Is Contemporary Charismatic Music Anti-Christian?

I was charged with confusing my musical tastes with Biblical standards.

I would be entirely wrong, if:
1. Worship did not reflect doctrine.
2. Worship did not influence doctrine.

KJV Deuteronomy 8:19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.

What do we find in the classic Reformed church building? There will be a pulpit, a minimal altar, a pool for the Baptists and Disciples of Christ. A Roman Catholic church has a minimal pulpit and a maximum altar.

Lutherans emphasize both the Word and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.

"Error loves ambiguity," as Krauth wrote, and unionists like Valleskey like to confuse people with ambiguity by saying the Reformed downplay the Means of Grace. That is how someone becomes president of WLS. No, the Reformed ridicule the Means of Grace and reject the efficacy of the Word.

Now let's look at Church Growth congregations. I have been in them. Oh yes. I write what I know. Willow Creek, where I visited the Sunday Seeker Service, has no cross at all. I walked around the building looking for one, finally found a picture of a cross in a basement Sunday School room.

Willow Creek has no organ and really no worship service on Sunday. The purpose of the Sunday gathering is to entertain. WELS leaders, slobbering at the size and glamor of Willow Creek, paid good money to have pastors study the same baloney emanating from Hybels. Therefore, WELS has instituted Seeker Services, hidden the Sacraments, and imitated - as maladroitly as possible - the entertainment side of evangelism.

The ELS has fallen for the same things, not as obviously. The LCMS and ELCA have tried all these silly methods as well. When I attended the Ad Fontes conference in Pennsylvania, one ELCA pastor got up to defend user-friendly services. I love the cute terms these people adopt.

One contagious pastor has not celebrated Holy Communion in years. Does his doctrine affect the worship at CrossWalk? Definitely.

Where does CCM come from? Not from the same doctrine as the Doxology, Old Hundreth. Some Calvinist hymns are so Biblical that they are Lutheran standards as well. CCM is from the Pentecostals first of all.

When Fuller began promoting the myth that they were converting people to Christ through marketing methods, they dumbed down everything they could pollute. Pentecostal music and non-threatening, passive Seeker Services became the norm. One Fundamentalist said, "Fuller graduates ruin every church they touch."

Church Growth leaders are pragmatic and non-theistic. Some may believe in God, but that is really irrelevant to them. They despise traditional Christianity in any form. Church Growth doctrine dictates Church Growth worship, only CG worship is the worship of man, his potential, his emotions. Leonard Sweet is the perfect Church Growth leader - that is why WELS loves him and pays him money to pollute their minds.

If a song in church is designed to make me emotional and sentimental, the song is not a hymn and does not convey worship of God. Read the lyrics of these songs as prose, with a straight face, and ask whether the same words could be read from the pulpit.

How many Reformed hymns have been written about Holy Communion? None. How many Baptist hymnals have a single hymn about Holy Baptism, especially about infant faith and the efficacy of the sacrament. None.

When the non-Lutheran Protestants speak about, preach about, and sing about the Holy Spirit, they separate the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word and Sacraments (the Visible Word). So how can a Lutheran sing -

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me,
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. (To be sung properly, FALL has to have a real thump to it, like jumping down from a dining room chair.)

The author of the song above, Daniel Iverson, is associated with the Billy Graham crusades and their hymnal. From their viewpoint, how does the Holy Spirit come to people? Not through the Word. Not through preaching - not exactly. Not ever through the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit pounces on people when and where He chooses, but more often when they dream dreams, persuade people with logic, and market the Gospel by studying and applying statistics.

Baptist worship is designed to move people to make a decision for Christ. They should get good and weepy, then come forward for a decision or rededication. I have been a Graham crusades and at his School of Evangelism in Wheaton. I have been everywhere, so listen up.

Josh McDowell (Lord, Liar, Lunatic - Kelm's favorite) is Graham on steroids and meth. If we can just throw enough facts and logic at people, we can argue them into the Kingdom.

All these variations are perversions of the Gospel and will necessarily change the worship service. Also, no one can worship that way (tongue-speaking, falling down in a trance, dancing in the aisle, arm waving, bawling or laughing inappropriately) and remain a Means of Grace Christian.

