The Effective Word: Pro and Con

MYTH #3: MOST PEOPLE BECOME BELIEVERS THROUGH EVANGELISTIC PREACHING. Many think that if you can bring an unbeliever to church, the pastor can 'save' them. The reality is that they are much more likely to come to faith in Christ through friends or family. The survey reveals that only one of eight people came to faith because of a preaching presentation."

Rev. Michael Ruhl, "Here Are Five Evangelism Myths..." The Michigan Lutheran, January 1996 Board of Evangelism and Church Growth.



"George Barna is a Christian researcher/author/marketer/social analyst who tends to 'turn a lot of heads' when he speaks. He usually couches his provocative and interpretive comments to the church with honesty and reality. On occasion he has been retained by leaders of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod to facilitate mission interpretation from an outside perspective."

Rev. Michael Ruhl, "Here Are Five Evangelism Myths..." The Michigan Lutheran, January 1996 Board of Evangelism and Church Growth. 1 Thessalonians 2:13



"Church. An assembly of professed believers under the discipline of the Word of God, organized to carry out the Great Commission, administer the ordinances, and minister with spiritual gifts."

C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 283f. Matthew 28



"The means of grace are thus limited for Barth. The preacher descending from the pulpit can never quote Luther and say with joyful assurance that he has preached the Word of God. Of course, he can hope and pray; but he can never know whether the Holy Spirit has accompanied the preached Word, and hence whether his words were the Word of God. To know this, or even to wish to know it, would be a presumptuous encroachment of man upon the sovereign freedom of God."

Hermann Sasse, Here We Stand, trans. Theodore G. Tappert, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1946, p. 161.



(1) "Almighty Father, bless the Word Which through your grace we now have heard Oh, may the precious seed take root, Spring up, and bear abundant fruit. (2) We praise you for the means of grace As homeward now our steps we trace. Grant, Lord, that we who worshiped here May all at last in heaven appear." Scandinavian, The Lutheran Hymnary, 1913, Lutheran Worship, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982, Hymn #216. Mark 4.



"The atonement is graciously efficacious to the salvation of the irresponsible and to children in innocency but is efficacious to the salvation of those who reach the age of responsibility only when they repent and believe." Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1932, p. 27.



"PREPARING FOR HOLY COMMUNION. BECAUSE...I am very sorry for my sins...I trust only in Jesus as my Savior from sin...I receive from the Sacrament the forgiveness and strength I need to amend my life...I believe the words of my Lord that His Body and Blood are REALLY PRESENT in Holy Communion. Therefore I announce my desire to partake of the Lord's Supper:...

Crossroads Community Church, Pastor Rick Miller (WELS),



"Hence, too, the lack of emphasis, even in the best of Reformed preaching, upon the divine Word as the vehicle of regenerating grace and on the Sacraments. The office of the Word, then, is merely to point to the way of life, without communicating that of which it conveys the idea. The Word and Sacraments are declared to be necessary; their office in the Church is a divine institution; but they are only symbols of what the Spirit does within; and the Spirit works immediately and irresistibly."

"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, p. 298.



"The doctrine of the means of grace is a peculiar glory of Lutheran theology. To this central teaching it owes its sanity and strong appeal, its freedom from sectarian tendencies and morbid fanaticism, its coherence and practicalness, and its adaptation to men of every race and every degree of culture. The Lutheran Confessions bring out with great clearness the thought of the Reformers upon this subject."

"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, J-101 p. 299.



"The crudest extravagances of revivalism (Methodism, Pentecostalism, Holy Rollerism) have their root in this specifically Reformed doctrine of the immediate working of the Holy Spirit." [Fuller Seminary is known for its Pentecostal extremism, including C. Peter Wagner's "Signs and Wonders" course.]

"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, p. 299.



(2) "Come, Thou Incarnate Word, Gird on Thy mighty sword, Our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless And give Thy Word success; Stablish Thy righteousness, Savior and Friend!" Author unknown, c. 1757, "Come, Thou Almighty King," The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, Hymn #239. Revelation 4:8.



