Luther's Sermon for the FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. Matthew 8:23-27German text: Erlangen edition II, 73; Walch II, 681; St. Louis 11, 498.
TEXT:
Matthew 8:23-27. And when he was entered into a boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the boat was covered with the waves; but he was asleep. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Save, Lord; we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, 0 ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. And the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?
CONTENTS:
OF FAITH AND UNBELIEF; OF LOVE AND THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE GOSPEL.
I. Faith And Unbelief.
1. The way and nature of unbelief 1-2.
2. The way, nature and power of faith 8-6.
* How a Christian should act in times of temptation 7-8.
II. Of Love 9.
III. Of The Spiritual Meaning Of This Narrative.
A. In General 10.
B. In Particular.
1. The spiritual meaning that the wind arose when Christ entered the ship 11-12.
* How true and faithful teachers should comfort themselves, when persecuted by the world 13-14.
2. The spiritual meaning of the disciples seeking help from Christ
3. The spiritual meaning that Christ was asleep
* The comfort of believers in temptation
4. The spiritual meaning of the people in the ship marveling 17.
I. OF FAITH AND UNBELIEF.
1. This Gospel, as a narrative, gives us an example of faith and unbelief, in order that we may learn how mighty the power of faith is, and that it of necessity has to do with great and terrible things and that it accomplishes nothing but wonders; and that on the other hand unbelief is so fainthearted, shamefaced and trembling with fear that it can do nothing whatever. An illustration of this we see in this experience of the disciples, which shows the real state of their hearts. First, as they in company with Christ entered the ship, all was calm and they experienced nothing unusual, and had any one asked them then if they believed, they would have answered, Yes. But they were not conscious of how their hearts trusted in the calm sea and the signs for fair weather, and that thus their faith was founded upon what their natural eyes saw. But when the tempest comes and the waves fill the boat, their faith vanishes; because the calm and peace in which they trusted took wings and flew away, therefore they fly with the calm and peace, and nothing is left but unbelief.
2. But what is this unbelief able to do? It sees nothing but what it experiences. It does not experience life, salvation and safety; but instead the waves coming into the boat and the sea threatening them with death and every danger. And because they experience these things and give heed to them and turn not their fear from them, trembling and despair can not be suppressed. Yea, the more they see and experience it the harder death and despair torment them and every moment threatens to devour them. But unbelief cannot avoid such experiences and cannot think otherwise even for a second. For it has nothing besides to which it can hold and comfort itself, and therefore it has no peace or rest for a single minute. And thus will it also be in perdition, where there will be nothing but despair, trembling and fear, and that without end.
3. But had they had faith, it would have driven the wind and the waves of the sea out of their minds, and pictured before their eyes in place of the wind and tempest the power and grace of God, promised in his Word; and it would have relied upon that Word, as though anchored to an immovable rock and would not float on the water, and as though the sun shined brightly and all was calm and no storm was raging. For it is the great characteristic and power of faith to see what is not visible, and not to see what is visible, yea, that which at the time drives and oppresses us; just as unbelief can see only what is visible and can not in the least cleave to what is invisible.
4. Therefore God bestows faith to the end that it should deal not with ordinary things, but with things no human being can master as death, sin, the world and Satan. For the whole world united is unable to stand before death, but flees from and is terrified by it, and is also conquered by it; but faith stands firm, opposes death that devours everything, and triumphs over it and even swallows the unsatiable devourer of life. In like manner no one can control or subdue the flesh, but it reigns everywhere in the world, and what it wills must be done, so that the whole world thereby is carnal; but faith lays hold of the flesh and subdues and bridles it, so that it must become a servant. And in like manner no one can endure the rage, persecution, and blasphemy, infamy, hatred and envy of the world; every one retreats and falls back exhausted before it, it gets the upper hand over all and triumphs; and if they are without faith it mocks them besides and treads all under its feet, and takes pleasure and delight in doing so.
