So, Whats wrong with the WELS Church?

[C.F.W. Walther]

Our problem at our very small rural church is the opinion of the pastor on outreach. He just tells us to pray. Praying is powerfull but it hasn't seemed to get people into church. I am against the church growth movement but I also see the need to meet budget and we do but we have to borrow from other funds each quarter. Pastor doesn't seemd concerned but I mentioned to him that if wants to get paid he needs more contributions. Our "weakly" attendance is between 20-35 members. Holidays are more.

I don't know how long this can last. Nobody seems concerned that he doesn't fullfill his "call" that he signed. ie: visiting and giving communion at nursing homes, visiting the sick and dying, contacting visitors and talking to them, talking to members that have fallen away or just don't come only on holidays, evangelising, etc.

 

[ctay]

Jim I hadn't been there long, right now they are trying to come up with something. I like the smallness though. I noticed today they had something out like comment cards for visitors to fill out I think that's what they were to get an idea where to go.. Right now if they do anything they put in the town's small once a week newspaper that only reaches so many people. I think they need to do something in this other newspaper that comes out daily that reaches a bunch of people to let people know the church is out there. The church has been there for 6 yrs, the first yr or two just people meeting for bible study then went to a church from that and I didn't even know the church was there until this year when someone told me about it. I wish the women's group was going for fellowship and bible study. Some people that come may want to join a choir, this church don't have one or maybe a handbell choir they don't have. I like the church, I felt the love and felt welcomed the first day I went and I felt I could go to the pastor and talk to him if I had a problem. A couple of weeks ago they set up a booth at this thing called Depot days, had things there to give that told about the Lutheran church and a pamplet on our church, where it was at and the services and handed those out and talked to people, can't say it worked. They are having a community picnic this coming saturday in a housing project for the people in the housing project, don't know how that is going to turn out...

 

[Jim47]

Our problem at our very small rural church is the opinion of the pastor on outreach. He just tells us to pray. Praying is powerfull but it hasn't seemed to get people into church. I am against the church growth movement but I also see the need to meet budget and we do but we have to borrow from other funds each quarter. Pastor doesn't seemd concerned but I mentioned to him that if wants to get paid he needs more contributions. Our "weakly" attendance is between 20-35 members. Holidays are more.

I don't know how long this can last. Nobody seems concerned that he doesn't fullfill his "call" that he signed. ie: visiting and giving communion at nursing homes, visiting the sick and dying, contacting visitors and talking to them, talking to members that have fallen away or just don't come only on holidays, evangelising, etc.

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry to hear that your Pastor is not interested in evangelism, or some of his other called duties. Assuming you have a church council, have you discussed this with him? If so, and got no where, may I suggest talking to your district Pastor? Maybe even work up a Bible study showing him his duties. There are some very good passages concerning this, but my head is not cooperating with me right now or I would look them up for you, but I know Paul covered this quite well.

 

[Jim47]

Jim I hadn't been there long, right now they are trying to come up with something. I like the smallness though. I noticed today they had something out like comment cards for visitors to fill out I think that's what they were to get an idea where to go.. Right now if they do anything they put in the town's small once a week newspaper that only reaches so many people. I think they need to do something in this other newspaper that comes out daily that reaches a bunch of people to let people know the church is out there. The church has been there for 6 yrs, the first yr or two just people meeting for bible study then went to a church from that and I didn't even know the church was there until this year when someone told me about it. I wish the women's group was going for fellowship and bible study. Some people that come may want to join a choir, this church don't have one or maybe a handbell choir they don't have. I like the church, I felt the love and felt welcomed the first day I went and I felt I could go to the pastor and talk to him if I had a problem. A couple of weeks ago they set up a booth at this thing called Depot days, had things there to give that told about the Lutheran church and a pamplet on our church, where it was at and the services and handed those out and talked to people, can't say it worked. They are having a community picnic this coming saturday in a housing project for the people in the housing project, don't know how that is going to turn out...

Hi CTAY


Thanks for your reply. We have those comment cards also and a log for visitors to sign, giving their name address etc. Any unchurched visitors are followed up on by the Pastor or the elders. We are also puttng together what we call a new member packet and something for visitors. Like you we also do some newspaper ads for vacation bible school, Easter and Christmas, but what we have found most sucessful is personal invitations from our members.

