How to Help Our Friends at "Issues, Etc."

Several friends who know how the LCMS works,  have written me about how we can best respond to the cancellation of "Issues, Etc."  Calls and emails will have great effect.  Please take the time to do this!

First, if you have benefited from "Issues, Etc.," tell them so, and express your disappointment at their decision.

Second, if you are not LCMS, be sure to let them know that.  Emails and calls from non-LCMS folk will have the most impact.

Third, let them know your thoughts about the way this was done, and how it negatively impacts your impression of the LCMS.  Church bureaucrats are especially sensitive to criticism of their methods.

The two people who need to hear from us soon are:

LCMS President, Rev Dr Gerald Kieschnick, 314 996 1402, president@lcms.org

and,  

David Strand: (LCMS Board of Communications), David.Strand@lcms.org

Please take a minute and send them both an email!  Maybe, we can turn this around!
 

Update on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 03:23PM by Kim Riddlebarger

KFUO has posted the "official reason" for the cancellation of "Issues, Etc."

For programmatic and business reasons, the decision was made  this week to discontinue the "Issues, Etc." program on KFUO-AM.  We look forward to bringing you new programming in this time slot  in the near future. Also, we thank "Issues" host Rev. Todd Wilken and producer Mr. Jeff Schwarz for their years of service on behalf of the station. Those interested may still download past "Issues, Etc." programs from the "Issues" archive on this website. Thank you sincerely for your continued support of KFUO's radio ministry.

After looking this up in my "English to Bureaucrat" dictionary, I now know that "business reasons"  is a phrase which can be rendered "follow the money."  If there is some debt in the LCMS worrying the bureaucrats, my guess is (and this is only a guess) that they want to sell the station and its valuable license. 

Update on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 03:28PM by Kim Riddlebarger

Here's a link to a blog with the latest info.  Be sure to read the testimonials posted on Pastor Weeden's blog.  If you don't think justification sola fide is a practical doctrine, this should change your mind!  Click here: Bring Back Issues Etc

Comments

[Rev. Charles Lehmann]

Thanks for your help getting the word out. Issues, Etc. doesn't just belong to confessional Lutheranism. It belongs to the church.

[AMY]

My husband called, I called, and I wrote an e-mail! Poor Todd. If you find out how he and Jeff are doing, let us know.

["lee n. field"]

"The President's Office is in receipt of your email message. Due to the high volume of correspondence received, you may not receive an immediate answer. However, please be assured that your message is important to the President and every effort will be made to respond as quickly as possible."

:-)

[John Yeazel]

Thanks for keeping me abreast of the issues etc. fiasco. I listen to the show frequently and have learned to rely on it to keep me informed on issues going on in the culture. The discussion is intelligent and done in a professional manner. I have learned a lot from listening to the show.

[Michael K. Rose]

One more non-Lutheran email to the LCMS president, to wit:

Dear President Kieschnick—

As a non-Lutheran regular listener to Todd Wilken and Issues, Etc., I feel compelled to express my dismay at the abrupt cancellation of Issues, Etc. and firings of Pastor Todd and Jeff Schwartz. Although I am a member of a non-denominational Bible church in rural East Texas, the law/gospel dichotomy and uncompromising Christ-centered/Cross-focused teachings of Issues, Etc. have been critical to my and my family’s increasing and continuing investigation and appreciation of confessional Lutheranism. I have been using hundreds of the podcasts and archived programs for personal edification and also have burned dozens of the IE programs to CD for sharing with my Pastor and other Christian friends.

IE clearly was unique in all of Christian radio (with the possible exception of the White Horse Inn) and I cannot express the depth of my disappointment with this decision and the apparent manner in which it was executed.

I had recently given a respectable donation in support of the program, was one of those who was contacted and met with consultant Mark Kordic in Texas, and was about to become a regular financial supporter of KFUO and IE. Thankfully, this transpired before I sent another dollar to KFUO.

I appreciate your taking the time to consider this non-member’s concerns over the IE situation.

Grace and Peace—

[Mike Iliff]

I've just seen this and sent the following:

Dear David & Gerald,

I am very sorry to hear that Issues etc has ceased to broadcast. I am not a Lutheran, neither am I an American, but an Englishman.

