Listen to This David Virtue Lecture: The Episcopal Church

Presiding Bishop Jefferts-Schori with the Archdruid of Canterbury

Any resemblance to the figures above is purely Biblical.

This video lecture about the Episcopal Church is worth watching.

All the Episcopalians who worship on a Sunday in America (about 800,000 out of 2.4 million on the list) would not equal one diocese in Nigeria. The world-wide Anglican communion is now mostly young, mostly Black. Nigeria has around 18 million Episcopalians, and they are conservative.

Norm Supports Norm

Norm Teigen Campaigns for Sen. Norm Coleman

Why won't Norm Teigen work for Al Franken? Al is so famous and oh, so funny. Someone observed that the last time Franken made someone smile was around 1990.

Franken has some tax and legal problems. He did not pay taxes and workman's comp in about 17 states. He did not pay the health insurance premiums of his employees. His Air America was awash in other claims of fraud and misuse of funds. I never heard anything from Air America, but its audience never seemed to break into four figures, from what I heard.

Meanwhile, Norm Teigen is smiling. His pictures of the campaign are fun to see.

Some think that Al Franken might be forced to withdraw as a candidate, in spite of his traits being so well represented in the US Senate already.

More Laughs from WELS

Fuller Seminary: Alma Mater (Nursing Mother) of James Huebner, Larry (Staff Infection) Olson, David Valleskey, Paul Kelm, Frosty Bivens, Waldo Werning, Kent Hunter, Wally Oelhaven, Fred Adrian, et al.

Report to the Twelve--Soon to be Fifteen--Shrinking WELS Districts

Knee-slapper from WELS COP Report
Fuller alumnus James Huebner will lead the development of policies and procedures for called workers. And - get this - continuing professional education. Why not send everyone else to Fuller Seminary? The District Mission Board members went. The WELS leadership went. The World Mission guys went. Do not forget Willow Creek, that other WELS center of higher education.

More Proof That Hard-Working CG Guys Produce Results
After 30 years of Church Growth at the Sausage Factory in Mequon, enrollments are expected to decline 25% in four years, from 160 to 120. Valleskey, Kelm (worked for Valleskey), and Bivens built their careers on CG. Any CG professor who retires from the seminary is replaced with someone even worse.

Tuition Hikes Sucker-Punch Enrollments
Both preps have lost a big chunk of students, due directly to enormous tuition hikes under Gurgel-Mueller. Both prep schools charge $8,000 a year tuition. LPS engages in all kinds of ridiculous commercial fund-raising tactics besides. Declining prep enrollments will add to additional declines at MLC and the Sausage Factory.

Church Growth in Brazil
After 21 years of Fuller-inspired effort, the WELSian Brazil church has two (2) congregations and 200 souls. Oh no! For a fraction of all the money spent, the Mission Board could have flown in a bunch of illegal immigrants, given them money to build a village, and had 1,000 people to brag about. Just think, Ichabodians, Missionary Starr was not content to build a Brazilian national church the slow-poke old-fashioned way. When people came into the WELS center and asked about Christ, they were ushered into a room where a video tape played. A farmer asked Starr, "You played them a tape? A tape?"

Breaking News - WELS - Breaking News

Paul Kelm, thinking, "All my work, down the drain."

One of the new WELS reports has this shocker in it. Sit down while reading this. Oh, you are sitting down. Then stand up and shout. But read the bold part and sit down again.

Specific issues suggested for study Year One first half: Trusting the Means of Grace Year one presents a study examining a simple question: What is the raw power of God's word both to convert and to harden? Concerns have been raised about a growing lack of confidence in the Means of Grace in our midst that is seen in an increasing interest in techniques and methodology as a means toward ministry ends. Considerable concern has been raised about adoption of styles and methodologies from other church bodies and dabbling in church growth methods, without a full understanding of the connection between the outward style and the false theology that underpins it. On the other hand, concern has also been raised about a spirit of contentment with mediocrity, using the pretext of trusting the Means of Grace as a smokescreen for poor preparation, fear of change, and lack of creativity and innovation. Both ends of the spectrum need to be studied and properly articulated. Preliminary Report, Ad Hoc, p. 31.

Obviously, Valleskey's team got to mangle a perfectly good idea and slander their fellow pastors - again. Read the bold print. Anyone who signed his name to this blasphemy is not a Lutheran, just a Pentecostal marketing executive in sheep's clothing.

They are going to study the Sacraments and the influence of Pietism. That is like asking wolves to study the problem of predation in the flock. As Paul warned, there will be wolves from within and without to scatter and murder the flock.

Look over the colorful seating chart for the deck chairs on the sinking WELS-tanic. I just noticed that adding one little letter makes it the WELSatanic.

Fellow sufferers, this is your chance to change the direction of the Wisconsin sect by studying doctrine. If the members and pastors can stay on the track of doctrine alone, they can create a revolution. If they accept the idea that doctrine is a spectrum, from lazy and contented orthodoxy to hard-working, prepared Church Growth, they will execute another denominational pratfall.

The premise of the bold print is that Church Growth people improve the church through their hard work, preparation, fearlessness, innovation, and creativity. The boneheads who signed this slander should take note of who got caught plagiarizing the bad sermons of false teachers - their heroes: Kelm, Parlow, and a few others. That is a matter of public record.

Turtle on a Fencepost Report - from WELS

There is an old saying, "If a turtle is on a fencepost, it did not get there by accident." For those who graduated from Prairie, the saying means this: Actions have consequences, so we can often determine the cause from the effect.

WELS has a new report or two.

I will summarize some items:

1. Worship attendance has slumped from 193,000 to 174,000 in the last 15 years. In other words, when I left WELS, attendance tanked. The Church Growth Movement continued to prosper.
   
2. The shrinking Wisconsin sect needs three (3) more districts and three (3) more district popes.
   
3. They are going to be proactive, a management cliche worn out over 30 years ago. Let pray that they take it to a new level, think outside the box, and speak truth to power.

Hold the presses! Breaking news. See the new post above for a shocker!

***

Kovaciny-Mouse has left a new comment on your post "Turtle on a Fencepost Report - from WELS":

"In other words, when I left WELS, attendance tanked."

I hope people can see what you're really all about. It's all about you, Dr. Jackson, isn't it? ...And it always has been.

GJ - At least Toad of Toad Hall (The Wind in the Willows) had a sense of humor. And he finally repented. Kovaciny, like his peers in the Little Sect on the Prairie and WELS, thinks he has done nothing wrong.

I inserted the logical fallacy to provoke an outburst from the humorless and to elicit a few chuckles from the normal readers. It never hurts to have a straight man who reads every post.