5. Further, who could conquer Satan with his innumerable, subtle suggestions and temptations, by which he hinders the truth and God’s Word, faith and hope, and starts so many false doctrines, sects, seductions, heresies, doubts, superstitions and innumerable abominations? The whole world compared with him is like a spark of fire compared with a fountain of water. All must be here subject to him; as we also see, hear and understand. But it is faith that keeps him busy, and it not only stands before him invulnerable, but also reveals his roguery and puts him to shame, so that his deception fails and he faints and falls; as now takes place with his indulgences and his papacy. Just so no one can allay and quiet the least sin, but it bites and devours the conscience, so that nothing avails even if the whole world were to comfort and support such a person, he must be cast down into perdition. Here faith is a hero, it appeases all sins, even if they were as many as the whole world had committed.
6. Is there now not something almighty and inexpressible about faith that it can withstand all our powerful enemies and gain the victory, so that St. John says in his first Epistle 1 John 5:4: “This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith?” Not that this is done in peace and by quietly resting; for it is a battle that is carried on not with out wounds and shedding of blood. Yea, the heart so severely experiences in this battle sin and death, the flesh, Satan and the world, that it has no other thought than that it is lost, that sin and death have triumphed, and that Satan holds the field of battle. The power of faith however experiences but little of that. This is set forth in our narrative, when the waves not only dashed into the boat, but even covered it, so that it was about to go under and sink, and Christ was lying asleep. Just then there was no hope of life, death had the upper hand and had triumphed; life was lying prostrate and was lost.
7. As it went here, so it goes and must go in all other temptations of sin, Satan, etc. We must experience how sin has taken captive the conscience and nothing but wrath and perdition wish to reign, and how we must be eternally lost. Satan must start so many things by his error and false teaching that it appears God’s Word must fall to the ground and the world must glory in falsehood. Likewise the world must rage and persecute to such an extent that it appears no one can stand or be saved, or even confess his faith; but Cain will rule alone and will not rest until his brother is dead, so that he may never be in his way. But we must not judge and act according to appearance and our experience, but according to our faith.
8. Therefore this Gospel is a comforting example and doctrine, how we should conduct ourselves, so that we may not despair in the agony of sin, in the peril of death, and in the tumult of the world; but be assured that we are not lost, although the waves at once overwhelm our little boat; that we will not perish, although we experience in our evil conscience sin, wrath, and the lack of grace; that we will not die, although the whole world hates and persecutes us, although it opens its jaws as wide as the rosy dawn of the morning. These are all waves that fall over your little bark, cause to despair, and force you to cry out: “Save, Lord; we perish”. Thus you have here the first part of this Gospel, faith, how it should thrive and succeed, and besides, how incapable and fainthearted unbelief is.
II. OF LOVE.
9. The second part of our text, treating of love, shows forth Christ in that he rises, breaks his sleep for their sake, takes to heart their need as though it were his own, and ministers to them help out of free love without any merit on their part. He neither receives nor seeks any reward for his help, but permits them to enjoy and use his power and resources. For as we have often heard it is characteristic of Christian love to do all freely and gratuitously, to the praise and honor of God, that a Christian lives upon the earth for the sake of such love, just as Christ lived solely for the purpose of doing good; as he himself says: “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Matthew 20:28.
III. THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THIS NARRATIVE.
10. Christ pictured to us in this narrative the Christian life, especially the office of the ministry. The ship signifies Christendom; the sea, the world; the wind, Satan; his disciples are the preachers and pious Christians; Christ is the truth, the Gospel, and faith.
11. Now, before Christ entered the ship with his disciples the sea and the wind were calm; but when Christ with his disciples entered, then the storm began, as he himself says, Matthew 10:34: “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace but a sword.” So, if Christ had left the world in peace and never punished its works, then it would indeed have been quiet. But since he preaches that the wise are fools, the saints are sinners and the rich are lost, they become wild and raging; just as at present some critics think it would be fine if we merely preached the Gospel and allowed the office of the ministry to continue in its old way. This they would indeed tolerate; but that all their doings should be rebuked and avail nothing, that they call preaching discontent and revolution, and is not Christian teaching.
