LCMS Regional Gathering – Part 2
This is the second part of my report on the LCMS Regional Gathering for the CNH, Northwest, PSW, and English districts. Part 1 can be found here.
More Notables
мебель в болгарии
Someone else asked a written question regarding the change from “Exclusive use of doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks, and catechisms in church and school.” to “Use of worship and catechetical resources that are in harmony with the confessional basis of the Synod;” Dr. Sohns answered this one by explaining that “doctrinally pure” was unclear and needed to be better defined thus the “confessional basis of the Synod” wording. This was unsatisfying as it didn’t address the change from “exclusive” to “in harmony”. Someone else was also dissatisfied and asked why we would want to loosen the terminology. Dr. Sohns’ response was that the intent of the change was to better define “doctrinally pure” and it was not the intent of the rephrasing to weaken the exclusivity. I will take Dr. Sohns at his word, but then I wonder how many of these proposed changes have unintentionally changed the meaning of the original. Pastor Bestul’s comment was that if they just wanted to clarify “doctrinally pure” they could have just added that parenthetically. He also didn’t think we really needed to clarify the term in the first place.
The Political
One thing that stood out in mind was how much the American concepts of equity, fairness, and diversity were used to evoke support. Why have regional VPs? Well because none come from West of Minnesota and that’s not fair. Why should larger congregations get more delegates? That would just be more equitable. Should we consider using worship attendance instead of confirmed members when calculated representation? The CNH, Northwest, and PSW have a greater worship attendance percentage then most districts so it would be more fair and equitable to go that way. The pandering to base instincts was disturbing.
I also mentioned that diversity was thrown out and the lack of ethnic, gender, age, and socio-economic diversity was decried. This could make some squeamish, but since I’m definitely one of the minorities, I’ll take it on. At one point the delegates were admonished because we come from some of the more diverse parts of the country and yet there were probably 90%+ males, 90%+ caucasians, 80%+ over 55 (hey I’m not very good at guessing the age of caucasians 
. I honestly felt saddened that this type of language was being used to push through an agenda. I even used the term “white guilt” in a tweet I posted because I felt like the presenter was trying to use the lack of diversity to guilt the delegates into backing the proposals. Look, I know to the world that my family sticks out like a sore thumb in our (and most) LCMS congregation, but when Law is preached we feel the same weight of sin as everyone else and when Gospel is preached we feel the same joy. Honestly, LCMS, just keep preaching Law and Gospel and the Holy Spirit will take care of the diversity.
The Problematic
While discussing the proposal to urge pastors in continuing education one pastor decried how few business courses were taught in seminary. His statement was, “They didn’t teach us anything about business in seminary and then when I got to the parish I found out, It is a business!”
The Odd
The roommate I had has the condition known as sleep apnea. All I can say is, Wow!
Personally Enlightening
While I was eating breakfast and reading “Law and Gospel” a pastor came up to me and asked what I was reading. I showed him and he asked if I was in some sort of lay training program? I told him that I just like to ask my pastor for reading suggestions and he gives me recommendations. The pastor’s response was, “It’s great that a layman loves the Lord so much that he reads Walther for enjoyment.” I of course thanked him for the kind words, but this made me think about how uncomfortable I get when people talk about “loving the Lord.” Was I reading Walther because I love the Lord? How do I know if what I’m doing shows that I love the Lord? Then it hit me, this whole line of thinking is just Law. I think I understand why people talk this way, but I feel much better knowing why I’ve always felt weird around it.
BRTFSSG Enlightenment
After finishing up the district caucus and having a beer with Pastor Bestul, I went back to my room and had a very informative conversation with my roommate. He told me most of the proposals were over his head because his real concern was for his struggling congregation. They were going through the TCN process and he was hoping the proposals would somehow help local congregations. So the light really came on that there a lot of sincere people, at the local and national level, that are honestly concerned about the decline of individual congregations and the synod that they have been blinded to the errors they are introducing. I’ve always concerned myself with the errors, but it really hit me how much we on the side that is trying to combat these errors really need to speak with love because many people are just really feeling the pain in the decline of the church and are largely ignorant of the wider implications.
The Annoying
The “confessional straw man” was rolled out several times and it was pretty annoying. Need an example of someone whose closed minded, just roll him out. Want to blame someone for binding consciences, you’ve got your man. He wasn’t blamed for the decline of the synod, but he’s there impeding progress.
In closing, I must say that I got a lot out of the gathering but not in the way the BRTFSSG had probably hoped. I learned about pastors, laity, and myself. And what I did learn of the proposals just confirmed that they are just too sweeping and the number and impact of the unintended consequences is almost unimaginable.
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