Posted on 01/26/2008 3:42:36 AM PST by Zender500
You only have a few more hours to call Jen Nagel Jen. After her ordination at 2 p.m. today, you have to start calling her the Rev. Nagel -- unless you're a member of the national board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), in which case you probably don't want to call her at all.
Nagel is being ordained despite being committed to a same-sex relationship. The national ELCA doesn't approve of the ordination of gay ministers. But an exemption in the bylaws was passed at the national convention in August allowing local synods to not object to such ordinations, which is what is happening -- or not happening, depending on how you interpret all of this -- with Nagel.
"I still won't be listed on the national ELCA roster" of ministers, she said. "Officially, I will not be accepted as a pastor by the ELCA, but the people of the local ELCA are accepting me."
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
will soon ceaae to be a church
will soon ceaae to be a church reckon that was the idea, all along
They have had 11,000 people at services last week. When it gets that big, it’s a business. Christ drove the money lenders out of the temple. Same deal.
Birds of an apostate feather do tend to flock together.
Jesus: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
“They have had 11,000 people at services last week. When it gets that big, it’s a business. Christ drove the money lenders out of the temple. Same deal.”
All churches have to be run as a business. They all have bills and they all have “income”. Just because a church is big does not mean its fallen away from God. Likewise, just because a church is small doesn’t mean its following God.
The big churches typically have a very charismatic pastor and a leadership team that understands meeting peoples needs will grow a church.
None of my comments should be construed as supporting this specific farce.
There is a reason many denominations are falling apart while others are growing every single year.
Thanks for the post. THIS will generate a little discussion around our church.
It's a "sanctuary" only to those who aren't abashed to "deal craftily or to adulterate or handle dishonestly the Word of God." [2 Cor. 4:2]
As well it probably should.
Every time I see a new leap into apostasy by the ELCA, I'm reminded of Martin Luther's words:
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."
There certainly is. Congregants who are given stones when they're looking for Biblical bread have a way of not sticking around.
Continuing a 14-year slide, membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America dropped in 2005 to just over 4.85 million baptized members, according to a church news release.
The ELCA’s baptized membership declined by 79,663 in 2005, or 1.62 percent, the largest such drop in at least 15 years, according to a report issued Aug. 1 by the Rev. Lowell Almen, the church’s secretary.
Since 1990, the number of baptized members in the ELCA has declined by about 390,000, the report said. The last time the church reported an increase in baptized members was 1991, according to the church news release.
The church also lost about 48,000 “communing and contributing” members — a category that indicates regular active participation in the church — falling to approximately 2.26 million in 2005.
Liberalism is destroying the great Protestant churches.
” There certainly is. Congregants who are given stones when they’re looking for Biblical bread have a way of not sticking around.”
Its really sad to see these great institutions go down in flames. It would be even sadder to see them grow as they walk away from God.
It’s become a business for sure.My position on joining a church is simple;if I can’t remember the names of at least 80 percent of the members then it’s too big.
Maybe you don’t have much of a memory.
Nothing wrong with my memory.A church with about 300 members works best for me.
“A church with about 300 members works best for me.”
Thats whats great about America, we all have the choice of the church we wish to attend.
In my experience churches of that size don’t offer the services I want for my kids. Finding a church that your kids will drag you to is a great thing.
Lutheran ping
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