12. But what does this Gospel say? There was a violent tempest on the lake when Christ and his disciples were in the ship. The sea and the wind allowed the other ships to sail in calm weather; but this ship had to suffer distress because of Christ being in it. The world can indeed tolerate all kinds of preaching except the preaching of Christ. Hence whenever he comes and wherever he is, there he preaches that he only is right and reproves all others; as he says in Matthew 12:30: “He that is not with me is against me”, and again, John 16:8: “The spirit will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment;” he says that he will not only preach, but that he will convict the whole world and what is in the world. But it is this convicting that causes such tempests and dangers to this ship. Should he preach that he would allow the world to go unpunished and to continue in its old ways, he would have kept quiet before and never have entered the world; for if the world is good and is not to be convicted then there would never have been any need of him coming into the world.
13. Now it is the consolation of Christians, and especially of preachers, to be sure and ponder well that when they present and preach Christ, that they must suffer persecution, and nothing can prevent it; and that it is a very good sign of the preaching being truly Christian, when they are thus persecuted, especially by the great, the saintly, the learned and the wise.
And on the other hand that their preaching is not right, when it is praised and honored, as Christ says in Luke 6:22-26: “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you; for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake; in the same manner did their fathers to the prophets.” Behold our preachers, how their teachings are esteemed; the wealth, honor and power of the world have them fully under their control, and still they wish to be Christian teachers, and whosoever praises and preaches their ideas, lives in honor and luxury.
14. Hence, people have here an example where they are to seek their comfort and help, not in the world; they are not to guard the wisdom and power of men, but Christ himself and him alone; they are to cleave to him and depend on him in every need with all faithfulness and confidence as the disciples, do in our text. For had they not believed that he would help them, they would not have awakened him and called upon him. True their faith was weak and was mingled with much unbelief, so that they did not perfectly and freely surrender themselves to Christ and risk their life with him, nor did they believe he could rescue them in the midst of the sea and save them from death. Thus it is ordained that the Word of God has no master nor judge, no protector or patron can be given it besides God himself. It is his Word. Therefore, as he left it go forth without any merit or counsel of men, so will he himself without any human help and strength administer and defend it. And whoever seeks protection and comfort in these things among men, will both fall and fail, and be forsaken by both God and man.
15. That Jesus slept indicates the condition of their hearts, namely, that they had a weak, sleepy faith, but especially that at the time of persecution Christ withdraws and acts as though he were asleep, and gives neither strength nor power, neither peace nor rest, but lets us worry and labor in our weakness, and permits us to experience that we are nothing at all and that all depends upon his grace and power, as Paul confesses in Corinthians 1:9, that he had to suffer great affliction, so as to learn to trust not in himself but in God, who raised the dead. Such a sleeping on the part of God David often experienced and refers to it in many places, as when he says in Psalm 44:23: “Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever.”
16. The summary of this Gospel is this, it gives us two comforting, defying proverbs, that when persecution for the sake of God’s Word arises, we may say: I indeed thought Christ was in the ship, therefore the sea and wind rage, and the waves dash over us and threaten to sink us; but let them rage, it is ordained that the wind and sea obey his will. The persecutions will not continue longer than is his pleasure; and although they overwhelm us, yet they must be subject to him; he is Lord over all, therefore nothing will harm us. May he only give us his help that we may not despair in unbelief. Amen.
17. That the people marveled and praised the Lord that the wind and sea were subject to him, signifies that the Gospel, God’s Word, spreads farther through persecution, it thus becomes stronger and faith increases; and this is also a paradoxical characteristic of the Gospel compared with all worldly things which decrease through every misfortune and opposition, and increase through prosperity and peace. Christ’s kingdom grows through tribulations and declines in times of peace, ease and luxury, as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My power is made perfect in weakness, etc.” To this end help us God! Amen.
