Do you have any thoughts about how to try and get new visitors into our churches? I serve on a lay committee that works on that topic, but we are struggling to make progress.
It’s hard to know without your congregation’s “fingerprint”. Each congregation is unique and there isn’t a one size fits all approach because there are so many factors to consider - location, birth rates, area demographics, age profile, competitors, schooling, service style, preaching effectiveness, and so on. But it does give us some ideas about potentially developing a matrix to try to help address these issues.
I'll second what Ad Crucem News posted. I'd also argue that by having the marks of the true Church, and with support given from most if not all congregants, you're church will become the church of many new members, simply because the Holy Spirit is drawing them there to here the Gospel and receive the sacraments. They'll stay because the fellowship is wonderful.
Dr. Koontz said something in a recent BHOP episode that was very insightful and your article brought it to mind. He said, “Indifference, which is the opposite of love, hate is not.”
You listed a number of worthy works for the lay people. In addition, it's important that one must be attending a church to which one would be confident to invite visitors, and then invite away. Our experience has been that the wrong application of the explanation of the 8th commandment, the homogenization of sin ("all sin is the same", so we don't deal with egregious sin because "we're all sinners") , and the lack of response when one follows the current LCMS process for dealing with genuine concerns can result in a church where the unchecked behavior of some members makes this impossible, and even forces the current members to leave. We've had two experiences where faithful people have left due to unchecked willful sin running rampant in a church, saying they will never set foot in a church again.
Meh. LCMS theology is the best, but the laymen treat their congregations like private country clubs. Each LCMS congregation is run by prominent local families "with the right last names." Beware of the twelve toxic Boomer women and their allies, who are the real leaders of the congregation.
As a visitor, you are sized up by the lay leaders on whether or not you will fit in. If a couple of "the wrong people" decide they don't "like" you, you will be shunned, gossiped about, and harassed. Want to volunteer in an LCMS congregation? Assume a position of leadership or criticize leadership, and you have set yourself up as a target. The best you can hope for is to be ignored.
This is indeed a problem at some churches, and may be one of the reasons people don't want to volunteer. The pastor, elders, and council need to nip this in the bud.
This was the very situation I inherited when called to my present congregation. Today, the toxic gossips are gone or silenced. It requires strong male leadership from pastor and elders, operating from the authority of Scripture. We've gone from dying to thriving. S.D.G.
Your feedback gives me hope for the LCMS, and yet I just don't see how or why paid leadership at both the congregation and district levels, whose salaries are funded by the matriarchs and their chosen allies, would have the fortitude to push back and make things right. Did the cleanup take days, months, weeks, or years? What incentive exists to make things right?
I have heard and read Todd Wilken, Chris Rosebrough, and Burnell F. Eckardt Jr. give their public testimonies of persecution, aka "mobbing." You don't have to be an internet celebrity pastor in order to be treated badly by congregational leaders. I wish such renowned pastors would provide an update on how this kind of behavior is being addressed synod-wide.
The toxic country club mentality is embedded in the DNA of LCMS congregations. I had to leave one because of it, and I watched them chase out an entire family. It saddens me to discover a neighboring congregation that I wished to join have the same mindset. I am afraid to join another LCMS congregation out of fear of receiving the same treatment.
Yes, money is the root of this evil. It was here as well. The matriarchs used it to control what was said and done. Cleaning out the vipers' nest took 4 years. By the time the matriarchs realized they had been neutralized, the financial impact of their loss had become irrelevant.
It was not an easy. I was slandered, threatened, and had a person organized a boycott of services. A few members withdrew funding. One woman took the congregation to court in an attempt to deprive us of funding. Through it all God sustained me, bringing in faithful brothers and sisters to pray and support the efforts at reform. The success here is solely due to His mercy and grace.
Eight years ago we were on the brink of fiscal disaster and closure. Today, we are fiscally healthy and growing. I dearly love the saints here, and have been blessed by them more than I could have hoped for. That was my incentive...that this church would be a bastion of God's love and peace, a refuge from the world.
There are faithful pastors and congregations out there. I'm glad that you appear to have found one.
Sorry, I misread your comment. I thought you'd found a congregation. My advice is to find a pastor faithful to the word and our Confessions. Give him as much support and encouragement as you can - prayer, complimenting him when he does or says the right thing, and gently correcting him when he doesn't. I could not have done what I did without such support from the laity. Your pastor needs to know there are people who will back him up when the going gets tough.
Thanks be to God that you stood strong, acknowledged the truth about the situation, and persevered through the persecution. It takes a man of character to do that. Such a wonderful outcome that God blessed those efforts and brought in supporters. and faithful sheep. Your sheep are indeed fortunate to have such a good shepherd.
Do you have any thoughts about how to try and get new visitors into our churches? I serve on a lay committee that works on that topic, but we are struggling to make progress.
