Reclaim News receives numerous letters
and email from throughout the LCMS. The following are few of these letters. It
is a two front war. On one side, lay people are being driven from their
congregations by pastors and district officials who regard opponents of open
communion, contemporary worship, and corporate restructuring of congregations,
as enemies of Jesus Christ.
On the other side, numerous pastors see their ordination as a personal
transubstantiation and divine right to rule their congregations in the name of
God.
The District Presidents are very much aware of what is taking place.
Perhaps they see these necessary short-term losses as the crucial but painful
sacrifice to pave the way for long-term gains. We ask, "Where did Jesus
Christ teach that?"
When we read these letters, it appears that the era of Church Growth is a
cover for Church Shrink, cronyism, control, lining pockets and dismantling the
LCMS.
August 22, 2001
Pastor Cascione,
"I could write pages on the LCMS, but will keep this short in the
interest of preserving your time, but still share my views of the NEW LCMS
Church with you.
I am an ex LCMS member (extremely happy in worship at a wonderful
Presbyterian Church in Oakland County, Michigan.)
I am absolutely shocked at the 'dumbing down' of the LCMS. Mega-Million
Dollar Churches??? Have people lost their minds? The LCMS is the last church
group I would have ever imagined to be involved with the "TBN" style
of tacky ministry, architecture, etc.
Today was the last straw. I came upon the FINK - Faith Inkubators site and
could not believe it. The bad spelling was reason enough to wonder how low
could they go.....let alone the other things on the site. FINK
University....or FINK U as it is 'affectionately' called???? Holy Spirit
Review???? Prayer Journey???? It all sounds like a bad satire! The 'dumbing
down' in America's churches is charging ahead full throttle. It looks like the
LCMS has joined the fast food religion herd. Can a LCMS feed lot be far
behind?
I shed a few tears for an old friend, the LCMS today.
Best thoughts to you and for your congregation."
--------- -----------
Thu, 30 Aug 2001
Dear Rev. Jack Cascione
"I have been searching the web site of LCMS to find some guidance in
what is happening in my home church (-------- Lutheran of ------, --) Our
church is very divided at the moment and is losing ground. We called a pastor
about --- years ago. Rev. ------- ------ out of -------- answered the call and
we accepted him. Things were very different from the start. The only fact I
could attribute this to was that all of the other pastors we have had were
from St. Louis and Pastor ----- is from Fort Wayne 'the only seminary.'
As to Pastor ------ explanation. He refused to include a Children's sermon,
because it broke the liturgy. He finally added it before the worship service.
We have dropped from 12 children to 3 that now attend, 2 of them are mine.
Pastor ----- expresses the thought that when he speaks Jesus is speaking.
Well, to make a long story short, we are running out of funds, the
congregation is dropping out and we can no longer afford to pay him what he
was promised --years ago. This has been on going (not meeting the budget)
since he came. Last year it was brought up 2 times at congregational meetings.
We borrowed from the building fund. We depleted our savings. Now we are about
$400 a week short making the budget. So the council brought up the emergency
of lowering the budget across the board 13%. The motion was made and passed to
bring this to the congregation.
Before the end of the meeting Pastor ----- stood up and told them they
couldn't do that and they (the 5 who voted for the budget) would no longer be
served communion. They had sinned against him. At the congregational meeting
Pastor yelled and was quite vocal that we couldn't do this to him. The vote
passed to lower the budget. It was Pastor's feeling that we should use the
building fund to pay him until it is gone and then just close the church. Our
pres. has been in touch with Rev. ----- and he has placed Pastor on a call
list. Pastor ran for Pres. of the congregation. He refuses to be evaluated. I
have been a member of this church for 49 years and helped to build the first
church. I am just sick over the whole thing.
When the pres. goes to pay our pastor he uses bad language and yells at
him. He is planning to excommunicate the pres. He is still refusing to commune
the 5 until they repent to him. These are good people and long standing
members of the church.
When I read your article it touched on the pastors position in the church
and Fort Wayne's views. I thought maybe you could enlighten me on this or
steer me in the direction of where I might find help or read to find some
answers. The whole situation really hurts."
Yours in Christ,
------- -----
Dear Pastor Cascione,
"My name is ----- -------. I am a convert to the LCMS of some 20
years. My background was Assembly of God, nondenominational, and for many
years nothing at all. After my involvement with the LCMS my spiritual growth,
over the past two decades, has been a positive development in my life. I had
to "relearn" about the relationship that we have with Christ and
what it means in a reformation sense. I now consider myself to be a
conservative Missouri Synod Lutheran. The doctrine, the liturgy, the
beautiful, reverent, and dignified worship nurtured me and helped me to grow
as a Christian. Currently I am chairman of our board of elders at our church,
--. ----, ----------, --.
Over the past few years I have grown more and more uneasy with the changes
in our worship. The liturgy has been increasingly abandoned for new and
creative material. I have listened to complaints about the traditional music
and services from some members but there have been complaints the other way
also. I hear more "pop" music being sung and or played. I have
watched our pastor try to accommodate all "tastes". Most recently
the "Chicago Folk Mass" has been introduced into our worship at --.
----. I fear that I am about ready to give up. This service is offensive to
me.
