The following was taken from a blog by Rev. Eric Swensson entitled "The Evangelical Church’s health lies in its members proclaiming their praises. An ambiguous faith has nothing to praise, nothing to proclaim." -
". . . I had an enormous task ahead of me in my research for the writing of a thesis and a book for which I felt I was not equal. While it was of sufficient interest to occupy my mind, still I had time to think, and think I did about it seems like everything, especially the things I loved including my congregation and its crisis in regards to leaving its denomination over the loss of sound teaching. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has many teachers of the faith who do not believe the Bible when it speaks of hell. How widespread this belief is was driven home for me when I was at a luncheon with the pastors of my conference. One of them let it drop while at table waiting for our orders that he did not believe there was a hell and another agreed with him. Out of curiosity, I asked if everyone else felt the same way and three quarters quickly agreed. They gave variations of the theme of alienation for their understanding. The result was my alienation from them! With that and the many other opinions I have heard expressed in the 'Journey to Faithfulness' in the ELCA, which was in effect a decade of controversy, I had plenty of time to think about the nature of faith and how we teach it, and this too, of course, drives us to prayer." (read here)
". . . I had an enormous task ahead of me in my research for the writing of a thesis and a book for which I felt I was not equal. While it was of sufficient interest to occupy my mind, still I had time to think, and think I did about it seems like everything, especially the things I loved including my congregation and its crisis in regards to leaving its denomination over the loss of sound teaching. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has many teachers of the faith who do not believe the Bible when it speaks of hell. How widespread this belief is was driven home for me when I was at a luncheon with the pastors of my conference. One of them let it drop while at table waiting for our orders that he did not believe there was a hell and another agreed with him. Out of curiosity, I asked if everyone else felt the same way and three quarters quickly agreed. They gave variations of the theme of alienation for their understanding. The result was my alienation from them! With that and the many other opinions I have heard expressed in the 'Journey to Faithfulness' in the ELCA, which was in effect a decade of controversy, I had plenty of time to think about the nature of faith and how we teach it, and this too, of course, drives us to prayer." (read here)
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