Thank You For the Mail - Church Shrinkage Movement Continues

I appreciate the mail you have been sending. I would be happy if a few people read the blog. Instead, people all over the globe read it. Some people say they read it every day.

Two years ago, I worked at getting more teaching opportunities. Nothing seemed to happen. In 2008, two schools expanded rapidly at once, while I added a new set of classes in a third entity, and enrolled in a journalism program. A scheduler in my education (MA) class said, "We start 400 intro to college classes each Monday, and we put 24 students in each class." At least 4 will drop out of each class, perhaps more. But that still means 8,000 new students each week. I do not teach the starter class but the next one, about critical thinking. I am an expert in dealing with logical fallacies, after being in the Wisconsin sect and the CLC (sic). I am listed as "over-used," which means the manager has to override the scheduler to give me more classes. Many more have the same status because of expansion in adult education.

I am mentioning these universities because I continue to wonder at the future of many Lutheran colleges. They have expensive operations and tiny enrollments. Tuition (or rather, school loans) pay for salaries, so costs are way out of line for tiny schools. Bethany, MLC, and WLC could be combined and still be one small college. They are all within 8 hours of each other, a short distance today.

Money Makes the Sect Go Around, The Sect Go Around...
Speaking of money, the Wisconsin sect seems to be getting more frantic about their loot every day. The Love Shack will have a giant sale on indulgences to pay off the money fraudulently drawn from designated accounts. When a congregation attempts to build it so they will come, the leaders find themselves with cost overruns, irritated members, and mortar evangelism. They should read their Schuller more carefully. His Garden Grove Community Church grew only during a population expansion. Once Orange County stablilized, so did his membership.

The various Lutheran synods (ELCA too) imagine that the key to growth is being generic Protestant. They have driven a few clergy to Rome and Constantinople, but they have not achieved their dreams of membership expansion.

The spineless Lutheran pastors chose to do nothing about the Church Growth Movement. The marketing fad has taken over the Lutheran Church. The result is an emphasis on money (but a lack), members (shrinking), love (in the form of self-centeredness). Many faux-Lutherans, who took the CGM seriously, have departed from their nominal membership. Others continue to be lauded and lionized within their synods by the blind and hardened apostates.