I forgot to mention something else we do that has been a huge sucess for evangelism. Many years ago, we along with 3 other WELS churchs paid to have our Synod's "Message from The Master" aired on a local radio station every Sunday morning at normal church time. This progam was supported by all the participating churches and by many mail in contributions from listeners. Some of the listeners are elderly shutins who can not get to services at church, but many are from people who just tune us in and listen to us very faithfully every Sunday.

About 2 years ago we decided to ask the other churches if they would like to participate in recording sermons from our own churches and helping to pay for the air time at the radio station in place of "The message from The Master". After some monthes of planning we put a program all together and built a recording studio in our parish house/office building. Luckily for us our Pastor is quite gifted in the electronics required and for about a year now we have been airing our own sermons and those of the other local churches. The Pastors all take turns in presenting a sermon. It works out real well and our listeners have also shown approval by comments and by support.

Something like this isn't put together over night, but can work very well with cooperation of other local churches.

I mentioned before that our church has been canvassing a local neighborhood about 8 miles away. I spent yesterday morning and this afternoon making followup visits to those who had earlier expressed interest, but as of yet this hasn't been sucessful. I'm going to recommend to our Pastor and church council that we begin a canvass in a different neighborhood, and pray that The Lord grant us success.

 

[C.F.W. Walther]

I called a special meeting a couple of months ago with some concerned members and at first we aggreeded to hash it out to some conclusion. The next step would have been to present it to the elders but it didn't get that far. Besides that I don't think the elders have the capacity to handle it anyway. Fill-ins for the ones that left abruptly because they didn't get what they wanted. After about an hour and a half (that's long for any Lutheran meeting ) everyone backed off and decided to take on the responsibilities themselves. Since then no one has accomplished anything, even myself because I'm frustrated with the inactivity. The only thing that has happened since then is that the pastor has a new bible class on a weeknights. More like a sermon than anything else. We have to interupt to make any comments.

This is as far as it has gotten. No use going any farther without any support from the congregation. If the members don't care then what's the use.

 

[ctay]

Our church did have a womens group but they had stopped meeting before I started coming to this church.
Your right about you can't do anything unless you get support from the congregation. The church I belonged to before, its a pretty good sized church around 300 average weekly attendance, not many would get involved. I think its doing a little better now. I remember way back when, I went to a youth meeting and only 2 of us showed up for it, I think more are involved now. It seems like the choir is down in size than what it used to be.

 

[ctay]

Here are some pics I took at Depot days and some of the church booth.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~taylorb/depotdays.html

 

[C.F.W. Walther]

From What I have read so far I don't see hardly any differance between LCMS confessional Lutherans and WELS. Might be something to look into if LCMS keeps going in the liberal direction they seem to be heading.

 

[ctay]

What do you mean by Liberal? My husband thought the church I'm going to is real Liberal or the pastor is anyway..... Hubby was brought up in a baptist church, I'm having trouble getting him to go to church...

 

[C.F.W. Walther]

This is the thread that I posted mentioning some liberal leanings happening in LCMS. This might help your hubby to see some of our issues.

http://www.christianforums.com/t2122660

 

[SPALATIN]

This is the thread that I posted mentioning some liberal leanings happening in LCMS. This might help your hubby to see some of our issues.

http://www.christianforums.com/t2122660

I read over on Lutherquest that RIM is being dissolved at end of year. Could be they are merging to JF or DS.

 

[ctay]

Hubby's went with me a few times to this lutheran church I was a member of before and a couple of times to the one I'm going now.. There's a little difference between the two. Both LCMS. The one I'm going to now, people are more apt to come up and talk to you, welcome new people. Hubby said the pastor of the church I'm going to now is easy to talk to. The other church, its like you show up, not much hi how you doing outside the church before or after the service. The old pastor there would at least say hi how are you doing. He went with me one sunday to the one I'm going to now. The pastor right before he says the prayer for members that are sick or anything, he'll ask if there's anyone that needs to be put on it, when that was finished, someone in the congregation got up and asked if everyone would hold hands during the prayer since there were so many on the prayer list. I couldn't see that happening at the other church. This church don't care what you look like, what you wear, etc. The other one if you look out of place, you might get stared at the whole service. This pastor though at the one I'm going to now will chant the liturgy every once in awhile during the service. They had said something maybe throwing in some newer more contemporary hymns in with the older ones every once in awhile