WELS has been trying to fool all of the members all of the time, but the latest efforts of the leaders have torn the mask away.
The WELS Crisis Documents prove that the budget has been transformed for the last 27 years, tilting toward a top-heavy administration and world missions, away from their own school system.
How hard is this to picture:
- Administration percentage steadily upward from 1980.
- School subsidy steadily downward from 1980.
- World missions trending upward since 1980?
The inevitable result is higher tuition costs. Here is a simple formula:
Tuition = Salaries = School Budget. Most of a school's cost comes from teachers' salaries. Most of the income is from tuition. All private schools are subsidized by endowments or by denominational transfers. When WELS began strangling its own school system, the tuition had to go up quickly. When WELS used school fees to balance the synod budget, tuition had to go up even more. When the tuition went up too fast, 600 students dropped out of the WELS system. That alone is an annual cost of 5 million dollars (more or less).
Another cost, difficult to calculate, is the price of alienating people. The top-heavy WELS administration has proven its incompetence year after year. Now matters are so bad that Gurgel will not run for president and rebellion has raised its head, albeit meekly. People do not give long-term from being scared to death, threatened, intimidated, manipulated. They give from Gospel motivation, sadly lacking for many years.
One WELS pastor said to me, "In the past the conventions were great because the pastors got together and made decisions. Now the Milwaukee guys tied up the debate and load the votes. Everythign is determined before the convention starts."
Evidence comes from the way the debate is being tilted toward - "Give more money or we will kill off another school. And your little dog, too!" (Wizard of Oz allusion. Ignore the frighened man behind the curtain.) This should not be a hostage situation. The synod has millions to use to reduce the administration by 75% and bring home the world missionaries that necessitate so many trips around the world.
They love their Management by Objective theory. Why not face the facts and do what is right, for once?
