Lutherans and Evangelism: Have We Lost our Voice?
A thought-provoking article by Pastor Peters, for your consideration and reflection.
On another on-line forum is the question “Why Lutherans Can’t Evangelize.” It is a striking question born of a time when Lutherans have borrowed the evangelism methods of others and found themselves without a voice of their own to speak the Gospel to their neighbor. I cannot always have been true because there was a point in the 1950s when Lutherans were growing at astounding rates. TIME magazine noted this in April of 1958 with the prediction that if things continue everyone in America will be Lutheran by 2000. We know how that turned out. Perhaps TIME jinxed our forward momentum since the last year we saw substantial growth in the LCMS was 1963.
I think we lost our voice. The boats stopped coming from Europe, America changed and suburbia brought with it additional cultural changes, our own shift from a largely rural to mostly urban and suburban church body made us turn inward to figure out what this meant for us, and we found ourselves without a voice to speak to those around us.
So we did what Lutherans are wont to do. We went shopping in the religious marketplace. We looked at the denominations that were growing (Southern Baptist) and began shaping our approach in their terminology and from their perspective. But it was a little like those who speak another language from a phrase book. It was not our native tongue.
Then came Evangelism Explosion and D. James Kennedy. We Lutheranized it into Dialog Evangelism (ala BZ) and suddenly there were people showing up on the front porches of America asking “What would happen to you if you died tonight?” Again, with all our tweaking, it was a foreign language to us and the decision theology part of it all left a taste in our mouth that diluted our enthusiasm.
In the end what this did is transfer the responsibility to an Evangelism Committee. Remember that before this Luthern congregational structures did not even have an evangelism group or committee or deacon. Don Abdon came along to help us with this restructuring need and with a list of those who were “evangelists” and we decided that evangelism was best done by those with its gift. All of this distanced the average Lutheran Christian from the task and purpose of sharing the faith.
Advance a few years and we were shopping at Willow Creek or Saddle Creek or CCM radio stations in the hopes that if we looked different and sounded different people would be attracted to us. Never mind the fact that our sanctuaries were architecturally unsuited for this style and our heart was not fully convinced (hence the traditional services that kept us Lutheran in identity at least at 7 am on Sunday morning).
Our mission execs began shopping for those churches that were growing and they shifted our paradigms and made us more missional and insisted that everything we were or did had to be negotiable if we were really to grow. Their hearts were in the right place — they daily faced statistics that most people in the pew choose to ignore… but the result has been a great division between those congregations that are LINO (Lutheran in name only), those who have abandoned even the name but exist within the denomination, AND those who turn to page 151 on LSB on Sunday morning and the worship wars past and pressent.
Now our Lutheran evangelistic zeal is part of the angst of who we are and what we are. If we did bring people to worship, would they feel at home? Would they like it? Would they find us friendly? Would they come back? Can we do this? Will it (giving up who we are) be worth it all in the end? Instead we should have been thinking Isaiah 55 — My Word will not return to me empty handed… Instead we should have been confident that where the Word and Sacraments are and the baptized people gathered around them and their Pastor, there is the Church with the fullness of the Spirit who IS the one who grows the Church.
Our parish grows because the people invite people to come with them. Our outreach is through the people in the pew who daily witness and share their faith and not through an evangelism committee. People hear about our work in the community or find out about us through our highly regarded preschool or come to one of our Music at Grace concerts or are brought by those who have confidence in the Word and Sacraments, the means of grace. We do try to be deliberately welcoming, we have a welcome desk at the door and people stationed to identify and welcome visitors. We have signs and lots of parking. We have a well maintained building. But we sing the liturgy on Sunday morning and use the full resources of the hymnal for the Divine Service. We have good teaching for all ages and good Biblical preaching that keeps the Law and Gospel distinct but together. We do everything wrong in this regard and next week we will receive nearly 40 new members (through baptism, instruction, adult confirmation, affirmation of faith, and transfer). What happens on Sunday morning and who we are during the week is the same. The result is that people know who they are in the pews and feel confident about bringing people with them, sharing the faith with their neighbors and co-workers, and they know what people will experience on Sunday morning. Even kids do this.
We must know who we are before we know our voice in evangelism and outreach. It must be authentic and real, positive and genuine… Identity is what helps us welcome… confidence in that identity gives us confidence to invite and welcome… it really does work.
The LC-MS has borrowed from the Evangelicals/Fundamentalist at least since we became an English speaking church body. Back in the 40-60′s the program/”movement” of “Each one Win one” techniques were straight out of Evangelicals playbook.
Before that all you have to do is look at Fritz’s “Pastoral Theology” to see what we were doing as Lutherans to reach the lost.
The article “Why Lutherans Can’t Evangelize” describes to a tee our congregation as it pertains to those who bought into the Don Abdon concepts. The ones who have accepted Abdon’s method of structure now are the ones who seem to have no ability to speak about the chief articles of the faith let allow rely upon these as the actual items they can use to tell others and invite others to learn more about Christ. Thanks for the article Pastor Peters!
@Guillaume
I am curious because I don’t know the complete history: What was it that they did? I thought it was simply to grow by having babies—this is what I was told by “cradle Lutherans.” I’m guessing such is incorrect, but would like to know for certain. Thank you.
