A comment was posted early this morning on my story on Rev. Harrison and small congregations that alerts us to the need to rethink our leadership to match the bold new structure approved yesterday by the synod. Here are the salient points of the comment.
I know of a small congregation in Illinois that needs some help. ABLAZE! wouldn’t help them, because they didn’t want to add a rock’n’roll service.
Yesterday, I heard President Kieschnick tlak about all the new congregations he hopes to start, yet the synod headed by Kieschnick refuses to help a young, small congregation, just because they prefer to receive Word and Sacrament, to use their hymnals in worship, and are not about turning the chancel into a stage and bringing in a drum set and stack of amps… My heart goes out for this congregation, which seeks to reach out to their community, yet don’t (sic) fit the non-Lutheran ABLAZE! Profile. I once supported ABLAZE!… We need a new president. If there is to be room for congregations that prefer ALL contemporary worship, there should be room for a congregation which does not wish to replace the Divine Service with entertainment and shallow, non-denominational lyrics and the avoidance of genuine Confessional Lutheranism. May God help this small congregation, and others like it.