Happy New Year, Soldiers

These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Thomas Paine

How Conservatives Can Win by Losing, Through the Efficacy of the Word Alone

The Word of God (A Scripture Fragment) and the Book of Concord Editors

Christians have a weapon far more powerful than the combined crafts and assaults of the apostates: the Word of God. Conservatives should not aspire to take over the reigns of power. We end up accomplishing only what we concentrate upon (and often not even that).

When the Cloaca Maxima of Hell, Fuller Seminary, got ministers, members, and mission boards to think about numbers, all the energy and focus turned on "How do we increase our numbers each year?" Gone was any thought of being faithful to the Word of God and the Confessions. In a few years, Biblical and Confessional thinking became the enemy.

Nevertheless, the great power of the Word is revealed in the demonic hatred of the apostates toward any semblance of fidelity to the Scriptures. The wrath and vindictiveness of these people can be stunning. They are not nice people, as they pretend. They cry out "Slander!" when questioned about their false doctrine and run the crudest slander machines on the planet, making the secular politicians look tame.

Believers only have the Word and the Confessions. Satan cannot tolerate ordinary, weak, fallible humans having a weapon that will always defeat him, so he rages without mercy. He will tear apart pastor's families, divide friends, ruin people financially. All this is cloaked with sanctity, but there is no doubt about the malice behind it. That is why so many are afraid of synodical apostates. Pure poison is beneath the buttered words.

Therefore, believers will always seem to be in a weak and losing position. Faithful pastors will get the two-point calls to Forgotten Lutheran and Misbegotten Lutheran, in Buffalo Chip, Oklahoma. People will sneer at their misfortune, as they should. As Luther said, "What the world loves, God despises; what God loves, the world despises."

A faithful layman or pastor will fulfill the dream of Archimedes: "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world." The lever for the faithful pastor or layman is the Word of God. Archimedes' hyperbole is reality with the efficacy of the Word.

The Invocation of the Holy Trinity is calling upon the power of God. The Absolution is the Promise of God fulfilled. The Creed, the liturgical service, and genuine hymns all support the proclamation of the Gospel, justification by faith alone. The Votum is a prayer by Paul and by the pastor for all the worshipers in the Lutheran service. The Aaronic benediction is not a sign-off, a time for grabbing the coat, purse, and kids, but the blessing of God Himself: the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Each time we hear those words we should think of the Trinity implicitly taught already in Numbers 6--The Lord, The Lord, The Lord.

Who can predict what one baptism will accomplish when accompanied by the nurture of the family (and even without it)? One believer marries another or converts the spouse. In a few years, that one baptism has turned into 100 family members as people gather for the funeral of a matriarch or patriarch. Some family members drift away from the Gospel, but others are converted by marriage or association. No one will write this up in Time, Newsweek, or the National Enquirer: Baptism in Steam Corners, Ohio lays foundation for 100 Christians.

Lutherans have forgotten the cross. The cross consists of those experiences directly related to being faithful to the Word. Cancer is not bearing the cross. Heart disease is not bearing the cross. Nor is homework, as one seminary student suggested.
When the synodical pope kicks congregations and pastors out for questioning his ambiguous political statements, that is bearing the cross. When the district popes remove pastors for questioning Church Growth doctrine and support known false teachers, that is bearing the cross.

The Wisconsin Synod ministerium has an informal communication system (much like a prison) called the Grapevine. The pastors are deathly afraid of the Grapevine. The apostates feed excuses for their fellow-apostates into the Grapevine and pitch slander against the faithful in the same way. For example, the former seminary president was called senile by the Grapevine, because he opposed the NWC-DMLC Anschluss. While he was dying of a stroke, a highly respected pastor was called brain-damaged for writing against Church Growth. He published his article before the stroke, but the Grapevine does not care about facts.

We should be afraid of God, not the Grapevine.

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2 KJV

Benefits of Being a Faithful Pastor, Ascending Order
1. Frequents moves. The adulterous (whether spiritually or carnally, often both) cannot abide the Word of God. They keep pastors moving.
2. New friends. The political pastors will not associate with anyone tainted by dissent from apostasy.
3. Lasting friends. Those who love orthodox Lutheran doctrine are united across synodical lines.
4. Renewed friends. Some people turn away when the painful truths are made known, but return to say, "It's worse than anything you ever said or wrote."
5. Knowledge that God's will is accomplished through His Word alone and never apart from His Word.
6. Seeing God at work in the Means of Grace, pastoral visitation, and teaching.

