Crosspoint Church, Georgetown, Texas is my third outing to a Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod church. At the following link you can view the one I attended on 23 April 2023: https://crosspointgtx.wpengine.com/liveworship/ . But if you want to know where the service and sermon originated. Go to this link: https://national.cc/about. Of if you want the original sermons go here https://national.cc/media/win-the-day . As with the other two, I came away from this ‘experience’ drained, depressed, defeated, and unimpressed. These folks are winning the day because it’s really a preaching of American Civil Religion. But with Shania Twain’s 1997 hit I say, “that don’t impress me much.”
This church was founded as Cross and Crown Lutheran Church. It has rebranded itself Crosspoint Church. The Starting Point is your first step toward membership. This is what the bulletin says: “NEXT STEP – The Starting Point is a 30 min workshop to discover more about the mission, vision, and values of Crosspoint. Speak to Pastor Mike for current schedule.” I hope this is just a meet and greet. But I once taught a couple from a WELS mission plant. The wife had been confirmed in the ELCA in the 90s. The husband had never been confirmed or catechized, yet both were communicant members of WELS.
The source material for Pastor Mike’s sermon is Dr. Mark Batterson founder and head pastor of the National Community Church, Washington, D.C.. Before even looking him up I wrote this about Pastor Mike he “dresses like a non-denominal pastor and speaks like a Pentecostal.” When I finally did look Doctor Mark up, I saw that Pr. Mike dresses, talks, and acts like Dr. Mark. I also found Dr. Mark’s website: “Our Affiliations National Community Church is interdenominational in makeup and strategically aligned with the Assemblies of God (AG)”.
It’s true; you can use another man’s sermons and still be a Confessional Lutheran. Poor preaching and uneducated pastors led to Luther’s House and Church Postils. But they were written by Luther not a Pentecostal preacher who is a Bible College grad with a Doctor of Ministry from the online Regent University. Again with Shina: “that don’t impress me much.” The sermon series used in the WELS mission plant appears to be one of the National Community Church free sermon series. And they seem to be marketed the way 1950’s housewives were marketed processed, canned foods. They weren’t really good until you added your special fixings.
The premise of this sermon “Kiss the Wave” did impress me and came from Charles Spurgeon, and Pastor Mike dutifully gave him credit. “’I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.’ – Charles Spurgeon”. But the sermon, and most likely the sermon series, is “how to”. The last page of the sermon notes reveal that Pastor Mark, and now presumably Pastor Mike, are back in the Middle Ages. It says, “’If you want God to do the super, you have to do the natural’”. Pastor Mike lets you know he is ‘borrowing’ by putting it in quotation marks. He doesn’t here let you know it’s from a short devotion of Pastor Mark found here: https://www.markbatterson.com/eat-the-frog/#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20God%20to,out%20the%20door%20on%20time. Since “Eat the Frog”, next week’s sermon, is from the same source, I assume Pastor Mike properly attributed it then.
The sermon notes read like an article from Field & Stream. Catchy little phrases that give you the impression you’re learning something when you’re only learning about it. Here are the 3 parts of Pr. Mike’s/ Dr. Mark’s sermon: Kiss the Wave! 1. Face your Fear. 2. Stand Firm in Peace. 3. Move Forward in Faith. You really didn’t need to hear his sermon. The outline said it all. But then he did the mid-50’s housewife ‘trick’ of adding his own special ingredients of tangents, non sequitur segues that gave you the feeling his text was Genesis to Revelation.
Again with Shania, this didn’t impress me much. So why then do I think pastors of this ilk are going to win the day, here and now, in this life? Because they are dishing out what people are hungry for. Not just people who were formerly Reformed Christians, but people in general are touched by the spirit of Pentecostalism which floods Christian radio and songs. (The Catholic Relevant Radio main Bible teacher is a charismatic priest!) Confessional Lutheranism, at least some of its leaders, are too. They think Jesus’ dictum that those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth is fulfilled by bringing people Confessional Lutheran truth fitted with the Reformed spirit. The one that Luther said he himself would have no truck with. (Look this use of ‘truck’ up; it has interesting origins.)
This is ultimately a selling out of Confessional Lutheranism. No, it’s a bait and switch that will lead to a loss of our Confession that the Spirit apart from Word and Sacrament can only be of the devil. Too strong? Read this from Pastor Mike’s third page “Sermon Reflections: Apply to My Life”. “The thought the Spirit is leading me to focus on is: The change the Spirit is leading me to work on is: The action the Spirit is prompting me to take is:”
Some Calvinist talk this way, most Baptist do, all Pentecostals do, and Lutherans who embrace contemporary worship, Reformed thinking, or Christian Radio do too. But me and Shania strutted out of there singing: “Whatever. That don’t impress me much.”