(3) "God would not have the sinner die, His Son with saving grace is nigh, His Spirit in the Word doth teach How man the blessed goal may reach." Author unknown, 1719, "God Loved the World So That He Gave," The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, J-109 Hymn #245. John 3:16.



(1) "Draw nigh and take the body of the Lord And drink the holy blood for you outpoured. Offered was He for greatest and for least, Himself the Victim and Himself the Priest." c. 680,"Draw Night and Take the Body of the Lord," The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, Hymn #307. Psalm 34:8.



"To the Lutheran the sermon, as the preached Word, is a means of grace. Through it the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth. It is a constant offer of pardon; a giving of life, as well as a nourishing and strengthening of life. In the Reformed churches the sermon is apt to be more hortatory and ethical. It partakes more of the sacrificial than of the sacramental character. The individuality of the preacher, the subjective choice of a text, the using of it merely for a motto, the discussion of secular subjects, the unrestrained platform style, lack of reverence, lack of dignity, and many other faults are common, and are not regarded as unbecoming the messenger of God in His temple. Where there is a properly trained Lutheran consciousness such things repel, shock, and are not tolerated."

G. H. Gerberding, The Lutheran Pastor, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1915, p. 278.



"First, our Lord does encourage us or even command us to believe that wherever there is the good character, the Christ-like character, there the Holy Spirit is at work. God works far beyond His own appointed channels. The principle of loyalty and obedience binds us who know His will to use His sacraments, His instituted ordinances; but God is not tied to His own ordinances. He can work wherever He sees the good disposition; and it is blasphemy against His Spirit to deny that He is at work anywhere where we witness the forming of the Christian character. The good fruit cannot come from anything else than the good tree."

Bishop Charles Gore, The Sermon on the Mount, A Practical Exposition, London: John Murray 1906, p. 179f.



"While the goal of the early Christian was, as Christ had commanded, to make disciples, there was a definite process by which the early church grew so explosively. The means of church growth was through the individual Christian's interlocking social system--the family, friends, and associates."

Win and Charles Arn, The Master's Plan for Making Disciples, How Every Christian Can Be an Effective Witness through an Enabling Church, Pasadena: Church Growth Press, 1982, J-63 p. 25f.



"Effective disciple-making combines intentional growth principles with an 'evangelistic mix' that fits the local church and its unique situation. Tremendous power results in a local church which intentionally focuses on specific growth goals."

Win and Charles Arn, The Master's Plan for Making Disciples, How Every Christian Can Be an Effective Witness through an Enabling Church, Pasadena: Church Growth Press, 1982, p. 59.



"Disciple-making is most effective when Biblical insights and church growth research are integrated."

Win and Charles Arn, The Master's Plan for Making Disciples, How Every Christian Can Be an Effective Witness through an Enabling Church, Pasadena: Church Growth Press, 1982, p. 75. Chapter Four.



"Spread, oh, spread, thou mighty Word, Spread the kingdom of the Lord, Wheresoever His breath has given Life to beings meant for heaven." Jonathan Bahnmaier, "Spread, Oh, Spread, Thou Mighty Word,"

The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, Hymn #507. Romans 10:15.



"Melanchthon lacked the simple faith in, and the firm adherence and implicit submission to, the Word of God which made Luther the undaunted and invincible hero of the Reformation...Melanchthon, devoid of Luther's singled-minded and whole-hearted devotion to the Word of God, endeavored to satisfy his reason as well." [Note Krauth on Melanchthon, p. 291. Schmauk, p. 748.]

F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, J-7 p. 105.



"Calvin and his adherents boldly rejected the universality of God's grace, of Christ's redemption, and of the Spirit's efficacious operation through the means of grace, and taught that, in the last analysis, also the eternal doom of the damned was solely due to an absolute decree of divine reprobation (in their estimation the logical complement of election), and this at the very time when they pretended adherence to the Augsburg Confession and were making heavy inroads into Lutheran territory with their doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper and the person of Christ,--which in itself was sufficient reason for a public discussion and determined resentment of their absolute predestinarianism."

