When I got the Spydawn (also Defender2008 or Defender2009) virus, I removed it manually. Then I uninstalled an old Norton antivirus to put a new version on. Big mistake. Spydawn took over with a vengeance and I could not get the browser to work at all.
Spydawn is obviously written so that it will re-install itself after manual removals.
Church Growth in the Lutheran Church is the same kind of virus. Everyone with an IQ higher than room temperature knows CG is a flop, a failure, and a fraud.
This is what has already happened when people finally got wind of CG, as they said about the neighbors who started raising hogs - CG re-installs itself so it cannot be removed.
McGavran, Larry Olson's hero, refused to use the term Church Growth for an extensive period of time. Did that mean he changed his views? Not at all.
I was pleased to hear that Church Growth was pounded so thoroughly in Columbus, Ohio, that Mike Nitz complained he could not even mention the word when he was called to St. Paul's. Still, he had a woman teaching men (usurping authority and teaching men) on Sunday mornings. I was blasted for mentioning that fact at a pastoral conference. Unwritten rule in WELS - never deal with an issue directly. (The unwritten rule book is bigger than the Phoenix Yellow Pages.)
Church and Change, the agency of apostasy in WELS, does not call itself Church Growth and avoids the term in its propaganda, but its agenda is clearly directed against Lutheran doctrine, Lutheran worship, Lutheran practice. Or, in making a decision between tawdry marketing and Biblical principles, they went for tawdry marketing.
When Wayne, of blessed memory, was writing for the official magazine of WELS, he denied there was any CG in WELS, but if there was, it was OK. That settled the matter officially. Besides, Valleskey--who never went to Fuller, wink, wink--said they should all spoil the Egyptians, that is, nab the precious metals and jewels of the Pasadena Synagogue of Satan. Frosty Bivens said, "Amen. Amen. Let it be so."
The Issues in WELS people finally stirred themselves and wrote something about Church Growth. That is akin to Mrs. Noah saying on the Ark, "It looks like rain."
ESSAY: Pastor Aaron Frey of Tawas City, MI, will present an essay entitled Tendrils of the Church Growth Movement. This paper was prepared by a four-man study committee from the Michigan District and was presented at this summer's Michigan District Convention. Pastor Robert Koester is preparing discussion questions that will help to stimulate the discussion of this paper.
I believe Koester is one of many WELS pastors who did, did not, go to Fuller. He ended up being a critic of CG, according to legend. I cannot say for sure, because I found that writing against false doctrine, speaking against false doctrine, going to individual leaders about false doctrine, was strictly a solo effort. It only took WELS pastors another 15 years to catch on they do indeed have a problem with Deformed doctrine.
The official rebuttal to everything published and said against CG was: "What does he know? He doesn't have a degree from our beloved Sausage Factory! He does not fit, so we are acquit (sic)."
