All Elected Officials Must Be Accountable

When an elected official declares himself beyond criticism, and demands that his handling of public matters be kept confidential, and then threatens to accuse those who criticize him of violating the Law; then that elected official has become a tyrant.  Elected officials are supposed to be servants, not overlords; and therefore, their job performances are supposed to be subject to review and even criticism by the electorate.

Luther, in the Large Catechism, teaches us to put the best construction on everything, while still telling the truth.  He also teaches that we must honor not only our mothers and fathers, but also all those in authority over us.

However, would it really be a violation of those commandments to honestly critique the job performance of Wisconsin Governor Walker?  Would it be a violation to criticize the foreign policy of President Obama?  Would it be a violation to truthfully report on, and strongly disagree publicly with Obama’s intervention in Libya?  His handling of the war in Afghanistan?  His position on abortion?

Are we allowed to say: “Obama has been doing his job incompetently”?  Do Lutherans really teach that that is inherently a violation of the Fourth and Eighth Commandments?

For now, in the United States, our elected officials do not threaten to accuse citizens of violating the law simply for reporting and criticizing.  In fact, public officials have even less protection from criticism of their job performance than private citizens.  This is because they are elected public officials, and therefore the electorate is entitled to engage in vigorous public job performance reviews.

Do not employers get to review employee job performance?

Jesus said to his disciples:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

— Matthew 20:25-28, NIV1984.

The Apostles are among the greatest of men in the Christian Church, and yet their Servant told them to not lord it over others.

Therefore, the elected officials in the WELS are not beyond criticism.  And the elected officials in the WELS have no authority to demand that others remain silent about their inept handling of public matters.  All elected officials must be answerable and accountable to those they serve.  (Galatians 2:11-14).

The rights and principles of freedom were given by God to all people, including Christians.  All people have the right to speak truthfully about the public matters affecting their lives, including Christians.  Even more, when the gospel is at stake, all servants of the Lord must speak publicly.  (Jeremiah 20:9, Galatians 2:14 & 1 Timothy 5:20).

The elected officials in the WELS need to be open and transparent about their positions and actions (or lack thereof) regarding public matters.  Or they must publicly explain why such public matters should be handled privately.  It is not a valid excuse to say: “Handling these matters privately makes our job easier because we do not like our job performances to be subjected to criticism.”  Those who refuse to be criticized should not hold elected office.  Those who refuse to serve, should not hold the office of servant.

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Why I No Longer Attend My Church

It is with sadness that I no longer attend my church (St. Peter; Freedom, WI) where I was baptized and am still a member.  Even though I am not a watchman (Ezekiel 33), the public act of no longer attending the church where I was baptized and am a member demands an explanation.

I have doctrinal disagreements with my pastors, my Church Council, and the District Presidium.  For the most part, I have kept these doctrinal disagreements private.  However, whether or not the Church openly discusses God’s Word is a theological matter.  (Isaiah 8:20; 9:2, 6-7).  The Word is communication, and God expects His people, His Church, to wrestle with His Word.  (2 Corinthians 13:5).  The Word is how God communicates light and truth into us, and we struggle with His Word only by reading and openly discussing the word.

The Word is communication, and it is through the Word that the Holy Spirit works to enlighten, sanctify, and keep the whole Christian Church on earth in the one true faith.  (Small Catechism, Explanation of the Third Article).  Therefore, we must communicate doctrine, and we must struggle with the Word openly.  Further, if there is pain and loss in that struggle, then that pain should be understood as a necessary step on the way of the cross.  (Matthew 10:34-39).

However, when the local church and District Presidium use endless procedures to stifle disagreement and discussion of the word, they are not struggling with the Word, but instead they are engaging in an earthly political struggle.  Temporal earthly kingdoms are built through political struggle.  On the other hand, citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven must struggle with the word which involves open communication and sometimes the sadness of a cross.

The true Scriptural procedure for dealing with public doctrinal error and disagreement is to discuss the matters.  However, the Northern Wisconsin District Presidium has steadfastly refused to have a meeting where everyone sits down to discuss doctrine.  Instead, they have been completely hung-up on a never-ending series of frivolous procedures that no one can fulfill.  (For example, one is not allowed to invite the District President to a meeting without first asking the permission of the District President).

