I think this is just another aspect of how Lutherans can really come to the forefront here by presenting a Law/Gospel message to the lost to make up for the Law based Gospel messages and No law all Gospel messages that are now reaching the lost unsuccessfully. This stuff is important, and we have to learn how to adapt to it before it passes us by, and with that Lutheranism passes us by.
Consider these statistics from Concordia Irvine's Center for U.S. Missions
One LCMS Church closes per week
Just 900,000 out of 2.6 million LCMS members attend church each week
The LCMS is 98% Anglos, and by 2040, Anglos will be a minority in the U.S.
LCMS is shrinking 3.5% per year, and that is 20% when compared with overall population growth.
This is a huge problem. Now I know the church "is not about the numbers" but the message. Does that mean we sit back and watch our beloved synod disappear into the night? Does that mean we do nothing to go out into the world to bring the lost into the church? No, and I don't buy the administer the sacraments is all we need to do philosophy. We need people to administer the sacraments to, and the people in large part are leaving and are not here.
We have to go to them, without sacrificing Lutheran identity.
2 comments:
52 churches close each year. These are probably small country churches and are nothing to worry about - people are moving into town instead of staying on the farm - if a large city church in, say, New York City were to close that would be cause for concern.
It would appear that the lcms is carrying a lot of 'dead wood' so to speak - each congregation in the lcms should probably to a membership clean out. If a member has not come in the last 104 weeks remove the member from the list. The lcms is being used as a hatch, match and dispatch place. Get the kid baptized; Get the kid married in a 'nice church that will look good in the photos; Granddad was baptized and married in this church so let's bury him here.
I would say that after the cleaning of the 'dead wood' the membership of the lcms would probably be more reflective of the number that actually participate on a regular basis by coming each week.
It would appear from this info that the lcms is probably asset rich and money poor. This leads to a tendency to 'rob peter to pay paul' which means at any given moment the lcms has a serious cash flow problem.
The statistic about the Anglos is not related to the lcms in anyway other then to indicate that the people in the congregations will be of mixed ethnic background in 2040.
Before one can go out and bring the lost in, one has to figure out why the found are leaving at the rate of 3.5% per year. Because if the sacraments are not keeping them in, then, yes, the lcms will disappear. However, the CHURCH will remain until Christ comes again.
I have good faith in the statistics provided, but I don't think yours are necessarily wrong either. No doubt to what you say, but my point is to not do anything about it would be the real problem.
Amen to the church will remain.
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