Church and Change: Clone Wars in Texas

FIC editor, Church and Change cloner Don Patterson is a VP of his district,
but he took a bunch to hear Baptist Ed Stetzer.
Staff minister Chad White went along, too.
Vicar Tiefel probably went,
but we won't know for sure until there is an official denial.

Patterson is filling the synod with Church and Change vicars. He gets a special grant from WELS, so the vicars do not cost. Look at the list, from the website:

The Lord has provided faithful shepherds to guide and teach his Holy Word lambs: pastors James Radloff (1970-84), Silas Krueger (1985-88), Bruce Bitter (1988-91), Larry Ellenberger (1997-98), Harold Johne (1998-2001), and Donald Patterson (1992-present); and vicars Todd Engel (1994), Michael Geiger (1995-96), Nathan Buege (2000-2001), Caleb Schoeneck (2001-02), Robert Guenther (2002-03), Steven Prahl (2003-04), and Andy Mueller.

Andy Mueller is the son of Wayne, very active in Church and Change.
Nathan Buege is in Texas. Tim Felt-Needs loves his church.
Caleb Schoeneck is in Texas.

Patterson has let a woman teach a "co-ed" Bible study. He allows a youth female to deliver the children's sermon. He is on the Church and Change most-loved list as he was the synod convention Bible study leader at the '04 convention.

"Patterson has a regular factory of vicar clones going. And he gets 'em for free (under the cloak of vicar in mission setting grants)." WELS observer

FIC, the official magazine of Church and Change, says:

Meet the editorial staff—uncut: Don Patterson
Ever ask yourself, “Who are these people who write for Forward in Christ magazine? Through this series you can find out. Read on:

If you regularly read Forward in Christ, you probably already know quite a bit about contributing editor Don Patterson, because he frequently peppers his writing with real-life experiences. Past articles reveal that Patterson has four sons, he once tried riding a bronco at a high school rodeo, playing Candy Land bores him (but he plays it anyway because he loves his sons), he lives in Texas, and he can’t read music.

Meeting Patterson in person reveals more of the same—a friendly man with a southern drawl who loves his family and loves his Lord. Born and raised in Garland, Texas, Patterson now serves as a pastor at Holy Word, Austin. He and his wife, Mary, are both active in sharing their faith with others. They have presented at many marriage and family retreats across the United States. Last year, they even presented in Sweden to members of our sister church body. In January, the couple helped build houses as part of WELS’ relief efforts in hurricane-ravaged Grenada.

Patterson credits his parents for inspiring him to serve in the public ministry: “Their absolute love for God’s Word and the church taught me that the ministry of Jesus’ gospel to his people is the best way to spend my life.”

Yet Patterson didn’t take the traditional route to the pulpit. First he graduated from East Texas State University with a degree in Agricultural Education. While there, he started thinking about using his life to share the gospel full time. So he then attended Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn., for two years to prepare him for his studies at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis. In 1992, Patterson graduated from the seminary and was called to serve Holy Word.

Want to know more about Don Patterson? Just keep reading Forward in Christ.

South Central District - Election results:
President: Rev. Vilas Glaeske
First Vice President: Rev. Donald Patterson
Second Vice President: Rev. Mark Bitter
Secretary: Rev. Christopher Goelzer

WELS Church and Changers Prefer Baptists to Lutherans

Jim Skorzewski:
"So they said to me, Ski, if you are going to publish a blog, don't start telling the truth. You're a Church and Changer. We don't do that."
Drive 08 Conference "Who went that you might know:
Pastor Ski, John Parlow, Jim Buske"

[GJ - Buske is a Church and Change presenter. So is Parlow. And so is Ski: 506...... In the Beginning…Your Guide to Starting
Your own Alternative Worship Experience
–James Skorzewski and Brian Davison.]

What is Drive ’08? That’s a great question. Drive is a two day conference for church leaders. During these two days church leaders from the three North Point campuses will share what they have learned over the last twelve years about creating and maintaining awesome ministry environments. The entire conference has been designed around questions from churches all over the world.