Willow Creek is far calmer. There is no real hymn singing, but there is pop music. The message is Law with no Gospel, a familiar characteristic of Reformed homiletics. Often the Law portion is followed by the prescription - more Law!

CCM is opposed to Lutheran doctrine and Lutheran worship. Just listen to the CG guys make fun of traditional worship. They get people to laugh in mockery with them. It sounds like the demons in Hell listening to stand-up comedy.

KJV Deuteronomy 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17 And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

Slick Brenner used to say that judgment was coming upon WELS. Many think that day has now arrived.

The Second Commandment

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.

But, the greatest abuse occurs in spiritual matters, which pertain to the conscience, when false preachers rise up and offer their lying vanities as God's Word.

Behold, all this is decking one's self out with God's name, or making a pretty show, or claiming to be right, whether it occur in gross, worldly business or in sublime, subtile matters of faith and doctrine. And among liars belong also blasphemers, not alone the very gross, well known to every one, who disgrace God's name without fear (these are not for us, but for the hangman to discipline); but also those who publicly traduce the truth and God's Word and consign it to the devil. Of this there is no need now to speak further.

Here, then, let us learn and take to heart the great importance of this commandment, that with all diligence we may guard against and dread every misuse of the holy name, as the greatest sin that can be outwardly committed. For to lie and deceive is in itself a great sin, but is greatly aggravated when we attempt to justify it, and seek to confirm it by invoking the name of God and using it as a cloak for shame, so that from a single lie a double lie, nay, manifold lies, result.

For this reason, too, God has added a solemn threat to this commandment, to wit: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. That is: It shall not be condoned to any one nor pass unpunished. For as little as He will leave it unavenged if any one turn his heart from Him, as little will He suffer His name to be employed for dressing up a lie. Now, alas! it is a common calamity in all the world that there are as few who are not using the name of God for purposes of lying and all wickedness as there are those who with their heart trust alone in God. The Large Catechism, Ten Commandments, Second Commandment, #54-58, Book of Concord

The enormous evil of the Church Growth Movement is unmasked in this passage from the Book of Concord. Apostasy wears the cloak of spirituality. "This is for the good of the synod."

"God wants his church to grow," said the late Donald McGavran, but apparently He also wanted His followers involved in Planned Parenthood, a suggestion by McGavran. Also, according to Church Growth gurus, God does not give a hoot about pure doctrine. Make up anything and call it God's Word. He does not care, as long as the buildings are bigger and the budgets are overflowing.

God spoke to McGavran directly, chiding him about his reluctance to use statistics in India. Or so McGavran told us. I suspect God does not sound exactly like McGavran.

When people claim that God speaks directly to them, apart from the Word, they are either fakes or delusional. One WELS leader claimed that God told him to take a new position, debating with him a bit. Too bad I lost the link. There is a lot of Pentecostalism in WELS, doubtless from immersion in Willow Creek and Fuller Seminary.

Was Our Staff Infection There?

Willow Creek Community Church said, Experience the Contagious Church:

Staff Infection Leads to Contagion.

This raging infection is at least seven years old. Has anyone contacted the Center for Disease Control?

Swim in the Polluted Waters of Willow Creek

Pay to become contagious! Here's how:

Buy a Gift Copy for Larry Oh! and Pastor Jeff

Did Pastor Jeff buy this or was it bought with synodical offering money?

This Gunn for Hire.

Relax, o partisans of contagion. Pastor Jeff knows that this revolution will face determined opposition, not to mention puns and some laughter. He wrote about his pioneering efforts in Forward in Contagion, FIC.

They have a training team? Is Jay Leno writing this stuff?

Why Are These People Grinning?

Members and pastors: Do you see how the WELS leaders are thumbing their noses at you? More than that, they are pushing their thumbs into your eye sockets. Church Growth did not die a natural death when Pilgrim Community Church (Paul Kuske) deflated, when Crossroads Community Church (Rick Miller, Mark Freier, Kelly Voigt) turned honestly non-Lutheran. The Long March through the synod continues.

