Norm Teigen Officially Denies

From Norm Teigen's Blog:

more on Church and Change - a MEA CULPA for Norman?

A very reliable source has informed me that my ELS pastor friend has withdrawn from his participation in Church and Change.

This source writes: "I could find no official tie between Church and Change and WELS. From what I could find, Church and Change may 'report' to WELS, but there's nothing official. They are not listed as an organization on the WELS website."

My conclusion is that I may have misinformed myself on this issue.

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GJ - My first impression - the fur is flying and Wayne Mueller's denying. Pass the word - there is no connection between Church and Change, Fuller Seminary, Leonard Sweet, Kent Hunter, and WELS. None. Period. Nada. If you think so, you have broken fellowship with WELS/ELS just by letting that thought poison your mind.

OK. Deep breath. I will look it up on the WELS.net website. Hold on. I will be right back.

I'm back. I have the WELS site listed in my Lutheran folder, in a sub-folder labeled Pests.

The jumpword index, as of this moment, still lists Church and Change:

Jumpword -
churchChange Church and Change

That is pretty official, almost a nilhil obstat and imprimatur from the Love Shack Curia.

Listen to this - when I clicked on Church and Change, on the official WELS.net website, I got this link, which is not outside of the WELS website, but inside. Look at the address:

https://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/WELSForms.pl?&dir=churchChange

"Note well," as Father Mapple said in Moby Dick - WELSForms. WELSForms sound officially WELS, or am I reading too much into the word WELSForms? I may have misinformed myself.

I might listen to the denials if the link were outside the website, but the link is inside and protected (https = secure). It looks like I can sign up for this Church Growth hootenanny and pay for it. Too late to cancel if you have qualms. There is a $50 fine for dropping out after September 14th. Who says WELS has no doctrinal discipline!

In conclusion, WELS is lying...again.

GA works, my friends. Lying is institutionalized in WELS, just like some of their church workers have been (for murder, for molesting children, for having a fling with a minor girl).