Over the two days Andy Stanley (Lead Pastor at North Point) will address the attendees in three main sessions. There will be five break-out sessions that will revolve around questions asked by the attendees. These sessions allow those in attendance to get pretty specific on certain areas of ministry as well as get great feedback.


I invite you to check out my blog while I’m gone. I’ll try to update the blog daily and share what I’ve learned. Please feel free to share your comments.


I’ll see you all when I get back!


After we registered we headed to the 5 Seasons for lunch. While we were there we heard this voice behind us at a table. Well, we turn around and sure enough there at the table is my old German teacher, Prof. Daniel Deutschlander sitting & eating bratwurst & drinking a beer. As it turns out he is speaking at the Peachtree Conference (I think that is what it is called - WELS churches in the ATL - Tennesee - Alabama area). He asked if we were down for his presentation. I had to say unfortunately, no. The conversation was pretty interesting after that. I mean, telling your old prof. that you are in town, not to hear him is bad enough, but on top of that you are in town to attend a non-denominational church leadership conference... Not normal WELS practice. By the way, he’s drinking a Maibock in the picture.

Breakout Session #3 - Connecting Adults To Small Groups

This session was lead (sic) by Jenny Boyett. She is in charge of Group Link, which is one of the Small Group programs at North Point. This was a pretty good session. I guess I was looking for more of a how to instead of this is what we do or this might work for you. Most of the information that was shared was theory. They have three types of groups.

Main Session #2 - Andy Stanley - Becoming A Great Staff


This was just awesome. The opening music could be confused with a rock concert. Lights, guitars, confetti, etc... The staff also ran through the aisles and threw out blow up guitars and microphones for the audience. I used the word audience, simply because congregation sounded kind of weird. To me what was interesting about the opening music portion, was it goes against everything that I have been taught as a Lutheran. We are called to put our emotions in a box. To not be emotional about the music, unless it is a moving hymn. This is tough, I mean, I may not be jumping around with my hands up, but should I look down on someone who does? Is their worship any less acceptable to God? I don’t think so. Maybe, we need to look at this, emotions are good as long as they don’t get out of control. I think that sometimes we also put down music because it is a repeating chorus and doesn’t have the depth of a hymn. Do we always need to do that? Can’t we have different kinds of music? Isn’t there a danger in saying that there is only one way to do things? I personally like variety. Think about it like this, Cherios (sic) are good, I like them, they are nutritious, they are good with or without milk. But let me tell you, I love Fruity Pebbles. They are colorful, tasty, & packed with sugar. Does that mean that I want to eat them every day? Probably not, but it doesn’t automatically mean that I want Cherios (sic) every day either. Maybe some days i want Frosted Flakes. I like variety.

Anyway, Andy’s session was great. Like I have said. He has this great gift of making things seem so simple. Here are his main points from this afternoon:


1.A great staff is made up of “great leaders.”


2.Best practices for creating a “great staff.”


a.Do for one when you can’t do for all.


b.Systemize (sic? - may be a new CG word) top down service.


c.In response to your staff’s key objectives, ask “How can I help you?”


d.Create & maintain a sustainable pace.


e.Celebrate & reward greatness when you see it.


3.Signs that things aren’t so great.


a.Competition between departments.


b.Double standards.


c.Loyalty lectures.


This was great just to hear & to have to look at our ministry and ask the question, “Do we have issues here?” I think that overall we do pretty well. Are there areas that we can improve? Of course.

---

Andy Stanley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andy Stanley is the senior pastor of North Point Community Church, Buckhead Church, and Browns Bridge Community Church. He also founded North Point Ministries, which is a worldwide Christian organization.

Biography
Stanley was born in 1958. His father is Charles Stanley, who is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and founder of InTouch Ministries.

***

GJ - Andy Stanley's books are sold at Fuller Seminary. His daddy divorced his mom but stayed in the ministry. Charles Stanley was in the tank with Paul Y. Cho decades ago. This father-son duo is Baptist and awesomely Church Growth. They will blow you away. Sorry, I read the blog too long and my mind began degenerating.

