If you recognize that the LCMS is dysfunctional, you have 3 options.
The first is to stay and be angry.
Such people know things are bad, and they are continually hit with new things, usually worse than before. So they become angry. And there's this bitter, nasty edge that coats their ecclesiastical dealings with anger.
The second option is, bluntly, to become a poodle. A poodle knows things are wretched, but remains, begging for treats from those now running the LCMS. And they are occasionally rewarded. What's sad is that such people usually become apologists for the errors, nastiness, and corrupt individuals who are in LCMS offices.
Either of these options stains our souls.
The final option is to leave. I'm not sure why this is considered so complicated. The LCMS is not the church. As I've said before, it's the ecclesiastical equivalent of resigning from the Rotary Club. Leaving doesn't mean you have to be gone in 2 days. But it does mean saying, "I'm on my way out, and I'm actively working toward that."
When I was in college, I had friends who were Methodists, who were concerned about the direction of the United Methodists. They were active in the "Good News" movement, which sought to reclaim what they saw as a more historic Methodist heritage.
But all of this was with the realization that they would work within the UMC and now -- some 30 years later -- nothing has changed in the UMC. Rather, things are far worse.
And these people have stayed.
And they have been taught error.
So have their children.
And grandchildren. Not to mention others who have remained in the UMC because of these folks' example.
The same scenario is happening in the LCMS.
There is no limit to what will be done if people realize you won't, under any circumstances, leave.
Which of the 3 options will we take?
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4. Stay and fight to improve?
Our seminaries are still turning out faithful shepherds. The leadership has made errors that are significant enough to turn the heads of moderates.
I don't judge who have already left, and I don't have loyalty to the LCMS brand, especially the new one that has come due to the sullying of the synodical leadership. But the arguments of the enthusiasts can be refuted, for example, the SMPP depending on a pastoral shortage when 31 pastors didn't receive calls. The killing of a radio show looks like censorship. Missionaries are at an all time low, while loans of $5 million are being made available for explanations of what Ablaze! is about. These are the common sense items that can knock sense into the apathetic moderate.
Hey Jim, where ya gonna go? Which group of Christians has public confession more faithful to the Word of God than the LCMS?
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