But the truth is that people come and people go. The reasons why are more where the truth motives is to be found. Of course, reasons stated aren't always complete reasons. In our culture people often will join a place because of programs offered, the appearance of the building, youth activites, whether the school covers parochial school tuition for members, family habit, geographic proximity to home, the personality of the pastor, and of course the sort of music they expect at church.
As many have said, Lutherans in North America are strangers in a foreign land and will always be odd balls, at least Lutherans who take the Book of Concord seriously. Historic Lutheranism does not find its idenity in programs, personalites, Power Point, or in becoming chameleons to the culture. Its unity is found in doctrine, particularly in justification by grace through faith, which is not the same thing as evangelism, though they are not unrelated. Lutherans are a creedal-confessional church in liturgy, catechesis, pastoral care, and outreach.
And there come moments in the life of the parish, in the economy of pastors succeeding one another in parishes, especially where there has not been consistence in right doctrine and orthopraxy, where people "vote with their feet," as it were. Now what is a pastor to do? Is there singular answer to this? Not really. Unfortunately many will think that there is, but they haven't thought enough through the issues.
Lost Sheep Moments
Lost sheep stray in foolishness, weakness, curiosity, and looking for pasture on their own. They weren't being particularly hostile or hateful. They get into danger, fall into sin, absent themselves from the flock. Wolves stalk them in order to perhaps eat them or turn them into something other than merely a lost sheep, in order to further harm the flock in some way or another. These often aren't those who take advantage of Bible study and did not mature incredibly in the faith since becoming a communicant. The Good Shepherd goes after the lost sheep by means of the Word and calls them in repentance to return to the LORD their God for He is gracious and merciful. We pray for a hunger and thirst for righteousness and to be guided once again by the rule of faith for the Lost Sheep.
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
John 6 disciples
Think of the crowd that listened to our Lord Jesus' Bread of Life discourse in John 6. By the end they complain of how difficult the teaching of Jesus is and they don't like what it implies. They say it is too much for them and walk with Him no more. That synod is no longer walking together, but scatters in disagreement and confusion over theology and its implied practice. Christ is the stumbling block. You cannot separate Jesus from His Word. His Word has implications, consequences and concrete expressions. Some will say to that Word, "That's impossible." Or others will say, "I don't like that or what it implies." Some will say, "That makes God too close to what I'm trying to protect from Him in my life."
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”[i]
Itching Ears
St. Paul in writing to Pastor Timothy warns of the ongoing end times fact of itching ears in the life of Christian congregations (2 Tim. 4):
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at[a] His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Itching ears. You know what a dog is like when it has itching ears. They want to lean into you and have a friendly person scratch the itch. This is to say for us that members of the church want to hear what they want to be told in the way they want to be told in the context of their choosing as often as they choose, by the person that they choose or form to their own image.
This is exactly where, in some areas especially, you get a lot of "musical churches" going on. And in this scheme it is often confessional Lutheran parishes that lose in numbers and finances. The sugar sap of Rick Warrren/Joel Osteen wannabes entices many away - they had no deep roots in themselves. The siren song of praise bands and blended services gathers a crowd like U2 or the Beatles playing an impromptu concert on a city rooftop. The fleeting high of hand-waving, foot-stomping, and Power Point graphics shines like Las Vegas in the moonlight. And they think they are fed, comforted, and given the truth.
In these end times that we live in (Lutherans are so apt to forget their eschatology), itching ears are the order of the day, every day. Ongoing remedy for as many in the parish as you can get is catechesis, solid Sunday Bible study, good newsletter articles, teaching substance in casual small talk, tracts, etc. But this will not catch everyone. Itching ears will still happen as long as people have an Old Adam and there are those who will entice them, transfer them, refuse to enforce the confessional standard, and while people are so mobile, consumer-oriented in their thinking, and able to take their toys and go home. The confessional Lutheran knows he must be counter-cultural, but that that is not without cost.
Sinful, Weak, Pastors
It is true that Jesus is the only pastor without sin. And most pastors today are nowhere near the holy apostles in character and life, no have they suffered to the same degree. But pastors mess up, forget things, get cranky, get burned out, become depressed, fail in prayer, fail in studies, fail to say no or yes when they should, and don't always even know the right thing to do in some tough cases. This is not even to get to the cases that rise to a different level. I'm talking about run-of-the-mill stuff.
Then there are the misconceptions about particular men serving in the office of the ministry. St. Paul dealt with that plenty in Corinth (see especially 2 Corinthians). "You aren't as polished as those super apostles." "Why can't we do what that other church does over at XYZ?" And we all know as Lutherans that nothing can be written or said so clearly such that it cannot be misunderstood, twisted or misconstrued - or used against you.
Pastors must repent. This is to say they must suffer, die, not to pay for sins, but because their sins are paid for and pastors stink things up, even when people do like what they are doing. Pastors need to be responsible fathers who no when to say "no" out of love and how to preach full blast gospel, justification by grace alone, that is to say, to preach Christ and Him crucified, as even the risen Lord Jesus did on Easter evening. Pastors this is not chiefly the art of bargaining or compromising, but in learning how to be economical, process oriented, and catechetical in one's modus operandi, yet not forgetting the goal and objectives.
It doesn't matter whether the pastor is an extrovert or an introvert, whether he has depression or ADD or just has too much coffee. The pastor knows he much preach and catechize in leading a congregation back to the truth and its practice, and repeat that process over and over. The tough thing is in realizing when the change should be made - because you want as many on board as you can, but rarely will every single individual be on board with a change. And of course there will be complaints all along the way, and sometimes, sadly, people who reveal they didn't understand much of what you said.
But through all of this, especially when tempted to cave, quit, or some other expression of frustration and sadness, do indeed remember the words of St. Paul in 2 Corinthians:
1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
Well, Now What?
Be careful, pastors, as your family suffers this with you. Realize that. Also know that you must(!) give attention your own being (faith, mental health, physical health) as well. Satan would love for you to go to some coping mechanism rather than be helped by the gifts the Lord provides through His means in this world.
But realize that for both the lost sheep as well as the John 6 crowd that leaves, there is no instance where the response is to repackage the message or change it, to serve men rather than God. For we serve the church for the sake of Christ. That's what the vows mean. It is fairly easy for a man to be a confessional Lutheran at the seminary, it is another to be confessional "in the field." Likewise to be pastoral is more than being nice or a backslapper or an extrovert or to be proficient in small talk or rhetorical flourish.
There will always be areas for individual pastors that are tough. Talk to various pastors and they might say it is preaching, or others they say it is funerals, some find weddings hard to handle, others dread misbehaving children in catechism class, some find shut-ins difficult to visit, others struggle with a board of elders. Others still might find study or having to say "no" difficult. Each pastor has his own strengths and weakness, his own struggles, and feels the strain. The devil does not quit against Christians and certainly not against pastors.
Maybe what I've said here is controversial or maybe it isn't. Don't blame the seminary for talking through all of this or more. There's only so much you can cover there. But the solution is not to go running after the Reformed or to get gussied up with "leadership" skills. Suffer and rest. Study and pray. Confess your sins and confess the faith. But know that a pastor must live by grace alone through faith alone and not by what he feels, sees, controls, or does to improve himself in the practical realm. Grace alone - Christ crucified and risen for you too, pastors.
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