24 COMMENTS:
Also, is the primary purpose of the website to say "we are a Lutheran church" or to focus on nudging people towards their Savior?
That being said, while one could argue that "it's not the job of the webpage to teach people [Lutheran doctrine]," when there's the amount of *red* (that is, false doctrine) ON THE HOME PAGE that I'm seeing here, we have a BIG problem.
I cannot say why a given church in this study would or would not include certain things on the homepage. I'm actually quite sure some of it is just bad web design or apathy about websites in general. Whatever the reasons, is it not clearly important for a church website (an online front door of sorts) to in some way clearly explain what that church is about?
In some ways, the primary purpose of a website really has to be "we are a Lutheran church" and defining what goes on (or does not go on) in that church because of its Lutheranism. I do not assume anyone knows what a WELS church is. I do want them to know why my Lutheran church is not "Lutheran" in the same sense as an ELCA church (i.e. that is not really Lutheran at all). I want visitors to the website to know what happens at my church, and that they will hear the Gospel of Christ Crucified and receive the blessings of Word and Sacrament there. Being clear about our identity is being clear that we do offer the pure Gospel through the means God has provided in our churches.
Dr. Aaron Palmer
Isaac Parson
You yourself admit: "Some may prove to have a solid confession on other pages of their site. Or, some may prove to have a lot of junk on their other pages that they don't have on their home page."
So, what's the point then? If no one can use any of this information in any definitive way, then so what? And more importantly, if this information, by your own admission, isn't definitive, then how can the title of this article state definitively that this is proof of "church growth inroads in the WELS"?
By the way, if you used these same criteria to judge the Intrepid Lutherans site, what grade would it get? I'm not sure what counts as "clear evidence", but by my estimation the IL site would get mostly reds. Why are you hiding "Who We Are" and "What We Believe" behind links? Are you trying to cover-up what you believe?
Daniel Sellers
Then, Isaac, you commit an apples and oranges fallacy in comparing a blog to a church's website. IL is not a church and has never claimed to be. We have no static "home page" at all. Even so, no one here is claiming to be holier than thou. Some objective facts have been presented. I'm sorry you seem to wish to shoot the messenger rather than deal with the objective facts presented in the article.
If you want to use church websites to make the case that church growth methodology is making inroads in the WELS, then do it. Make the case using actual evidence. Examine websites and find clear examples of it. (It won't be too hard to do.) But don't make assumptions or assertions based on an argument from silence.
Jim, yes, website home pages frequently served as a table of contents. Frequently those contents are in the header bars or the side bars. And yet, many find the opportunity, even with that information displayed, to still say more; a Bible verse, a simple Gospel message. The volunteers in this analysis were not looking for Cliff notes or overwhelming volumes of information. It doesn't take Cliff notes or overwhelming volumes of information to share the Gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. One line. A simple Gospel message or a simple Bible verse. What is so difficult about that? And doesn't God himself promise that he will work through his Word? Why miss the opportunity?
Isaac, you said in two different comments that it wouldn't be too hard to find clear examples of Church Growth in the WELS. If it's simple to do, then how can you be so sure that it doesn't exist on the home page of a church website? Having looked at ninety of them. I can assure you, examples were there. As you said, it wasn't too hard to do. One example found the space on the home page to say they break the rules with regard to their worship service. They could have buried that in the website, but they chose to put it on the home page. There are many more examples. But don't take my word for it. Look at the home pages yourself. It was one of the reasons for doing this analysis and doing it across all of the districts; the ever familiar refrain "not in my church, not in my district, not in my synod". Part of the message here is that you don't have to look very hard, just as you said.
But look, we weren't even looking for the bad examples. They were there, but we weren't looking for them. We were looking for the positive things. Did they exist or didn't they?
There are certainly innocent parties in this analysis. For that reason, congregations and districts have not been named. It was also clear when looking at these home pages that there were novices and there were professionals doing the websites. But whether they were novices or professionals had little to do with whether there was a Bible verse or a Gospel message present. I saw simple website home pages with a Bible verse or Gospel message, and I saw professional website home pages that didn't.
