WELS Pulls a Pentecostal Maneuver

I admit to being a little confused about this, due to lack of information. The Michigan District of WELS is loaded with information about the financial crisis, but I find only one other district (Southwest Wisconsin) addressing the matter from their WELS website location.

I picked links, then went to all links. The districts are found under groups. Each district has a link and some additional information on that linking page.

This is what I conclude. WELS seems to be angling for a change in the mission offering pledge, above what was already pledged before. The leaders want this new level to be the new status quo. Michigan has a slide show on this. No one else does. The plan seems to be - have a new set of figures for the WELS convention in New Ulm. They want another $5 million on top of the current pledges.

I call this a Pentecostal maneuver because this was described to me as a method used by professional pledge fund ministers at Pentecostal and Evangelical congregations. The Reformed have a big meeting and expect people to turn in signed pledge cards at its climax. The pledge cards are added up. Then one professional says, "I signed a card, but I am not happy with what I put down. I am going to tear it up and raise my pledge." The other man says and does the same thing. Then the cards are passed back to the audience so everyone can tear up a card and sign a new one. Some quick-thinking blog-readers are imagining they would put the same amount down. But no, the cards have been examined already. So the congregation feels the compulsion of the Law and signs new ones.

Someone wrote to a famous journalist about the congregation's fund-raising efforts. "We have had bake sales, slave days, donkey days, rummage sales, and many more things, but we still do not have enough money. What should we do?" His answer was, "Try religion."