Church Growth leader shepherds his flock.Herman Melville said the ship was his Harvard and Yale College. Mine was Columbus, Ohio, where the cancer of Church Growth was funded and promoted by WELS.
District VP Paul Kuske set up a way to let Floyd Luther Stolzenburg pretend he was a WELS pastor, even though Floyd was recently forced out of the LCMS ministry--for cause--and divorced by his wife. Kuske tried to set him up as the resident Church Growth expert, but the board refused Floyd for being so obnoxious. More money was thrown on the table, and Roger Zehms, another divorced pastor, was imported from St. Louis, to give Lutheran Parish Resources two experts in CG.
Even though Floyd was scornful of WELS and never joined WELS, VP Paul Kuske and DP Robert Mueller were eager to treat him as a WELS pastor and make it official. The Columbus pastors sat around Floyd like puppies and listened to all his attacks on the Gospel, joining in where they could. Money made them wag their tails, sit up and beg.
That was how I learned so much about the Book of Concord. I read it before, studied it from time to time. Hardly any pastors would say anything about CG. If they did, they backed down. Like the war elephants of ancient times, they were more dangerous in retreating than they were in attacking. So I turned to Luther, Chemnitz, and the Book of Concord. Everything about the CGM was there.
I quoted Luther, the Book of Concord, Walther, Pieper, Lenski - and the WELS leaders were furious. They constantly meddled with the parish, joined by the Columbus pastors and the divorced CG experts. The CG critics trembled in their warrens, afraid someone might find out they had Lutheran tendencies.
The District Mission Board was robotic-Church Growth - Adrian and Oelhaven.
So how did all this work out for Columbus?
1. VP Kuske endorsed Floyd as the pastor Emanuel Lutheran, Columbus, but Kuske denied it, of course. Floyd is still operating there.
2. Zehms suddenly left Columbus for LFL, then left there for Texas. His first wife can sing, "All my exes live in Texas."
3. M. Schroeder was kicked out of WELS, so his congregation went with him. WELS still takes money from him. Can you see the tails wagging? Look up Salem Foundation at the Sausage Factory.
4. Schroeder's assistant pastor left WELS for Missouri and left Missouri for the Baptists.
5. Roger Kovaciny headed to the Ukraine with David Jay Webber. Kovo resigned from the ELS ministerium. Webber came back from the Ukraine to work in Scottsdale.
6. Schuman, who was Floyd's CG buddy, was forced to resign from St. Paul's. He became a Thrivent salesman but is not listed with them now.
7. Fred Adrian, DMB chair, was furious (like Oelhaven and Kovo) that I dared to criticize CG in my conference paper. Adrian supervised Vicar Zerbe, who went to the state hoosegow for having an affair with a minor girl. Fred later resigned from the ministry. He never did his DMB work. I heard he was too busy...
8. Pilgrim Community Church, started by Zehms, Floyd, and Kuske, folded. They did not want any WELS visitors or transfers to their little CG experiment. In that regard they were successful beyond their wildest dreams.
9. Likewise, the Brazilian video tape ministry fiasco ended with Richard Starr coming home with a lot less fanfare than when he left.
By the way, when I say that WELS leaders were angry about my criticisms of CG, I mean incoherent with rage. Oelhaven, Adrian, and Kovo went bonkers in front of the conference. Later, I saw Paul Iiefel (CLC
sic) uncorked the same way. Readers need to know how invested the ELS-WELS-LCMS clergy are in false doctrine.