F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, 061 p. 195f.



(2) "Then hail, ye mighty legions, yea, All hail! Now save and blest for aye, And praise the Lord, who with His Word Sustained you on the way." Hans A. Brorson, c. 1760, "Behold a Host, Arrayed in White," The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, Hymn #656. Revelation 7:13-17.



(3) "Send them Thy mighty Word to speak Till faith shall dawn and doubt depart, To awe the bold, to stay the weak, And bind and heal the broken heart." William C. Bryant, "Look from Thy Sphere of Endless Day," The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, Hymn #499. Isaiah 35.



"I grant that doctrines ought to be tested by God's word; but unless the Spirit of wisdom (spiritus prudentiae) is present, to have God's word in our hands will avail little or nothing, for its meaning will not appear to us...." John Calvin, Commentaries, 1 Jn 4:1; CO LV, 347-48.

Benjamin Milner,Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 105.



"Though he withheld at that time the words of his mouth, yet he spoke within to the mind of the woman, and so this secret instinct (arcanum hunc instinctum) was a substitute for the outward preaching."

John Calvin, Commentaries, Mt 15:23; CO XLV, 457. Benjamin Milner,Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 108.



"He also convinced them without the word, for we know how powerful are the secret instincts of the Spirit (arcani spiritus instinctus)."

John Calvin, Commentaries, Amos 4:12; CO XLIII, 68. Benjamin Milner,Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 108n.



"...we are touched with some desire for strong doctrine, it evidently appears that there is some piety in us; we are not destitute of the Spirit of God, although destitute of the outward means." John Calvin, Commentaries, Amos 8:11-12; CO XLIII, 153.

Benjamin Milner, Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 109.



"If the Spirit be lacking, the sacraments can accomplish nothing more in our minds than the splendor of the sun shining upon blind eyes, or a voice sounding in deaf ears." John Calvin, Institutes, IV, xiv, 9, .

Benjamin Milner,Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 119.



"The word of God is not set before all men that they return to soundness of mind; but the external voice sounds in the ears of many, without the effectual working of the Spirit, only that they may be made inexcusable."

John Calvin, Commentaries, Acts 28:26; CO XLVIII, 571, Benjamin Milner,Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 93n.



"Let the threatenings of the gospel terrify us, and humble us in time..." John Calvin, Commentaries, Acts 5:5, CO XLVIII, 99.

Benjamin Milner, Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 93n.



(1) Almighty God, thy word is cast Like seed into the ground, Now let the dew of heaven descend And righteous fruits abound. (2) Let not the foe of Christ and man This holy seed remove, But give it root in every heart To bring forth fruits of love. (3) Let not the world's deceitful cares The rising plant destroy, But let it yield a hundredfold The fruits of peace and joy. (4) Oft as the precious seed is sown Thy quickening grace bestow, That all whose souls the truth receive Its saving power may know."

John Cawood, 1775-1852, "Almighty God, Thy Word Is Cast," Service Book and Hymnal, Philadephia: Board of Publication, 1958, Hymn #196. Mark 4:3-9.



Chrysostom: "If those who touched the hem of His garment were properly healed, how much more shall we be strengthened if we have Him in us whole? He will quiet in us the savage law of our members, He will quench the perturbations of the mind, drive out all sicknesses, raise us up from every fall, and, when the power of the enemy has been overcome, He will incite us to true piety and indeed will transform us into His own image."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 234.



"The body of Christ is to the sick a medicine, to pilgrims a way; it strengthens the weak, delights the strong, heals weariness, preserves health. Through it man becomes more gentle under reproof, more patient under labor, more ardent for love, wiser for caution, more ready to obey, more devoted to giving of thanks."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 234.



[Ignatius calls the Eucharist] "a medicine of immortality, an antidote, that we may not die but live in God through Jesus Christ, a cleansing remedy through warding off and driving out evils."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 234.



