LCMS Regional Gathering – Part 1
I wasn’t sure if I was going to write a report on the LCMS Regional Gathering for the CNH, Northwest, PSW, and English districts because there have already been reports (here, here, here, and here) that did a good job of covering them in general. However, I think I have something to add to the conversation, and I also haven’t posted in a while.
The Great
I got to spend time getting to know the pastoral delegate from my circuit, Pastor John Bestul. My pastor said he was a very solid guy and I found him to be exactly that. I feel fortunate that my circuit has two such fine confessional Lutheran pastors. I really appreciated pastor Bestul’s thoughtfulness, thoroughness, and clarity. He helped me to focus not just on the stated goal of the proposals, but also the long term affects. Thanks for making the whole thing worthwhile Pastor Bestul.
The Notable
The 4 other delegates at my table were pastoral delegates. They were all very nice and were very interested in getting a layman’s perspective on the proposals. They were also very kind in thanking me for taking the time away from work and family. However, they weren’t exactly the most conservative pastors I’ve met and if I were a conspiracy theorist I might think I was purposely put at that table to mute my voice (I spoke my mind, but I wasn’t about to engage in arguments on 4 fronts). It was tough being at a table with 4 pastors who were behind pretty much all the proposals to one degree or another.
President Kieschnick was very presidential. The man is a very good politician. Friday was his birthday, his anniversary, and his wife’s step-father passed away on Friday. Obviously he did not orchestrate this, but this stuff didn’t hurt in softening the crowd which was already sympathetic. I pray that Matt Harrison will be the next SP, but I feel a lot less hopeful after the gathering. Dr. Kieschnick is just getting so much face time and he’s also able to deflect from the more controversial BRTFSSG proposals by pointing out that he has a response to the final report that is critical of it in some areas. So, if you don’t know the specifics of his response (I need to read it), it would be pretty easy to assume that he doesn’t agree with the parts you don’t agree with, especially if you are already leaning in his direction.
My question to the panel was the second one asked in the Q&A. I asked about the proposed change in wording from “Encourage congregations to strive for uniformity in church practice…” to “Encouraging a common understanding…” Dr. Sohns gave the response which was first to say that the current phrase is being used legalistically to enforce uniformity of practice and then by walking through the history of this article. Starting in 1847 with “uniformity of ceremonies” which he says meant only special ceremonies like baptism (this didn’t sound right and I would like to check on this with the Gottesdienst crowd), then changing in 1917 to “uniformity of practice and affairs” and then in 1927 to “uniformity of practice”. He says that “common understanding” would lead to common practice and that was the original intent of the article. I’m sure this was sufficient for most and I’m sure some felt like the liturgical crowd got its smack-down. But I’m not buying it. I remember from the district convention that we used “encourage” all the time in proposals and it never had a legalistic tone. This was just one example, I’ll give a couple others later, where the strawman that the liturgical crowd is trying to impose things was put forth.
I was hoping to put up one big post, but I’m still groggy from the event (another part of my report) so I’ll hopefully put up part 2 tomorrow.
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February 1st, 2010 at 7:49 pm
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