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To: Albion Wilde

Have you shared your thoughts with the district management? Not suggesting any sort of critical or demanding sort of “talk,” just let them know your preference and why you took it. Not that it would change where you left, and that’s not the point.

I’m in lay management at an LCMS church. It is impossible to please everybody, but we do like to hear, and at some level it is important that we hear.


179 posted on 01/31/2022 7:49:01 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Cboldt
Have you shared your thoughts with the district management?

Not sure I could contain my outrage at the gross mismanagement. I left a church with a significant budget deficit and went to one with a budget surplus, for starters. The deficient church had a culture of throwing lunches at which individuals spent money on gifts and meals for one another, rather than having a prayer meeting and contributing gift monies to the church in each other's honor, for instance. When I suggested that for my birthday, I was met with resentment and passive-aggression. The mismanaged church had women in all key positions other than pastor; several had no working knowledge of the Bible, and several of them were seriously "mean girls," including the pastor's wife. Problems were not confronted, but they were gossiped about. That said, the preaching was good to excellent, and sola scriptura; but that was pretty much the extent of the pastor's contribution—little to no shepherding the flock.

The church I migrated to has men galore working in all areas of ministry except the children's classes and the ministries and Bible studies that are specifically for women. There are wonderful adult classes taught only by men, a very vital and involved pastor, and only men teach or serve communion on the altar; although some women have served on the Board, and women head up many outreach ministries and events. The congregation and pastor are warm and welcoming, and the organization and property are very well maintained by member volunteers, with yearly planning meetings open to the entire congregation.

I wouldn't feel right about alerting higher-ups unless there was a gross moral breach. The other church was simply an organizational disaster, with a lack of appropriate discipline. There was an overall lower average level of intelligence, to put it frankly.

219 posted on 01/31/2022 3:12:20 PM PST by Albion Wilde (If science can’t be questioned, it’s not science anymore, it’s propaganda. --Aaron Rodgers)
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