Thanks for responding. I agree that the advent of the Church Growth Movement has been disastrous in the LCMS. Thankfully, there are still some who reject these practices and maintain and promote historical, liturgical Christianity.
I struggle with this in my own church, where a pastor with a 40+ year tenure and an affinity for Billy Graham and Robert Schuller has wasted many years failing to properly catechize his flock. At last check, only one out of six adult Sunday school classes were using Lutheran teaching materials, as opposed to Evangelical Protestant materials.
I have yet to give up hope, though. The one class using Lutheran materials was the college-age class. Our new vicar, soon to be associate pastor, was educated at Ft Wayne, and is very conservative in his theology an praxis. Across the board, it seems that the younger clergy are on the whole more traditional and more Confessional than their predecessors.
As a recent convert to Lutheranism from Evangelical Protestant, I was frankly shocked and disappointed when I discovered how many cradle Lutherans are being enticed away from faithful confession and practice. They have such a treasure in their hands and they are trading it for shallow emotionalism and false doctrine.