A few people think I am too pessimistic about WELS. A Wisconsin sect pastor flies to Atlanta, where he might listen to a faithful Lutheran--Dan Deutschlander--but instead listens to a CGM Baptist minister and loves it. How cool is that? And he really seems to brag about it.

PS - Here is Parlow at Church and Change:

501.... Creating Irresistible Environments
with Contemporary Worship
Pastor John Parlow
(john.parlow@stmark-depere.org)
Explore transferable principles that will help you build a church for outsiders to come to and hear truth that makes a difference now and for eternity. Now is the time
to shed ethnic rationalizations, personal preferences, and doomsday attitudes that
are offered as excuses for outreach failures. The truth is the Gospel is timelessly relevant, the church and its representatives may or may not be relevant; the
Gospel is timelessly efficacious, the church and its representatives may or may not be effective. Let’s talk about building ministries that are dangerously
Christian.

John Parlow serves as the lead pastor at St. Mark in De Pere, WI. St. Mark worships over 1,200 people and is currently building a 25,000 sq. ft. addition for
children/family ministry and a sixth weekend worship service offering an “upper room” atmosphere. [GJ - The only thing missing from this Upper Room is Jesus.]

WELS Pastors First Went To Baptist Ed Stetzer for More Better BMs

Pastor Ben Golish, Maitland, Florida went to the conference where Stetzer spoke.

Pastor John Stelljes, Maitland, is a young Church and Changer, fresh out of the Sausage Factory. He went, too.

Vicar Mark Tiefel, Holy Word, Austin, Texas. Did he go? He gets CG free from Al Sorum at Mequon.

Why would district VP Patterson spend money to hear a bunch of
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.

A significant group of WELS pastors went to hear Baptist Ed Stetzer (r.) before they rented him for the Church and Change conference. Romans 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.

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.

Baptist Stetzer To Teach WELS About Having More BMs

Does WELS Have Enough Becoming Missionals?

Let's Clear Up Some Falsehoods Spread about the WELS Church and Change Conference

Someone found out that the next Church and Change conference had scheduled Baptist Ed Stetzer to be the keynote speaker. All he does is travel and speak. A WELS DP addressed the situation at the COP meeting and I found out.

Alas and alack - the Church and Change site did not mention any future conference and certainly did not mention Baptist Stetzer's invite. Rev. Ed had them down on his website, so that means they paid their fee and locked him in. They could pay him what is indelicately called a kill fee to cancel the appointment. I doubt that will happen. Church and Change is going to fight to have their way and replace SP Schroeder.

This is what one Church and Changer brayed at Bailing Water:

Anonymous said...
John:

This is just another example of your breaking the eighth commandment. I'm sure you read about this first on Ichabod, where Jackson is shameless in what he posts. Ed Stetzer has the Church and Change conference on his schedule, but I didn't see anything on the C and C website about it. I'm assuming you verified his presence in 2009 with the leaders of C and C? Maybe he was invited a long time ago, and after the change in the conference last year (WELS and ELS presenters)maybe he was "disinvited" but he failed to change his calendar? If you posted this and made your accusations before you even verified it with our people, then you're just as shameless as Jackson.

As I wrote above, the WELS COP was concerned about this invitation. The invitation was verified by the Stetzer website and copied with my normal attention to detail.

The anonymous poster is attacking Bailing Water but also impugning the honesty of the DP and Ed Stetzer. I am energized by another reference to the 8th Commandment. This is great fun.

Confidential to Bruce Becker, Church and Change, and the rest of the hooligans you hang around with - You cannot have it both ways. If you want to brag on your blog about shunning a WELS professor to attend a Baptist event (like Ski), then live with the consequences. If you want to book Baptist Stetzer, an event alarming enough to alert the somnolent WELS COP, then live with the facts getting out. Trying to blast people for telling the truth only emphasizes that you consistently deceive people.

What Is Becoming Missional? Go To the Next WELS Church and Change Conference with Baptist Stetzer, Find Out How To Multiply Your BMs

Save yourself $100 and memorize this chart. Sleepy, becoming very sleepy. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in a monster, big, huge church. Big sound system. Laser lights. Pit band. Big mansion.

