off!

J-775

"We resent unnecessary distractions; we resist unbiblical diversions… Can anyone believe that all other activities should be suspended until all evangelicals agree on precise doctrinal statements? We certainly cannot."
David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

The downhill doctrinal slide of Pietism begins with placing the good works of man above the truth of God’s Word. At every stage of the decline, the Pietists firmly believe that they must tolerate doctrinal laxity in the name of getting more done, for the glory of God, of course. Soon they find themselves helpless to stop the radicalism of the next generation. The last bishop of the Lutheran Church in America, James Crumley, begged his extremely liberal staff not to succumb to the radicalism of the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Soon, those same staff-members were ousted for being too conservative by ELCA Bishop Herb Chilstrom’s network.

Road to Unitarianism.

From anti-creed to anti-Trinity

Pietism begins with the slogan of “deeds, not creeds.” In every case, Pietism has spawned Unitarianism in the next generation or two. The University of Halle was the mecca of Pietism in one generation and the headquarters for apostasy in the next. The American Lutheran congregations most devoted to unionism in the 19th century became Congregational or worse in the next. Fuller Seminary, somewhat conservative but ecumenical to a fault, became an anti-inerrancy school in only one generation. The Augustana Synod blended Pietism from the old country with orthodoxy from Capital Seminary (now Trinity, ELCA, in Columbus, Ohio). Lutheran orthodoxy was taught at Augustana Seminary until the 1930s, and then the old faculty was removed at once. The Pietists at Augustana were instrumental in bringing the Social Gospel Movement into their seminary, by calling A. D. Mattson to the faculty.

The original Wisconsin Synod was as Pietistic and unionistic as a Lutheran group might be. Many congregations offered both Reformed and Lutheran communion, both Reformed and Lutheran catechism.[53] Some congregations, like St. Paul’s in Columbus, were named “German Lutheran and Reformed.” Many congregations, like old St. John’s in Milwaukee, had Reformed splits in their early days. The Wisconsin Synod, later influenced by the great theologian Adolph Hoenecke and the synodical leaders Bading and Brenner, who rejected Pietism and unionism, joined the Synodical Conference. However, the Pietists within the Wisconsin Synod were beaten down but not conquered. They lost, too, when the Wisconsin Synod finally voted to break with the Missouri Synod after two decades of dithering. However, the Pietists did not give up. They quietly networked and got their men into key positions, using training at Fuller Seminary as their uniting force. After years of denying that anyone ever went to Fuller Seminary, even though their own Lawrence Otto Olson bragged up his D. Min. degree from Fuller, the Church Growth advocates finally came out of the closet and said, “Yes, we love Church Growth. Yes, we love religious projects with ELCA. Yes, we want women to be ordained. Now try to stop us.”

Ordination of Women

The ordination of women is a natural step for Pietists, a necessary outgrowth of the cell group. In the cell group, which is anti-Means of Grace and anti-confessional, anyone may serve as the leader. In general, women tend to be more spiritual than men and enjoy taking these positions. Cell group method books call them “lay pastors” so there is little difference between serving as a pastor in a cell group and serving as one in the congregation. Although ordination is far more important than the Pietists allow, they have already accomplished their goal when they have women teaching men and women in authority over men in the church.

Historically, women’s ordination has begun with the anti-Christian cults, whenever an alpha female can gather a group together. The Pentecostal groups follow, since they believe the Holy Spirit calls them directly in their dreams and visions. One Pentecostal woman baptized herself in a bathtub, got her tongue-speaking going by saying “yabba-dabba-doo” repeatedly, and announced she had the gift of preaching, according to her submissive husband.

If we concede that the Confessions are old-fashioned, boring, and irrevelant, even though they are not, and we claim that doctrine is divisive, then there is no particular reason why women should not be ordained and called to serve as pastors of congregations. The Lutheran Church in America took the lead in dismissing the inerrancy of the Scriptures and in teaching the flexibility of the Confessions, so they naturally, as liberal Pietists, ordained the first women pastors in America, in 1970.[54] The American Lutheran Church followed. Acknowledging the ordination of known lesbians and homosexuals followed soon after.

