>Events>

FROM THE PASTOR-

I received this from a Lutheran colleague and find it to be quite pertinant to our current situation.  Pastor

WHY ARE THEY LEAVING OUR LITTLE CHURCH?

When membership and attendance decline (and along with them, the budget) panic tends to set in. “Why are all these people leaving our church?” “The Pastor, the leaders, or the congregation must have done something wrong.” When a congregation finds itself in a membership crisis, two temptations begin to assert themselves. First, the blame game is begun in earnest. Because the Pastor is the Pastor, many within the congregation will blame him. More specifically, they will blame his personality and people skills for the loss of members. “If only he were a different person, then the decline of the congregation would not have occurred.” “If only he was more like our previous Pastor, then things would be all right.” Second, the congregation and Pastor are tempted to “play around” with the liturgy and theology of the Divine Service. This is a short term “fix” if it does anything at all.

The Pastor should always be prepared to examine himself and his conduct in the office of pastor in light of the full counsel of the Word of God and submit himself to its judgements of law. The Pastor has the burden by divine right to lead the congregation in the way that the congregation should go. Is he leading and teaching the congregation in both the Word and Sacrament ministry and in a healthy life of service to the neighbor (the second work of the Church)? Pastors who tend only to the preaching and teaching aspects of their office and do not lead, encourage, and participate in the charitable diaconal works of the congregation may one day find themselves without a congregation. For this reason and others the lay order of deacons was established in the early church. It is always advisable that a Lutheran pastor secure another fellow confessional Lutheran pastor to serve as his own father confessor for private confession and pastoral care and advice.

Having said that, the congregation ought not to be so quick to render harsh judgments against their Pastor for his weaknesses and his personality traits. No two pastors are the same. And we dare not trust in personalities. The Scripture is clear. Jesus uses us in our weakness to accomplish His will. “If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.” (2 Cor. 11:30) “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own load. And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.” (Gal. 6:3-6 NASB)

Congregations have personalities too. Sometimes congregations can be pretty unfriendly, stubborn, and disconnected creatures, yet the Pastor has a divine duty to preach, teach, absolve, and commune the members, even if he does not like some of the individual personalities in the congregation. For a pastor’s fatherly judgments are to be based on the Word of God alone, befriending the unfriendly, forgiving the unforgivable, and loving the unlovable. Rendering judgments on a fellow Christian’s personality and driving him from a congregation on the basis of the same is a great sin, which should never be tolerated within a Christian congregation. This is to be the Pastor’s disposition in regard to the congregation and this is to be the congregation’s disposition in regard to the Pastor, whom God has called to serve the congregation. Pastors in the Lutheran Church - Missour Synod are not “hired” by the congregation, they are technically self-employed. The temptation today is to run to psychology, personality, and temperament testing to determine where a man’s personality is suitable for the ministry.

People leave one congregation for another for a multitude of reasons. Some of those reasons are legitimate, but most are the result of an unchristian spirit. In a day when people have been conditioned to think in a postmodern anti-Christian fashion, many congregations have fallen prey to a moderating generic Protestanism. Authentic Lutheranism is in direct opposition to how people think things ought to be. So when an authentic Lutheran Pastor shows up in one of these confused and wayward congregations and begins to correct and strengthen the theological practice of the congregation (e.g., reestablishing the practice of closed communion, liturgy, sacramental piety), those who have bought into the philosophies of our day (Col 2:8) are offended and wage war against God’s servant.

If you belong to a congregation that is smaller today than it was just a few years ago because of a fight to regain or maintain a truly Lutheran/biblical identity, then it is better to be smaller and more faithful, than larger and less faithful. Continue to hold up the hands of the faithful Pastor God has given you. But even if that is is the case, there is still much that needs to be done. The Gospel is still to be preached throughout the world, starting within your own community. Works of love and service of neighbor are still to be carried on, regardless of the size or weariness of the battle stricken congregation. Our two outreach programs, the Helping Hands Thrift Store and our Food Bank are wonderful examples of love and service to this community and beyond.

In addition to leaving over genuine differences over doctrine and practice, people leave because they want more for their families. Sometimes people leave because they want to participate in a greater variety of music and liturgical practice and they believe that the only place such variety is offered is in the “contemporary” or “blended” service. People leave because they want their children to be surrounded by other children in Sunday School and youth groups. Sometimes people leave the small church because it does not provide the kind of services they believe are essential to keeping a family active in the church.

In matters of salvation only one thing is needful, the Word and Sacrament ministry of Jesus Christ. Yet, at the same time the New Testament and early churches were very conserned about providing for the members’ physical and social needs. Our Lord is concerned for us in body and soul. The fed the poor. They gathered together daily in one another’s homes. The took over the religious and educational training of the young. The New Testament and early churches were known by friend and foe alike for the kindness and help they showed the widow, the poor, the orphan, and the sick. (Acts 2)

Congregations often develop patterns and have a life cycle. They begin as missions. The struggle for their very existance in the early years. Yet, those early years are often marked by a busy and hardworking community of believers. In due time the congregation hits its apex (in terms of membership) and from that point it begins to decline (in terms of membership). Year after year passes and the inactive membership list grows. Eventually, transfers-out exceed baptisms, professions of faith, and transfers-in.

All too many congregations have retreated into a kind of monastic existance. They have withdrawn from the community and live apart from it. The seem to delight more in the amount of money they saved than they do in the number of souls God has saved through them. Is it not true that this congregation, like all Christian congregations, have been called together as a congregation to save souls, not money? If a small confessional congregation is going to change the pattern of declining attendance to increasing attendance, one of the things that it needs to do (humanely speaking) is to become active and involved in its community. This is a matter of repentance and faith.

And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47)

In Christ,

Rev. Robert Lydick

i