It's Time.  LCMS Unity and Mission; the Real Problem We Face and How to Solve It   by Pastor Matthew Harrison:

From: Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri

The Numbers are In

The numbers are in. LCMS congregations have submitted their nominations for the office of president, those nominations have been tallied, and the numbers have been reported. For the office of president, Matthew Harrison 1,332; Gerald Kieschnick 755; Herbert Mueller, Jr. 503; Carl Fickenscher II 5; and Daniel Gard 3. Those numbers tell an interesting story.

For the last nine years Gerald Kieschnick has faithfully served as our synodical president.  Those years have been challenging and at times controversial. Yet through the challenges and even through the controversy, support for President Kieschnick has remained consistent. Even though some have questioned his approach, congregations have opted to give him the benefit of the doubt, backing him with their support through their nomination.  For example, President Kieschnick received 1,055 nominations for the 2007 convention.   The next closest was John C. Wohlrabe Jr. with 607.  That is a difference of more than 400 congregations.

The latest round of nominations tell a new story.  As the Synod faces organizational and financial challenges in addition to the doctrinal stresses of the past decade, congregations are nominating a new leader to lead us through these difficult waters.   Rather than renominating our current President, who has sought to address these challenges through structural change (via the recommendations from The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Government), congregations are instead nominating a man who maintains that our problem is not structural, but relational. Our biggest problem is not that we need to become more efficient, like a business. Our biggest problem is that we have lost the ability to talk through our differences, like a family. Congregations appear to be in agreement that the structure will work just fine and the financial situation will improve if we stop brushing our issues under the rug and do the hard work of getting together to discuss those things that divide us.

Take another look at the numbers. Whereas in previous years and based on nominations the synod has given its nod to keep going with the direction Gerald Kieschnick had set, this year the margins are quite different. Kieschnick does not enjoy such a wide margin of support. In contrast, Pastor Matt Harrison, who has outlined a plan to bring the family back around to the table, has suddenly received 1,332 nominations.

So what has changed? In the past three years, Matt Harrison has demonstrated great leadership. This leadership has been evident as he spearheaded relief efforts in New Orleans following Katrina, and more recently in Haiti. He has shown himself to be a man proficient in our Lutheran Theology. He has demonstrated a knowledge of our history as a denomination and is conversant with our Missouri Synod source materials. He has a pastoral heart. In addition to his leadership, he has also provided a plan to help lead us out of our challenges and problems; financial, organizational, and relational!We are encouraged that more congregations of Missouri are putting their support behind the man who wants to keep the conversation “all in the family”. This bodes well for our synod.

We hope that delegates to the convention listen to the congregations, elect Matt Harrison as our President, and elect men and women in all offices who support his vision for cross-focused leadership for Missouri.

 

by Rev Paul Schlueter

Contemporary Worship and the Gospel of Relationship

I recently had the opportunity to attend the LCMS Model Theological Conference on Worship. During the conference there were a schedule of worship services that were intended to be examples of different styles of worship; the first was entirely traditional, the second was traditional liturgy accompanied by a praise band, the others began to rearrange portions of the liturgy, substitute custom elements for those prescribed by the hymnal combined with a greater array of contemporary worship songs.

As I was observing the different worship options, one thing that was pointed out (ironically by one who practices contemporary worship) was that during the traditional worship service the pastor was impersonal. The man and his personality were divested from the service. And, sure enough, as the contemporary worship forms were in use the personality of the pastor was on greater display.

This alerted me to an interesting reality; in classical Christian worship (ie. “traditional worship”) the personality of the pastor is muted. The man is there, but the personality of the man is inconsequential and it is unnecessary. What is important is that the man is present mainly to be the one who points the worshipers to Jesus. Who he is, how funny or clever he is, is ultimately of no effect. The thing that makes the worship service work has nothing to do with the man. It does have everything to do with the Word. The man speaks the words and promises of Jesus. The man holds out the forgiveness of sins given by Jesus. The man is merely a vessel, empty and worthless except for the words given him by the Gospel.

Contrast this to contemporary worship. There is of course a continuum in place here, there are extremes. Let's consider Lakewood Christian in Houston an extreme. The thing that makes that worship work is the personality of the pastor. Joel Osteen's personality is fully on display. He is clever. He is witty. He tells stories from his own life, about his relationship with his wife, his children, his parents. His jokes and his stories draw the people in so that they are included in his life. Thus the effectiveness of the worship is directly connected to his personal life. The personality of Joel is the key for making the whole experience work.

In former posts I have mentioned what has been termed a “gospel of relationship”. As I have defined this “gospel”, one thing it does is reduce the Christian life to a relationship. The gospel takes on less of the character of forgiveness and instead is defined according to relational categories. It is emotive (a feeling), it is subjective, it is personal to an extreme. Jesus is discussed as a friend or even a lover, God is a daddy, the Holy Spirit is sensory.

If the gospel is truly reducible to "having a relationship with Jesus", it is then only subjective and relational. Therefore the entire worship service must be structured around those things that are subjective and relational. Take, for example the music. The music style is akin to the genre of the rock ballad, a genre that communicates feelings and ideas of love to the listener. The lyrics of the songs fall in step so that they carry the freight of a love songs to Jesus. (I could swap out the name “Jesus” for the name of my wife in many of the songs and sing it to her without changing anything else). Often during times of prayer there is “mood music” softly playing in the background. Many of the sermon topics have to do with either your “relationship” to Jesus or you relationship to your spouse or to someone else (eg. “Making Your Marriage Work", "Christians and Sex", etc.).

Very often, the pastor and his personality is the lynch pin. If the pastor is clever, funny, if he knows how to work the crowd, then the service works. People are attracted, seekers come to check it out and then come back in the following weeks. It is not enough for the pastor to simply point the way to Jesus and His objective means of forgiveness, the pastor has to be a performer and an entertainer.

Perhaps this is why there is so often an awkwardness to Lutheran contemporary worship. The forms don't fit together. In Classical Lutheran worship the pastor is a vehicle. The personality of the pastor can get lost in the liturgy because Christians haven't come to see the pastor. They have come to see Jesus. Granted, Jesus is hidden. He hides himself in the Word. He hides himself in, with, and under the bread and the wine. He hides himself in the proclamation of the absolution. But that is where Jesus is. Evangelical worship denies that Jesus actually and physically arrives when Christians gather to worship, so there is the need to conjure him up. Ambiance created through the right music, the quick wit and appropriately timed jokes of a clever pastor provides just the right stuff to set the mood for the romance with Jesus to begin.

 
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