Method Actors

Since Pietism rejects the Confessions, the efficacy of the Word, and the Means of Grace, advocates of Enthusiasm must trust in methods. The key to understanding the Enthusiasts is not only in realizing their separation of the Holy Spirit from the Word but also in seeing the implication of that concept. The Reformed do more than imply what their Enthusiasm means. They teach it quite openly – The Word of God is dead and lifeless without human aid. Here is the secret to cell groups, tongue speaking, the seeker service, entertainment evangelism, friendship evangelism, child evangelism, mission vision statements, and all the flotsam of the Reformed. Why must the ministers pretend to be used car salesmen, talk show hosts, or stand-up comedians? In their eyes, God’s Word is dead without a boost from them to make it appealing and get results. Since they have no faith in the Holy Spirit working through the Word alone, they measure their success by visible results they can put on a graph. They take people out to their parking lots and tell them how many acres they have paved. That is good news for the National Asphalt Paving Association,[55] but it means nothing to God to watch these people clown around and carry on to win the approval of people, who are not even given the chance to hear the saving Word of Truth. In a word, these men are ashamed of the Gospel.

Pietistic Methods

J-776

"Pietist preachers were anxious to discover and in a certain sense to separate the invisible congregation from the visible congregation. They had to meet demands different than those of the preceding period: they were expected to witness, not in the objective sense, as Luther did, to God's saving acts toward all men, but in a subjective sense of faith, as they themselves had experienced it. In this way Pietism introduced a tendency toward the dissolution of the concept of the ministry in the Lutheran Church."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

J-777

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

We might as well start on the bottom of Pietistic practices with the “holy laughter movement,” also known as the “Toronto Blessing.” Pentecostals wore out speaking in tongues, singing in tongues, as well as dancing and being slain in the spirit. They have done every rock version of every spiritual ditty one could imagine. What was left? Holy laughter! (They are actually reviving an old Pentecostal fad.) The minister begins a Toronto Blessing service by telling some lame jokes. People are already set to laugh their heads off. After a few jokes, people begin falling out of their chairs laughing. It helps if the minister does this too, as Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, has done on television. Instead of piping their eyes with tears of contrition, yelling “Glory, glory, glory” on their backs on the floor, the Pentecostals now howl and bellow with laughter, with their backs on the floor. This too will fade and become wearisome. In contrast, the historic Lutheran liturgy is always uplifting to man because the worship service glorifies God, always emphasizing His grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Promise Keepers, a cancerous growth from cell groups and Pentecostalism, has also run through its time of excitement, its “movement of the Spirit,” and its roaringly high income. Wildly ecumenical and emotional, it offered to bring Protestants, Catholics, and Mormon men together in one big hug and cry. Stadiums were filled. Now they are not. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Visible and Invisible Church

J-778

"No one will open his eyes to the fact that mere human devices and doctrines are ensnaring souls, weakening consciences, dissipating Christian liberty and faith, and replenishing hell. Wolves! Wolves! How abominably, awfully, murderous, how harassing and destructive, are these things the world over!"
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 32. Second Sunday in Advent Romans 15:4-13.

Divisive Preaching

J-779

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.



[42] Prayer or Bible study groups are also called koinonia, share, care, or home study groups. WELS kept changing the names, but not the method.

[43] The soviet in Soviet Union refers to councils based upon cell groups.

[44] The Peretti novels found in Christian book stores portray God’s angels as energized by prayer. Towns lacking in “prayer warriors” are set upon by demons. Lots of prayer will strengthen God’s angels enough to drive the demons away. This obviously causes people to think in terms of salvation by works.

