The Kieschnick and Strand Disagreement

In his letter to the Wall Street Journal President Kieschnick wrote the following;

In accordance with our unity in what we believe, teach, and confess, the Synod adopted the mission and vision of Ablaze!—a focused and concentrated effort to “share the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who do not yet know him.” One goal of Ablaze! calls for the Synod to start 2,000 new congregations by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in the year 2017. This outreach emphasis is not “marketing” as suggested by last Friday’s column; rather, it is one of many ministry endeavors developed to foster the mission of our Synod “… vigorously to make known the love of Christ by word and deed within our churches, communities, and the world.”

Now, read what David Strand said on record to Tim Townsend in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“The Afternoon Show, is different from “Issues, Etc.,”… in that it doesn’t dwell largely on Lutheran apologetics at a sophisticated level. It still takes its Gospel proclamation seriously, but it finds new ways to capture attention.”

Did you catch that? President Kieschnick touts as a defense that our beloved synod wishes to engage in evangelism that the whole purpose of Ablaze!, our evangelism program, uh, I mean movement is to vigorously make known the love of Christ. We’ve heard all that before haven’t we?

David Strand says that to reach the masses we need get away from serious apologetics and try reach people with shows that need twenty minutes to even mention Jesus. Not so much with the vigorous from my point of view.

I wonder if President Kieschnick will write another letter, this time to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, denouncing Strand’s not so vigorous programming decisions as not indicative of what was asked for by our non erring conventions with their adopting of resolutions supporting outreach?

I’m not holding my breath.