As one reader noticed - learn how to spell discipleship! "Hey Bruce, Paul, Ron, Larry - they spell worse than we do in WELS."


Ed Stetzer, far right, shows that travel is broadening.

NorthWest: What is the "Missional Movement"? Is it just Church Growth on Meth?

Answer: The Church Growth Movement keeps changing its name, but not its doctrine. Rick Warren at Saddlesore Community uses the term Purpose-Driven, but it is Church Growth with another label.

Becoming Missional is another label for the same thing. Baptist Stetzer is missional, but lacks a Fuller Seminary degree. Fuller is full of Becoming Missional themes today. CG on meth is a good description.

The BMs seem to be more anti-institutional. Stetzer blogged against Rome, not for doctrinal reasons, but because it represented the bricks and mortar, church hierarchy model.

Here are some links for those who are not already completely bored by this topic:

Becoming Missional Blog

Becoming Missional Online with Fooler Sem

My Predictions for WELS

COP, WELS, in the old days.

The Arizona-California-Las Vegas district of WELS is meeting in Glendale, Arizona today. Due to an unavoidable oversight, I was not invited to speak. This is what I would have said, and I always say when asked...

The Wisconsin Synod will not exist in 10 or 20 years if things continue as they are. The Church Growth people got in there long ago and leveraged all their pals into positions of influence long ago. The Sausage Factory had a CG president (Valleskey) and still has two professors (Sorum and Bivens). The Love Shack is mostly Church Growth, as evidenced by Bruce Becker calling Paul Kelm back. The mission counselors are all Church Growth. The parish consultants (Kelm) are all Church Growth. World missions and American missions - CG, too.

WELS is currently training members to be generic Protestants. The cutting edge of WELS is all CG (Green Bay, etc).

If the Lutherans start asserting themselves, the CG congregations will head for Missouri: pastors, property, and all. His Holiness, Jerry Kieschnick, will welcome them. WELS should say, as they would to Marvin K. Mooney: "Go in peace, but please go now."

The battle-lines have already been drawn. The COP is inert, as usual. The Love Shack is doctrinally united - against Lutheran doctrine. Unfortunately for them, the synod voted for the opposite direction at the last meeting.

The strong will defeat the weak, as Luther said. If people support Lutheran leadership, they will elect a First VP to support SP Schroeder. If pastors and laity want to continue the loosey-goosey Baptist-Protestantism of Wayne Mueller, Larry Olson, Paul Kelm, Bruce Becker, and Mark Jeske, they will elect a First VP like John Parlow or James Huebner.

Some kind of commission has already suggested that Parish Services be reduced or changed. As everyone knows, WELS did not need another Parish Consultant. Oodles of offering money will be used up to move Kelm to Milwaukee and pay for his salary and benefits. The SP suggested no new calls at all, bypassing his chance to have Wayne Mueller replaced by appointment. Of course, the money does not come out of Bruce Becker's pocket.

I wonder - was Kelm on the way out? Green Bay is behind in current funds and way behind in its building funds versus expenses, according to their newsletter. Having Kelm go is a way of reducing expenses in Green Bay while having an ear at The Love Shack. Holy mole-y.

Calling Kelm was a deliberate affront and insubordinate on several counts. If WELS pastors and laity want more divisiveness, they should support Bruce Becker, Paul Kelm, and John Parlow.

Apostate Lutheran Leaders Do This Too

ex-Bishop Bennison.

NORRISTOWN, PA: The Trial of Charles E. Bennison - Day One

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/20/2008

Charles E. Bennison came dressed in a plain suit and tie.

Fr. David Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, came dressed in his clericals, an odd juxtaposition but understandable since Bennison has been officially deposed by The Episcopal Church. He is appealing his verdict.

Bennison, 63, looked a sad and pathetic figure as he sat alone in court room No. 8 in Norristown, PA, surrounded only by his legal team. His wife was oddly absent as were all the clergy of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Nobody apparently wants to know him or be seen with him. Bennison, the once feared, loathed and despised former Bishop of Pennsylvania, is on his own.

