And There Was Much Rejoicing

This week has been a good week. Issues, Etc. was returned to the air thanks to the upstart Pirate Christian Radio.

I also heard that Pastor May, after being called home by LCMS World Mission has received a call from the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

Wow...phew. What a relief. The guys at Issues, Etc. seem to be rejoicing in their new freedom. Pastor May and family are presumably being returned to the mission field. All is right with the world.

Only, its not. Don't get me wrong...there is great reason to rejoice. Satan lost the battle over Issues, Etc. Pastor Wilken is still on the air proclaiming the gospel, even better and more clearly than before now that he doesn't have to worry about what management will say over their programming decisions. Pastor May will still be working to forward the gospel in whatever capacity LHF has for him. These are great things.

But our Synod is still working with a mindset that limits the gospel for various reasons. It is still calling home pastors from the mission field and sending out "bridge builders" instead, so that people who even get a chance to hear the gospel from our missionaries are still deprived of the Sacraments. It is still funding churches who don't use the name Lutheran, don't worship in a Lutheran manner, and don't teach Lutheran doctrine-- for the sake of drawing people in. It is still putting raising money over spreading the gospel on the oldest Christian radio station in the nation. It is still withholding your donations to World Relief for such things as Hurricane Katrina, for undetermined amounts of time, in order to earn the interest first.

Until our Synod trusts that God will remain faithful if we faithfully proclaim His Word and cling to solid doctrine, we will continue to fall further away from "our grandfather's church."