June 28th, 2005 at 3:21 pm
I visited Lutheran Church and School of Messiah in Grand Junction Sunday. I like to catch the Adult Bible Study before a later traditional service, just to get a feel for the attitudes of a congregation.
Messiah has an early traditional service, then Bible class, then a late traditional service conducted at the same time as a “Joyful Praise” service. The Pastor led the Praise service in the school’s gym while an elder led Matins from TLH in the sanctuary. The Matins service has pretty music, but it’s unmetered and hard for an entire congregation to follow. The sermon, basically Romans 6, was written by the pastor and read from the pulpit by the elder.
I was understanding about the circumstances about the service, but the Bible study concerned me. We sang a hymn, and then the pastor distributed a handout. It was a position paper from the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations. The topic was euthanasia.
I had two objections about how the study was conducted. First and foremost, we didn’t open a Bible once. Secondly, the objections that some people had during the class were not met with Scripture, but with qualified personal pastoral opinion. “This is what I believe” came out of the Pastor’s mouth several times.
The class turned into a small debate of feelings at several points. Euthanasia is a sensitive topic. By bringing the CTCR document in, the Pastor was advocating a position, as he should. I’ve understood though, that if one is going to advocate a position, one should come prepared with evidence.
Christians (and especially Lutherans) debate theology sola scriptura, scripture alone. A position paper is not scripture, even if it may be correct. The Pastor should have backed up the CTCR document with scripture.
The pastor leading the class could have been better prepared for questions that came up. The people who left the study “agreeing to disagree” with some issues were a missed opportunity.
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