I am not the only man who disagrees on matters of doctrine and practice with my pastors and the District Presidium.  Other WELS pastors have also expressed disagreement.  Thus, there needs to be discussion of God’s Word.  That is the true Scriptural procedure.  Only God’s Word can make alive and heal.

I have written two letters dated November 1, 2009 and January 20, 2011 that detail some of the doctrinal problems I have seen at my congregation, St. Peter.  And it is in the spirit of the word (which is communication) and the theology of the cross (which is pain and struggle) that I share these two letters.  I had hoped that the second letter would have been unnecessary, and that neither letter would need to be shared.  Sadly, there is no other way.  (2 Timothy 4:2-3).

We all must lift our cross, and follow Christ.  (Matthew 10:38 & Mark 8:34-38).  May the Lord’s will be done.  (Matthew 26:39).

Postscript:  Since the second letter was sent, it has been reported that District President Engelbrecht is “very willing” to arrange a meeting between my pastors and the other concerned area WELS pastors.  Nonetheless, because District President Engelbrecht has handled these matters incompetently at best, he would best serve the Church by resigning.

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“The Church’s One Foundation”

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
she is His new Creation by water and the Word.
From heav’n He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
with His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.

Jesus creates His Church with water and the Word.  Jesus gives His life to her with His Body and Blood.

Elect from ev’ry nation yet one o’er all the earth,
her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.

From all nations, for reasons we cannot comprehend, He has chosen men to be His own.  There is one Church, one Body of Christ, there is no true division.

The Church shall never perish!  Her dear Lord to defend,
to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end.
Though there be those that hate her, false sons within her pale,
against both foe and traitor she ever shall prevail.

The picture in this post is of a visible church building.  It is something we can see.  It is a mere symbol.  The true Church is recognized only by her faith.  The one universal Church does not consist of earthly buildings, but of His people.  Within the visible church, there will always be false sons and traitors.  (Acts 20:29-31).

Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed,
by schism rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?”
and soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

Heresies and schisms cause the saints distress.  This is because they know that true doctrine is the Word of God, and the Word of God is their very life.  Therefore, they hold on to the healthy doctrine for their very lives.  Unionism and toleration of unhealthy doctrine is a mark of a false son and a traitor, not a saint.

Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war
she waits the consummation of peace forevermore,
till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest
and the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.

— “The Church’s One Foundation,” Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, 486:1-5.

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WELS Northern WI District Doctrinal Issues

The WELS Northern Wisconsin District Convention will be held in Appleton, WI at Fox Valley Lutheran High School from June 13-15, 2010 A.D.  The District President (equivalent to a Bishop) will be chosen at this convention, as will the District Presidium and numerous Circuit Pastors.  It is imperative that the Northern Wisconsin District choose its leaders wisely.

The Northern Wisconsin District needs leaders who will pay more than lip service to the means of grace, and who will promote and use the means of grace to change hearts.  The means of grace is the gospel in word and sacrament, and the first means of grace is God’s Word.

There are serious theological divisions in the Northern Wisconsin District, and there needs to be some serious theological discussion of God’s word to deal with these divisions.  From my perspective, there are at least four specific and serious doctrinal problems in the WELS Northern Wisconsin District:

The first problem is exceptionalism.  This is the belief that the WELS cannot be wrong.  It is a numbness that causes us to ignore the symptoms of unhealthy doctrine and practice.  Those who hold to this false and unhealthy belief sometimes express contempt toward those who raise concerns about doctrine and practice in the WELS.  Their opinion is: “How dare you question your WELS pastor!”

However, Paul warns us that even among the leaders of the church

men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  So be on your guard!  Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

— Acts 20:30-31.

Does this warning not apply to the WELS?  If such stringent warnings were necessary in an age of living Apostles, then how much more do these warnings apply to us today?

The second problem is a lack of trust in the means of grace (Word and sacraments).  This is the belief that from our perspective, God needs our services in order to grow the church.  It is also a denial of God’s promises and omnipotence.  One example of this false doctrine can be found in the WELS produced songbook, Let All the People Praise You.  The first verse of the song “Ready Lord” states: “… show me Lord, the service you will need.”  I cannot count how many times my own congregation has sung that verse.

However, Paul says that God

is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

— Acts 17:25.

The problem here is not an inadvertent error.  The problem is a persistent adherence to an error even after the error has been pointed out.  Those who claim to believe God’s Word should repent of saying that God needs our services, and cease this blasphemy against the Almighty.  God says: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you.”  (Psalm 50:12).