An excellent, well-considered article. Thank you!
Needs to be read in series with the previous post, “The New Pietism Will Lead to the Same Old Results”. Ditches are on both sides of the road!
RE: “where the Word and Sacraments are and the baptized people gathered around them and their Pastor, there is the Church”
Perhaps someone on the forum can shed some light: What does “gathered around [...] their Pastor” mean?
It means what it says. It seems pretty clear to me.
So we did what Lutherans are wont to do. We went shopping in the religious marketplace. We looked at the denominations that were growing (Southern Baptist) and began shaping our approach in their terminology and from their perspective. But it was a little like those who speak another language from a phrase book. It was not our native tongue.
I disagree. While I cannot speak for LCMC, in the ELCA (my former denomination) the contempt for Southern Baptist theology and evangelism style was palpable among those in the ELCA’s leadership. I find it hard to believe they would adopt evangelism styles from those they clearly detest.
I live in Texas – Southern Baptist country, if such a thing ever existed – and the difference between evangelism by Lutherans and Sothern Baptists is stark. Put simply – Lutherans often don’t evangelize. In fact, an alarming number of Lutherans view evangelism with a degree of scorn and skepticism. The sort of activity Sothern Baptists engage in, since their churches are supposed to be hip-deep in Elmer Gantry wannabes.
@Randy
The pastor and sometimes other laymen would canvass the community, establish relationships and convince the people to come to church to receive God’s gifts.
There were some other efforts to convince laymen to share the gospel with people they live, work and play with and bring them to church.
@Guillaume
Thank you. Sounds very much like what we called “lifestyle evangelism” in the 80′s (Pippert’s out of the Salt Shaker approach.)
I would like to see Lutherans more willing to share their faith. At my secular job, I know who is Baptist, Nazarene, AofG, or even Wesleyan, but I’m often shocked to learn that someone is Lutheran. Usually, by their language patterns I think they’re either Roman Catholic or non-Christian. The least they could do is put a Luther’s Rose paperweight on their desk. I have to concur with the person who said Lutherans don’t talk much about Christ with others. In my experience (including the many years in Christian Retailing), Lutherans tend to keep God and church “in the closet.” I’ve often wondered why the people with the best theology in the world don’t seem to share it very much with those “outside.”
Does this mean I think we should all start handing out “Four Spiritual Laws” tracts? No. But I wish Lutherans were more outgoing in sharing Christ—-although, having said that, many of the folk at our church who are immigrants from Africa are VERY bold about sharing Jesus…it’s those who were born here that are more timid to share.
FWIW.
Randy
Interesting thought. “I’ve often wondered why the people with the best theology in the world don’t seem to share it very much with those “outside.” ” If the Lutheran theology comes down to universal salvation through the sacraments, why is it so unimportant to Lutherans to extend the apprehension of that salvation to the “unsaved”? My experience has been that Lutheran pastors of any sort are relatively unwilling to try to explain tenets of their faith to the non-Lutheran, expecting that the non-Lutheran just won’t get it. This is the worst sort of patronizing attitude toward the rest of the Body of Christ. It makes it look like if you’re not of my denomination, then you’re not really Christian – which is the opposite of universal salvation isn’t it? I don’t understand why Lutherans would spend time arguing the finer points of their own faith with their own people. It leads me to believe that most Lutherans are more concerned about being the most theologically and liturgically accurate Lutheran they can be, rather than being Christian in a confessionally and assertively Lutheran manner. I think Lutherans don’t talk about Christ because they are afraid someone will think they are fundamentalist – God forbid, I guess. Yet fine points of theology and liturgy take center stage so that we wind up discussing THINGS AROUND Christ, not Christ himself. I feel in my own congregation there is a contempt for actual evangelism among the rostered and the die hard laity, because it attaches itself easily to the argument that one does not focus on “numbers” to conduct the work of the Church. Well, numbers are dwindling, and unless people (including Lutherans) get educated, the significance of liturgical worship will become irrelevant to more and more people in this country. If we believe what God has given us is most certainly true in our worship and theology, then others need to be invited to the coffee talk. Especially those that make us the most uncomfortable.
Michele, Lutheranism (in it’s pure, doctrinal, confessional teaching) doesn’t teach universal salvation through the sacraments. Faith alone saves. Faith is nurtured and given through the sacraments but it is FAITH that saves.
Actually, it is Christ who saves, by grace, through faith.
Here is a late night musing – a thesis statment that is unrefined, but that I thought I would offer for discussion:
“The truly Lutheran method of evangelism is instrinsically tied to the correct understanding of the doctrine of Christian vocation.”
Read the Small Catechism – including the table of duties – with my unpolished thesis in mind. Luther does not speak about evangelism as we would, but he speaks volumes on the Christian life and vocation. Throughout the Small catechism we see that the Christians life and vocation is a life of evangelism by simply thanking God, serving and obeying him, and by fulfilling his duties as father, husband, wife, master, servant etc. . . To this I would add: always being ready to give an answer for the hope you have,in gentleness and respect. (Which I believe is stiall part and parcel with a correct understanding of Christian Vocation) A correct understanding of Christian Vocation and all it entails is Lutheran Evangelism. What do you think about my unpolished thesis?