"How can there be any reason for the baptism of little children except according to this understanding: No one is free from defilement, even if he has lived but one day on earth. And because through the Sacrament of Baptism the filth of our birth is removed, therefore also little children are baptized." [Origen, Homily 14 on Luke]

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, I, p. 250. Luke.



"For this reason the catholic church preaches that little children ought to be baptized, because of original sin, concerning which that most holy man well exclaimed: 'I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.'" [Chrysostom, Homily on Adam and Eve]

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, I, p. 250f. Genesis.



"Transubstantiation is also one of the pillars that support the papalist kingdom...Rather, it is that they may retain and establish the sacrifice of the Mass, reservation, carrying about, adoration of the bread, and all the things which, outside of the divinely instituted use, have been joined to these things--for this reason they fight so persistently about transubstantiation."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 253.



"For Scripture never calls either Baptism or the Lord's Supper mysteries or sacraments. Therefore this is an unwritten (agraphos) appellation."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 29.



"They imagine that by means of these actions, motions, gestures, and ceremonies, with certain words added about sacrifice, oblation, and victim, they are sacrificing and offering the body and blood of Christ, yes, Christ, the Son of God Himself, anew to God the Father through such a theatrical representation (which is either a comedy or a tragedy) of Christ's passion."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 446.



"To institute a form of worship beside and without the Word of God, and indeed one to which is ascribed propitiation for sins, appeasement of the wrath of God, is a vain thing; it cannot please God; yes, it is idolatry. For 'in vain they worship Me with doctrines and commandments of men.' Likewise: 'Without faith it is impossible that a thing should please God.' Faith, however, 'comes by hearing, and hearing by the revealed Word of God.'"

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 493.



"That it lacks true, firm, and solid grounds in Scripture is, however, not the only thing we criticize in the papalist Mass; what we complain about most of all is that it is an abomination, conflicting with the doctrine of the Word, the sacraments, and faith--yes, that it is full of abuse against the unique sacrifice of Christ and against His perpetual priesthood, as this has been demonstrated at length by the men on our side in fair and honest writings."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 493.



"The papalist Mass, as we have described it in the beginning, militates against the one propitiatory sacrifice of Christ in many ways and is an affront to it. For there is only one propitiatory sacrifice that expiates and renders satisfaction for sins--the offering of Christ made on the cross (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:12)."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 494.



"The papalist Mass, as we have described it in the beginning, militates against the one propitiatory sacrifice of Christ in many ways and is an affront to it. For there is only one propitiatory sacrifice that expiates and renders satisfaction for sins--the offering of Christ made on the cross (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:12)."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 494.



"In addition there is this perversion, that whereas Christ instituted the use of His Supper for all who receive it, who take, eat, and drink, the papalist Mass transfers the use and benefit of the celebration of the Lord's Supper in our time to the onlookers, who do not communicate, yes, to those who are absent, and even to the dead."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 498.



"For a sacrifice, according to Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, Bk. 1, and De civitate Dei, Bk. 10, is a work which we offer, render, and dedicate to God in order that we may dwell in Him in holy fellowship. A sacrament, however, is a holy sign through which God freely offers, conveys, applies, and seals His gratuitous benefits to us. It is therefore an extraordinary perversion of the Lord's Supper to make a sacrifice out of a sacrament, in the way the papalists speak of the sacrifice of their Mass, namely, that the representatory action of the priest procures for us the application of the benefits of Christ and that anyone who causes a Mass to be celebrated in his behalf by this work procures grace and whatever other things are ascribed to the Mass."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 498.



"If anyone says that the canon of the Mass contains errors and should therefore be abrogated, let him be anathema." [Chapter IV, Canon VI] Chemnitz: "The power, yes, the substance and as it were the soul of the papalist sacrifice is the canon of the Mass. Therefore they labor much more for its retention than about the canon of Scripture itself, which they are not afraid to corrupt by mixing in other, noncanonical books."

Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 508.



"...Whereunto there has been added from Holy Scripture, that only Norm and Rule of Doctrine..."

Concordia preface, 1580, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 4.