Church Growth can mean many things to many people. One of the things it means to me is how much can someone say about their church and the things their church does without talking about Jesus. I saw evidence of this too. The programs, the projects, even the gimics. But the Gospel? Sadly missing.
Vernon
Honestly, however, all this report shows – merely a "first look"– is the results of applying standards that are important to genuine Confessional Lutherans to only the homepages of WELS websites. The standards that were applied are clear, their application was defined and limited in scope, and the results are what they are. There was no value judgment accompanying these results in this report, no condemnations hurled at the REDs, no unmitigated praise given to the GREENs, no assignment of good or bad to either as so many seem to infer (especially if one is reading the Facebook discussion at > 73 comments, so far). Like it or lump it – it just is what it is. Different standards and/or different application would very likely produce different results, as this "first look" fully admits.
Continued in next comment...
First off, as pointed out by others, the home page is one of the pages least likely to contain theological content. That information is usually reserved for other pages, such as a "statement of faith" page. You might as well have chosen to base your study on "contact us" pages. I won't accuse anyone of deliberately basing the study on a page unlikely to fulfill the study's criteria, but for anyone to not think that this is a serious flaw speaks to how poorly thought out this study is.
Secondly, several of the criteria themselves are dubious. A prime example is the insistence on reference to the Lutheran confessions--most visitors to a website probably wouldn't even know what those are; including this detail would be simply uninformative. Those who do know what the Lutheran confessions are, and who are interested in them, would certainly require more intensive instruction than is feasible via a congregation's website; for them, including this detail would be superfluous. To be frank, exposition of the Lutheran confessions is the role of catechesis and preaching, not a website.
Another questionable criterion is the use of the name "Lutheran." The oldest church listed in the WELS yearbook was originally named "The First High German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church of Columbus, Ohio" during its early, unionistic stage. By the study's criteria as stated, this church would have been rated "green" or "yellow" if there had been websites in the 1820s. Such a criterion would clearly allow numerous "Lutheran in name only" congregations to receive a "passing" score in this category.
Insisting on mention of the Sacraments and liturgical services are also dubious criteria. The Roman Catholics talk about the Sacraments and the liturgy--but they aren't Lutheran. Using the criteria as stated, heterodox non-Lutheran churches could easily receive a passing grade in these categories.
Finally, the evaluation of websites based on whether or not a Scripture quotation appears on the home page is also a dubious criterion. As of this moment, John Hagee Ministries currently has a Scripture quotation on its homepage--does that make him Lutheran-leaning? Your study would have rated his website as "green" in this category.
Due to the faultiness of your criteria, even a heterodox church hypothetically could receive four or five "green" scores on your "Lutheran standards." Clearly, most of your criteria are either too vague or not truly distinctive of Lutheranism.
At this point, the study is salvageable, and the premise still has potential, but the criteria are in serious need of revision, and the data gathering needs to include more than simply home pages. Until that is done, the study as it stands is of very little value in quantifying "church growth" inroads in the WELS.
Eric Olafssen
But why are these particular standards important to genuine Confessional Lutherans? My answer: because (a) those who self-identify as Confessional Lutherans recognize that it is necessary to actually Confess something specificregarding Lutheran doctrine and practice; and (b) because Confessional Lutherans recognize that when they make their public confession, they are not just addressing a single audience, but are simultaneously addressing three important audiences.
In the case of (a), many new initiates into the controversy of today's Lutheran identity crisis, approach it not from the standpoint of Confessional integrity (most, due to catechetical failure, not having any idea what that really entails), but from the standpoint of general Evangelical sentiment, claiming that it sufficient to publicly proclaim, "We believe what the Bible says", in order to satisfy the integrity demanded of them by their professed Confessional stance. But this is wrong. Every Christian on the planet claims to "believe what the Bible says", and then gives his own explanation for what this phrase really means – they have to provide an explanation because the phrase itself can mean so many different things that it is essentially meaningless, other than to identify a person or a group as vaguely Christian. The fact is, it is NOT sufficient to say, "I believe everything the Bible says," or "We are a Bible Church," etc., because such a statement fails to answer the very next, and more important, question, "What do yousay the Bible says?"