[45] "In an article on the small group movement, J. A. Gorman notes that 'both the Church Growth Institute of Fuller Seminary and the American Institute of Church Growth became centers for influencing the use of this means for evangelizing." (Christian Education, Moody Press, 1991, pp. 509, 510) Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126. "This writer's acquaintance with this current phenomenon is threefold: 1) he has attended one of the workshops held by Lyman Coleman; 2) he has read about a dozen books in the last ten years coming from evangelical sources [i.e. false teachers] that deal with small groups either wholly or in part; 3) he has also inquired about why a number of WELS congregations have begun to conduct small group Bible study and how they have structured these groups." Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 127. "Definition: 'A small group within the church is a voluntary intentional gathering of people, varying in number, regularly meeting together for mutual Christian purposes.' - Serendipity WELS Campus Pastors, Small Group Training Conference, Jan. 7-9, 1991, Madison. p. 2. "Bible studies from Serendipity. Serendipity makes available Bibles (with outlines and discussion questions) and topical study booklets for adults and teen-agers. See appendix D for sample study courses. Order a SERENDIPITY SMALL GROUP RESOURCES CATALOG from Serendipity, P.O. Box 1012, Littleton, CO, 80160 or call 1-800-525-9583 (In CO call 1-303-798-1313)." Notebook, School of Outreach IV, p. 225. "Introduction to Small Group Ministry outline. Evangelism Office. Buy the book Good Things Come in Small Groups, Intervarsity Press. Small Group Bible Study Materials, Serendipity, Littleton, CO (1-800-525-9563)." WELS Evangelism Workshop IV, LOCATING THE LOST, Five Year Plan For Outreach, p. 177.

[46] The CLC Church Growth salesmen yelped that I could not quote Valleskey’s class notes, which are published and kept by his students, since I did not take his class. Valleskey claimed to have inherited his notes from another professor, so he would not take responsibility for the content. However, if we examine his small body of publications, no doubts are left about his love for Reformed authors and the Church Growth Movement.

[47] Heick’s History of Christian Thought was used throughout Lutheranism for a long time. He was the most Lutheran of the professors at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, but he did not believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. He was kind to various students, including me and my wife Chris. Unlike others, he would analyze what students said during their chapel talks.

[48] Some of you think you are in difficult parishes.

[49] One successful CPA always hid his boat when his dad visited, because his father did not approve of such frills. When he thundered at voters’ meetings, one was tempted to think, “You hide your boat from your daddy?”

[50] Herman Otten told me that his father, a painter, sent him to prep school to turn him into a pastor. It is also worthwhile if students learn at an early age that church vocations are not for them. Seminaries should not be used as group therapy for the spiritually confused to find the meaning of life.

[51] WELS tried to turn another prep school into an ordinary area high school. The two surviving schools are now deemed inadequate for the supply of students. “We need another prep school,” one official said.

[52] Every so often, Fuller Seminary would phone and I would think, “They are going to chew me out for my latest article.” Instead, they were soliciting me to spend thousands of dollars to earn a degree, because I requested a catalogue. Many WELS pastors jumped me about Fuller Seminary, so I always asked them, “Have you ordered a catalogue? Do you want the latest one, to show you what they are teaching the WELS, ELCA, and LCMS leaders?”

[53] The oldest part of the Muhlenberg tradition, the General Synod, formed many union congregations, which were being de-unionized in the 1970s for a period of time. LCA pastors might serve a Reformed congregation, or a Reformed minister might serve an LCA congregation. Both would be on the ministerial roll of both denominations. After years of agonizing de-unionizing efforts, ELCA began forming new union congregations, with the Reformed, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics. One ELCA story has a photo of a Roman Catholic priest grinning at his associate, a stunningly beautiful ELCA woman pastor. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

[54] Women’s ordination required the death of LCA president Franklin C. Fry. He would not even discuss the topic. At least one of his granddaughters is an ELCA pastor. Fry led the United Lutheran Church in America in rejecting inerrancy and refused communion from an ALC leader who advocated close communion.

[55] National Asphalt Paving Association, 5100 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, Maryland, 20706. Toll free phone: 1-800-HOT-MIXX.

Spener and PietismFrom Thy Strong Word

Part Three: Jacob Spener and Pietism


Pieper on Pietism

J-756

"In so far as Pietism did not point poor sinners directly to the means of grace, but led them to reflect on their own inward state to determine whether their contrition was profound enough and their faith of the right caliber, it actually denied the complete reconciliation by Christ (the satisfactio vicaria), robbed justifying faith of its true object, and thus injured personal Christianity in its foundation and Christian piety in its very essence."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 175.

