For those who wonder what all the fuss is about in Synod, take a listen. I will make no comment except to affirm that the church proposed by this man is not the same church held up by many of readers of this blog.
fivetwo Wiki Conference: Opening Keynote (full version), Bill Woolsey, Founding Pastor, fivetwo 06/21/2011 from crosspt media on Vimeo.
13 comments:
Bill Woolsey's first call from the
St. Louis Sem was to be an
assistant pastor in the Central
Illinois District of the LCMS.
When he took the call to Texas he
was greatly missed for his stellar
evangelism efforts.
I'm watching the abbreviated version of this presentation and I haven't heard him talk about Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Anyone can be the best evangelist in the Church, but if you desire to unite your church around evangelism without first uniting around the pure teaching of God's Word and the practice of the same, then you are set up to fail.
As an assistant pastor in Central
Illinois, PastorWoolsey did not do
much preaching. The Senior pastor
was an outstanding preacher with
a balanced law/gospel approach.
Watched as much as I could without losing my appetite, or barfing.
Hindu nation? Yeah, they did it by discarding traditional Hindu stuff and changing it all to relate to the Ozzie Osborne culture.
I was able to watch the first couple of minutes and what I got is a man who is very sincere, very devoted, very in love with himself and how much he loves the lost and how great he is at saving people.
Well, I watched the whole thing.
I have watched others like him but I never really understand much of anything they say. He makes interesting points about some of the issues of centralization and networking. That is fine, even useful.
But he doesn't speak my language. I don't get it.
I'm a middle aged woman who didn't grow up in the church let alone the LCMS, but the first time I ever heard something written by C.F.W. Walther, I immediately connected with it. Maybe it is the directness of his style. I don't know but everything I read by him was so clear and accessible. I knew exactly what he meant.
This Woolsey guy is clear as mud. I have no idea what he is talking about or what I should do based on his talking. It is like he wasn't speaking English. I couldn't connect with his ideas at all.
Weird, I know.
I watched the whole thing... in amazement, I might add.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: Woolsey wants to plant churches that plant churches that plant still more churches, and then wants to have the pastors of those planted churches (and others) surrender their pulpits to younger, un-ordained “pastors” who have little or no theological training? Just because people like them? Woolsey’s keynote reminds me less of the ubiquitous seeker-driven, culture-craving, postmodernist evangelical churches (who will let anybody be a “pastor”) and more of an Amway pitch. Oh, there’s plenty of the former in his comments as well, but the MLM appeal of his address is the central theme.
In reality, I find his ideas to be dangerous; his notions of leadership, theology, entrepreneurship, culture, vocation, and mission are a perpetuation of the felt-needs/self-affirmation affliction that plagues modern non-denominational evangelicalism. His suggested methods border on the absurd. In what reality would anyone at all trust their children to a pediatrician who, though he was well liked and personable, opted to forgo taking and passing his or her medical boards until after finishing 10 or so years of practice, and then some time after licensure made the decision to go to medical school? Yet in the arenas of salvation and justification, this is precisely what Woolsey advocates in the name of cultural relativism.
Pithy though it may be, beware Osteen, Warren, and Hybels, there’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Woolsey. And as for you, Pr. Woolsey... you need to watch some Rev. Fisk videos!
--James
This is a crock of charismanic chaos that wants to slap the sacraments on it in order to make it distinctive from all the other rot out there.
Unordained, uneducated people to pastor a church? He is making it clear that they want the blind leading the blind.
He is also clear that they clearly want to remake the LCMS to suit them. He is very aware of how diametrically opposed they are to the LCMS and yet he lacks the decency to start their own denomination. Why? He needs to suck on the finances and support of the LCMS in order to finance his madness?
These men are dangerous false teachers. Narcissim unleashed.
Susan
Apparently, this man is a rebel who wants to attract other rebels from any sacramental tradition. It is primarily directed the LCMS Lutherans (200 churches so far), but doesn't appear to be exclusively aimed at LCMS churches. This is indiscriminate ecumenism apart from the LCMS and their desire to be united by the idea of love for Jesus and the sacraments with no regard for being in agreement in Christology and agreement in belief about the sacraments. He's also implying female leadership/pastors.
For all his talk about courage, he wants to start his own denomination but doesn't have the courage to do it. This is a concerted effort to take over the LCMS and to divert funds to themselves by giving instructions to stop giving to the synod and give to them instead. To divert people to the church planting network and bypass the synod. He's trying to raise funds from within the LCMS for their expenses and it surely has an MLM slant.
What's your dream, he asks. It's what God put in you.... good grief. No cautions or checks to remember original sin and submission to scripture. Absolutely no regard for the rich heritage of the LCMS and confessional Lutheranism for the last 500 years. He's talking about how to pass on their pulpits by raising up their own hand picked successors. This isn't about letting the church be church and letting it call it's pastor, it's about autocracy. This isn't about preaching the gospel or about the sacraments, it's about CGM and taking over churches.
Kyrie eleison. May God have mercy on us and deliver us from these false teachers with appetites for schism, power, and destruction.
"he lacks the decency to start their own denomination. Why? He needs to suck on the finances and support of the LCMS in order to finance his madness?"
I wonder what percentage of his congregation grew up in some other denomination and are not "unreached" people, rather just live in his rapidly growing suburb and want to go to the closest church that has a lot of activities. When your church is located in an affluent suburb that is building 50-100 new houses a month, it isn't so much that you are Joe Super evangelist as it is just being in the right place at the right time. Every church in his area is growing. It is not magic. It is suburbia.
"he lacks the decency to start their own denomination. Why? He needs to suck on the finances and support of the LCMS in order to finance his madness?"
This is just like the seminary professors of the ELCA. They don't like grandma Schmidt's confession, but they like her money which they take and use to teach the Schmidt grandkids a totally different religion.
These guys aren't willing to die for what they believe. They are self aggrandizing opportunists.
How does this pastor "suck on the finances and support of the LCMS to finance his madness?" I thought LCMS churches were basically self supporting. Does the Synod send his church a monthly check? (I am not being sarcastic here.)
If this pastor/church is teaching and preaching contrary to sound Lutheran doctring and practice, why is he allowed to stay? Remove him. (I think that's all the Synod can truly do.)
Confessional Lutherans on this blog and others often complain when the Synod has talks with other denominations (e.g., ACNA, Roman Catholics). The charge of unionism and syncretism is made. Yet, you allow heterodox teaching within your ranks. Why?
The charge of unionism and syncretism is made. Yet, you allow heterodox teaching within your ranks. Why?
James, you've just named the elephant in the LCMS room that no one seems to want to address.
Christine
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