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| So lacking today. For those who studied at MLC and Mordor - this translates as "I AM the Good Shepherd." |
Another Conservative Pastor Disciplined by The Evangelical Free Church of America
From Protestia
In the Fall of 2022, Pastor Kliewer, who pastors Cornerstone Church in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, had his ordination censured by the Board of Ministerial Standing of the Free Church. In June at the national conference, he was officially disciplined when the pastors sided with the leadership.
Pastor Kliewer was censured because he wrote a book titled, Woke-Free Church, criticizing the Social Justice push by the Free Church leadership. Remarkably the leadership never dealt with the content of Kliewer’s book where he showed convincingly the Social Justice agenda among the leadership. In other words, he got censured because he revealed their compromise not because he violated anything biblically (see Nine Conclusions Against Jeff Kliewer at efcaandsocialjustice.wordpress.com).
What happened to him was a grave injustice. Now that Pastor Kliewer was censured, they moved on to the next person who has brought the leadership concern. That is Pastor David Whitney of Cornerstone Church in Maryland (near Washington DC). Now these two men have similar stories. Pastor Kliewer got the leadership’s attention because of his writing that called out their compromise, while Pastor Whitney got their attention during a Zoom call at the height of COVID-19.
At this Zoom call pastors belonging to a cluster of the East District were asked how each of them and their churches were handling Covid-19. Pastor Whitney shared that his church did not close. A few of the pastors were troubled by this and a meeting was called that took place a while later. Pastor Whitney met with three pastors, all in leadership (present and past), who expressed concerns about his church being associated with the Free Church. They were troubled by his conservative political views.
One pastor said, “He would never want anyone in his church to listen to Pastor Whitney’s sermons.” Another pastor said, “You do not fit within the ethos of the Free Church” and asked, “Are you going to remove your church?” The pressure was on for Pastor Whitney and his church to leave the Free Church. Now think about how irrational the request for him to leave is. Pastor Whitney has pastored in the Free Church for forty-two years at three different churches. He planted Cornerstone Church as a Free Church and has pastored there for thirty years. If anyone fits within the ethos of the Free Church, it is Pastor Whitney.
He has worked well in the Free church to this point. The one asking the question should be asked, “Do you fit within the ethos of the true historic Free Church?”
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GJ - A good friend told me about the dishonest tricks used by E-Frees to get more members. One is to invite a girl to have a guy have dinner together. During the dinner, the girl steps out and E-Freed bullies sit down and start demanding membership in their church. This is repeated, even though my friend said to the young lady, "Never again!"
I got the same treatment when a salesman invited me and Christina to his house for vague reasons. Actually, a fairly large group was there. Without any real introduction this turned into a meeting to have us as part of their group. I do not know how many were already in on the effort, but I did not like it. We sat in a circle and listened. It seemed remarkably vague and lacking in content.
We had E-Frees in Moline because they are a break-off from the Swedish Pietists (Augustana Synod). When I was reading the Church Growth materials to figure out CGM in WELS/LCMS/ELCa, I saw that Church Growth "really worked" for the E-Frees. And yes, they had a couple of big churches. Whoopee.