The third problem is a belief in post-conversion works-righteousness/decision theology.  This is the belief that Christians (after conversion) can not only choose to listen to God’s Word, but can also choose to understand and believe God’s Word.  This also encompasses the idea that once God has “saved” us, it is now up to us to keep ourselves in the faith.  This theology causes at least four problems:  First, sermons to Christians become motivational speeches instead of proclamations of the life-giving Word of God.  Second, it creates two “gospels,” one for believers and one for unbelievers.  Third, it causes us to view God’s Word as a tool we use to improve ourselves, instead of as a life-line that we cling to in desperation and faith.  And fourth, it causes people to base their faith and salvation on their daily choices instead of on the firm promise of God.

In contradistinction to the belief that Christians can choose to believe God’s Word, Paul told the early believers:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead …  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this [faith & grace is] not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

— Ephesians 1:17-20, 2:8.

God’s Word alone creates faith, and causes it to grow.

The fourth problem is a variation of unionism.  Unionism is the belief that doctrine is not that important.  This unhealthy belief reveals itself in the form of a church council president who tells WELS members that if they have doctrinal disagreements with their pastor, then they should be quiet, or join another WELS congregation.  Those who hold to this unhealthy belief view doctrinal discussions as divisive and a waste of time.  However, the biblical solution is to discuss and study God’s Word until the issues are resolved.

For example, in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke wrote that

the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

— 17:11.

Also, in the Revelation Jesus said,

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked…

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent.

— 3:15-17, 19.

Most of the above listed unhealthy doctrines are not proclaimed proudly from the rooftops for all to see, but rather they are hidden and are mostly revealed by poor practices which are the primary symptoms of unhealthy doctrine.  Beliefs always affect what we do.  (James 2:18).

No doctor merely looks at a patient and says, “Well, I can see that you have cancer.”  Rather he looks at symptoms, and probes, and seeks to discover the true sickness, and then he applies the cure.  The cure is the proclamation of the pure clear Word of God.  When will the shepherds apply the cure?  (Ezekiel 34:1-6).  Unfortunately, some of the shepherds and over-shepherds are sick, and they resent the cure.

It is vitally important that the Northern Wisconsin District choose its leaders wisely.  The leaders of the districts are called to apply the Word of God.  This is their job.  This is their calling.  The Northern Wisconsin District needs leadership that, instead of squelching discussion and quashing dissent, will commit itself to promoting open discussion and the study of God’s word.

God’s Word is not a tool we use to make ourselves better, but rather it is a life-line that we must cling to in desperation and faith.  Therefore, dear delegates to the WELS district conventions, please pray and vote wisely.  We need, we need the clear pure truth of God’s Word!

Kyrie eleison.

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2010 Report to the Twelve Districts

The June 2010 Report to the Twelve Districts has been posted on the WELS website.  The district conventions are being held this year.  (Click here to see a map of the WELS districts).

Here are some brief excerpts from the first part of that report, which is President Schroeder’s Report to the Twelve Districts:

There is a growing sense that WELS has an increasing number of opportunities to articulate and present its identity as a confessional Lutheran church body, in contrast to the trends and decisions of other church bodies that bear the name “Lutheran.”  We have maintained our commitment to placing our confidence and trust in the Means of Grace as the only way that God-pleasing and genuine growth—both outward and inward—takes place in the church.  Congregations are actively discussing the importance and relevance of worship and are working to plan and conduct their worship in ways that are biblically sound and Word-and-Sacrament focused…

With the world we live in changing so rapidly, there will be the temptation to alter our understanding of the very nature of the church and to adjust its message in order to be more “relevant.”  In the face of that temptation, we will need to articulate our conviction that law and gospel are always relevant to the lives of people, whether they are inside or outside of the church.  We will need to emphasize that even though we live in a culture that does appear to be changing, the message of the Scriptures does not change in its ability to bring sinners to repentance and assure repentant sinners of their full forgiveness in Christ.  In the face of trends in the Christian church today to adopt a theology of glory, we will need to maintain our commitment to a theology and practice that is centered on Christ crucified—the theology of the cross.  We will continue to strive for a unified understanding of and approach to matters of Christian freedom and to develop a common understanding of how practices in the realm of freedom can and should be addressed…

All of these challenges can only be met as we gather at the foot of the cross, rejoice in the grace of God, and equip ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, the unchanging and powerful Word of God.