How To Be Contagious - Like Fuller Seminary

After flopping with Pilgrim Community Church in Columbus (sponsored by Paul Kuske) and Crossroads Community Church in South Lyon (three WELS pastors - Rick Miller, Mark Freier, Kelly Voigt - supported by DP Mueller), WELS has once again proven that its learning curve is flat.

WELS has blessed Phoenix with CrossWalk (get it? Cross Walk). I do not think they ever call it CrossWalk Lutheran Church. I looked up their website and had serious trouble finding what denomination it was. More on that slop later.

Phoenix already has a huge Church Growth Stealth Lutheran Congregation - Community of Joy, ELCA. Thousands of members. The senior pastor has a D.Min from Fuller, just like Lawrence Otto Olson, nicknamed Larry O! and Our Staff Infection. He has been contagious for years.

Back to this whole issue of being contagious. I read Jeff's column in FIC. Some of you public school graduates are wondering, "What is FIC?" The magazine used to be The Northwestern Lutheran, a fine name with a decided handicap - the name Lutheran. Boo hiss. How can we grow with Lutheran in our magazine title? And Northwestern? The reality is - half of WELS is in Wisconsin, the old Northwestern Territory, more or less. The other half of WELS is in Michigan and Minnesota, with pockets in Nebraska, which has the population of Rhode Island. WELS is no more a national denomination than is the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

Now that I have explained FIC, it seems entirely appropriate that a magazine ashamed of being Lutheran would feature a congregation ashamed of being Lutheran. That is one definition of contagious.

As soon as I saw Jeff's article in the June issue of FIC, I thought, "This smells like the latest craze at Fuller Seminary." That beehive is so predictable that I can ignore the place for 10 years and still have my Dreck-Detector (TM) go off. I googled "contagious Fuller Seminary" and got this link:

I Think I Am Going To Be Sick!

Good old Bill Hybels, WELS' favorite theologian and pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, is selling a kit on how to be contagious. They sell the kit at the Fuller Seminary bookstore, a sure sign of approval. The WELS leaders send their sheep-like shepherds to Willow Creek to be trained in being non-denominational.

So Jeff is contagious and has a contagious church. His article will amaze anyone interested in exploring the vanity of Church Growth wannabees. His authority is a book on Primal Leadership, Yale School of Management. Some emotions are contagious, he declares with authority.

Jeff, if I stand in front of an audience and begin throwing up, some people will gag and toss their cookies. If I laugh, they will laugh. If I repent of my criticism of Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek, dabbing my red-rimmed eyes, some women will start crying and say, "I think he means it, poor boy." I did not have to go to Yale University to learn that much.

Primal Church Growth Tactics

Why do these people love everything except the Word of God? Why do they trust every secular fad but reject the Means of Grace?

Now I will explain why I call a pastor Jeff and do not even use his last name. That takes us to the latest Church Growth experiment, CrossWalk. You must have a strong stomach to view their website:

WELS Double Cross.

Jeff is the pastor there. If we look up "Jeff's Weekly Hello," we find out he has a last name, Gunn, a wife, and five children whose names all begin with "A." But there is no indication of his denomination. The message about Virginia Tech is Reformed in nature, quoting the favorite bad translation of the unionists, the NIV. People are invited to church Sunday for "a great message" (no sermon?) and "terrific music from Jonathan" (no worship?). There are many commands to pray, which the Reformed love. Prayer is their one and only Means of Grace.

CrossWalk is going to have a vision event (another Fuller and corporate management tool) to envision the next 15 years. Most of us do not know what our cell phone carrier will be in the next six months, but these vision things are handy ways to manipulate while seeming to listen. "Fritz, you want to return to the historic liturgy and the Book of Concord? Does anyone have an idea that won't scare away our prospects? Yes, Velvet, how is that dance job working out? Great. You want to teaching dancing at CrossWalk? What a vision!"

The statement above is satire, purely for the amusement of our pan-Lutheran readership.

In reality, the website is another sad, sick manifestation of the Fuller plague.

KJV 2 Timothy 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker (transliteration - gangrene, also translated as cancer).