This is his second trial within a matter of months. This time he faces multiple charges of fraud and deception in a civil court coming only months after being found guilty on an ecclesiastical count of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.


In his opening defense of Fr. Moyer, John H Lewis, Jr., laid out evidence that Bennison, in 2002, abused his position and authority as a bishop. As a result, Fr. Moyer was severely damaged emotionally, spiritually and psychologically and that his ministry was cut short by a curt fax machine letter informing him that he had been found arbitrarily guilty of abandoning the communion of the church. Fr. Moyer was inhibited for six months, which he accepted. Bennison later threw Moyer out of the priesthood while denying him a church trial.

According to Lewis, Bishop Bennison made jokes as he signed the deposition papers. Why did Bennison do this to Fr. Moyer? The Episcopal Church is divided over many issues. Bennison campaigned to get the job as Bishop of Pennsylvania making election promises to traditionalist priests to act as a traditionalist bishop, a promise he broke. No bishop is above the law."

Because Moyer made a fuss about this, Bennison decided to getting rid of Moyer saying, "this is between David and me".

Lewis said Church rules on removal of a priest entitle Moyer to a church trial. "Bennison decided never to have a trial. Bennison used Canon 10 so as to avoid a church trial. Moyer insisted that he was not leaving the Episcopal Church. Bennison knew that what he was doing was wrong and even the head of The Episcopal Church told him the plan was wrong. Bennison concealed the letter from Moyer."

Following his inhibition, Moyer stood down from his duties as a priest for six months. Bennison, however, was relentless in his desire to have Moyer removed.

Lewis said the plan against Moyer was carried out in several stages. "Bennison stirred up hatred and contempt against Moyer. He confused and mislead the Standing Committee, because the Standing Committee would not go along with a trial against Moyer. Angry at being deceived, Bennison hired a public relations agent and began a public relations campaign against Moyer, using his staff to get the media involved in hurting Moyer.

"As a result Moyer faced the loss of his position, his pension, he was in personal agony with other priests avoiding him all the while Bennison steadfastly refused Moyer a trial.

"In 2002. Bennison signed a document - a sentence of deposition - saying it grieved him deeply but just days before, as he signed the deposition he was photographed laughing and telling jokes to the Rev. Bill Wood, chairman of the Standing Committee. Bennison's action was condemned by the then presiding Bishop Frank Griswold."

As he concluded his opening statement, Lewis asked the jury to consider five questions: "Did Charles Bennison damage Fr. Moyer by interfering with his contract; did he issue false statements about Moyer? Did he deny him due process, did he conceal and distort evidence and did he resort to extremely outrageous conduct?"

Mary Kohart, Bennison's attorney, said the bishop was well within his rights as a bishop to hire and fire a priest. "The flying bishop arrangement ended in 1997," she told the jury. "Before becoming bishop, Bennison was told of the Parson's Plan, but it had expired in three years previous in 1997. Then Bishop Allen Bartlett did not renew it." She said a three year cooling off period did not resolve the question and schism was inevitable. She said that former bishops Turner and Bartlett even offered Evensong as an option to get around the visitation rights of the bishop, but to no avail. Moyer declined all options, she said.

Four pretrial motions to dismiss the case being heard before Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Branca last year failed with the judge siding with Moyer. Lewis claimed that there is no other remedy because Moyer had been improperly denied a church trial by Bennison.

The trial continues tomorrow when Bennison will stand before Judge Joseph A. Smyth and a jury of his peers.

END

***

GJ - As one wit said, "In chess, too, bishops move obliquely." For those who went to prep school - that is a nifty pun. Moving obliquely refers to the slanting direction of the bishop in chess and the deviousness of bishops in the church.

The above description is roughly how apostate Lutheran leaders work. If they want to cover up for an adulterous buddy--and they often do--they demand evidence, make excuses, or attack the person who knows the truth. They never move against false doctrine, which is the glue holding everything together: corruption, immorality, greed, peculation.

