Many have told me, "I never heard the term the efficacy of God's Word until you emphasized it." I was not shocked to hear this, because most Lutheran pastors and leaders have not taught this concept, which is expressed throughout the Bible.
Francis Pieper fans will say, "But I have underlined the term in my four-volume Pieper." That may be, but Pieper cleverly wove efficacy and Objective Justification into his dogmatics. Foul stinking dogma will always push out Biblical doctrine, and we can see those results today.
How many denominations study at Fuller Seminary today?
Answer - all of them. The Salvation Army, the Church of Rome, and all the non-Catholics bend the knee before the statue of Donald McGavran, who was a Disciples of Christ minister and sociologist.
The holier-than-thou Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) is just as hot for Church Growth as ELCA, WELS, LCMS, and the ELS. Ditto - Objective Justification. Larry Olson rode his bike to visit McGavran, and used his pal to proclaim in Calvinist News that Larry never studied at Fuller. Ditto, Valleskey, Bivens, Huebner, Werning, and a host of other nincompoops. I would use better liars than that coven of do-gooders.
Not Effective!
I can imagine the millions of dollars spent to promote the funny farm in Pasadena. Pastors - like Larry Olson - earned the precious DMin at Fuller. The older designation for a quickie doctorate used to be an STD, but that lost its luster for some reason. The true founder of the LCMS, Bishop Martin Stephan, could explain.
Here are some ineffective approaches promoted by Lutherans and other lupine leaders:
- Entertainment replacing hymns for worship.
- Bad Bibles sold to make money for the denominations - RSV, ESV, NRSV, NIV, and the Beck for keeping CN afloat.
- Soda, coffee, and snacks for the service. WELS VP Huebner named one pastor on his staff as their "barista."
- Women teaching men when that is clearly nixed by the Apostle Paul. Usurping authority - why not?
- Soccer camp blended with drive-by catechism lessons for a week.
- Removing the liturgy.
- Creating creeds to be more relevant.
- Mocking Luther at every opportunity, even though they hardly know Luther's Biblical doctrine.
- Replacing Biblical teaching with fads, cheap humor, and Jeske clones.
