A parishioner recently returned from vacation with a service folder from an LCMS church. Here was the prayer of confession:
O Lord, Most High, though You have called us through Your Son and made us to be a people for Your own possession and given us Your own Spirit, we confess to You that we have faltered as Your witnesses to the ends of the earth. Fix our gaze on the heart of Your will to give us the power and the desire to spread the Good News of salvation to all the world.
The only sin being confessed here is faltering as the Lord’s witnesses! This is bordering on missiolatry: God’s Law, especially the Ten Commandments, is nowhere to be found; and the Gospel – the Good News! – has been turned into Law. Kyrie eleison.
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Whenever the law (the Ten Commandments) is nowhere to be found, then the Gospel will invariably turn into law. Isn't that weird? But it always happens.
Is that congregation a TC congregation? Because that looks an awful lot like when a congregation is "repenting" for being "inward focused."
What is "TC"? The only thing I can think of is Twin Cities, but I'm guessing that's now what you mean.
TC = Transforming Congregations, a.k.a. Transforming Churches Network. LCMS "revitalization" group.
Interesting. I didn't realize it was a formal organization. There was talk at our district convention of revitalizing and transforming. I assumed it was all code for nefarious shenanigans, but I didn't realize it was official newspeak.
Oh, it's real, especially in Ohio.
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