Hoenecke on Pietism

J-757

"Wohl scheint auf den ersten Blick die ganze Differenz recht unbedeutend; aber in Wahrheit gibt sich hier die gefaehrliche Richtung der Pietisten zu erkennen, das Leben ueber die Lehre, die Heiligung ueber die Rechtfertigung und die Froemmigkeit nicht als Folge, sondern als Bedingung der Erleuchtung zu setzen also eine Art Synergismus und Pelagianismus einzufuehren. (At first glance, the total difference seems absolutely paltry, but in truth the dangerous direction of Pietism is made apparent: life over doctrine, sanctification over justification, and piety not as a consequence but declared as a stipulation of enlightenment, leading to a kind of synergism and Pelagianism.)"
Adolf Hoenecke, Evangelische-Lutherische Dogmatik, 4 vols., ed., Walter and Otto Hoenecke, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1912, III, p. 253.

Walther on Pietism

J-758

"What may be the reason why the Pietists, who were really well-intentioned people, hit upon the doctrine that no one could be a Christian unless he had ascertained the exact day and hour of his conversion? The reason is that they imagined a person must suddenly experience a heavenly joy and hear an inner voice telling him that he had been received into grace and had become a child of God. Having conceived this notion of the mode and manner of conversion, they were forced to declare that a person must be able to name the day and hour when he was converted, became a new creature, received forgiveness of sins, and was robed in the righteousness of Christ. However, we have already come to understand in part what a great, dangerous, and fatal error this is."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 194f. Thesis IX.

"'Pay more attention to pure life, and you will raise a growth of genuine Christianity.' That is exactly like saying to a farmer: 'Do not worry forever about good seed; worry about good fruits.' Is not a farmer properly concerned about good fruit when he is solicitous about getting good seed? Just so a concern about pure doctrine is the proper concern about genuine Christianity and a sincere Christian life. False doctrine is noxious seed, sown by the enemy to produce a progeny of wickedness. The pure doctrine is wheat-seed; from it spring the children of the Kingdom, who even in the present life belong in the kingdom of Jesus Christ and in the life to come will be received into the Kingdom of Glory."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 21.

J-759

"Meanwhile, back in Europe the corrosive effects of Pietism in blurring doctrinal distinctions had left much of Lutheranism defenseless against the devastating onslaught of Rationalism which engulfed the continent at the beginning of the 19th century. With human reason set up as the supreme authority for determining truth, it became an easy matter to disregard doctrinal differences and strive for a 'reasonable' union of Lutherans and Reformed."
Martin W. Lutz, "God the Holy Spirit Acts Through the Lord's Supper," God The Holy Spirit Acts, ed., Eugene P. Kaulfield, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1972, p. 176.

If the reader has a good grasp of the Reformed rejection of the Means of Grace, then this section will explain how Pietism served as the midwife to deliver Reformed doctrines into the Lutheran Church. This is a key area, because the Church Growth serpents use Pietism as their litmus test. If a Lutheran has a favorable view of Pietism, he can be depended upon to be a supporter of cell groups, subjectivism, heart religion (with no connection to the brain), revivals, lay or staff ministers, Seeker Services, unionism, and judging success by outward appearances. All positive references to a heart religion are a signal that the speaker has a heart and is loving, in contrast with the cold, heartless orthodox who make sound doctrine the priority. If a Lutheran criticizes Pietism, then he can be safely described as an enemy of the Church Growth Movement.

Characteristics of Pietism

The Lutheran Pietists of today do not necessarily call themselves Pietists. They may even use the term Pietist in a disparaging way, a common occurrence in the Wisconsin Synod, where Pietism dominates.[31] I told one young pastor who woke up to the Confessions and phoned me, years after I left the synod, “You are not in a Lutheran Synod. You are in a Pietistic Reformed sect that has some Lutherans in it.” In fact, the Lutheran Church Growth Pietists are so burdened with self-loathing that they accuse their opponents of being Church Growth advocates, a logical short-circuit if there ever was one.[32] It goes like this, “We hate you because you criticize the Church Growth Movement. You actually support the Church Growth Movement, so you cannot say anything against us.”[33] Nevertheless, it is not difficult to detect the Lutheran Pietists, even if they throw out a smoke screen and a few stink bombs to avoid being spotted. The characteristics of Lutheran Pietism are:

1. Doctrinal indifference. Pietists are annoyed and infuriated by doctrinal discernment.

2. Unionism. We find an unseemly zeal in Pietists to have all manner of denominations in religious projects together. Some examples are James Tiefel’s pan-denominational worship conference, Bethany College having a Roman Catholic bishop as a featured speaker, and Wisconsin Lutheran College aping Bethany by promoting Roman Catholic Archbishop Weakland as a special speaker, along with other Roman Catholic priests![34] The Missouri Synod has featured ELCA women pastors preaching in their pulpits, always with a feeble and toothless response.

