How the WELS Apostates Won Big with Leonard Sweet, Kent Hunter, and Waldo Werning
I put together material about the infamous Leonard Sweet, Kent Hunter, Waldo Werning conference promoted and canceled by WELS Church and Change. The WELS conservatives celebrated their brave stand and the results in 2005. I started to take notice of Leonard Sweet because several WELS contacts let me know about the proposed event in advance.
Step by step, this is how the apostates won by losing. Take note, Hot Air Merchants of the Right. You may learn something from the Left.
First the apostates proposed the most obnoxious speakers they could find. Sweet is so fatuous, Left-wing, and ridiculous that a mildly Lutheran minister should have fits over the Methodist guru. Kent Hunter is a Lutheran version of the same model - the Church Doctor, as he calls himself. If Hunter has been helping his own LCMS, here is some news - the patient died under your care. His elder brother in promoting WELS/LCMS/ELS Church Growth is Waldo Werning.
By the way, the Church Growth Movement--favored so much by Werning and Hunter--is moving into New Age mysticism, through Leonard Sweet and his pal Rick Warren. Just study Leonard Sweet's website for proof. Or his vita for a Robert Schuller conference: "LEONARD SWEET, Ph.D. Morristown, NJ - Leonard is author and founder of Wikiletics, a futurist, a semiotician, and a preacher who communicates the gospel to a postmodern world." (He forgot to list - Hippy Gasbag.) More content can be found on the Sweet website.
Second, the WELS apostates played the role of victim when the furor forced them to cancel the 2005 Church and Change conference. The Leonard Sweet-hearts sent their letters to Charis/Church and Change, and their names were omitted from the published letters. Critics sent their letters, which were also published - with the names included. How convenient. The Sweet-hearts could remain a closely knit and secretive group while their opponents were revealed. The whole withdrawal process was done not in the spirit of godly contrition. Instead, the leaders were resently, self-pitying, and accusatory.
Third, the conservatives suffered from a collective case of premature celebration. They won! Charis (the journal) was crushed. Church and Change was no more. The deceivers at WELS headquarters really pulled the wool over the critics' eyes. While the critics were high-fiving across the country, the apostates were making Church and Change an official part of the WELS.net website, not just part of Wisconsin Lutheran College/Charis.
The conservatives forgot that Wayne Mueller was voted out of office, waited for the new VP to refuse to serve, and then voted back into office. He turned that defeat into victory and even saw his defeat omitted from the magazine's account of the convention. The canceled conference was a minor setback.
Fourth, when the 2007 conference was set up on the WELS.net website, no one objected. The conservatives--who tire easily and often--did not put up a fuss. There may be some hope. The Church and Change jumpword is gone from the WELS website. Church and Change has the same website as before, but the lack of an official link is telling.
Conclusion. The apostates have won in all the denominations by being persistent. They retreat two steps and then move three steps forward a bit later. They lose the vote on the third day of the convention and reverse the vote on the fourth day, when everyone is packing up the suitcases and heading for the airport. The apostates have won by avoiding the doctrinal battles in favor of the political fights. That is where their Father Below always wins. As I heard so many times, "He is not a false teacher. He is a nice guy." One WELS circuit pastor defended a Fuller Seminary graduate by saying, "I drank a lot of beer with him in school." I never determined how beer consumption made someone a sound teacher.
