Members at “The Valley” find out they are Lutheran

Cottonwood, MI – A meeting was held this last Thursday night in the home of Valley member Rich Thomas.  He had asked Pastor Jeff to meet with him and some other concerned members.  The meeting was to be held at the church but all of the meeting rooms were full of various community groups who had taken advantage of the “Our space, your space” program.

Rich began the meeting explaining the situation.  He had just recently been empowered by the Pastor to run the finances of the church.  His spiritual gift inventory had revealed a fondness for numbers and his Bentley suggested he knew a thing or too about money.  As he was familiarizing himself with the finances of the congregation, he found that each year there was a large donation from “The Michigan District, LCMS.”  Not wanting to ask a stupid question to Pastor Jeff, he decide to just Google it.  What he uncovered was shocking.  It said that this was a district office of the Lutheran Church, Missouri-Synod.  He wondered why they, a denomination entrenched in mud of modernism would support their postmodern minded mission.

He asked Pastor Jeff, “Why are we receiving money from them?”  Pastor Jeff said slowly and with trepidation, “Well, we are…Lutheran.”  A audible gasp was heard in the room. 

One member named Janice who was in attendance said, “I had no idea we were Lutheran.”  She had at one time been a member of St. John’s Lutheran, a small Lutheran church also located there in Cottonwood.  In her several years there at the Valley, she had never heard anything about being Lutheran.  Even in the introductory membership class called “Valley Values” she had taken, there was no mention of Lutheranism. 

“Our praise band gets all of our music from Chris Tomlin and Vineyard Music.  Our video bible studies are all put out by by groups like Focus on the Family, Ed Young, and Joyce Meyers.  Pastor Jeff wear jeans and a leather jacket during worship.  I just don’t know how we could be Lutheran.”

Pastor Jeff continued as if revealing a shameful affair, “Yes, we are Lutheran.  I was raised in a Lutheran church.  I went to a parochial school from Kindergarten through college.  I attended the Lutheran seminary in St. Louis.   I just thought we might reach more people if we never mentioned it.  Since we didn’t plan to use the hymnal or any CPH material, it was just so easy to never mention.”

Rich responded, “Huh.  I just never had any idea.  It just seems like that information might have been relevant for us to know.”  Pastor ended the meeting with a promise that he would present a three week series of sermons called, “The Roots in the Valley.”