Because It Must Be Said: Part Two
Congregations that refuse to abide by the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word, and force a pastor out who is carrying out his ministry faithfully but not according to the whims of the wealthy members in the congregation who want him to marry their fornicating children who refuse to stop living together, who demand he commune their relatives who have long ago abandoned their Lutheran confession, who demand that the pastor stop calling on inactive members because he is irritating them, who insist that the pastor accept as baptismal sponsors people who have no interest in seeing the child raised in the Lutheran faith, who do not want their pastor talking about the differences between church bodies, who never want to hear the Law preached too specifically, who want their pastor to be, more or less, their hired hand, do not deserve another pastor and it is a shame when a church official allows them to receive another one!
Should the seminarians and retired or uncalled pastors also refuse to help out with pulpit supply if the congregation treated their called pastors the way you described above?
Thanks for saying it!
“Should the seminarians and retired or uncalled pastors also refuse to help out with pulpit supply if the congregation treated their called pastors the way you described above?”
In the absence of bishops, who would discipline these congregations for their shabby treatment of their pastor, this is about the only alternative there is. But there will always be someone willing to step in, so the gesture is really rather symbolic and futile.
Often, a bad congregation is not entirely bad, but is being tyrannized by a faithless few or a mislead majority. God always has His faithful ones, and they need to be pastored. We also need to trust the Word never returns void, and that the Lord remains Lord of the Church.
the church official that doesn’t do anything to stop a church from receiving another pastor *after* that church’s run off a faithful pastor (ie “it is a shame when a church official allows them to receive another one”), probably didn’t do anything *while* the faithful pastor was being neglected, abused, and mistreated before he was eventually run off.
Things like this don’t just happen out of the blue or out of the sight of people (church officials) who are supposed to rebuke, correct, and if need be – excommunicate – people and churches that engage in that kind of sinful behavior.