I am concerned, but not as much as a large portion of the Confessional Lutheran blogosphere is regarding Issues Etc. cancellation. I definitely have my concerns, but I want to wait for the synod leadership to address the questions--or not address them. Either way the answer will be forthcoming. There are also many more able bloggers than I am, who are on top of this issue.
Anyway, I saw this on http://augsburg1530.wordpress.com/
Again, we spend $25,000 on congregations in Missouri such as JeffersonHills Church that puts up signs purporting to come from Satan, but we don’t have funds to spread the Gospel in Togo?
We don’t have money problems. We have priority problems.
From the post,
I would certainly say so! For some reason, the synod does not see evangelism in Africa as important as funding trendy churches with ridiculous signs which say for example "Boycott JeffersonHills Church, signed Satan". Given that Issues Etc. was canceled for financial reasons according to synod leadership, this is definitely a legitimate concern. If money is the issue, why are we wasting so much on such dreck as above?
I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the synod leadership, but the more I see what is actually happening, the more concerned I become. I mean, are we supposed to believe that the church will grow if we recall our missionaries and shut down a well regarded Christian radio program? What gives? If the purpose of the plan is to grow the church, then I would say it is a pretty wrong-headed plan since everything is going in the opposite way as far as I can see.