This is why I no longer go to a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) Church

He pointed out that Christian congregations are increasingly demanding that their pastors dumb down the message, preaching merely to entertain or to make their congregants feel good.

via www.mlchouston.org

It would be easier to not comment about this post-click link above-from a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor from Houston, Texas. So many people get defensive and they don't try to really listen.

So why bother?

This pastor writes about how ministers are leaving the profession because their members are asking them to dumb down their sermons. The members, they say, want to be entertained with a short message laden with funny stories.

I grew up in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and always belonged to one of their churches until I was in my early sixties. During that time I noticed that fewer and fewer people were going to the Missouri Synod churches I belonged to.

Many of these churches are at-risk for their survival. Why? Is it the secular desire of the members creeping in who resist the teaching of the pastors?

I realize the central role of the Gospel in my life. I get my worth from being a saved sinner. And I do need to be reminded of that.

But most of the several thousand sermons I've heard never took me beyond the cross of Jesus into everyday life. Pastors need to show how the gospel is relevant to everyday life.

For me, it happened infrequently. I thought I was less of a believer because of that. I had to find a church that helped me take the Good News and apply it to where I'm at right now.

I don't think many Missouri Synod pastors are doing that and members are responding by leaving.