Other organizations within the synod also submitted reports, and depending upon where one’s interests lie, there are interesting bits of information scattered throughout.  Here is one additional excerpt:

5.  The Commission on Worship leadership will continue to cultivate in WELS a “gospel optimism” that God promises to work though his means of grace.  This gospel optimism is not only a hallmark of being Lutheran, it’s also core to Lutheran worship.

—Commission on Worship, page 26.

The means of grace are God’s Word and sacraments.

The WELS Northern Wisconsin District Convention will be held in Appleton, WI at Fox Valley Lutheran High School from June 13-15, 2010 A.D.  The District President (equivalent to a Bishop) will be chosen at this convention, as will the District Presidium and numerous Circuit Pastors.  It is vitally important to the health of WELS Lutheranism that the Northern Wisconsin District choose its leaders wisely.

Kyrie eleison.

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Why don’t we see God in His glory?

The above picture is of the sun shining through clouds.  The dark silhouettes at the bottom are tree tops.

One of the purposes of Light from Light is to share past writings with another audience.  Atheism and different types of evidence have been recent topics here:

• Is there Evidence for Christianity?
• “Heavens… where?”

Continuing in a related vein, here is a letter of mine that was published in the Appleton Post-Crescent on January 9, 2008:

• God the world needs not one perceived by visible power:

Recently, many letters in the paper have said that God does not exist.  Most demand a physical sign.

What if almighty God did appear in majesty and glory?  What if God did demonstrate his terrible power?  All the people in the world would become “believers,” but our hearts would not be changed.

We would all serve this visible God, but not out of love.  We would serve Him out of fear of his power or greed for his wealth.  One way or another, eventually his mere presence would force us all into obedience.

In the end, we would all be thralls, toadies, and slaves.  Is this the God the atheists want?  Consider the forms of government the atheists have established:  From the Reign of Terror to communism, they have been murderously totalitarian.

If this is not the God or the government we want, then we should not demand that the Christian God behave that way in order for us to believe in Him.

God is not our puppet.  And the fact that we do not fully understand His behavior is a poor argument that He does not exist.  Any “God” that men could fully understand, would be no god at all.

Instead of mighty miracles that create only toadies, God gives us words: words of truth.  (Exodus 8:19, 1 Kings 19:11-13, & John 6:26).  Even a whisper of truth is mighty with invisible power.

We may not believe the eyewitness testimony of the apostles; but if testimony is valid evidence for judges, juries, journalists, and historians; then it should be valid evidence for us all.  We can demand to see the God of Sinai, but we need the God of the manger in Bethlehem.  We need Jesus who is the Word of truth made flesh.  (John 1:1).

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Good Friday

Mark 15:16-24:

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace … and called together the whole company of soldiers.  They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.  And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”  Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him.  Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him.  Then they led him out to crucify him…

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).  Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.  And they crucified him.

In Psalm 22:16 the prophet wrote of the coming Messiah:

Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.

About 700 years B.C. (Before Christ), the Prophet Isaiah wrote (in chapter 53) about the coming Messiah:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth…

After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

“It is finished.”  — Jesus

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“Called to proclaim”

President Schroeder’s report to the WELS convention was, in a word, excellent.  All Christians would benefit from studying the first three sections of his report which were subtitled, “Christ’s love,” “Our calling,” and “Called to proclaim.”  All Lutherans would benefit from studying “Maintaining our confessional identity.”  And members of the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod), would benefit from reading the entire report.

This post, “Called to proclaim,” is the second in a series dealing with Pastor Schroeder’s report.  “Called to proclaim” deals primarily with what we proclaim, and how we proclaim.  First, we need to get the message right, then we need to get the message out.  This is because what the message is will determine how the message is proclaimed.

by WELS President Mark Schroeder

Listen for a moment and tell me what I am describing:

• A world that is hostile to God and to all that he stands for;
• A world which seems to be sinking deeper into the control and sway of satanic influences;
• A world obsessed with all things sexual, and in which unspeakable perversions are not only tolerated but glorified;
• A society and a culture which is focused on materialism and the all-consuming desire for pleasure;
• A culture in which traditional moral values are eroding, where families are disintegrating, where human life is devalued and where violence is rampant;
• A society that embraces a belief system which denies absolute truth and which rejects any distinction between right and wrong, good and evil;
• A culture in which people increasingly reject traditional religion in favor of their own self-generated concept of spirituality;
• A culture in which the Christian church appears to be in retreat and decline, with congregations losing members and with younger generations abandoning the faith of their parents;
• A world in which Christian beliefs and teachings are attacked and ridiculed and even persecuted;
• A religious scene in which false teachers and false doctrines are enticing increasing numbers of people with their deceptions and lies.