It’s hard to know without your congregation’s “fingerprint”. Each congregation is unique and there isn’t a one size fits all approach because there are so many factors to consider - location, birth rates, area demographics, age profile, competitors, schooling, service style, preaching effectiveness, and so on. But it does give us some ideas about potentially developing a matrix to try to help address these issues.
I'll second what Ad Crucem News posted. I'd also argue that by having the marks of the true Church, and with support given from most if not all congregants, you're church will become the church of many new members, simply because the Holy Spirit is drawing them there to here the Gospel and receive the sacraments. They'll stay because the fellowship is wonderful.
A beautiful encouragement from the laity. Amen!
Thank you Pastor.
Dr. Koontz said something in a recent BHOP episode that was very insightful and your article brought it to mind. He said, “Indifference, which is the opposite of love, hate is not.”
Really nice sentiment!
You listed a number of worthy works for the lay people. In addition, it's important that one must be attending a church to which one would be confident to invite visitors, and then invite away. Our experience has been that the wrong application of the explanation of the 8th commandment, the homogenization of sin ("all sin is the same", so we don't deal with egregious sin because "we're all sinners") , and the lack of response when one follows the current LCMS process for dealing with genuine concerns can result in a church where the unchecked behavior of some members makes this impossible, and even forces the current members to leave. We've had two experiences where faithful people have left due to unchecked willful sin running rampant in a church, saying they will never set foot in a church again.
Meh. LCMS theology is the best, but the laymen treat their congregations like private country clubs. Each LCMS congregation is run by prominent local families "with the right last names." Beware of the twelve toxic Boomer women and their allies, who are the real leaders of the congregation.
As a visitor, you are sized up by the lay leaders on whether or not you will fit in. If a couple of "the wrong people" decide they don't "like" you, you will be shunned, gossiped about, and harassed. Want to volunteer in an LCMS congregation? Assume a position of leadership or criticize leadership, and you have set yourself up as a target. The best you can hope for is to be ignored.
This is indeed a problem at some churches, and may be one of the reasons people don't want to volunteer. The pastor, elders, and council need to nip this in the bud.
This was the very situation I inherited when called to my present congregation. Today, the toxic gossips are gone or silenced. It requires strong male leadership from pastor and elders, operating from the authority of Scripture. We've gone from dying to thriving. S.D.G.
Your feedback gives me hope for the LCMS, and yet I just don't see how or why paid leadership at both the congregation and district levels, whose salaries are funded by the matriarchs and their chosen allies, would have the fortitude to push back and make things right. Did the cleanup take days, months, weeks, or years? What incentive exists to make things right?
I have heard and read Todd Wilken, Chris Rosebrough, and Burnell F. Eckardt Jr. give their public testimonies of persecution, aka "mobbing." You don't have to be an internet celebrity pastor in order to be treated badly by congregational leaders. I wish such renowned pastors would provide an update on how this kind of behavior is being addressed synod-wide.
The toxic country club mentality is embedded in the DNA of LCMS congregations. I had to leave one because of it, and I watched them chase out an entire family. It saddens me to discover a neighboring congregation that I wished to join have the same mindset. I am afraid to join another LCMS congregation out of fear of receiving the same treatment.
Yes, money is the root of this evil. It was here as well. The matriarchs used it to control what was said and done. Cleaning out the vipers' nest took 4 years. By the time the matriarchs realized they had been neutralized, the financial impact of their loss had become irrelevant.
It was not an easy. I was slandered, threatened, and had a person organized a boycott of services. A few members withdrew funding. One woman took the congregation to court in an attempt to deprive us of funding. Through it all God sustained me, bringing in faithful brothers and sisters to pray and support the efforts at reform. The success here is solely due to His mercy and grace.
Eight years ago we were on the brink of fiscal disaster and closure. Today, we are fiscally healthy and growing. I dearly love the saints here, and have been blessed by them more than I could have hoped for. That was my incentive...that this church would be a bastion of God's love and peace, a refuge from the world.
There are faithful pastors and congregations out there. I'm glad that you appear to have found one.
Sorry, I misread your comment. I thought you'd found a congregation. My advice is to find a pastor faithful to the word and our Confessions. Give him as much support and encouragement as you can - prayer, complimenting him when he does or says the right thing, and gently correcting him when he doesn't. I could not have done what I did without such support from the laity. Your pastor needs to know there are people who will back him up when the going gets tough.
Thanks be to God that you stood strong, acknowledged the truth about the situation, and persevered through the persecution. It takes a man of character to do that. Such a wonderful outcome that God blessed those efforts and brought in supporters. and faithful sheep. Your sheep are indeed fortunate to have such a good shepherd.
Jarryd Allison calls on Missouri Synod laypeople to step up and save their church by living holy lives and serving their congregations. Amen to that.