WELS Pod People

In "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," innocent people keep trying to tell others that aliens are assuming the form of humans and taking over the world. Each time the listener turns out to be one of the pod people.

One WELS observer wrote me that this has been the story of WELS for the last 40 years. No matter who is elected for what office, no matter what he says he will do, he turns into one of the pod people and is worse, if anything.

The bureaucracy has become self-perpetuating. The bigger it is, the more it wants for itself. "Feed me." That's another picture - "Little Shop of Horrors."

Like my friend, I doubt that any election will change matters in WELS. All the synods are coming unglued. That is not exactly tragic, given the damage they inflict on people.

WELS President Gurgel Will Not Run for Re-Election

May 14, 2007



Dear called workers,

President Gurgel has announced he will decline nomination for reelection at the synod convention this summer. He mailed a letter to all of you late last week explaining his thoughts. If you have not yet received it, it should be arriving shortly.

Sincerely,

Joel Hochmuth
Director of Communications
WELS
414-256-3230
joel.hochmuth@sab.wels.net

**********************

GJ - This is not exactly a surprise. However, before the WELS people starting high-fiving, I want to remind them that Gurgel was first elected because he was against the merger of DMLC and NWC. As soon as he was elected, he told the convention he was for the merger. Someone there said he looked like a changed man. The claim was - and I only report this as a rumor - that some people took him aside and explained how it was going to be. I really don't know.

And again, Wayne Mueller was voted out of office - almost impossible in WELS. His replacement refused to serve as First VP, so they had more votes and Wayne got back in. Was there another taking aside of the officer elect? I don't know.

The issue is doctrine, not bricks, mortar, and money. If WELS cannot get out of bed with ELCA, if WELS cannot kick the false teachers out, then it really does not matter who is elected to any office.

Waldo Werning - From Ft. Wayne to Fuller Seminary

Endorsed by Robert Preus
Robert Preus: "This is not a handbook on how to do certain things, not offering us gimmicks, procedures, models, and the like, although there is much of practical material to be found throughout. It is rather a theology of church growth and missions." [foreword by Robert Preus]
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 9.

Endorsed by Pentecostal Baptist Wagner
C. Peter Wagner, Pentecostal Baptist: "Waldo Werning has made an outstanding contribution to the church growth movement in America with Vision and Strategy for Church Growth...Working out of the models established by Donald McGavran and the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, Waldo Werning breaks new ground in developing ways that church growth principles can be applied directly to American churches." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner]
Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, Second Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p. 5.

Who’s Who in Church Growth!
"Waldo Werning is director of the Stewardship Growth Center of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and an adjunct professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. He teaches a seminar course and conducts seminars which focus on 'supply side stewardship,' integrating church growth principles with a stewardship program."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 274.

Like A Mighty Shallow Creek
"A second example of this homogenization is Waldo J. Werning's Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, published by Moody Press in 1977."
"Werning is a Missouri Synod Lutheran executive. Although Werning's denominational publishing house did not publish his book, it is nevertheless an attempt by Werning to create an instrument for church growth among Missouri Synod Lutherans. If you read Werning, you can readily see that he is exceedingly eclectic, drawing from everywhere, including his own tradition."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 33f.

OK, I Joined to Get the List
Lutheran members of the North American Society for Church Growth: Harold S. Drageger, Grace Lutheran, Visalia, CA; Bradley Hoefs, King of Kings Lutheran, Omaha, NE; Kent Hunter, Church Growth Center, Corunna, IN; Elmer Matthias, Emeritus Concordia St. Louis, MO; Dale Olson, Cross of Hope Lutheran, Ramsey, MN; Waldo J. Werning, Stewardship Growth Center, Ft. Wayne, IN; Gregory L. Jackson, Columbus, OH. Doris M. Wagner, Fuller Theological Seminary, December 10, 1991.

WELS Noticed and Liked
"There are other church growth programs which have been developed along more conservative lines. Here we are thinking of adaptations of McGavran's principles such as developed by Waldo J. Werning of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In his study entitled Vision and Strategy for Church Growth Werning has modified some of McGavran's extreme positions. Using some of his own adaptations Werning has conducted many seminars and workshops in applying church growth principles to a local congregational setting in America."
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, 78, p. 117.

