Korby, Löhe, and “Faith-Sharing Moments”
There is something disconcerting about the modern emphasis on “faith-sharing moments” as the essence of mission. Faith is so quickly identified as a subjective thing. The exhortation, “Share your faith” may be understood quite differently than, “Share the faith.” The Christian message is always an objective one: the announcement of what Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God, performed in His ministry, suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, and Ascension. If our church is to develop again a truly missional character, we will have to heed these words of Korby, writing on Löhe’s pastoral theology:
As the mission is the church of God in motion, so the energy of that motion is the Word of God, the apostolic Word. That Word alone is the energy; that Word alone is the uniting center.
Quoted in John T. Pless, “The Contribution of Kenneth Korby to a Renewed Reception of Wilhelm Löhe’s Pastoral Theology,” CTQ 73 (2009): 106
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What are the alternatives to the Word of God as the energy?
I should add that, in the article, Korby/Löhe see the papacy (or church government in general) as the/an alternative. After the last sentence quoted in my post, Korby continues: "It is not the constitutional order of the church, not a lord, not a bishop that is the uniting power in the center of the church, but this apostolic Word, the Scripture."
Are you being facetious? It seems like the experience of man is the energy of today's church.
That came off wrong. I was wondering if you were joking.
I think the energy driving much of the "missional" activity in the LCMS is the energy of fear. First of all, it is the fear of death. The idea that the Church will die if we don't keep it alive by bringing in outsiders (isn't this backwards?). Secondly, the fear of failure. Pastors are afraid if their church doesn't grow numerically that they have completely failed in their calling. Talk about being set up for diabolical despair. Third, there is a combination of fear and guilt for worldlings who are dying and going to hell due to our neglect—a fear and guilt that has openly been cultivated at every district gathering I have attended, from the snapping of the fingers to that counter placed up front that keeps spinning out the ever growing population of the planet.
Of course, whatever you fear most is, functionally speaking, your god. But I digress…
Brilliant, Tom.
I agree…very well put. Thank you.
It's curious how the Tractarians during the Victorian Era saw the same problem with testimonialism, and came to believe that the proper corrective was church order (as you just mentioned). It is a shame they were so cut off from confessional theology that instead of turning to the Word (as opposed to just "words") they turned to Rome. That said, it is clear to me, after reading about the Tractarians, that the Church of the Augsburg Confession is the Via Media that Newman originally sought–thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly sacramental.
I wish that the Church of the Augsburg Confession would everywhere present herself as such, so that people pining for an evangelical, sacramental church (i.e., a truly catholic church) would be able to find her.