No Substitute for Pastoral Care: Shepherds Are Not To Beat the Sheep into Submission

In two districts, both infamous for promoting Church and Change, members have been excommunicated. The pastors involved in this hideous action are DP Doug Englebrecht, Tim Glende, VP Don Patterson, and Ex-SP Gurgle. Patterson and Glende are Facebook friends, as of May, 2011.

Many people were concerned about Englebrecht's Anything Goes! district, so he responded by:

1. Ducking the promised meeting.
   
2. Blaming me for the problems he caused.
   
3. Excommunicating the member who followed WELSian Talmudic demands.

Joe and Lisa Krohn wanted to discuss their concerns about justification with Pastor Don Patterson. At the time Joe was an elder with the congregation. This is public knowledge via Joe's blog. Patterson responded by saying he would meet with them only to talk at them, not to listen to any concerns. Joe and Lisa were supposed to simply sit there silently as Patterson and his stooges told them off. For some reason, Joe and Lisa did not desire to volunteer for the Stalinistic Re-education Camp experience. Patterson hastily ordered their defenestration while cutting them off from all communication from Holy Word. Patterson has a free vicar each year, paid for by WELS, so he can run around the synod being a big-shot. Nevertheless, he is too important to do pastoral work at home when he is needed. Joe Krohn has an excellent and concise summary of the issue on his blog post. In case anyone wonders, I did not contribute anything to that post. In fact, I did not read it until it was published. Joe writes his own material, on his own, and I just kelm it.

Many pastors would be glad to have a lay leader so involved in Biblical, Lutheran doctrine - but not Patterson and Gurgle.

This reminds me of the great shame of WELS pastors today - they do not visit their own members, whether active, troubled about doctrinal issues, hospitalized, or shut-in.

One WELS member wrote me, "Our pastor and his wife are always at the gym but they do not visit the widow of our member, who was a WWII hero. She cannot get to church on her own, but she still supports it. I am happy to see the pastor and his wife working out, but could they give the Word a workout during the week too."

DP Buchholz says his pastors do not visit their members.

A layman from another area said his pastor was always looking for more income but could not involve himself in visitation.

This is a double-loss for the pastor. First of all, he is obligated by his divine call to visit members all the time. The immediate visits should be for the grieving, the shut-ins, the hospitalized, and those with spiritual concerns. A visit could save a marriage, or get a couple living in sin to get married, or enhance the teaching of the Gospel.

The second loss is worse for the pastor. He cannot look back upon his work with satisfaction. Committee meetings and synod posts are empty honors. It is good to look back over the decades and say, "Here and there, the Word took effect and brought forth the fruit of the Spirit."

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grumpy has left a new comment on your post "No Substitute for Pastoral Care: Shepherds Are Not...":

Many pastors would be glad to have a lay leader so involved in Biblical, Lutheran doctrine

Not all the time...some (not all) pastors have pretty big egos, and when they see a non-degreed individual who knows as much (are almost as much) as they do through self-study, they get pretty nervous.

So while they might say they want people to be knowledgable in doctrine, so they can determine whether they sermon is doctrinally correct, this is not always the case.

Regarding non-visitation while having time to hit the gym...many pastors take the same approach British officials did in Britain's colonial empire....the seemingly modest salary of empire officials (which only would have provided a lower middle class existence back in merry old England) allowed them to live like princes in the colonies. However, they only gave a "half a day's work for half a day's pay"...

Again, I emphasize, SOME, not ALL...the problem is, for every one that does act like this it destroys the reputation of five that work hard for the Gospel.