PAY THE BILL ANSWER THE QUESTION - OPERATE FRUGALLY

LCMS Officials
PAY THE BILL ANSWER THE QUESTION – OPERATE FRUGALLY
Christian News 10/11/10 http://www.christiannewsmo.com/

“A wicked man borrows and doesn’t pay back” Psalm 37:21.
A story on page one reports that The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is being sued by Faith Satellite Radio for not paying a ¾ million dollar bill.

CN has some 80 pages of legal documents filed by both sides in this matter. As soon as CN received the first 60 pages, CN called Ronald P. Schultz, Chief Administrative Officer of the LCMS. CN wanted to publish the LCMS’s defense vs. the lawsuit. At first the LCMS official said he hardly knew anything about any such lawsuit. When CN told Schultz that CN had the legal documents, including an “Affidavit by Ronald P. Schultz,” Schultz asked CN to put CN’s questions in writing. The letter CN then sent Schultz is in this issue. Copies of the letter with CN’s questions were sent to:

Rev. Yohannes Mengsteab, African Immigrant
Lutheran Mission-Society, Inc.
Rev. Matthew Harrison, President, Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod
Mr. Thomas Kuchta, Treasurer, Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod
Dr. Robert Kuhn, Chairman, Board of
Directors, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Dr. Larry Stoterau, Chairman, Council of
Presidents, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Professor John Loum, Concordia Seminary, St.
Louis, Missouri

CN has not yet received an answer to any of CN’s questions from Schultz or any of those sent a copy. However, CN did receive 20 more pages of legal documents. One was titled “Supplemental Affidavit of Ronald P. Schultz” and the other “Defendants The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Yohannes Mengsteab’s Reply In Support of Their Motion to Dismiss and Alternate Motion to Transfer.”

Is The LCMS Hierarchical or Congregational?
An attorney, who read the documents, concluded they show that there are crooks in high places in the LCMS. The editor is not an attorney. CN’s advice to the LCMS is: “Pay the bill.” If an agreement is made by anyone to pay for services rendered, simple honesty demands “pay the bill.” The LCMS seems to be arguing that since the lawsuit was filed in Washington D.C., where the LCMS has only two congregations, it can be ignored.

CN asked Schultz how it is possible in this case for the LCMS to argue that it is congregational and therefore can’t be sued in Washington, D.C. and to argue in the Oakland 4 case that it is hierarchical. CN asked: “Does the LCMS change its position depending upon the situation? Does it defend one position on the West Coast and another one on the East Coast?”

If the LCMS is being blackmailed and a dummy corporation was set up in Tennessee, the crooks should be exposed.

Drop the California Lawsuit
CN has pleaded with the top officials of the LCMS, including the LCMS’s attorney, president, chairman of its COP, chairman of Board of Directors, and president of its California-Nevada-Hawaii District to drop the lawsuit against the “Oakland 4” for church property. More than a million dollars have been spent in legal fees to fight the case vs. the “Oakland 4.” Records show that at least some of the more than a million dollars came from mission funds. The Oakland 4 has spent about $600,000 to defend themselves against the lawsuit.
These lawsuits are not helping the reputation of the LCMS. A church body which claims to defend the truth of God’s Word should also demonstrate absolute financial integrity. This includes paying bills.

The Key Question
The editor mentioned in his letter to the LCMS’s Chief Administrative officer that CN has repeatedly asked Lutheran World Missions if all those associated with Lutheran World Mission in anyway, such as Concordia University, Portland, Professor Herbert Hoeffer and Rev. Yohannes Mengsteab of African Immigrant Lutheran Mission society, Inc. must maintain and teach that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that non-Christians are lost without saving faith in the merits of Jesus Christ? Even if the top officials of the LCMS to whom CN sent copies never heard about the California case or now the case in D.C., they should have no difficulty answering question 6 in CN’s letter to the LCMS’s Chief Administrative Officer. In the past, most members of the COP have refused to answer this simple question.

CN has often noted that mission work in the major denominations now involves primarily proclaiming some social gospel teaching English, etc., rather than preaching the saving Gospel to lost sinners. Church officials spent huge amounts of money flying around the world. Churches bring in natives from overseas to participate in church conventions and gatherings to give the impression that the denomination is preaching the Gospel around the world and is therefore worthy of mission support.

Note “LCMS Missions Following Major Denominations” and “International School – Lutherans Financing Pluralism and Universalism” in the September 27 Christian News.
What Was the Cost?

CN still hasn’t been able to find out how much the big installation service recently held at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis cost. Note “What About the Cost? THE BIG INSTALLATION” in the September 20 CN. An LCMS news service story said that “Representatives from other Lutheran church bodies worldwide attended from the Philippines, Tanzania, Ghana, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Russia, Guatemala, Chile, and Haiti. About 200 pastors, church workers, seminary faculty, deaconesses, partner-sister church officials, and the members of the Council of Presidents participated in the service’s processional.” It makes little difference who paid for all the travel, meals, hotel rooms, etc. The money could have been used to keep some missionaries on the field rather than calling them home for lack of funds. CN suggested that it would have cost far less to have the installation of most officers elected at an LCMS convention immediately following the convention when most of those to be installed were already present. This is the way it was done in the past when funds were not so freely spent by the bureaucrats.

Hierarchicalism Growing In LCMS
Then again things are changing in the LCMS. The Bible says little about what kind of headgear a clergyman should wear. It’s a matter of adiaphora. But is it wise for the preacher at an LCMS installation to wear a miter hat when there are so many pro-Loehe, anti-Walther Romanizers in the LCMS who prefer some form of hierarchicalism to congregationalism, claiming ordination is a sacrament and promote Apostolic Succession. Did Luther and Walther wear miters?

Operate Frugally
In an age when many congregations are now finding it necessary to cut their budgets, including the salaries and benefits of their pastor, it is time for the LCMS bureaucracy to operate as frugally as possible. The bureaucrats at the LCMS’s international Center, CPH and district offices, who were trained to be pastors, should all follow C.F.W. Walther’s example and also serve as pastors of congregations. They should be paid little more than the salary recommended for pastors in the district in which they reside.

Meetings and travel should be cut to the absolute minimum. If the congregations of the LCMS observe that the bureaucracy is functioning in a frugal manner and the bureaucrats are not being paid several times the salary of their own pastors, giving for LCMS missions and seminaries will improve.