Though in the United Kingdom, I have greatly benefited from the program and it's strong stand for the Reformed faith. In fact I have a link to the station website on my own Church History website under 'Useful Links'.

Perhaps it's possible for you to reconsider or relaunch under a new name. It's a good and valuable contribution to the work of the Gospel.

Yours in Christ,

Mike Iliff

(Rugby, England - http://www.churchaudio.org.uk/refc/Useful%20Links.htm)

-------------------------------
Hope it helps.

[Jenna]

"If there is some debt in the LCMS worrying the bureaucrats, my guess is (and this is only a guess) that they want to sell the station and its valuable license."

As a lifelong LC-MS member and confessional Lutheran, let me say this without going too far into internal Synod issues: trust me, it has nothing to do with selling the radio station and everything to do with Issues, Etc.'s confessional/Reformational orientation. Synod is in the thrall of a mis-guided "missional" initiative called Ablaze!. Ablaze! is centered and depends upon the (outworn, unsuccessful) strategies of the Church Growth movement, mainly marketing and communication/group formation methodologies. It's a textbook example of evangelism by "deeds,not creeds." Synod is attempting to remake our administrative structures and all of our churches in that image.

Since Issues, Etc., was based upon completely opposite assumptions - "growing" the church through proclamation of the Gospel and strong catechesis within the congregation - it had to go. Doesn't fit in with the current "vision", don't you know.

[Steve Rowe]

Look I loved the show but let’s not idealize it. Todd and co. were excellent advocates for traditional liturgical reformation Christianity and they will be missed and KFUO appears to have treated them extremely shabbily. That being said their one sided defense of the most narrow and reactionary elements in the “Creation Science” undermined their witness to a lot of thoughtful non-christens, they had an annoying habit caricaturizing Armenian and dispensational doctrine during there “Evangelical Proof Text” segments and likely turned off a lot of conventional evangelicals who would otherwise have be sympathetic to the more liturgical approach to worship advocated by the LCMS. Most damming as far as I am concerned they allowed John Warwick Montgomery make the most outrageous statements about Islam without comment or challenge gleefully replaying them during there “sound bite of the week” segment. In short Issues Ect represented the best and the worst of the LCMS: intelligent, orthodox and cherishing tradition but also clannish, painfully conservative and I am afraid sometime intolerant. Lets pray that Todd and Jeff land on their feet (I am sure they will they are talented men) and what ever show replaces them keeps the intelligent confessional Lutheran core of the old show but also open itself up more to the best of the larger christen community.

Regards

Steve Rowe
Toronto, Canada

[Cheesehed]

There is an online petition that you can sign asking to reinstate the show. It has close to
1,000 signatures but can always use more!

http://www.petitiononline.com/Issues/petition.html

[Wyldeirishman]

Point#1: Armenian and dispensationalism do NOT have to be caricatured; they do a fine job of caricaturing Holy Scripture all on their own.

Point #2: The speculation that the program be "sold away" for the sake of further funding the Ablaze!(tm) fiasco is, I'm afraid, not without warrant. It seems to these listening ears that the Synod carefully waited for just the right moment before gently, tenderly deciding to pull the plug. I think Holy Week was the perfect choice, don't you?!?

Maybe I'm just being crabby. Or not missional enough. Or weak on sanctification. Or drinking. Or all of the above. But I will be absolutely DIPPED if I see anything that even halfway approaches the overall quality and intellectual/spiritual challenge of this show that ends up taking its place on the air.

Slainte,

Sean

[carolyn]

I listen to good teaching CDs regularly, and read constantly. There are enough great CD sets in my church library to keep anybody drowning in the best of Reformed theology for years. I literally never listen to the radio and haven't in 30 years except for the occasional traffic report. [My pastor passes us WHI broadcasts on CD so we don't miss out on those :) ]

If you don't have some sort of loaning library at your church for commuters to benefit from, you might want to think about starting one. Life w/o radio can be very rich with a pile of good CDs.

[George]

To underscore the rationale and reasoning behind Carolyn's recent post, there's this:

http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=500

We are certainly urged by the apostle Paul not to give up joining together for worship. But there are many faithful, confessional Christians who feel that their "church" (in the narrow sense) has abandoned them, not the other way around, leaving them little choice other than to meet in small groups using the media resources available nowadays to guide their Bible study and worship.