Jesus First?
By Rev. Jack Cascione

Who and what is "Jesus First"? The publication, "Jesus First," calls itself a voice for leaders in the LCMS. It is sent to every congregation in the LCMS. Their article, "Jesus First Gives Focus to a Movement", can be found on their website.

On the front page there is also an article by Charles S. Mueller Sr. titled "What Happened to Mission in Our Congregations?" In it Mueller lists some perceived problems with LCMS congregations.

The article states that 75% of our congregations worship less than 200 people per week. What they do not state is that according to Lyle E. Schaller the average congregation in the United States has an attendance of 75 people per Sunday. By comparison the Missouri Synod is doing much better. In Michigan, with nearly 400 congregations, the average membership is 750 per congregation.

The LCMS has many shrinking congregations in the inner City and the farm population has been declining for decades. It also has many old congregations in rural areas that are now strategically placed on the suburban rim of growing cities. For years these small congregations were in "trouble" according to Mueller.

Mueller reports that the LCMS loses 48,000 members a year. This is not bad when you consider that the average American is moving once every five years and there are 2,600.000 members in the LCMS. This means that 520,000 members of the LCMS move every five years while the LCMS is showing a loss of only 240,000 over this five year period.

What about those called to heaven? The average LCMS member is 55 years old. What about those who change denominations or who stop attending church. The LCMS is attracting, on a ten year average, about 47,000 new people a year, including births.

Mueller laments "What is more disheartening: that so many have left, or that so little has been said about this bane?" So little! It is a mantra. The Synod is awash in "Church Growth" frenzy, and these statistics are repeated ad nauseam.

Mueller writes: "Thousands and thousands of our Churches are in deep trouble." I reply "By whose standards?" Reports are that none of the seven congregations in the Book of Revelation are still in existence. Are they in deep trouble? Present day Turkey is officially Moslem.

When Mueller asks "What Happened to Our Mission in Our Congregations?" that is not the point. The point is and has always been not the head count but are we teaching the correct clear Word of God. Mueller doesn’t say one thing about the importance of the Word of God, doctrine, teaching, or preaching the truth in his article.

He talks about these congregations as if the human organization itself were the primary focus instead of the Word of God. "Success" in the Kingdom cannot be measured in terms of statistics but in terms of truth. The head count belongs to God. "Jesus First," sounds more like "Numbers First" and "Jesus Second."

Again in the article on page 5 titled "Why Not? Why Not? Fostering Partnership Within the Synod" by Richard Hinz quotes Walther in 1848 asking "How shall we work together when we have no power over each other?" Now there is a sentence taken out of context if there ever was one!

In that speech Walther says, "What, then, are men doing who claim a power in the church beside the power of the Word?" Again and again in his 1848 speech Walther claims no power but the power of the Word of God. Like Mueller, Hinz’s article contains nothing about the importance of God’s Word for the LCMS. What else can we expect from "Jesus First"?.

You are invited to search for the word "power" in the full text of Walther’s first Convention address. We think you will be pleased and surprised at what Walther says should be "first" in the LCMS.

September 15, 1999