Post by Daniel on Oct 21, 2017 9:26:13 GMT -5
Lutheran Church Decides That the Best Way to Retain Members Is to Stop Preaching the Gospel
By John Ellis October 17, 2017
The Evangelical Luther Church of American was founded in 1988 with 5,288,230 members. By 2016, less than twenty years later, the ELCA had shrunk to 3,563,842 members. With that kind of "growth," the ELCA has less than forty years before the final member throws her hands up and quits. Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, N.C., believes that they've found the answer to stopping the mass exodus of tithing members. They've stopped preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and have embraced progressive theology and social justice.
Writing for Religion News Service, Yonat Shimron tells the story of Christ the King Lutheran Church:
[The ELCA's] successful churches, such as Christ the King, located in a bedroom community of Raleigh, are pushing forward with a new vision, one that has less to do with upholding the purity of Luther’s theology and more with the spirit of Luther’s reform agenda.
That spirit of reform is evident in the casual clothes sans-collar Pugh wears for Bible study, in his embrace of technology and audio-visual enhancements — the Bible study is posted to the church’s YouTube channel — and in his theological exploration that brings recent academic scholarship into the pews and challenges members’ understanding of their faith.
Christ the King Lutheran Church wants to move beyond the hidebound traditions of American Protestantism, take risks, attract younger people and make Christianity more relevant to the 21st century.
They definitely moved past the "hidebound traditions of American Protestantism."
In a sermon series about Genesis posted on YouTube, Christ the King Lutheran Church gives evidence to how far removed from orthodox Christianity they now are.
more
pjmedia.com/faith/lutheran-church-decides-best-way-retain-members-stop-preaching-gospel/
By John Ellis October 17, 2017
The Evangelical Luther Church of American was founded in 1988 with 5,288,230 members. By 2016, less than twenty years later, the ELCA had shrunk to 3,563,842 members. With that kind of "growth," the ELCA has less than forty years before the final member throws her hands up and quits. Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, N.C., believes that they've found the answer to stopping the mass exodus of tithing members. They've stopped preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and have embraced progressive theology and social justice.
Writing for Religion News Service, Yonat Shimron tells the story of Christ the King Lutheran Church:
[The ELCA's] successful churches, such as Christ the King, located in a bedroom community of Raleigh, are pushing forward with a new vision, one that has less to do with upholding the purity of Luther’s theology and more with the spirit of Luther’s reform agenda.
That spirit of reform is evident in the casual clothes sans-collar Pugh wears for Bible study, in his embrace of technology and audio-visual enhancements — the Bible study is posted to the church’s YouTube channel — and in his theological exploration that brings recent academic scholarship into the pews and challenges members’ understanding of their faith.
Christ the King Lutheran Church wants to move beyond the hidebound traditions of American Protestantism, take risks, attract younger people and make Christianity more relevant to the 21st century.
They definitely moved past the "hidebound traditions of American Protestantism."
In a sermon series about Genesis posted on YouTube, Christ the King Lutheran Church gives evidence to how far removed from orthodox Christianity they now are.
more
pjmedia.com/faith/lutheran-church-decides-best-way-retain-members-stop-preaching-gospel/
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