What was I describing?  If you thought that this sounds like the world and the culture we live in, you would certainly not be wrong.  But, in fact, I was describing the world at the end of the first century—the very world in which God placed his first New Testament believers and into which he sent his church to carry out its God-given mission.

It’s tempting to look around us and conclude that the world we live in is far more wicked and sinful than ever before and that the challenges of reaching an unbelieving culture today are greater than ever before.  But in reality things today are no different from the Roman world and pagan culture into which the Christians of the first century were sent with their world-changing message.  Our world and culture are hostile now.  It was hostile then.  Our society’s values and philosophies and beliefs are godless now.  They were godless then.  The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing today just as it was when the apostles first proclaimed that message.

But consider what God did in that world of the first century.

It was only a handful of disciples that gathered around their risen Savior on a hill outside Jerusalem just before he ascended.  Jesus was about to send that little group into a hostile world on what must have seemed like an impossible mission.  But armed only with the power of God’s Word and with the unbreakable promises that Jesus had given them, those first believers did not retreat from that challenge.  When Jesus told them to go, they went.  They went with joy to their families and friends.  They took the good news from town to town.  They carried that message with them when they crossed mountains and seas.  They proclaimed law and gospel to believers to strengthen their faith, and they shared that life-giving message with unbelievers to bring them to faith.

And God blessed their witness.  The book of Acts tells us repeatedly that, as God’s people proclaimed the gospel, “the Word of the Lord grew.”  As the Holy Spirit worked, the Word grew in the hearts of people.  It grew to fill the empire.  It grew to span the centuries.  It grew and spread to the point where, through the faithful witness of generations of God’s people, it came to you and to me.

What we do conclude from that?  First, we are reminded wherein the success of our mission lies.  If we were left to our own strength, our own wisdom, our own resources, the task would be daunting.  We would surely either be compelled to retreat from that task or be doomed to failure.  But the strength of our mission and our witness does not depend on us, on our own cleverness, our own willpower, or on our abilities.  Its effectiveness is not to be found in slick programs or in effective marketing strategies.  The strength and success of our mission is found in one place: in the power and faithfulness and love of a God whose Spirit works through the preaching of his Word and the administration of his sacraments.  The success of our mission lies completely in the hands of the One who has promised us that his Word will not return to him empty and that the gates of hell itself will not be able to overcome his church.

The story of the early church not only shows us that God alone gives success to our mission.  It is also very instructive as to how we can best carry out that mission.  The New Testament model that guides our mission today is a combination of public proclamation of God’s truth as well as individual private witness.  When it came to public proclamation, we think of the apostles testifying boldly and publicly on the day of Pentecost.  We hear of believers in Antioch gathering regularly around Word and sacrament.  We recall Paul preaching to gatherings of believers and skeptics alike in towns and cities on his mission travels.  We listen as the apostles exposed false teaching and condemn those who depart from God’s truth.  Public proclamation of Law and gospel and corporate worship was a central activity of the early church.

And we also see individual believers sharing the good news individually as God gave them the opportunities.  We think of the woman of Samaria going back to tell the people of her village that she had found the Messiah.  We recall Philip leading the Ethiopian to see the fulfillment of God’s promises.  We watch Aquila and Priscilla carefully instructing Apollos.  We remember the apostle Paul, in chains and under house arrest, sharing Christ one on one with those assigned to guard him.

The early Christians certainly viewed the mission of the church as outwardly directed and mission-focused.  But it was not only that.  Once people were brought to faith in Jesus, the early Christians were clearly committed to serving the spiritual needs of every member and incorporating them fully into the life and work of the church.  They recognized their spiritual leaders as shepherds protecting the flock and overseers guarding their souls.  They instructed new members thoroughly.  They identified and discussed false teachings that could lead believers astray.  They taught their children faithfully.  They encouraged one another personally in regular worship and fellowship gatherings.  They shared the Lord’s Supper frequently.  They prayed zealously.  They showed love to one another generously and sacrificially.