Valleskey Loves Werning’s Doctrine
"Introduction to the Church Growth Movement by Lutheran authors, Hunter, Kent R., Foundations for Church Growth (New Haven, MO: Leader Publishing Co., 1983) - the author, an LC-MS clergyman who has now set up his own church growth consulting service, performs the valuable service in this 204 page book of presenting an introduction to church growth goals and terminology. Werning, Waldo, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1977) - Werning, active for years in LC-MS stewardship work, explains the foundations, presuppositions and principles of church growth and then shows how a congregation can benefit from making use of certain church growth principles - of the two books listed in this category, Werning's is the more practical."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A. p. 6.

Be Silent, Jackson!
"I would not say this publicly, but I will tell privately that I received a phone call from a WELS pastor who said that some claim that there are several WELS pastors in your Circuit who are into church management and some kind of church growth (and possibly even funded by some agencies) and that some believe that you are trying to get at them and a few others in WELS, and that is why you are writing the articles. Whatever the facts are, your entering into this fray, it seems to me, will not open up channels for God to use your very good talents in WELS in profitable ways."
Waldo J. Werning, Letter to Gregory Jackson, August 23, 1989 (Letter stamped in red: CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL)

Werning on Werning
"A basic resource to study is Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, available from the Stewardship Growth Center, 1914 Wendmere Lane, Ft. Wayne, IN, 46825."
Waldo J. Werning, Renewal for the 21st Century Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1988, p. 160.

Gimme That Old Time Ecumenism, It Was Good Enough for Waldo and It's Good Enough for Me
"False ecumenism wants organizational unity instead of Scriptural unity."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 101.

Like Studying at Fuller Seminary, At the Feet of Pentecostal Ninnies?
"Unscriptural fellowship means acceptance of differences in doctrine, which are ignored by conducting joint religious acts and worship."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 102f.

Exit the Means of Grace
"Churches fail to grow when leaders become victims of a fatalistic attitude and defeatism. Also, they fail to grow when they become prisoners of their buildings and lose their mobility, confining their activities within the walls of the sanctuary."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 157f.

Who Needs the Gospel As Long As People Want Growth?
"C. Peter Wagner writes that 'the indispensable condition for a growing church is that it must want to grow.'" [C. Peter Wagner, "What Makes Churches Grow?" Eternity (June 1974), 17.]
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 158.

The Holy Spirit Has a Strategy, SMART Goals from Drucker
"Mission outreach and church growth are thwarted and retarded by too much dependence on paid workers, by too little training and participation of lay people, by too little sensitivity to the authority and strategy of the Holy Spirit, by acceptance of small results long after the large response should have been expected. The church is also hurt when goals are inarticulate, inadequate, immeasurable, or unattainable."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 158.

So Where Did You Get Your Book Title?
"Donald McGavran offered us the following essay on 'The Unique and Radical Nature of the Church Growth Movement.'"
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 159.

I Planted, Apollos Watered, But Members Gaveth the Growth
"Your church will grow by God's grace because members will want it to grow in obedience to God's will and because you are using strategy and methodology in making disciples. Then nongrowth will be called nongrowth, and growth will be accepted as a gift from God."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 159.

Werning Cautions Against Foolish Discussions and Anger!
"Steer clear of foolish discussion which lead people into the sin of anger with each other. 2 Timothy 2:14, 16 Living Bible."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 200.

Someone's Cell Grouping, Kum-by-ya
"The New Testament tells of this koinonia as a togetherness to share, to participate together, with Jesus in the center. This it is that makes it the church and not just another organization."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 92.

Beehives Are Cell Groups, Too
"Cell groups of Christians fellowshiping together date back to the first century, for it was largely through the activities of little groups or cells of believers that the message of Jesus Christ spread throughout the Roman Empire."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 93.

Explosive Koinonia Rather Than the Efficacious Word
"Koinonia should always be explosive or radical, driving one deeper into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then driving one out into the world to fulfill the mission of the church."
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 94.