"Mike" has left a new comment on your post "What Would Spener Say?":
GJ - "This WELS pastor is being disingenuous, but I appreciate his public display of how WELS responds to everything less than starry-eyed adoration."
ME - This is exactly what I mean by putting the worst construction on everything. Is not doing so sin? You presume to know me and my motivations, yet you do not. Since you do not, you assume the worst and write your post against the straw man you presume me to be. Then, ironically, you accuse me of a straw man argument.
GS - "The straw man fallacy is typical for the Wisconsin sect. This Mike, who is a regular reader, knows what I would have said to the Apostle Paul and then announces what I would have said. Notice the implication: WELS is the Apostolic Church! Yes, reborn before our misty eyes."
ME - I have no misty eyed idealistic view of WELS. She has her faults as does every human institution.
In the bulk of your post, you go on to repeat your main themes and tirades. You ignore my points about your loveless, uncharitable posts which regularly break the 8th Commandment. (This includes your response to me.) My suggestion is, then, that you remove the plank from your own eye. I imagine you might be pleasantly surprised at what a response you might get when you approach others in humility, love and charity. By all means, continue to be direct and non-yielding when it comes to the truth. But you will not find a license for breaking the 8th Commandment no matter how right you are.
My point in bringing up the apostle Paul is that IF a WELS / ELS person were to express ideas, programs, seminars, etc. that help pastors and congregations better become "all things to all people" would you not scream "Fuller?" If not, I would appreciate a positive statement from you (or a link) regarding what you think churches should do to be all things to all people.
Despite your uncharitable view of me, the truth is I believe as you do that it is impossible for human beings to strengthen, improve on, or empower God's truth. It is efficacious and powerful in and of itself. Do you agree it is possible for us to muffle his truth, keep it from reaching a person's ears, or fail to communicate it clearly? Is it CGM when we learn how to remove or reduce barriers to communicating the gospel clearly? If I better know the mind of an unbeliever, might I better be "all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some?" If I give thought to having adequate parking at our church knowing that if I don't the first-time visitor might drive off, does this mean I am a CGM flunkie? Or is it possible that I'm so in love with Christ and his powerful Word that I will bend over backwards to remove every possible barrier which might keep a person from coming into contact with the Word and hearing it clearly?
Greg, a simple yes / no question: Are you taking other people's words and actions in the kindest possible way?
Was there shocking behavior in the early Christian churches to which Paul wrote? And how! What was his response to it? Do you see your response to shocking behavior in Lutheran churches to be in the same spirit as that of the apostle Paul?
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GJ - Note the bolded section above. I added the bold because it is pure Paul Kelm, who has made a career out of affirming Biblical, confessional truths and repudiating them in the next section with his clever Yes...but... That does not prove Paul Kelm wrote this. By now he has made so many disciples than any WELS pastor could have written this. The short-fusedness is very Kelmish. I will leave it at that.
The pathetic shallowness of efficacy but is the most disturbing part of this message. Was the Apostle Paul converted by a paved parking lot or by the Word of God? Is WELS shrinking because the parking lots are full? The empty lots should be a distinct marketing advantage.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Would Spener Say, II? Channeling Paul Kelm":
"Mike," don't even bother trying to get anytwhere with someone with a personality disorder as serious as Greg Jackson's. You're just banging your head against a wall. No matter what you say or write, he'll twist it and spin it. This man is no preacher of the gospel--he doesn't even know what the gospel is. He has wrecked every church he has served. Someday he will be answerable for all his lies and half-truths, and it won't be to me or to you.
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GJ - Rev. A. Nony Mouse should take his own advice and give up posting. It's a pity that I quote Mouse. Yes, pity is the word. I know he needs attention, just like the little boys who make prank phone calls anonymously. Funny how he wants to advise "Mike" via a moderated comment. That means I must post his stuff so he can be in contact with "Mike."
Mouse is another expert on the 8th Commandment. My favorite comment from him is: "You don't have the guts to publish my comments. Signed, Anonymous."
Ichabodians - there you have the sect that suports wife-murderers and child molesters. They are in bed with ELCA but denying it. In bed with Rome, but excusing it. In bed with Fuller and loving it.
