Friday, March 28, 2008

"What does it profit a man...?"

Last week the Missouri Synod Lutherans canceled a long-running radio program, explaining that it had few listeners and was losing money. Today, a report in the Wall Street Journal suggests that there may be other reasons:
.... The program was in all likelihood a pawn in a larger battle for the soul of the Missouri Synod. The church is divided between, on the one hand, traditional Lutherans known for their emphasis on sacraments, liturgical worship and the church's historic confessions and, on the other, those who have embraced pop-culture Christianity and a market-driven approach to church growth. The divide is well known to all confessional Christian denominations struggling to retain their traditional identity.

The Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, the synod's current president, has pushed church marketing over the Lutherans' historic confession of faith by repeatedly telling the laity, "This is not your grandfather's church." ....

While "Issues, Etc." never criticized Mr. Kieschnick or his colleagues, its attacks against shallow church marketing included mention of some approaches embraced by the current leadership. It opposed, for instance, the emergent church - an attempt to accommodate postmodern culture by blending philosophies and practices from throughout the church's history - and the Purpose Driven Church movement, which reorients the church's message toward self-help and self-improvement.
Anthony Sacramone at First Things provides some context:
.... The LCMS, in which I was baptized and confirmed, is unlike any other Protestant body: Its not mainline and not quite evangelical, at least in the altar-call, clap-happy sense. Rather it is orthodox, confessional, and liturgical - or at least it's supposed to be. For those Christians who are tired of the strip-mall approach to church-hopping, in which the congregation with the best music and most emotional appeal wins your heart this week, the LCMS has always been a traditional, sober, and catholic alternative. Unfortunately, many within the LCMS have decided that being Lutheran isn't enough; they also want to be BIG and compete with the nondenoms around the corner. [....]
Radio Silence - WSJ.com, First Things » Blog Archive » The LCMS Mess

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