Confessions answer this question for us. In appealing to the Confessions, we are appealing to what Lutherans uniquely say that the Bible says. In this regard, our Confessions are definitive – even more so given that our agreement to the Lutheran Confessions is not just rhetorical, but carries with it the force of Christian Conscience, as we agree to our Confessions, not merely rhetorically, but as a matter of self-identity, fully and eternally convinced of their testimony to the Truth of Scripture.
In the case of (b), many "Evangelical Lutherans," who forget that there is a specific Confession attending the label they apply to themselves (or worse, disregard it as unimportant), are under the mistaken impression that "Confessing their faith" simply means, "Telling the Gospel to the unbelieving World." While it true that the unregenerate are one audience to which our Confession can be directed, it is false to say that they are the only audience, or even the primary audience. Furthermore, while the Lutheran Confession, being centered upon the "Evangel", or the Good News of Justification by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Jesus Christ Alone, is inherently and uniquely "evangelical", our Confession does not primarily function as an evangelism tool. Its primary function is to both divide and unite, and it is addressed primarily to the heterodox and the orthodox, as well as the unregenerate. A Confession will make clear the separation of the unbeliever from Christ and from eternal salvation, while extending this promise to them in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A Confession will also warn the heterodox of their separation from the Truth of God's Word, warn them of the danger this separation represents to their eternal welfare, while attempting to restore them to the Truth through the application of Scripture and sound reason. A Confession will also announce itself to fellow orthodox believers, declare their unity in the Faith, and draw them into Fellowship. And it will accomplish all of these things in the pattern of sound words adopted by orthodox believers from throughout the history of the Church on Earth.
Continued in next comment...
Finally, there is no Confession apart from corresponding public practice that is calculated to demonstrate that Confession, in a way that, apart from mere words, announces both the separation of unbelievers from Christ and the separation of the heterodox from orthodoxy, recognizes and welcomes orthodox brethren into Fellowship, invites others to share in this unity through Faith in Christ and full acceptance of the Truth, and, by embracing the familiar forms of the past in the same way that the pattern of sound words is retained, assures the Christian that no ill-conceived innovation is being foisted upon him.
The fact is, a Lutheran Church is by definition a Confessing Church – a tall order in and of itself, and a unique thing on the landscape of American Christianity. As a result, strange though it may seem in comparison to the methods of pop-church evangelicals, the public representation of a Lutheran congregation ought to address itself, Confessionally, in both word and deed, not just to prospective new members, but to the unregenerate, the heterodox and the orthodox, whether prospects or not. And this includes its website (increasingly so, given the overwhelming ubiquity of the internet as a platform for public communication). Does this mean that a congregation's website must deliver a full dissertation on all matters of doctrine and practice? No. Not at all. Although, depending on the character of a given congregation and the nature of the community in which it is placed, a more thorough explanation of certain issues may be entirely in order. But what is expected by genuine Confessional Lutherans is that congregations applying this label to themselves publicly give well-balanced evidence that their name isn't just a placard, that their Confession is genuine. The six standards chosen by Mr. Kneprath and his team, and the relatively low thresholds they set for meeting these standards (like, "a Bible Verse," or "a simple Gospel message of some sort"), strike me as a very fair minimum. In my opinion, for Lutheran congregations to fail to live up to their Confession in these basic and very simple ways, disenfranchises not only their Brethren, but the heterodox and the lost as well.
Thank you Vernon, and team – I'm definitely looking forward to future installments.
