wfn.org | LCMS President Criticizes Leaders of Jesus First and Daystar

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

  Title: LCMS President Criticizes Leaders of Jesus First and Daystar

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services
1333 S. Kirkwood Road St. Louis, MO 63122-7295

61st Regular Convention St. Louis, Mo. July 14-20, 2001

July 18, 2001 #21

Contact: Bruce Kueck (314) 342-5715

LCMS President Criticizes Leaders of Jesus First and Daystar

Respond to Kuhn comments

ST. LOUIS The leaders of two organizations that they say were singled out 
Sunday for criticism by the president of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 
say they were "disappointed" and "saddened" by his comments.

In his report to the Synod s triennial convention Sunday, LCMS President 
Robert T. Kuhn told delegates that "it truly hurts me that in our Synod in 
the past several years, there have arisen groups that claim to put Jesus 
first, or that they are trying to shine like stars, when it is obvious they 
are attempting to advance an old liberal theology and practice &."

Leaders of the two organizations, known as "Jesus First" and as 
"DayStar.Net," said in separate interviews Tuesday, July 17, that they 
understood Kuhn s comments to be directed at their organizations.

"Jesus First is not a left-wing group," said the Rev. Wayne Graumann, 
pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball, Texas, and convention team 
leader for Jesus First. "We are just common ordinary Missouri Synod 
Lutherans who are trying to do God s work, led by His Spirit and with our 
human frailties. We are certainly nothing to fear."

Graumann said that what Jesus First has sought for the Synod is 
organizational health, the advancement of mission and a "forward-looking 
agenda."

"It is surprising to us that we became left wing simply because we have 
raised our voices to protest a system that we have seen as working in 
unhealthy ways," Graumann said. "Our congregations work with trust and 
empowerment, but we have seen the Synod acting another way. &

"The point we were trying to make is that the system has been agree or be 
castigated, " Graumann continued. "Unhealthy systems always react that way."

The Rev. Dr. David Stein, senior pastor of Lutheran Church of the Holy 
Spirit, Elk Grove Village, Ill., and president of DayStar.Net, said he was 
"disappointed" by Kuhn s remarks.

"Although we are all imperfect as organizations, associations and groups of 
the church, it was unfair for President Kuhn to single out DayStar and 
Jesus First without reference to other publications," Stein said. "He was 
not vindictive in his remarks, but I think it was inappropriate not to list 
those on the so-called other side. "

Stein identified DayStar, which maintains a web site and e-mail 
conferences, as "a group of people who began a conversation after the 1998 
[Missouri Synod] convention to talk about the direction that the Synod is 
going." He added that many of those in DayStar have been "out of the 
conversation" in the Synod for many years, but now are saying that they 
want to be part of it."

Kuhn said that he had not specifically named Jesus First and DayStar in his 
report. The president said that what he said, he "said intentionally so as 
not to pick up any particular name." He noted that he had also made 
reference to "noisy minorities, both to the right and the left."

PHOTOGRAPHS: Photos of convention coverage are available at 
www.lcms.org/convention/

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