On a sunny Saturday in Valparaiso
Something of note, from a bright, sunny Saturday in Valparaiso…
We got a visit from some wandering Watchtower folks this afternoon. A nice enough lady, and what looked to be her tween-age daughter. Now, I’m not a huge fan of these visits from the non-Christian sects, largely because I really don’t like the adrenaline jolt I get from the confrontation of beliefs. I’ve read the CPH How To Respond books, and read the reports from other Lutheran folks about how they’ve dealt with similar visits. But that pesky adrenaline jolt tends to cloud my mind & tie my tongue.
The Watchtower lady led off with a question about if I thought we might be in the end times, as described in the Bible. I responded by stating that we’ve been in the ‘end times’ ever since Jesus ascended into heaven after dying on the cross for our sins & rising from the dead. This didn’t seem to throw her, as she then moved into some of the Watchtower tract offerings.
I stopped her, having recalled a tactic that others have reported using, and said that I didn’t have time to continue the conversation, but that I’d be glad to schedule a time for another discussion, and that I’d like to have my Pastor there to participate in the discussion. This threw her a bit. She responded by saying that they’d love to come back, but that she didn’t see any reason why my Pastor needed to be there - that they’d prefer to discuss things solely with me, and not bother having someone like a Pastor there who would not be open to their message. And, oh by the way, just why did I think my Pastor needed to be there?
Well, I responded by stating that my Pastor has been charged with my spiritual well being. He is the undershepherd to whom I have been entrusted. Thus, I would not be comfortable engaging in this type of discussion without him there to help the discussion stay productive & beneficial.
At this point, she quickly began disengaging from the sales pitch, asking if I’d be interested in taking any of the Watchtower tracts for further reading. I declined.
What I found most interesting in this whole exchange was the bold, and bald-faced, way in which this friendly, but sadly & horrifically misguided, woman was attempting to steal me away for her non-Christian sect (dare I say, cult), and how she wanted no part of a more open discussion, when such a discussion involved a Christian Pastor. Nope, she wanted the beginnings of a brainwashing process, by which a sheep is taken away by a wolf. Shameless.
I thank God that He protected me, and gave me the words and awareness by which I could fend off Satan’s attack.
-ghp
Issues, Etc. Controversy Hits Mainstream
Now things might start to get really interesting.
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway — LCMS congregation member, former LCMS Board of Communication Services member, and current nationally published writer of news, politics, & religion — has published an article about the whole Issues, Etc. controversy on WSJ.com, the website of the Wall Street Journal.
In the article — Radio Silence — Mollie lays out in devastating fashion just what has transpired over the past week and a half.
And by doing so in a very public way, she could be starting a second wave of controversy - one which might actually hit the Purple Politburo so they’ll take notice, because it’s negative publicity. The outside world might start to ask about all this, and the powers that be aren’t going to look too good when all is said and done.
Here’s a particularly interesting excerpt:
“Despite the show’s popularity, low cost and loyal donor base, Mr. Wilken and Jeff Schwarz, the producer of “Issues, Etc.,” were dismissed without explanation on Tuesday of Holy Week. Within hours, the program’s Web site — which provided access to past episodes and issues of its magazine — had disappeared. Indeed, all evidence that the show ever existed was removed.
So what happened? Initially, the bureaucrats in St. Louis kept a strict silence, claiming that the show had been canceled for “business and programmatic” reasons. Yesterday the synod cited low local ratings in the St. Louis area and the low number of listeners to the live audio stream on the Web site. But the last time the synod tracked the size of the audience was three years ago, and it did not take into account the show’s syndicated or podcast following. The synod also claimed that the show lost $250,000 a year, an assertion that is at odds with those of others familiar with the operating budget of the station.
The Rev. Michael Kumm, who served on three management committees for the station, said that the explanation doesn’t add up. ” ‘Issues, Etc.’ is the most listened to, most popular and generates more income than any other program at the station and perhaps even the others combined. This decision is purely political,” he said.
He may well be right. The program was in all likelihood a pawn in a larger battle for the soul of the Missouri Synod. The church is divided between, on the one hand, traditional Lutherans known for their emphasis on sacraments, liturgical worship and the church’s historic confessions and, on the other, those who have embraced pop-culture Christianity and a market-driven approach to church growth. The divide is well known to all confessional Christian denominations struggling to retain their traditional identity.
The Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, the synod’s current president, has pushed church marketing over the Lutherans’ historic confession of faith by repeatedly telling the laity, “This is not your grandfather’s church.”
Since Mr. Kieschnick narrowly won election in 2001, the church has embarked on a program, called Ablaze!, that has the admirable goal of “reaching 100 million unreached and uncommitted people with the Gospel by 2017,” the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Historically the church kept statistics on baptisms. Now, however, it keeps a tally of what it calls “critical events.” On March 17 a man reported discussing Jesus with his waitress — and the Ablaze! count went up by one.
…
While “Issues, Etc.” never criticized Mr. Kieschnick or his colleagues, its attacks against shallow church marketing included mention of some approaches embraced by the current leadership. It opposed, for instance, the emergent church — an attempt to accommodate postmodern culture by blending philosophies and practices from throughout the church’s history — and the Purpose Driven Church movement, which reorients the church’s message toward self-help and self-improvement.”
Wow. Just… Wow.
Mollie nailed it. Check out the full article and you’ll see.
Thanks, Mollie, for carrying the ball & doing something that needed to be done.
-ghp
Purple Spin
Well, today there’s been a new salvo in the ongoing Issues, Etc. cancellation controversy. Namely a more fully-worded explanation from the Executive Director of the Board for Communication Services, David Strand (aka, the guy who pulled the trigger…)
An Updated Statement on “Issues, Etc.”
A more fully fleshed out response, written by someone with some knowledge of the inner workings of things within the Purple Politburo [props to Rev. Cwirla for that term...] can be found at the Save the LCMS! blog: Obfuscation!
My own take, at least initially, is that the folks who are calling what happened “understandable,” based on the data listed in Mr. Strand’s press release, are correct, but only to a point, and even then somewhat tenuously.
Primarily, the problem with this latest statement is that it takes into account none of the ‘viral’ marketing appeal (and success) of Issues, Etc.. Issues, Etc. didn’t gain its world-wide audience by folks listening to it in real time (either on the radio or on the web). No, Issues, Etc. made its mark via podcasting-enabled time-shifting. Folks around the world would listen to the archived shows. They would download them & listen to them on their computers, Ipods/MP3 players & burn them to CD for distribution to friends & family. I know I did.
Even in light of the ‘hard data’ of ratings books, the decision was based on 3+ year old data and a hunch that nothing significant had
changed in terms of real-time listenership. Funny, but there always seemed to be enough folks listening to call in & help fill the 3 hours
every day…
Anyway, this shows why the communication arm of the Synod is having trouble - they don’t seem to “get” what the new-media landscape is all about.
And this statement is still woefully, and shamefully, inadequate.
Too bad. If they really “got it” then maybe this would’ve been avoided, and Issues, Etc.’s faithful witness would still be ringing forth.
Btw, for what is pretty much the best continuing up-to-date coverage, commentary, & comments on this whole kerfuffle, be sure to subscribe to the Weedon’s Blog feed.
-ghp
Making sense of the nonsensical
The abrupt cancellation of the LCMS radio station KFUO’s flagship program, as well as the firing of its host & producer, last Tuesday was bizarre, inexplicable, troubling, and hurtful. But the lack of explanation re: the reasons & rationale, indeed the appearance of corporate stonewalling & information embargo along with an almost Stalin-esqe purge (even now, the once-again-available archives are looking to be bandwidth-throttled), is what is perhaps the most troubling & difficult to fathom. It’s really hard to put a proper 8th Commandment best construction on such acts.
Chris Rosebrough, a fairly regular guest on Issues, Etc., and a dedicated & effective apologist for orthodox Christianity (and thus, Lutheranism) re: American Evangelicalism & the Emergent Church Movement, has put forth what looks to be a very reasonable & well thought out explanation about what might be (and probably is) behind this whole Issues, Etc. debacle.
Is the LCMS Being “Transitioned” into a Seeker-Sensitive Denomination?
At first glance, this might look to be alarmist — a conspiracy theory even — to the point of not being charitable. However, I would offer this analysis: Such an explanation is not necessarily pejorative, in that this type of “transitional” strategy has been viewed by many as good, right, and proper. I, and many others, would disagree vehemently with that assessment; however, disagreeing with a strategy & set of tactics is not unkind or sinful in and of itself.
It is recognizing something for what it is.
Such recognition is good.
And it certainly helps bring some of the strangeness of the past week (and beyond) in to a little more understandable focus.
-ghp
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