Baptist-Pentecostals despise the Means of Grace? He gets vicars for free each year and helps populate Texas with Church and Changers. Guess where Wayne Mueller's kid vicared? Yup, ri-cheer in Austin. Patterson wants to be DP when Vilas Glaeske retires.
Let's untangle a few more lies from Church and Change.
Part I. WELS Pastors take a pilgrimage to Stetzer.
The issue of Baptist Ed Stetzer speaking at the next Church and Change conference did not originate with Bailing Water or Ichabod.
In the beginning...a group of WELS pastors went to the Exponential Conference, which featured only Enthusiasts (Book of Concord term - unfamiliar to Sausage Factory grads). Baptist Ed Stetzer spoke there. All he does is speak - all over America and Europe too. Look at his schedule. He is a WELS Church and Change sweetheart, but also a Leonard Sweetheart. If his kids see him, they probably burst out crying because a stranger who looks like Michael Moore is kissing their mom.
Who were those WELS pastors?
The pastors at King of Kings in Orlando (Maitland) led by John Stelljes.
The 1st VP of the South Central District was there, Donald Patterson from Holy Word in Austin, TX along with some of his disciples (Doebler from Christ the Rock in Round Rock).
$200 for the next conference.
Other WELS pastors were also there, but those names have not been disclosed to my network of informants. When asked directly, the Church and Changers have refused to answer which other WELS clergy were there.
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."
KJV Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Part II. The District Presidents Find Out about Church and Change/Stetzer and Frown.
DP Englebrecht wrote in a letter to his pastors:
The next Church and Change Conference will be having Ed Stetzer, a person not of our fellowship, be one of its speakers. He is part of the "missional" movement. The members of the COP in looking at his theology and aggressive style of presentation have some serious reservations about his appearance at this conference and have asked President Schroeder to express our concerns to the leaders of Church and Change.
His comments were forwarded to me by...I forget.
Part III. I double-checked because I knew the Church and Changers would get nastier than skunks who haven't slept in a long time.
I started looking up Ed Stetzer because he was a nobody in theology. As diligent as I am, I had trouble locating his supposed "two doctorates" and "two masters" which appear on all the websites about him. This struck me as too bombastic, like Mr. Toad of Toad Hall, so I searched until I found him earning a DMin from one school (never heard of it) and a PhD from a liberal Baptist seminary.
I found Stetzer's schedule, which showed him teaching the Word of God to WELS at the next Church and Change meeting, followed by a stop at a Leonard Sweet event. He was also going to speak to LCMS executives.
To observe the permutations of the 8th Commandment, I looked over the Church and Change menu. I know it pretty well, since I copied most of its toxic content into Ichabod. Think of Ichabod as a mirror site, in case the server at Pasadena goes down.
I could not find any future Church and Change conference listed and said so.
The deception of the Church and Change website is now being used to attack people who ask questions about Stetzer. So, in effect, Church and Changers are attacking Englebrecht and the DPs who expressed concern about Stetzer. The DPs raised the issue. Englebrecht sent the letter. I am a mere journalist, a baby journalist at that, with only 20 credits at the end of December.
Church and Change made the news and hid the news. I reported what I knew.
Bruce Becker, DPS Administrator, owes WELS another apology for this fiasco. He is a board member of Church and Change. He needs to move out of the stealth mode and into honesty and transparency.
