Issues, Etc. Update

Over at Augsburg 1530, Mollie Hemingway gives us a brief write up of the recent Council of Presidents meeting (Council of the District Presidents of the LCMS). If you haven't seen it yet, you will want to.

And in another post we learn that the website IssuesEtc.org was *not* voluntarily taken down by its proprietors, but that they were ordered to take it down. No surprise there, really, but it does squelch some "spin" that has been floating around, I guess.

I have a couple of questions:

What would happen in a congregation if the pastor were so secretive and did not give clear answers to questions, say, from the voters or the Board of Elders?

Also, conventional wisdom (even uttered from those "higher up" in church circles) says that a pastor should never make changes in the congregation suddenly, willy-nilly, or without due preparations and explanations, that is, teaching. So, why this sudden change comprised of canceling Issues, Etc., firing its host and producer, completely without preparations, and now, after the fact, still without much by way of satisfactory explanation?

I guess it's a good thing that folks who do such things are not placed where the real "ministry" of the Church takes place, that is, in the local congregation!