How is it, that only one pastor over a period of three full days, raised any objection
to the Michigan District "committing" itself to the Core Values of
"culturally relevant congregations," "process consulting,"
"healthy congregational systems," and "affinity-based learning
clusters?"
The tragedy of the "Confessional Lutheran" movement, primarily initiated by
Dr. Robert Preus during his professorship at St. Louis, is its inability to organize
itself for the benefit of the church at large.
Their delusion is that polity is adiaphora and therefore not their concern. Their
naïve assumption that polity is insignificant to the work of the church has proved a
complete disaster.
Rather than submit to Walther's polity of Voter Supremacy, they claim to submit to none
at all. While presenting themselves as the ecclesiastical antinomians of Word and
Sacrament, they have now "committed" themselves to the Michigan
District's polity of "Core Values." They voted for the organizing principles
of Willow Creek.
The Lutheran Church is built on doctrine, but the LCMS is built on polity. Therefore
the LCMS must disintegrate under their "confessional" hubris.
Has God's Word freed itself from language, paper, and ink? Has the Communion wine freed
itself from the need of a cup or container? Has the baptismal water freed itself from the
need of a fount or container for the water? Have congregations freed themselves from the
need of buildings or a meeting place? Freedom from polity is nothing more than nihilism.
One can no more free the Synod from the mundane necessity of polity than from the
necessity of clothing for its members.
I witnessed the so-call "Confessional Lutherans" of the Synod's largest
District surrender the governance of the church to "Church Growth" corporate
socialism without the slightest objection.
The Hyper-Euro-Lutherans don't appreciate Dr. Norbert Oesch's Pastoral Leadership Institute (PLI) but they have
nothing to put in its place.
They don't understand that by surrendering to the "Church Growth" polity they
have inevitably surrendered the doctrine. The one who controls the Communion Cup also
controls the content.
These "Confessional Lutherans" believe that the pastor owns the
"Confessional Theology" of the congregation by virtue of his ordination. They
have changed the Word and Sacrament from being the means of Grace into the Church itself
and made the members incidental. Certainly they have read the New Testament, but they
forgot to read the titles. Paul named entire books after congregations and cities in which
they were located. They people are the church.
If the resolution before the Michigan District had read "and thereby Highlight
Voter Supremacy of the Michigan District" instead of "and thereby Highlight Core
Values of the Michigan District" the line at the microphone would have gone back to
the bleachers.
However, the "Confessional" Hyper-Euro-Lutheran Pastors had NO OBJECTION to
committing themselves to the polity of "Culturally relevant congregations,"
"process consulting," "healthy congregational systems," and
"affinity-based learning clusters."
No one will have eternal salvation with a "commitment" to the church of Core
Values on their lips. These Core Values have no language of the Bible in them. The veil
has covered their eyes. More than polity, the Core Values are now part of the
"belief" of the Michigan District.
The "Confessionals" appear to be little more than Hyper-Euro-Hypocrites. More
than likely, they have such a fear of their congregations that they would accept any
alternative from the District to Voter Supremacy. They willingly surrendered the autonomy
of their congregations to "collaborative, interdependent and coaching
relationships."
The Seminaries are teaching the LCMS Pastors that there is no need to commit to any
polity in the Synod. Chairman of the Board of Regents at Fort Wayne, Rev. David Anderson,
is proud of the fact that the Faculty will not respond to any questions about polity.
After all, the one who asks "will never be satisfied" because the Seminary
doesn't subscribe to any polity.
The Hyper-Euro-Lutherans have been working hard to eradicate the memory of Walther's
Voter Supremacy from the Synod. They wage a war of disinformation and historical
revisionism. "Logia" published that Walther introduced American Democracy into
the Church when, in fact, Walther publicly rejected such a thought. They promote Loehe
when Loehe condemned and left the Synod for giving lay people a vote.
The lay people must be ware that the that their pastors are working to overthrow their
Voters' Assemblies and commit the congregations to Church Growth Core Values and
restructuring around the Core Values.
The eight Michigan District Core Values may be the new polity and commitment of the
Michigan District Pastors. However, on my grave, they are not my Core Values.