3. Lay led cell groups. According to Pietists, this is the real church. They feverishly promote cell groups under a variety of names: home Bible study, prayer, koinonia, care or share groups. Lutheran Pietists need congregations to support their work, but they regard those who attend cell group meetings as the only genuine members. Waldo Werning and Kent Hunter, both listed in Who’s Who in Church Growth, heavily promoted cell groups in the Missouri Synod and WELS. Cell groups manufacture disciples, they claim.

4. The ordination of women. Cell groups have by-passed normal synodical restrictions on women teaching men and usurping authority. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio, introduced Serendipity cell groups in the 1980s with a husband and wife leading the sessions. Soon the husband disappeared. Then, when a man questioned how the group was being managed, the woman snarled at him, “I’m in charge here.”

5. Promotion of Reformed publications. Look up the Northwestern Publishing House website and look at the evangelism books. Examine the reading list for the Missouri Synod’s evangelism committees and synodical commission. Read the Church of the Lutheran Confession’s While There Is Day. Study footnotes in evangelism books. You will find the muddy footprints of the Reformed. You will not find these characters promoting orthodox Lutheran authors.[35]

6. Spiritual gifts inventory. Lutheran leaders borrowed this from the Pentecostals, dreaming that it would beef up their congregation’s size.[36]

7. Denigration of the ministry, worship, and the Sacraments. Everyone is a minister, so the divinely called pastor becomes a hireling to manage cell groups. Worship must generate fuzzy feelings, so the Law/Gospel sermon, the liturgy, creeds, pipe organ, and vestments must go. Baptism can remain for now, but Holy Communion is pushed into the background as an obstacle.

Reading Habits of Lutherans

Recently, someone took an informal survey about the reading habits of Lutheran clergy. The pastors who hated the Church Growth Movement read the Triglotta, the King James Version, Luther, Walther, and other confessional writers. The pastors who loved the Church Growth Movement read the NIV and books by Reformed authors. The genius of Pietism is that it can inject itself into a Lutheran body slowly while allowing the membership to think they are still Lutherans. When Pastor Tim Buelow was newly ordained in WELS, he looked at my library in astonishment. He said, “You really have a Lutheran library. Most of us have lots of Reformed books.” I asked why. “Because they were required reading at Mequon.” For that reason I have tried to get pastors to read kosher, to expend energy on Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Chytraeus, and Walther, and to sing kosher, using hymns by Luther, Selnecker, Jacobs, Loy, Gerhardt, and Nicolai.

I would like to take credit for inventing one new doctrine in the Lutheran Church: the non-reciprocity of false teachers. The Reformed do not promote Lutheran books and Lutheran doctrine at their seminaries, headquarters, and congregations, so Lutherans should not promote Reformed doctrine and books at any time. If Lutherans enforced this one rule, God would bless their work once again. I am outraged when so-called Lutheran presses publish and promote Reformed works.[37] Lutherans must also write in such a way that no one doubts their trust in the Means of Grace, even when they happen to publish with non-Lutheran presses. I understand the temptation to submerge Lutheran doctrine, because I could publish books in Grand Rapids and make a lot of money if I only suppressed infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, the Real Presence, and the efficacy of the Word. I could write around these subjects if I wanted to follow the example of Lutheran leaders today. However, I cannot write anything religious and surgically remove those doctrines that give eternal life to me and my family.

J-760

"Pietism greatly weakened the confessional consciousness which was characteristic of orthodox Lutheranism."
Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1945.

Jacob Spener published his Pia Desideria (Pious Wishes) in 1675 when he was 40 years old. The famous book was simply an essay, published as a preface to one of J. Arndt’s sermon books. Spener had the advantage of a free promotional ride in a very popular and respected book. Much later, Arndt was still regarded as highly as Luther, so Spener had the benefit of this association. The Muhlenberg tradition regarded Pietism favorably, but the Missouri Synod did not. Nevertheless, for all the sound criticism aimed at Pietists by name in Law and Gospel, Walther did not name Spener in his classic work. Although I am guessing, I believe that Walther spared Spener because of the man’s iconic stature in the Lutheran Church. Spener’s proposals in Pia Desideria are summarized by Heick below.