For the early Christians, the mission of the church was always centered on the gospel in Word and sacrament in those two ways—eagerly sharing the Word with the lost and using the same means of grace to edify and strengthen those inside God’s family.  This Word-and sacrament-centered mission was not just a way of life for the early Christians.  It was their life.

As our synod carries out its mission of sharing the gospel with the lost and caring for the souls of the found, we dare never forget that our success will not be measured in terms of numbers or statistics.  Ours is a theology not of glory—striving for mere outward achievement or measurable accomplishments for their own sake.  Our success will be measured only by our faithfulness—to God, to his effective and powerful Word, and to the work he has called us to do.

Rather than a theology of glory, ours is a theology of the cross.  Our theology centers on a message that came to us wholly and completely because of the love of Christ.  It proclaims a message that calls sinners to repentance, directs them to the cross, and that assures them that in Christ and his love, all of their sins find full forgiveness.

Admittedly, the theology of the cross is not attractive in our postmodern, self-gratifying world.  Unlike the theology of glory, the theology of the cross makes no promises of instant relief for the ills of life in a sinful world.  It does not beckon people with the lure of financial or personal or professional success.  It does not seek validation of its success in terms of numbers.  It does not offer a practical “how-to” manual to achieve temporal happiness or to mine the depths of human potential.  The message of the cross cannot be packaged to be palatable and cannot be soft-pedaled to be acceptable.  It is a message that this world does not understand and does not desire.

In fact, our message—if we are faithful to it—will always be regarded as utter foolishness, just as Paul reminds us, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18).  The unbelieving people in our world look for things that make sense to their own way of thinking; they crave a message that reinforces their own self-centered view of life.  They will not find that in the harsh preaching of God’s law.  And unless God changes their hearts, they will not appreciate the sweet message of grace in the gospel.  If we somehow make the message of the cross attractive and reasonable to those who are perishing, we will have changed the message—and will have failed in the mission God gave us.  God help us always to say with Paul, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.  But to those whom God has called, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

Man’s foolishness.  God’s wisdom.

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WELS Convention Daily Summaries

The WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) biennial convention convened on Monday, July 27 in Saginaw, Michigan, and ran through Friday, July 31, 2009 A.D.  At the end of each day, WELS Communications produced a “video wrap” that is supposed to summarize the day’s events and provide some flavor of the happenings.

•  Monday’s video wrap reported on the opening of the convention and the President’s report.  According to Joel Hochmuth,

President Schroeder stressed the importance of maintaining our Confessional identity.  He spoke of practicing the “theology of the cross” rather than the “theology of glory,” and measuring success, not in numbers, but in our faithfulness.

[Said President Schroeder], “The ‘theology of glory’ focuses on outward accomplishment, growth in numbers, and external things that tend to make people proud and feel good.  The ‘theology of the cross’ focuses on purely what God has done for us.”

•  Tuesday’s video wrap featured the election of Pastor James Huebner as First Vice President.  Regarding President Schroeder, the newly elected Rev. Huebner said with a smile,

[we] have a very good working relationship, [but] I don’t want to be the person who just sort of seconds every motion that he has or every idea …  I’m not afraid to disagree with him, as he well knows.

James Huebner is a pastor at Grace Lutheran Church (founded 1849) in Milwaukee, WI.  Grace is one of the most liturgical congregations in the WELS, and has a reputation for excellence in Lutheran worship.  {This is somewhat ironic because Grace’s original articles of incorporation stated, that “never may or shall a preacher of the said congregation use the rite of the Old Lutheran Church, whether in Baptism or the Lord’s Supper.”  (WELS History.org, page 43)}.  Pastor Huebner also delivered the keynote address to the 1999 WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, & the Arts, entitled “Excellence in Worship.”

•  On Wednesday, the delegates debated the budget, and asked, “Should we close Michigan Lutheran Seminary, recall missionaries, or is there a better third option?”

•  On Thursday, the delegates

adopted a resolution of the Finance and Budget Floor Committee for the 2009-11 biennium, which provides enough funding for Ministerial Education to retain WELS’ present three-tier, four-school system as contained in the Synodical Council’s proposed budget Option A.

The resolution also keeps funding for the Boards for Home and World Missions at the same level as the proposed budget Option B so that no further missionary cuts are needed.

Instead, the budgets of Communications, Financial Services, Technology, the Congregational Resource Team within Parish Services, Mission Counselors, and corporate travel expenses will be cut by a total of $1 million.