I once visited a woman with gangrene. She was very close to losing her leg. She was so contagious that I had to visit her wearing a gown and a mask.

Look at how contagious Fuller and Willow Creek have been. The WELS magazine ejected Lutheran from its title. The hymnal does not have Lutheran in its name. Hymns in CW are often the old Baptist warblers that TLH never allowed. Doctrinal verses have been cut out of Lutheran hymns. Feminists have reworded the Creeds. Sheep-like shepherds are told to appear as Reformed as possible to embrace the vast hordes trembling to join WELS as soon as Luther's doctrine is neutered. What a disgrace to Christianity.

Wednesday - Why Men Hate Going to Church. (My answer - Because sensitive Church Growth fanatics have sissified church with pandering messages and VBS ditties passed off as hymns.)

Hiking Group - I cannot imagine Christ dying on the cross to set up hiking groups.

Guitar workshop - Ditto.

Online giving - "God has a claim on you!" Rubric: "We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and Amex."

And you thought I was being cruel about the vision workshop? Reality is far more piercing than anything I could make up.

Food - "Join us early and bring an appetite! Our CrossWalk Cafe serves bagels, donuts, fruit and our own special blend of coffee (we use only "fair-trade" coffee beans!) or fresh juice. The CrossWalk Café opens at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays. We'd love to get to know you!" (I am glad they are sensitive about fair-trade coffee.)

Common Questions - "We're friendly! We strive to create a warm, friendly environment for you. We won't surprise you by asking you to stand up or stick out in any way. We also won't ask you to give us any money. We want you to be able to check us out without feeling singled out. No pressure!

We're relevant! Our messages are meant to apply to your everyday life. They're practical and filled with comfort. We believe that everyone needs to know what God expects of us, and what God offers us in his love. If you come to CrossWalk, you'll hear just what God has to say about this - straight from his Word, the Bible! With our upbeat music and our fun and creative worship, you'll go home encouraged and equipped each week!"

Willow Creek pioneered "We won't ask you for money." But the website asks for online giving. Hmm.

I finally found a definite affiliation with WELS on the Common Questions page. The cafe is mentioned on TWO pages and affiliation on only one.

This contagious leadership and contagious church baloney are supposed to be new and revolutionary, but this is the same old Dreck served up 20 years ago and failing everywhere. C. Peter Wagner, the Pentecostal Baptist, admitted that Church Growth principles do not work.

The Yale School of Management will not help. Perhaps this might:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than
your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:
the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:8-12

Seminex War Foreshadowed Church Growth Movement

I stumbled onto Dan Preus' talk about the Seminex walkout (LCMS, 1974). The liberals, led by John Tietjen, argued that they used the Historical Critical Method in a neutral way, so doctrine was not affected. The conservatives, led by Dan Preus' father (Robert) and his uncle Jack, eventually prevailed in showing the synod that the Seminex liberals had indeed departed from the historic understanding of the Bible.

Walkout

I never thought of it before - The arguments of the LCMS liberals foreshadowed all the baloney of the Church Growth enthusiasts I knew in the old Synodical Conference:
President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller, David Valleskey, Frosty Bivens, Lawrence Otto Olson (D.Min., Fuller), James Huebner, Harry Hagedorn, James Radloff, Paul Kelm, Roger Zehms, Paul Kuske, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, Roger Kovaciny, Kent Hunter (D.Min, Fuller), Waldo Werning, Norm Berg, Joel Gerlach, Ron Roth, Robert Hartman, Mark Freier, Randy Cutter, Rick Miller, Wally Oelhaven, Fred Adrian, and many more. I am omitting a few names simply because they crave attention.

The Lutheran Church Growth fanatics sometimes admitted their study at Fuller, sometimes denied it, and often did both. Their primary argument has been, "I have studied those methods, but they have not affected my doctrine. The methods are neutral."

The Church Growth apostates share many characteristics with Seminex liberals:

1. Their greatest love is their method.
   
2. They are never honest about their agenda.
   
3. They love every denomination except their own.
   
4. They lock arms with their own to promote their ideology.
   
5. They work hard to destroy what others have built up.
   
6. They operate in stealth mode and control the synod where they lodge.