HT to Father Hollywood for alerting us to a woman "pastor" (not LCMS) speaking at an upcoming Texas District (certainly LCMS!) youth gathering. Check it out and pray that the Lord will have mercy and bring all the planners, supporters, and participants (and LCMS bureaucrats, both district-level and synodical, who are bound to defend, support, or otherwise explain this away) to repentance!
Not only does *Ms.* Kari Jobe receive the title "Lead Worshiper" (whatever that means), but she also receives lead billing on the Texas District youth gathering website. Nothing subtle here, but rather "in-your-face," methinks!
What really sounds the blaring theological warning sirens, though, is *Ms.* Jobe's apparent views on Baptism and the Lord's Supper - namely, *not* holding to Baptismal regeneration nor to the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in His Holy Supper - as evidenced in Article 7 of Gateway Church's "Statement of Faith."
With things like this occurring - and seemingly more and more unabashedly - it would appear that the LCMS is well on its way to giving up its reputation as, let alone its claim to being, a solidly confessional Lutheran church body. After all, the bar was set pretty high by one Franz Pieper (and I wonder what he would think and say right now?).
If anyone should prove against us that even one pastor preached false doctrine, or even one periodical stood in the service of false doctrine, and we did not eliminate this false doctrine, we would thereby have ceased to be an orthodox synod and would have become a unionistic fellowship. In short, the mark of an orthodox church body is that throughout that church the true doctrine alone prevails, not only officially and formally but also in actual reality. (Pieper, Franz, “Die Missouri-Synode und das General Council,” Lehre und Wehre, vol. 36, no. 8. (August, 1890), emphasis added)As Pr. Weedon properly reminds us, here's another "opportunity" (my word) to contact district and synodical leaders to register our grave concerns with this un-Biblical practice ("actual reality," as seen on the gathering's website!) in our midst. Yet I also notice that he refers to us "fellow frogs" for whom the water keeps getting warmer and warmer, lulling us into a most relaxed state at critical times such as this.
Well, okay, for the next couple of weeks, I'll go back to relaxing in "vacationland," and I will trust the Lord of the Church to bring all of us to repentance for our many sins, and to fervent faith in Him who is our true Head, even our true "worship leader" both now and into eternity!
9 comments:
I received an email from my Texas District Mission Facilitator (or whatever his title might be). It listed speakers for Glorybound, and did not mention Ms. Jobe. It should be noted that the Glorybound "speakers" page that you linked to features both "Speakers & Worship Leaders." Ms. Jobe is being featured as the "Lead Worshiper" and not as a speaker.
She is not the only one on the program who denies our confession of faith. Fred Lynch is a pastor on the staff of The Oaks Fellowship, an Assemblies of God congregation in Dallas. Denver Moore and Ron Hall have no apparent connection to Lutheran doctrine or practice.
I share your disappointment and apparent disgust (and Pastor Beane's and Weedon's). If I had teenagers they would not be going to this event. But we should be clear on Ms. Jobe's role. She is not there to preach or teach, except through her music and presence.
Dear Eric:
Even if all she did was play a kazoo, it would still be a problem. We are sending a (perhaps not so) subtle message that women's ordination is no big deal - just an "adiaphoron" that we in the LCMS opt not to do.
If, instead, one of the musicians were a Penthouse Playmate, I suspect the folks at the Texas District would not allow her to even play the role of "eye candy."
In playing around with Protestant theology and winking at women's ordination, the Texas District is sending a message.
I know we all want to bend over backwards to err on the side of the eighth commandment, but at some point, we really need to call the golden calf what it is.
Dear Eric,
Are you saying that music does not teach and preach? Au contraire! Luther meant for it to be didactic. If her music doesn't teach and preach, then she's missing the point. Aside from which, her presence IS a problem. She should do whatever she does in her own church, for if she wanted to do it in the LCMS, she would. Since she does not, she should not.
Here at my church I, the pastor, lead the worship. In fact, isn't the popular thought that a pastor only really works on Sunday? What is that referring to if not the leading of the worship?
what bothers me is what Eric points out with his comment about Fred Lynch - would we have noticed this unionism and violation of Augsburg IX if Ms. Jobe had been a male?
http://steadfastlutherans.org/blog/?p=207
Father Hollywood said:
"Even if all she did was play a kazoo, it would still be a problem. We are sending a (perhaps not so) subtle message that women's ordination is no big deal - just an "adiaphoron" that we in the LCMS opt not to do."
Is it the position of confessional Lutherans that women should not be employed as church musicians?
(I'm not defending the Texas debacle, I'm just trying to clarify.)
Anonymous asked: "Is it the position of confessional Lutherans that women should not be employed as church musicians?"
Obviously not.
Remember two things,
1) she is a non-lutheran woman PASTOR,
2) She is still under the impression (despite the hasty word changes by the Texas District) that she is leading the worship service.
She is not being employed as a church musician. The issue is her status a "pastor."
Father Hollywood is right. Her leadership in this event gives the clear impression that the ordination of women is perfectly fine (although we don't choose to practice it --yet).
Ask yourself this: What if it were an openly gay pastor being asked to lead worship for the Texas youth? What impression would it give? That the ordination of homosexuals is just fine (although we don't choose to practice it).
And no, I'm not saying that being gay and being a woman are the same thing.
For the person who deludes himself by thinking that "worship leader" is different and somehow more innocent than "pastor"...where Ms Jobe comes from, it's exactly the same thing. (And it will be, once they put all the gullible back to sleep with semantics.)
The District President has been contacted.
His reply, among other things, was that "we've brought in non Lutheran leaders before."
That's a new version of "WADITW"!
Yes, they've done it before...at NYG and in Texas... and they've told the teenagers to go home and ask for entertainment church.
"Train up a child..." and he'll become a generic protestant.
Helen
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