I asked our District President, “Is Ablaze still alive?” He said that is was alive in his heart. Another friend wrote me and said, “Ablaze is still in effect until whenever Harrison and co. decide what to do with it. However, Fan into Flame will continue taking contributions until October 31, 2011. This is by resolution of the 2010 convention.”  That sounded at least a little more official.  The website is still counting. Perhaps that is most telling.
I know many who read this are no doubt glad to see less red and yellow before there eyes these days. And I can’t say that I will miss it the program and the paraphernalia. (Although I fear we are just getting a new program and paraphernalia. I hope not.) I, like many of you, never liked the way the program was talked about and carried out.   It was way too focused on counting and the mission work emphasized nearly always encouraged practices historically foreign to Lutherans. But these concerns have been the subject of many posts on LCMS blogs and the like.
My question is this: should Ablaze just be snuffed out? Should one day soon the website be taken offline, the logo filed away in the archives, and the t-shirts placed in the attic? While it might surprise some people, (it surprised me a little when I thought through it) I think just extinguishing the program with one yank of the snuffer is a bad idea. Regardless of what anyone thought of the program, we must remember that it was a thing seen by many outside our synod. And for most of them, it was simply a mission emphasis. To just snuff this out might give a terrible message. We are still about “martyria” both among the found and the lost. The Church always is when it is being the Church.
Perhaps we should just move the candle into another room, but still let it burn. Can we just repackage it simply as a basic commitment to get the word of Christ out? Can we lose the program and retain the title? Can we kill the counter and keep the commitment we made to be focused in on mission work locally and around the world? I think is might be wise for the Synod and the Kingdom. Let me know what you think.
Just because the procedure or methods used are not distinguishingly or historically Lutheran I don’t see why it should be banned from our synod. Those facts don’t make the mission bad for itself.
Miguel,
I do not mean to throw out anything new wholesale. I largely meant the tendency of some within our church body to simply “steal” practices and methods from other Christians or even other religions without considering their impact. Too much emphasis on what “works” rather than what is faithful.