Compromising Duty

I am in the South-East District of the LC-MS, which includes the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland (I don't think it has much if Georgia, if any). I can count the number of confessional churches on one hand, and I dare say it might be as, or more so, liberal as California and Massachusetts. Being in the Bible Belt and Baptist country, there is a lot of influence on the SE District from those aspects. This is a challenging District, if only for those reasons.

Given the fairly universal influence, I am not terribly surprised that some of the Pastors let things bend one way or another in a limited (or sometimes extreme) fashion to accommodate the expectations of the congregation. However, I would expect a higher level of attention to detail at district meetings. I have it on good authority that a majority of the Pastors balk at a full service with communion for the meeting. They wanted a shortened version without a lot of the parts of the service that set the stage for communion. I do not know their reasoning, but a failure to practice the full service (and the Word that the service uses) indicates a greater reluctance to the more important things. I am not surprised at this, but it is disheartening. If the shepherds of the flock act like "hired hands," what does that say for the hope and direction of the flock? I dare say it will scatter (John 10:11-13).

This is also one of the objections I have to "incorporating" and entailing business-like terminology. It robs the church of the history and Biblical references that Shepherd and Servant give. I think being a Pastor is less of a career choice and more of a commitment to something above and beyond yourself. I know I am counter to the "second" and "third" career Pastor terminology (which I have used myself). However, I think leaving the vestiges of the business and worldly terminology has its own benefits which outweigh growth charts, market studies, and other man-made junk.