J-761

“It contains six proposals for a reformation of the Church:

(1) a more diligent study of the Bible;

(2) a more serious application of Luther’s doctrine of the general priesthood of all believers;

(3) confession of Christ by deed rather than a fruitless search after theological knowledge;

(4) prayer for unbelievers and erring Christians rather than useless dogmatic disputations;

(5) reform of the theological curriculum with emphasis on personal piety;

(6) devotional arrangement of sermons instead of formal arrangement after the manner of rhetoric.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, two volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, II, p. 21f.

Pastor Mark Jeske offered almost the same program of Pietistic reform in the Wisconsin Synod, when he addressed a conference:

J-762

Here are the top ten areas of our ministries in which I would like to see changed.

1. Myself. I trust God too little....

2. We don't prize our synod and our ministry relationships enough....Our called workers at 2929 will tell you that they take a lot more abuse than encouragement.

3. We need to loosen up....Our public worship/praise/prayer style seems stiff, overly formal, unemotional, smotheringly doctrinal. I personally do not think that our synod in general has a good balance of head & heart in our worship life. There. I said it.

4. Our schools are not being fully utilized to draw unchurched people into the fellowship.

5. We need to love cities more.

6. We need to welcome diversity, prize new racial groups and the cultural and ministry treasures that they bring. New people groups coming in to the WELS will not pollute our "pure" (quotation marks in the original) Lutheran practices. but enrich them.

7. We need a little more sanity and calm in our discussions of church fellowship. Things I can't stand:

· Assigning a seminary professor a paper and then letting all applications and conclusions become canon law instead of each of us getting into Word [sic] personally.

· passing off crude oversimplification as WELS canon law, such as, "You can't pray with anybody who is not WELS," or "if anyone rejects a clear word of God, he is in rebellion against the most High God and you can't be sure that he/she is really saved.

· We have a very highly developed sense of what we can't do with other Christians, to the point that it is safer to have nothing to do with other Christians. We lack the positive side of dealing with other Christians in practical ways.

8. I think we need a little more sanity in dealing with men/women role issues in the church....sometimes the WELS position is described as asserting male headship in all relationships: in family, church and society. Scripture speaks only of the first two areas, and so should we.

9. We need to declare a moratorium on negative comments about public schools. It is possible to be proud of our WELS system without running down Milwaukee Public Schools. There are many wonderful educational programs and innovations happening in MPS that we would do well to study and learn from.

10. There is a price that we have paid for our unity of practice in the WELS, and that is we have only each other as ministry models. We have many weak areas of ministry, such as in cities, and need to get around more to learn from other successful ministries even if they're not WELS. It is not helpful if our attempts to learn from other Christians is ridiculed as "sitting at the feet of the Reformed" or "capitulating to the papacy.”

Remarks delivered at a conference on March 3, 2000 by Rev. Mark Jeske, vice-president of WELS' Southeastern Wisconsin District.

Heick called Spener the “first union theologian.”[38] Spener rejected Calvin’s double predestination but accepted his view of the Lord’s Supper. The Pietists also rejected baptismal regeneration so the effect of the movement was to keep Lutherans as nominal Lutherans while they embraced Enthusiasm and worked actively with the Reformed.[39] Some people will argue with this claim, but I am willing to say that American Christianity is inherently the religion of Pietism and that includes Roman Catholicism as well. True, one can find all kinds of distinctions that fill the pages of dissertations and journal articles. However, look at the history of American Christianity in the last two centuries and see if it is not within the pattern of Pietism, a fact which will become more obvious when this section is studied. As Patsy Leppien observed when writing What’s Going on Among the Lutherans?, it is difficult to describe Pietism and what is wrong with the movement. When Lutherans try to start a mission in the South, they are forced into this kind of argument, “The Southern Baptists are for prayer and against whiskey. We are for whiskey and against prayer.” That explains why Lutherans would rather join the Pietists than fight them. This is our history, America:

A. The German Lutherans and German Reformed tried to create a merger based on nationality rather than doctrine. Many congregations, including the Wisconsin Synod, began in this fashion.

B. The German merger failed to take place on a national scale, but the Evangelical Alliance sought to bring all Protestants together in the 19th century.

