Partners!
Pastor Kelm accepts his call.
Pastor Paul Kelm accepted his call to serve our Synod as a parish consultant. We thank God for his services among us and pray that God blesses him in his new ministry area. Pastor Kelm and his wife, Lynne, will remain as partners at St. Mark.
St. Mark Newsletter
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GJ - Some particulars about the Kelm call, from a variety of trustworthy sources:
1. Synod President Mark Schroeder previously advised the DPS not to call anyone to this position. I don't know the reasons he gave, but many WELS members and pastors wonder why the synod needs to waste more money on a Fooler-Sem program. Huebner, Olson, and Kelm were trained at Pasadena to be parish consultants. Truly - what a joke. Kelm is famous for recycling Reformed doctrine and programs and calling it creative.
2. The DPS Administrator Bruce Becker, who is on the board of Church and Change, did not tell President Schroeder that they extended the call to Kelm. As three different sources have told me, President Schroeder found out by reading the call list when it was published. Most would call this gross insubordination.
3. Church and Change has booked Baptist Ed Stetzer to be their next keynote speaker. Will the fainting bunny-rabbits, known as the Council of Presidents, raise any objections?
4. Wayne Mueller left The Love Shack but teaches the Arizona-California-Las Vegas District. Kelm returns to The Love Shack. Net loss of Church Growth/Church and Change leaders - Zero.
I expect the passive pastors of WELS to do nothing about the Kelm call and the next Baptist conference sponsored by Bruce Becker. If the laity want anything to happen, they will have to act on their own.
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Facts and figures from the same newsletter, which I have copied, lest they disappear:
By The Numbers
f.y.i.
Weekend attendance (October 12): 1026
To Date (July 1, 2008 - October 12, 2008) Needed contributions (year-to-date) - $404,750.00 / Actual contributions (year-to-date) - $373,128.07
Other items of interest: Received to date for Building Fund - $901,990.81 / Expenditures from Building Fund - $1,484,569.38 / Line of Credit with Thrivent - $590,000.00
GJ - They are in the red, both in the regular budget and building fund. The Love Shack needs that kind of vision, leadership, and churchgrowthiness. Rev. Kelm will soon show WELS congregations how to accomplish the same marvels in their own parishes - for a fee.