(Together newsletter, July 30, 2009).  Click here for additional budget cut details.

Also at some point, “in an effort to foster and preserve unity in doctrine and practice,” the convention approved a resolution for “a synod-wide review of key doctrines and practical issues.”  (Ad Hoc Recommendation 5.1).  The four recommended areas of synod-wide study are: the efficacy of the means of grace; vocation, church and ministry; care of souls; and the sacramental life.

•  The convention concluded at noon Friday with prayer and the closing gavel.

The daily wrap videos as well as other selected presentations from the convention can be found on the WELS Streams Vimeo page.  President Schroeder will give his full assessment of the convention in the August 5 edition of the Together newsletter.  To the delegates and everyone else who worked on the convention, thank you.  May God be with you.

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Rev. Deutschlander on Issues, Etc.

On Tuesday, June 23, 2009 A.D., the Rev. Daniel Deutschlander, one of the most preeminent teachers & theologians in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), appeared on the popular Lutheran radio program Issues, Etc.™

Rev. Deutschlander is the author of The Theology of the Cross.  Topics of the conversation included:

• contrasting the ‘theology of glory’ with the ‘theology of the cross,’
• the definition of a cross,
• the purpose of a cross,
• the pivotal nature of the Scriptures,
• the importance of taking God seriously,
• the hidden God, and
• the Sacraments’ hidden glory.

Click here to download the Issues, Etc. sound clip.  This entire interview is well worth at least one careful listen:

Excerpts from the Interview:

How do we deal with the question, “Does God hate me?”  (8:15).

That’s where the Scriptures are pivotal…  I abandon myself to the word of God…  I cling to the promise of God, and hang on that; not how I feel, not what seems reasonable, not what the devil is blowing in my ear and I can’t tell whether he is an angel of light or not.  What does God say?

The importance of taking God seriously:  (15:25).

Luther took God seriously in all that He said in both the law and the gospel.  And that if you don’t take Him seriously in the law, you will dismiss Him in the gospel.

That’s so much in evidence.  And so much of what passes for the Church Growth Movement: is you want to make Christianity easy and popular, and so you leave out confession, you leave out original sin, you leave out man’s always and desperate need for the gospel.

Once you leave that out, people lose their taste for the gospel (“Ho hum, I know all that already, who cares?”), and they become relativists.  They can do whatever they want, because “Jesus died, not to save me from my sins, but to save me for them.”  That’s a highway to hell …

Man’s need for grace is always desperate and absolute.  It is never trivial.

“What is this notion of the ‘hidden God’?”  (17:45).

God hides himself in the cross …  God hides himself in lowliness.  He hides himself in weakness.  People want to see God in glory:  Well go back and see the appearances of God in glory: see him at Mount Sinai: terror, dread, death.  But he wraps himself in holiness in the whisper to Elijah on the mountain, in the manger: there is the almighty God, suffering and dying on the cross: there is the almighty God.

And that’s replicated in the Christian.  What is the Christian by virtue of the fact that he is forgiven?  He is a saint, he is a child of God, he is a part of the Bride of Christ.  Christ rules all of history for him and for his benefit, but he doesn’t see that now.  It’s an article of faith.  What he sees now is weakness and lowliness, and so God keeps coming to him in meekness and weakness and lowliness.  In what? in the Word, in the simple Sacraments.  That’s where God is to be found.

We don’t want to see God this side of the grave in his glory.  We want to embrace him and love him in his lowliness in the manger, on the cross, at the empty tomb, in the Word, in the water of Baptism, in the Bread and the Wine of the sacred Supper.  That’s where he encounters us, and that’s what we love.

Talk about the Sacraments.  (19:15).

The Sacraments are the visible gospel…

The despairing heart sighs a sigh of relief at the promise of the gospel.  My flesh says, “No.”  My conscience says, “No.”  But God in the Sacraments … says “Yes,” and he says “Yes” to me personally.

“What is the comfort of the theology of the cross … versus the theology of glory?”  (23:45).

Theology of the cross: the certainty that Christ won everything for me.

Theology of glory: it all depends on what I do and how I feel: all of which are fickle, imperfect, uncertain.

Christ said, “It is finished.”

Soundbite of the Week:

On Friday, June 26, 2009 A.D., the listeners of Issues, Etc. chose the soundbite from Rev. Deutschlander’s interview as the “soundbite of the week.”  Click here to download the soundbite of the week segment:

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