Recently, I discovered the "Reclaim Newsletter" which I have been
reading and rereading. Based on my exposure to your newsletter I wanted to
make sure I was understanding your position in reference to Walther's Church
and Ministry and how it relates to my concerns at my church.
Walther promotes congregational authority. He and you apparently support
traditional liturgical worship. But my pastor's position is that he feels he
must respond to outreach issues and pressures from the congregation.
Consequently, we are gravitating into church growth and contemporary worship
because of congregational pressure, or so it would seem. So, I ask myself, is
it because the congregation is in control, that our church is moving in the
direction or is it the guidance and leadership from the pastor that plots this
course? I was wondering if you could shed some light on the subject within the
context of Walther's idea of congregational authority. In other words, does
Walther address the issue of a congregation going astray?
No, I have not read Walther's book but I am preparing to order some
material that has been mentioned in the newsletter. . . . I am looking forward
to hearing from you and ask that you might remember me in your prayers."
Respectfully,
------ -. -------
Pastor Cascione,
"Your book was a GREAT asset for our congregation. The introduction of
President's Barry's "what about series and your book truly re-enforced
the LCMS doctrine. Our congregation has steadily lost it LCMS base, being
replaced with the Church Growth movement. The Lord has most definitely been
working a Grace. The call of our new associate pastor ----- ------ in July of
2000, allowed the Lord's work to start...as a mustard seed. The Lord has moved
his people forward since July, pruning the dead growth and allowing the fruits
to be produced.... This Seminex/PLI/JF/RIM/DAYSTAR growth movement is and has
been very difficult for our congregation...have lost over 40% since
1996...Sometimes the LORD lets us hit bottom before He shows us the
way......Yes...your book has been a blessing at ----- Lutheran in -------,
CA...Tomorrow is council...OK corral....PLI vs LCMS...we know our LORD will be
with us...and it will be a meeting with peace, honor, decency and order.
Please keep us in your prayers during tomorrows council meeting at
7pm......Always with our LORD, ----- ------ Board of Christian
Education-Chair, ----- Lutheran Church, -------, CA"
Dear Pastor Cascione
"A few weeks ago I emailed you for a copy of 'how to start or keep
your LCMS congregation'. I just finished it. It's a quick read!
I am president of Immanuel, ---------. I did not grow up in the LCMS, so a
lot of the background, assumptions, and factions are unfamiliar to me. We are
looking ahead to re-writing our constitution under our new pastor. We received
a 'model' constitution from -------- District staff, which strikes me as a
"Board of Directors with annual stockholders meeting" sort of model.
It seems full of corporate-speak to me, although to be fair there are also
lots of scriptural quotations. Our congregation is used to more frequent (and
more hands-on) voters' meetings, and reading your book has made me re-evaluate
whether to recommend this model constitution to our congregation. I think we'd
be better off just updating what needs to be updated in the By-laws and
leaving the constitution as is.
I really never even knew who Walther was, but now I think I need to read
Church and Ministry when it gets reprinted. Anyhow, thanks for sending the
book."
---- - ------
"Hello,
I have recently read your article on the PLI/Church Growth movement. Your
checklist was unbelievable similar to what is going on in my church.
I have been a church secretary at ------- Lutheran Church in ----
---------, -------- for the last 11 years. The other secretary had been
working there for the last 15 years. We were both members of the church for
many years.
After all these years we have both quit working at the church due to the
attitude of the new pastor and TOTAL DISREGARD for what the LCMS teaches.
Things have been going from bad to worse for quite some time but recently
came the straw that broke the camels back for the both of our families and us.
Our pastor allowed a member of the Assembly of God Church to be a sponsor
for a child being baptized.
I asked the pastor how someone who doesn't believe in our baptism could be
a sponsor. I told him I had always been taught that a sponsor must be a LCMS
member. He told me it was unfortunate that I was taught wrong. He said anyone
who wanted to be could be a sponsor.
When he would not talk to us about this, we went to the chairman of the
Board of Elders to talk about our concerns. This man told us that we just
needed to all set around the table and "clear the air."
He set up a meeting with the chairman of the congregation, the pastor, the
two of us, and himself. We went into this meeting thinking that we were going
to talk about our concerns and open the lines of communication. Instead, we
were cornered in the room with these three men and pounded on for two hours.
They gave us a list of things that we were no longer to do. We were told that
we were never to be 'doctrinal watchdogs,' whatever the pastor told us, we
were to accept on blind faith and never question. If we didn't like the
direction the church was taking, we should seek employment elsewhere. When we
pointed out to them that the Bible tells us to always be watchful and question
everything, they just shrugged their shoulders and smiled. The arrogance of
these men was unbelievable. They actually gave us all of this in writing!
Needless to say, we both quit and are transferring churches. This is a church
who has always been confessional but has been taken over by a small group of
very liberal people intent on changing it as far away from the LCMS as
possible.
Out of the list at least 23 describe ------- to the letter. Number 12 on
the list happened to me. They accused me of being mentally unbalanced because
I had a problem with them ignoring church doctrine!
Please keep spreading the word about what is going on with the PLI. I am so
afraid that we are going to see our Synod blown apart by this very liberal
wing.
Thank you for your excellent articles!"