If someone ruffles their feathers--and it does not take much to do that--these bishops engage all their forces to destroy that person and isolate him from all friends. The timid clergy go along with it because they know the beneficent gaze of the bishop (or district pope) is essential for their call out of Bovine Gulch.

The Episcopalians are demanding better leaders. They are examples of what can be done with persistent laymen and brave clergy. All is not lost. "One little Word shall fell him."

Giant Hissing Cockroaches

A WELS layman offered up this heart-warming image: a hissing cockroach. The one above is the giant variety from Madagascar.

Dr. Jackson,

It sounds like the latest WELS misadventures are really flushing out the cockroaches. If it isn't Kelm's stealth call to Parish Assistance, then it is the 2009 offering of Ed Stetzer at the C&C conference. I have been trying to keep up with it all, but I am getting a bit dizzy in the process. Tim Felt-Needs is really carrying a lot of water over at Bailing Water. His solutions posted are the typical law-based sleight of hand aimed at the laity and designed to take our focus from the synodical shenanigans. All of this reminds me of what happens when you fumigate a cockroach infested dwelling - they come out of the woodwork and scurry about. I wish that I could think of a better analogy. It just seems so fitting.

In Christ,
Randall Schultz

***

GJ - They are running around and hissing a lot, too. On the surface they act like the cat who found the bowl of cream. In reality, they are running around hissing because doom has come upon them. Their beloved Internet has foiled them. The more they brag, the more everyone knows about their pusilanimous behavior. That is why I provide links at every possible opportunity. And alas! They have software that tracks when they are linked, so the rise up in alarm and hiss even more.

Crown of Glory, Corona, California was Sweet on Leonard, but gushing red ink. They posted their disastrous offering reports. I mentioned that. Hiss! Hiss!

A district president wrote about the Stetzer Church and Change invitation. I tracked it down to the Stetzer website since Church and Change was lying - again. Hiss! Hiss! "You are worse than Jackson." Hiss. "8th Commandment." Hiss. Stetzer is lying. Hiss. The conference is canceled. Hiss. But that is the hiss-terical reaction of liars who want to bowl over someone telling the truth.

The aptly named Moose Report complained bitterly about Sweet not being welcomed in WELS. I quoted those publicly published words. Hiss. Hiss.

There are only a few WELS stealth congregations. Nothing to see. Move on. Hiss. Hiss. But now one of their own brags about all the Church and Change congregations. The list grows daily. Someone should quiet Tim Felt-Needs down. He is way too honest, glib, and smug about Church and Change.

There are too many quotations from orthodox Lutherans on Ichabod. The quotations make the cockroaches hiss.

I invent up the comments, even pretending to be a layman suffering from the predations of WELS pastors. Hiss. Believe me, I barely have time to copy and paste the latest felonies from WELS.

There is not as much adultery among the WELS church workers as I seem to think. Hiss. But look at the public examples, from Rev. Family Values marrying his secretary to the various lawsuits filed and arrests made. I always thought that Christian life resources would exclude adultery, but I am legalistic.

They used to hiss that no one ever, ever went to Fuller Seminary - not even the ones who bragged about going there. Not even the ones listed in a mailing from Fuller - all the WELS clergy who went to Fuller. Now they have trouble hissing out an explanation about where all this Church Growth garbage came from. Valleskey became president of The Sausage Factory while promoting CG. His only book is a double back-flip in favor of every silly Church Growth gimmick from Fuller. But he did not go to Fuller. He bragged to David Koenig of the CLC about going to Fuller, so Koenig hissed to me that I should not have told everyone. Did Valleskey hiss at him for telling? Giant hissing cockroaches probably hiss just for the fun of it.

Did the fainting lagomorphs of the COP stomp their paws about Stetzer? They expressed concern.

I believe Randall Schultz is right. Church and Change is on its way out. Everyone is sick of them. They are like disco music, without the melody. Just the thump, thump, thumping of disco, very tiresome and dated.

