Taking it to the Street

The Texas District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) recently announced an initiative to train 500 evangelist, church planters and missionaries.  It sounds like an ambitious effort but the Rev. Dr. Yohannes Mengsteab who is heading up the effort truly believes it is doable.  What makes this movement unique is that it will equip lay church members to do ministry where they are at.  The goal is that there be one trained evangelist in every congregation or mission station. 

During a time when they number of ordained pastors is declining, this is a step in the right direction.  In 2019 the LCMS had 6,077 ordained pastors serving 5,991 churches.  On paper that looks good but beneath the surface things are not healthy.  Over three hundred of those pastors are specific ministry pastors (SMP) who are serving under the supervision of an administrative pastor.  In addition, other ordained pastors are serving in administrative positions.  The situation is exacerbated by the reality that a good portion of the rostered pastors are over the age of sixty and will soon retire.  The outlook grows even worse when we look at the enrollment at the two LCMS seminaries.  In 2019 only 355 students were enrolled in the Master of Divinity program, which leads to ordination.  That equates to less than one hundred pastors graduating each year.  That will not keep pace with the number of pastors that are retiring. 

There is another reason I am encourage by my district’s new initiative.  It moves ministry outside the walls of a building to the places where people live.  Granted, many of those trained will minister to under-served churches in small towns and rural areas, but others will touch the lives of people within the communities around established urban and suburban worship communities.  This is crucial when you consider that most unchurched Millennials and Gen Z’s will never consider entering the doors of our church.  We need to touch their lives where they are at, a reach and them in their place of need. 

I am a fan of the Doobie Brothers.  One of my favorite hits by them is Taking it to the Streets.  In a sense, this is what the new project is trying to do.  Evangelist are people who take the Good News of Jesus to people where they are at.  They minister to people through mercy and compassion.  I truly believe the future church will look vastly different with fewer people gathering in a building and more people clustering in small groups where they live.  In the world of Millennials and Gen Z’s relationships, not buildings, are the important thing.  Our desire is that one of those relationships should be with their Lord and Savior, Jesus.

 

The Decline of Denominations: Blame it on the Boomers

 

It was during the mid-seventies and I was serving as DCE at a church in suburban Chicago.  It was a Saturday morning and I found myself in the office putting in some preparation for my Sunday morning Bible Class.  I knew there was a wedding at noon that day and I was in somewhat of a rush to get things done before the festivities started.  My teammate at the time was Pastor Bill Huener.  As I worked, I could hear Pastor Bill singing at the top of his lungs in his office.  I wondered why Bill was in such a good mood.  Bill typically was not excited about officiating a wedding.  He liked working with young couples, it was the family drama that irritated him.  Curiosity finally got the best of me so I asked, what was up.  “I have been on staff at this church for four years and this is the first time I have a Lutheran getting married to another Lutheran,” he replied.  I found that hard to believe and then reflected back on the three and half years we had worked together.  He was right. 

I bring this up because today’s young people get a lot of the blame when it comes to the decline in membership of not only the Lutheran Church but mainline denominations in general.  Across the board, mainline denominations from Baptist, to Methodist are losing members.  I am a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS).  Post World War II the LCMS was one of the fastest growing denominations in the country.  We were even featured on the Cover of Time Magazine in 1958.  Membership finally peaked at 2,8 million around 1970.  Today our church body is a little over half that size at 1,5 million.  We are also a “graying church,” with over 70% of the membership over the age of fifty.

The reality is mainline denominations are going away.  It is one of the topics in my soon to be released book Tear Down the Silos and Pitch a Tent.  In the book I survey the changes I see on the horizon for mainline denominations.  As I did my research, I discovered something interesting; we can blame the Baby Boomers, those born after WW II, for starting the decline. 

Prior to the 60’s young people tended to marry a partner who shared the same faith tradition.  In the case of the LCMS, the Walther League was an “in house” dating service.  If you couldn’t find a match in your church, there were almost endless possibilities at the zone rallies and national conventions.  The organization was basically dissolved in 1968, when the LCMS decided to go in a different direction in youth ministry.  It was at the Walther League national convention at Purdue University in 1968 that the Baby Boomers who made up the Walther League voted to disband. 

The generation born post W.W. II has always had a reputation for being rebellious.  Baby Boomers led the “peace movement” that called for an end to the War in Viet Nam.  We were also in the forefront when it came to the call for the end of racial injustice.  We were the first generation to question what our lifestyles were doing the environment.  I think we can add the challenge to the traditional denominational structure to that list.

We need to be mindful that denominations are “man-made” institutions.  The church is actuality are “the people of God.”  Our loyalty should never be toward a particular tradition.  We need to but rather toward the Savior who gave His life for us.  We are called to be His disciples.  That requires us to be people of grace, mercy and compassion in the communities and neighborhoods where we live.