There is an abundant supply of evil people in the visible church. As Rauschenbusch said, religion is powerful. When united with good, it is a powerful good. When united with evil, it is a powerful evil.

However, God is just. Time wounds all heels.

The temptation is great to compromise for a better position, a chance to leave the cares and concerns of a congregation. The warped and twisted nature of our world is revealed in that pastors long to leave the Means of Grace to sit around at synodical meetings dealing with everything except the Means of Grace - and for higher pay and benefits. The rich, black suits and oreo collars! The new model cars! Housing allowance! Trips around the world on the synod's budget! Hobnobbing with the nabobs of Wikiletics! Name-dropping: Maxwell, Sweet, McNeal, Warren--at a seminary reunion!

Unfortunately, ministers are not encouraged to think of their work as worthwhile. Even if no one else thinks so, each minister should realize the power of God's Word and the wisdom of the Confessions.

Reading small histories has always been a hobby. Booklets tell about one small group of Lutherans, a group of missionaries, a district, a synod that emerged from various trends and merged into a new one. My dissertation was about the Augustana Synod, which lasted 100 years. The puzzle is figuring out who those leaders were. Many mother churches are gone, due to demographic and doctrinal trends. I wonder, "What remains?" Those who liked to strut about because of their power are forgotten by everyone. The Word of God remains forever. When those leaders were faithful, the Gospel bore fruit one hundred-fold. The faithful of those years embarrass the mods of today. The faithful are forgotten but God's work and will remain. The faithful win by losing.

Apostates Win by Losing When Conservatives Are Weak

"Whoa! That's my job, Antichrist."

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.

Episcopal Congregation Leaves Behind Building

This is fun, getting rid of conservatives!

Leaving A Church Behind

Congregation Prepares For A New Beginning

By KATIE MELONE | Courant Staff Writer

December 31, 2007

WATERTOWN — - It was the last Sunday service at Christ Church. Unable to go "further in a church that continued in a false gospel," the entire congregation, including the rector and church leaders, will sever ties with the national Episcopal Church and reform under a new name: New Hope Anglican Church.

One of the "Connecticut six," the half-dozen churches in the state diocese that disagree with national leadership on departure of scripture, including the appointment of a gay bishop, the congregation will trade its historic building on the town green for a free community room at the Thomaston Savings Bank around the corner.

The Sunday service will be held at the bank, starting Jan. 6, until they find or build another house of worship.

"We need to celebrate today, but we need to recognize there is a dying," the Rev. Allyn Benedict said in his final homily at the church. Reading off an overhead projector, church members sang hymns enthusiastically, clapping and raising hands in acknowledging their faith. They hugged one another, wishing peace.

The church was founded under the Church of England in 1764. In 2003, Benedict and several other Connecticut rectors clashed with Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith, who supported the naming of V. Gene Robinson as New Hampshire's bishop. Robinson is gay. Benedict and Christ Church leaders also feel the national church is rejecting scriptural authority and traditions of the church.

In cutting affiliation with the national leaders, the congregation has agreed to give up its church buildings and property, estimated to be worth $7 million, and its name, "Christ Church Parish." The congregation also ended its participation with the other Connecticut churches in a protracted legal battle against national leadership over church real estate, deciding that "it's not worth living under this oppression just for the property," said Paul LePine, the senior warden. Four of the "Connecticut six" have also ended their connection to the national church, LePine said.

"It's a tragedy when relationships fail," LePine said. "There's a relief of being free of that dysfunctional relationship we've been in for many years."

LePine's daughter, Rachel, 15, commented that while leaving is the right thing to do, "it is sad."

"That's kind of why we named it New Hope," she said.

"We're just moving on to where we're supposed to be," said Chris Varian, who was married at the church and has been a member for three years. "It's a transition. It's a lot of history and a lot of memories. It's bittersweet."

Contact Katie Melone at kmelone@courant.com.