I read on the Bailing Water Blog that Kelm accepted the call.
According to one source, SP Schroeder advised Parish Services last year not to issue that call to anyone.
So this involves more than a Church Growth disciple coming back to spread Fuller doctrine around. Church and Change imagines itself in charge of the synod, since its board member, Bruce Becker, is also the Administrator who issued the call without informing the elected Synod President, Mark Schroeder.
Those familiar with WELS know how quickly news gets around the whole synod. Imagine how much more so this is true at The Love Shack. And yet they managed to keep the news of the call from the Synod President until the information reached him in the regular Call Report. That means they all agreed to keep it a secret from him. That sounds like little boys, or more accurately, like little girls.
The last WELS convention wanted to get rid of everyone at The Love Shack at once, no matter when their terms expired. That shows how disgusted people were with the Gurgel-Mueller administration. The Love Shack is full of their appointees, like Bruce Becker.
The first triumph of the Church Growth Movement in WELS was getting their rag, TELL, issued from the synod office with the blessing of SP Naumann. The second achievement was getting Kelm appointed as head of evangelism (Fuller doctrine) at The Love Shack. They bragged about it in TELL.
The Church Growth faction in WELS has a long history, going back to its Pietistic, unionistic roots, revived in many ways by the influence of Richard Jungkuntz. They will fight to remain dominant, to push Schroeder from office, and to install someone of their choosing.
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Pastor X has left a new comment on your post "See What I Mean?":
Covering up is not unique to WELS. I will never forget the day I met with a DP, handing him a packet containg documentation of fraudulent business practices within a district organization where I was employed. He looked straight at me, laughed and said, "Well, what do you want ME to do about it?" When I told him that these illegal, not to mention sinful, practices needed to stop, he thanked me for coming and wished me well. Soon after, I was dismissed from my position.
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GJ - Pastor X, thank you for reminding us that this is also about money. Everyone wondered how WELS became insolvent and used up its designated funds during the avalanche of Schwan funds, the largest charitable gift ever in America. Gurgel fired the treasurer for telling the truth, that these funds could not be pilfered.
Gurgel, as District Pope, presided over the MilCraft disaster, when his district got a prosperous business as an estate gift, ran it into the ground, and went to court to defend itself against the widow who was supposed to be supported by that gift. (The husband, who usually dies first, leaves everything to charity, as long as income goes to his widow during her lifetime.) So Gurgel's administrative genius finished MilCraft, ended in an expensive lawsuit, and cost another $1 million when WELS had to fork over that penalty.
KJV Isaiah 10:1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
So WELS members and pastors said, "Just the man to replace Mischke. We have found someone to make us grateful for the Mischke years." And they did.
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Bailing Water Comments on the Kelm Ultimatum:
Anonymous said...
Count me as a double "!".
As Rev. Kelm and Prez Schroeder share the vision, perhaps now Rev. Kelm can, with Prez Schroeder's backing get the Synod (that is, all the gloomy conservatives, like those on this blog) on board to start thinking and creating cutting edge ministeries as they have at St. Mark's in DePere and get this Synod into the 21st century and get it out of its stuck in the mud, going nowhere, roots!
October 15, 2008 10:32 AM
Anonymous said...
Sorry to interrupt, but did anyone hear about how the LCMS conference in Kewaunee, Illinois for the "Oktoberfest" at which four former WELS pastors gave presentations about the WELS went? (I heard that at least one of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary professors was going to go to defend the WELS.)
October 15, 2008 11:24 AM
Anonymous said...
The Parish Consultancy program is an excellent program and I think that the Synod should have all the congregations have the consultants come in and do an evaluation and the congregation can accept or reject its recommendantions. I think pastors who don't let them in are afraid of what they might find in their churches.
October 15, 2008 12:14 PM
Anonymous said...
"I think pastors who don't let them in are afraid of what they might find in their churches."
No, I think pastors who don't let them in are wise for not allowing Kelm to come in and push CG methods onto their congregations.
October 15, 2008 3:37 PM
Anonymous said...
"No, I think pastors who don't let them in are wise for not allowing Kelm to come in and push CG methods onto their congregations."
Well, since Kelm and the Synodical praesidium share the same theology, you probably should "mark and avoid" and join the CLC.
October 15, 2008 4:04 PM
