Lutheran Church Decides That the Best Way to Retain Members Is to Stop Preaching the Gospel

The Evangelical Lutheran 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.

In the video, the pastor tells the crowd, "When we're looking at Genesis, we're not looking at our sacred texts. We're looking at somebody else's." According to Daniel Pugh, the church's associate pastor, Genesis and the entire Old Testament belong to Judaism and not to Christians.

While it's true that Judaism counts the Torah as their sacred text, Christians also count the Old Testament as part and parcel of our sacred text. Second Timothy 3:16 says that "All Scripture is breathed out by God." That "all" includes the Old Testament.

Not content with simply attacking the Christian doctrine of the Bible, Pastor Pugh brings up Martin Luther's famous Latin phrase, "Simul Iustus et Peccator.” A rough translation is, "I am a saint and a sinner." Pugh rightfully recognizes that Luther's basis for that belief is found in the first three chapters of Genesis. He then dismisses Luther (and Protestantism) and says, "Today, we're going to look at Genesis 1-3, this thing we've been calling 'the Fall' for a long time, and I'm going to show how our Jewish friends read their sacred text."

He then goes on to throw orthodox Christian theology under the bus by claiming that we shouldn't want our theology to be medieval. The audience laughed as he encouraged them to let go of Lutheran theology and embrace a better story. Deconstructing Genesis, he proceeded to take his progressive hammer to the first book of the Bible. At the end, the listener is left with the foundation of the Christian faith shattered. A charlatan has reformed God and the Bible into his own image, and humans no longer need to repent and turn from their sins.

While Christ the King Lutheran Church may be one of the few shining spots in the ELCA in terms of members, history tells us that their success won't last long. Study after study reveals that when a church turns to liberal theology it's the beginning of the end. Unless Christ the King Lutheran Church repents and turns back to their "first love" of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they too will find themselves irrelevant and unwanted.

This is where we are now..... and we ask God to bless this nation. What a fricken joke!

As MinuteGal and Charles Henrickson posted earlier, the apostolic faith and practice is still found in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. No women pastors, just for starters. Neither abortion, birth control, living in sin, same-sex "marriage" nor unrepentant homosexual practices are supported. The Bible is taught every week not just in sermons, but in Men's and Women's study groups. The LCMS has nurseries, schools, colleges and the Concordia Publishing House. LCMS educates and licenses deacons and teachers.

What the article fails to understand is that Martin Luther was not trying to foment a progressive revolution in the Roman Church; he was trying to strip away centuries of misunderstandings and corruption and return the church to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the original Apostles, who were taught by Jesus Christ. The Reformation happened in spite of his personal intentions.

So the premise in this article that this congregation's overthrow of Biblical truth is in the spirit of Luther is directly opposite of true. It is totally false.

Here is the LCMS Church Locator. Maybe there is one near you. Try us out!

“Secular”people, and former Christians who have left the church, typically spend Sunday morning reading the New York Times and eating a bagel brunch. They might later watch one or more of the Sunday political shows. There are also quite a number of political organizations that they might join.

These people have quite enough of “social justice”, and none of the Gospel. They have no need for a bogus “church” to give them any of these things. Any “church” that takes this approach will die even sooner than expected.

If one is sick and tired of fake news and empty secularism, and wants to experience God for themselves, and to know that He is real and that He loves them, they should check out the nearest Orthodox Christian parish. “Come and see”!!!!

Contrast the mis-leader of that NC congregation with AVerKios, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Wonderworker of Hierapolis in Phrygia, who we Orthodox Commemorated today:

Averkios governed his sparse flock, sorrowing in his heart because of the great number of pagans and idolaters in Hierapolis, and diligently praying to God that He would bring them to the light of truth. During a boisterous idolatrous festival, Averkios became inflamed with God’s zeal and entered the idolatrous temple, smashing all the idols. When the enraged pagans sought to kill him, three young madmen, foaming at the mouth and howling, fell down before this man of God, and he drove the demons from them. This turned the pagans’ anger into amazement at the wonderworker of Christ, and 500 of them immediately desired baptism. Once, holy Averkios journeyed to Rome with a man named Trophimos. Averkios had a wineskin that contained wine, vinegar and oil. When Averkios asked, it would pour forth each liquid unmingled with the other. But when Trophimos tried to steal from the wineskin, it would give him a liquid for which he did not ask. In great old age, Averkios presented himself to his beloved Lord in the second century.

No accomodation with the world there!

Averkios is still remembered. In a century the NC mis-leader will be "memory forgotten."

....the saint [Averkios] went to the surrounding cities and villages, healing the sick and preaching the Kingdom of God. With his preaching he made the rounds of Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, he visited Rome and everywhere he converted multitudes of people to Christ. For many years he guarded the Church against heretics, he confirmed Christians in the Faith, he set the prodigal upon the righteous path, he healed the sick and proclaimed the glory of Christ. Because of his great works, Saint Abercius/Averkios is termed “Equal of the Apostles.”

Saint Abercius/Avverkios returned home to Hieropolis, where he soon rested from his labors. After his death, many miracles took place at his tomb. He wrote his own epitaph, and it was carved on his tombstone, which is now in the Lateran Museum.

Wow!!!!

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