"Confessionals" Capitulate to Core Values
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

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.


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

July 8, 2000