RELIGION: "COWO, NOGROW"

Friday, July 20, 2018

From FIRST THINGS:

Pastor V. was happy to see many new members come into the church he served in Lawrence. He taught them the Small Catechism and received them. They took to the Body of Christ like ducks to water. But this bothered the Kansas district president. The church growth ideology to which he subscribed regarded traditional liturgy, doctrine, and preaching as barriers keeping “the lost” from joining the Church. If you want to reach the lost, you have to make the Church as much like the world as possible. Kids like pop music, so the service should include it. Sermons need to be practical, not doctrinal—teaching not Christ but morals, how to be good parents and successful workers, and, above all, how to persuade friends and neighbors to join the church and give generously.

Pastor V. was urged to take a call to another church. He declined. The district opened another “mission start” with rock and roll worship (“CoWo,” “contemporary worship”) right down the street. That mission failed, while his congregation continued to attract more folks than the mission-minded congregations around him which hewed more closely to the officially favored “church growth” ideology. Finally, the members of the failed mission start, along with a retired pastor, joined Pastor V.’s congregation and urged more CoWo, small group ministries, and sermons that catered to individuals’ “felt needs.” Lutheran Pastor David Luecke’s book Evangelical Style and Lutheran Substance (which Neuhaus had panned for its shallow semi-­paganism) served as their operations manual. Pastor V. moved on, and the congregation became another little copy of Willow Creek Community Church. It has declined over the years.

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There is an irony that Martin ­Luther pointed out in Bondage of the Will: The harder we try to reform ourselves, the worse we get. The more we harp on good works, the more evil works proliferate. Only when we give up trying to reform ourselves can Christ Jesus reform us by his cross, through gospel Word and sacrament, as his free gift through faith alone. Similarly, when we try to reform the Church to make it larger and more appealing to the masses, we separate ourselves from the Word of the Cross that truly reforms all, and we ­usually end up shrinking or sinking the Church.

Since the late ’90s, the LCMS has declined for the first time in its history—and precipitously. We’ve lost almost 20 percent of our membership since 2000. In striving to reach the world, we’ve become worldly.


Read the full article here: COWO, NOGROW

P-B