Texas District President Gerald Kieschnick wrote me on
February 8, 1999, "Please be assured, my brother in Christ, that the Gospel is alive
and well in the Texas District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Please also be
assured that the Gospel is alive and well through-out the LC-MS." The letter was
received after I had left for Texas.
Just coincidentally, a few months earlier, President Kieschnick wrote the following
words about the Gospel to all the clergy in the Texas District. "A few days prior to
the writing of this article, I spoke with a retired pastor and his wife who are in the
process of finding a new church home. They have decided that to do so would be in the best
interest of themselves and of the congregation from which he recently retired.
In the course of the conversation, they shared their observations regarding the
friendliness of the congregations they visited, the presence or absence of a clear
expression of the Gospel by the preacher, the liturgical and Christo-centric nature of the
worship at both traditional and non- traditional services, etc.
The bottom line for this retired clergy couple is a deep concern with what they
observed and experienced:
Rare was the congregation which demonstrated any awareness of newcomers in their midst. In
all but one case, not a single person so much as greeted them.
Rare was the preacher who clearly enunciated the central truth of the Gospel, namely, that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting our trespasses against
us.
Rare was the preacher who used or even read a text as the basis for the proclamation
portion of the worship service.
Rare was the worship service which, at least for them, accomplished the significant
purpose of providing the worshiper with an absolute sense that he or she had come into the
presence of Almighty God during the worship hour." (The rest of the article went on
to address these concerns.)
I don’t think Kieschnick can have it both ways, either the Gospel is "alive
and well in Texas and the LCMS," as he writes in February 1999, or it is not, as he
writes in November of 1998. There is also the question of the Lutheran Brotherhood survey
published by the Lutheran Witness Reporter that showed the Gospel is being lost to a
majority of Lutherans. Does Kieschnick want us to believe that Texas is an exception to
the following statistics?
"67% of Lutherans agree or probably agree with the statement ‘Although there
are many religions in the world, most of them lead to the same God.’
"Also, 56% of the respondents agree or probably agree with the statement ‘God is
satisfied if a person lives the best one can.’"
"48% of the Lutherans agree or probably agree with the statement ‘People can
only be justified before God by loving others.’ In addition, 43% probably disagree
with or aren’t sure of, or have no opinion about the statement ‘Only those who
believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior can go to heaven.’
60% of Lutherans agree or probably agree with the statement, ‘The main emphasis of
the Gospel is God’s rules for right living.’
When asked about the statement, ‘A child is already sinful at birth,’ 41 %
disagree or probably disagree with the statement, and 11% said they aren’t sure or
have no opinion.
My point of contention is that tens of millions of LCEF dollars are being poured into
Texas mega-church real-estate where creeds are rewritten, Lutheran hymn books are
non-existent, liturgy is abandoned, confirmation instruction is reduced to 6 hours, and
traditional instruction in Luther’s Small Catechism is a thing of the past. At the
same time the Texas District promotes Willow Creek, Bill Hybles, the Leadership Network,
and a Strategic Plan of reorganization according to Church Consultants Group located a
mile and half from the Michigan District Office. According to the Lutheran Annual the
Texas District received an increase of more than 1.7 million dollars from 1992 to 1997 for
a annual total of $8,684,579.00 from member congregations. During the same time the
District added three deployed offices and lists 15 people, not including secretaries,
"at the District Office" (to quote the Lutheran Annual) and dropped its giving
to the Synod by more than $400,000.00 to $2,025,000.00. Reports from some pastors are they
have only opened two mission congregation in ten years. There may be a few more, but how
many more?
Such practice and trends are common to many other LCMS Districts caught up in the
self-aggrandizing megalomania of the current "Church Growth, Leadership
Training" bureaucratic fanaticism. Their motto is, "Turn a Congregation into a
corporation for Christ." I focused on Texas for a number of reasons, foremost of
which there are a small but highly organized and committed group of LCMS pastors resisting
the attacks on the Gospel largely orchestrated by the District Office. The question is,
where could I go to be the most effective as Kieschnick certainly wants his own staff to
be? The answer is Texas.
At each location I spoke there was a District Vice President who explained why he and
the District President would not agree in print to any of the following questions:
1. (yes) (no) I support Walther’s Church and Ministry as the only correct teaching
and practice for all Texas District Congregations.
2. (yes) (no) I oppose the confession of any manufactured creeds and statements of faith
in place of the three Ecumenical Creeds in all Texas District Congregation worship
services.
3. (yes) (no) I believe that the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds are correct statements
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and agreement with them, without addition or deletion, is
necessary for membership in the LCMS.
4. (yes) (no) The only way to heaven is by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
District President Kieschnick, I disagree with you. The Gospel is being annihilated in
Texas.
Your Concerned Brother in Christ,
Pastor Jack Cascione