Friday, September 23, 2011

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Another blogger reported on his attendance at a Kansas District LCMS workshop on building worship.  You may want to read it all in his own words here.  It seems that as a church body we tend to target those new to the Pastoral Office in order to influence them away from things Lutheran and toward things that "work" -- as if our work brings people to Christ instead of the Lord and His Spirit working through the means of grace.

I quote the author:

One of the main thrusts of the conference seemed to be to drill in the idea that we have different forms of worship to draw in different kinds of people. There are those that like soft rock, and those that don't. There is the understanding that if we all do our own thing, everything we do is equally beneficial. And we have to offer as many products as possible, so that we reach as many people as possible. I heard it over and over again, some are able to do contemporary worship and some are not able to do it, thus they don't.

Sadly, the purveyors of such stuff do not seem to realize that the different forms of worship that draw different kinds of people also represent different confessions of faith -- in opposition to and in conflict with our own confession of faith and its practice (something that our own worship books and forms promote)....

3 comments:

Irenaeus said...

Seeing this "ordo" (most likely stage directions for the tech guys) this early in the morning leads to one conclusion: Here comes breakfast!

Anonymous said...

It does not matter how "confessional" the Synod becomes. "It's Time" is nice, but...The District will ignore Synod and promote a Church Growth theology that is at odds with the Lutheran confessions.

Is there any hope that the Districts can be stopped before it is too late?

Recent Sem Graduate said...

Districts were not intended to be somewhat independent entities - only Synod in that place. Synod was not an extension of District but District a part of Synod. Now that is reversed. Districts control purse strings, have large staffs, and take on tasks that were once the domain of Synod alone. To justify taking the money, they have to find ways to spend it.