Is that all the identity of a church is, a church building? One will know the identity of a church, in part, by what else they see on the website home page. What does a church stand for? What message will one hear if they go to this church building pictured on the home page? This is the confession that Douglas Lindee talks about. There is nothing scary or complicated or voluminous about a confession. Most WELS churches (I hope and pray) still have one in their worship service. It's called the Apostles' Creed. It doesn't take up that much space on a home page. And some chose to put it there.
Website advisors will tell you that pictures are good, but the first paragraph of text is especially important. You may have one opportunity to communicate with a website visitor. The first thing a website visitor may see is the home page of the website, and they may never go beyond that. What precious few words will you use in that first paragraph? Whose wisdom will you depend on to communicate your church identity? What is the single most important thing you could say?
It is faith that comes from the Word that saves. In that light, I think measuring the capacity of a church body's use of God's Word on the home page has value, at least in regard to defining the identity of that church body. If some people are not happy about what was found, I can understand that. I wasn't pleased with what was found either.
Vernon
Of course there was! The title says, "Church Growth Inroads in the WELS". How is that not a value judgment based on the results in this report?
I totally agree that you can find evidence of church growth inroads in the WELS by looking at websites. But that's not what this "study" did. Instead, it made assumptions based on a lack of evidence.
Regarding those who have been critical of the work done so far, I must ask, where was your input when the project was first proposed? At least one of the critics has been a regular visitor of Intrepid. His comments to posts date back to before the proposal for this project was first posted. The explanation of the work in this project was quite detailed in the proposal. The format in which the observations would be presented was there, just like it was in this "first look". The fact that the analysis would look at home pages was explained, and the reasons were given for why. The title of the work has not changed. So why the criticism now, and not then? Is it because it is so much easier to be critical after the fact?
The results of the work so far are simply observations. That is how the work has been presented and stated, as observations. Conclusions drawn are largely the conclusions of the reader. And I'm perfectly fine with that, as long as it is recognized who is drawing the conclusions.
I hope that the accusation of sloppiness is not being equated to and confused with the absence of precision. This work is not about precision. There can only be the illusion of precision in work such as this, and I'm not about to pretend that this work is precise. Many of those who saw value in this work, saw it for what it was intended, a revelation of trends regarding the criteria that were identified, criteria that were identified up front some months ago.
I would restate once again, this was an analysis of church website home pages, not the churches themselves. Those who claim this is an analysis of congregations are drawing those conclusions themselves.
I do appreciate the criticism, because it is the criticism that I will respond to in future posts. One of the critics brought up a comparison of what might be found at other church bodies. That made me wonder, how would a similar analysis of website home pages from the LCMS or the ELCA compare to that of the WELS. In searching for website links for WELS congregations, on a few occasions, I accidently ended up at ELCA congregations that happened to have the same name as the WELS congregation in that same city. Some names such as "Grace" or "Trinity" are quite common across denominations. In those few cases, just by looking at the home page of the website, I thought to myself "This can't possibly be a WELS congregation". On one occasion, it was obvious, since the pastor pictured on the home page was a female. In the other cases, it was less obvious then that, but still sufficiently apparent to make me wonder if I had the right church. In those few cases, I was somewhat relieved to find out that they weren't WELS congregations. So yes, there is much to be learned from the home page of a church website, and the fact that I could differentiate between denominations in those cases, based on the content of home pages validates that point.
Vernon
First, no one has said or implied that a red mark signifies "shame." If my website were evaluated (which it won't be, because we are not WELS), I would have at least one red mark. I am neither ashamed of that nor do I feel any need to rectify it, because I am happy with the information being confessed on an adjacent page to our homepage. Nor would the authors of this study criticize me or our church's website because we're not "all green." It's not "good vs. evil." It's an observation of trends in areas that are commonly indicative of one's confession. Defensiveness is uncalled for.
Secondly, you are twisting the facts and making things up when you claim that "you are being branded" as anything. Again, more unnecessary defensiveness. To be "branded," one must be identified. To say that someone is being "branded" anonymously is ridiculous. It is likely that your church's website was not even evaluated, much less identified or branded as anything. Calm down and apply reason rather than emotion.