C. Revivalism has marked the American scene from the days of Whitefield.[40] The 20th century saw the hollow successes of Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.

D. American Pietism in the 19th century led to the union efforts of the more liberal denominations through the Federal Council of Churches, reorganized as the National Council of Churches when the FCC became too overtly Marxist.

E. Lutheran groups have often been as Pietistic as the Methodists, banning card playing, dancing, alcohol consumption, tobacco, theatre, movies, and insurance.

F. The most Pietistic groups in one generation become the most Unitarian in the next. ELCA’s Muhlenberg roots and Midwestern Scandinavian Pietism have collapsed into mindless activism.

G. All the mergers and pan-Christian efforts have been based upon teary-eyed emotional appeals. The American Lutheran Church Bishop David Preus, who established Holy Communion with the Reformed, admonished his audience not to “major in the minors.” He used the example of Lincoln telling his quarreling generals, “Gentleman, the enemy is over THERE.” One Lutheran leader used this story, full of enough holes to make a city slicker wonder: A little boy was lost in the fields. The entire town was called out and they could not find him in the tall rows of corn. Finally they joined hands and went down the rows together. They found him, too late. He was dead. The town leader cried out, “Why didn’t we join hands earlier?” The necessary, moist, heart-pounding conclusion was that Lutherans had to merge before someone died.[41] It is ironic that David Preus joined a host of former synod officials in howling about how the new ELCA leaders ruined their synod.

J-763

“Spener maintained that the doctrinal difference between the two churches of the Reformation, the Lutheran and the Reformed, was such that it should no longer exclude a mutual recognition in the faith. In this manner Spener and the Pietists in general did the spade work for the church unions of the nineteenth century.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, two volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, II, p. 21f.

Two additional characteristics of Pietism mentioned by Heick are: 1) chiliasm, a focus upon the endtimes; and 2) an emphasis upon the blood of Christ. One early and important Pietist, Johann Bengel, taught that the blood of Christ was drained from His body on the cross, not reunited with His body, but stored in heaven for the sprinkling of sinners in justification. Bengel’s doctrine helps to explain why American Lutheran Pietists have had problems with millennialism and why Pietistic hymns are often so bloody.

J-764

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, My glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.”
Ludwig von Zinzendorf, “Jesus Thy Blood,” The Lutheran Hymnal, #371, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Pietism is a complicated and extensive subject to treat. The movement influenced all denominations in various ways and remains with us today in various ways. Many of our favorite hymns come from the Pietists. The common table prayer, “Come Lord Jesus,” was written by Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a man so influential that Halle sent Henry Melchior Muhlenberg to America to counter his influence among Lutherans. This action created an ironic situation, where a Pietist was sent to keep Lutherans from following another Pietist. The Muhlenberg tradition in America became the largest segment of the Lutheran Church in America when it merged in 1962. Another significant group was the Augustana Synod, the Swedish Lutheran denomination formed to bring Pietism to America.

Muhlenberg and Pietism

J-765

"The pietism and unionism of Muhlenberg and his colaborers was the door through which, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, revivalism had found an early, though limited, entrance into the Lutheran Church."
F. Bente, American Lutheranism, 2 vols., The United Lutheran Church, Gen Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1919, II, p. 78.

It was not possible to merge all the doctrinally indifferent Lutherans together in the 1960s. The Norwegian Pietists and conservative Germans of the old American Lutheran Church (1930 merger) formed The American Lutheran Church in 1960. Although the German side of the ALC merger was more inclined toward orthodoxy, we can find in Professor Lenski’s excellent commentaries a reference to the issue of dancing, an issue among Pietists. That reference does not make Lenski a Pietist, but it shows that dancing was an issue in his era as well. He also wrote books for pastors to use for Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services, also typical of the agenda of Pietism. Although one will now find Sunday and Wednesday evening services expected among the Fundamentalists, it is not part of Lutheran parish planning, except for mid-week services in Advent and Lent.

J-766

"Since the age of Rationalism and Lutheran Pietism a new spirit has crept into the life of the church which is un-Lutheran, un-Evangelical, and un-biblical. The Sacraments have been neglected at the expense of the Word."
Walter G. Tillmanns, "Means of Grace: Use of," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, II, p. 1505.