Buy the Ticket. Take the Ride.
by Pastor Riley's Blog
The incredible dumbness of those who think a pastor is some kind of spiritual guru, who are supposed to use their charisma to inspire people to live out their purpose in life, is a subject I thought I’d exhausted a long time ago — but let’s hit it one more time, just for the fun of it … I have described them as “a rude & brainless subculture” and “more disgusting by nature than maggots oozing out of the carcass of a dead animal…”
But they keep coming back for more, like pimps & real-estate agents, & on days like this I run out of patience … I have explained many times that I am, by vocation, a pastor who is called by the church to publicly proclaim the Gospel — not some chancel-prancing nerd or a hired human squawk-box with the brain of a one-cell animal. No. That would be your average emerging church types — and, more specifically, a full-time church growth expert gone whoring after other gods.Ok, how’s that for rudeness? I can play in this league. I don’t like it — but when my own colleagues start asking me to get outraged about the huge salaries being paid these days to well meaning church growth experts and emerging church types who have infiltrated the Lutheran church — instead of the pastors who show fidelity to the exercise of the office of the ministry and mission of the church according to Augsburg Confession, Article 14 — looking at my church I know how Thomas Jefferson felt when he said, “I fear for the fate of my country when I reflect that God is Just.
Ok, how’s that for rudeness? I can play in this league. I don’t like it — but when my own colleagues start asking me to get outraged about the huge salaries being paid these days to well meaning church growth experts and emerging church types who have infiltrated the Lutheran church — instead of the pastors who show fidelity to the exercise of the office of the ministry and mission of the church according to Augsburg Confession, Article 14 — looking at my church I know how Thomas Jefferson felt when he said, “I fear for the fate of my country when I reflect that God is Just.
As for the pastors who neglect their ordination vows for the sake of bolstering congregational growth, meeting the budget, and pursuing holiness they are as useless as tits on a boar-hog & should all be put to sleep. The Lutheran church’s only hope for survival is the elimination of the church growth pastors and emerging church types completely. The world needs the Gospel. “We are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.” That’s it. Buy the ticket. Take the ride. Mahalo.
Anthony S. Thompson, “Buy the Ticket. Take the Ride.”
Yes…it’s pretty sad…and outrageous.
And it’s everywhere. People want what they want and there are many in the church who are happy to give it to them.