Time to bug out - Church and Change.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name III: Church ...":

If Sweet and Stetzer are inter-twined, then surely so are the WELS pastors who felt the need to attend the pan-enthusiam conference. If this is common knowledge, please tell me what kind of church disapline (sic) was dealt out to those wayward pastors? Is there a list of those pastors that could be made public so as to make their congregations aware of how they spend their "free time" ?

***

GJ - You have slandered Holy Mother WELS, just by asking that question. The names of the pastors involved can be obtained from Bailing Water. At least Mr. Water knows which ones to ask. They were described as heavy hitters, so I imagine they are quite well known in WELS.

Discipline was immediate and severe. They were allowed to invite Stetzer to be their next Church and Change speaker. If the mountain (Sweet) cannot come to Mohammed (WELS conference), then Mohammed can come to the mountain. And get this - if that discipline was not severe enough already - the COP frowned. Yes, they expressed concern. That is worse than waterboarding. Worse than hearing the favorite songs of Amy Winehouse. Worse than watching Time of Grace every Sunday.

The laity will have to act. The WELS clergy will not.

If Becker Is Elated, Then Why Did He Hide the Call from the Synod President?

Insurbordination can be fun, but German Lutherans still remember what Unordnung means.

This is direct from the official WELS email list, so do not accuse me of making up this treacle:

New Parish Assistance consultant

Filed Under: Parish Assistance

For the first time since August 2006, WELS Parish Assistance—which offers fee-based consulting services to help congregations analyze and improve their ministries—has three full-time consultants. Rev. Paul Kelm, who previously served as a Parish Assistance consultant from January 1998 to August 2004, accepted a call Oct. 14 to be the third consultant, a position that had been vacant for more than two years.

"We are just elated," says Rev. Bruce Becker, administrator for WELS Parish Services, the board that oversees the Parish Assistance program. "We will now be in a position to start accepting the requests for services from the congregations that have been waiting."

Becker says he's looking forward to working again with Kelm, who will be starting his consulting duties Nov. 1. "Paul has always been a fantastic consultant," says Becker. "He's also just come out of four years of parish ministry, which brought him back up to the realities of life in the parish—and that will only enhance his ability to serve as a consultant."

In addition to his previous experience as a Parish Assistance consultant, Kelm has also served as pastor at St. Mark, De Pere/Green Bay, Wis., and Faith, Pittsfield, Mass.; campus pastor, professor, and dean of students at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee; administrator of WELS' Commissions on Evangelism and Adult Discipleship; project director of Spiritual Renewal, Milwaukee; campus pastor at Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel, Madison; and tutor at the former Dr. Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn. [GJ - He also started an ELCA congregation.]

"This call is something that I think matches my gifts and my personality," says Kelm. "And my years here at St. Mark, in a large parish, have helped to shape some of the ways in which I can help congregations as well. I did enjoy [serving as a consultant] and expect to again."

For more information about WELS Parish Assistance, visit www.wels.net/pa

***

KJV 1 Corinthians 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

KJV 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

KJV Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

GJ - One certain sign of people who despise the Word is their disorderly behavior.

Church and Change Tactics

Would I lie to you, baby?

The WELS Conference of District Presidents has already discussed the Church and Change shindig with Baptist Ed Stetzer as the main speaker.

Now the Church and Change supporters are screaming that it is a violation of the 8th Commandment to say there is a conference with Ed Stetzer. Maybe it was canceled. Oh sure - that is why the COP discussed the conference as a future reality.

Church and Change is a bit too coy for me. Too clever by half, as they say.

They are lying by not announcing Stetzer on the website. Stetzer is telling the truth by bragging about his WELS gig, which specifically says WELS Church and Change. Funny, his link is back to the main WELS.net site, so perhaps he or they want to imply official approval.

Ichabodians may recall that when I quoted Kelm's endorsement of a Kent Hunter conference, Frosty Bivens (The Sausage Factory) immediately rose to accuse me of violating the 8th Commandment. I produced the actual copy, ipsissima verba from Paul Kelm, and Frosty said, "How do we know he gave permission...? etc. etc." Later I asked The Church Doctor himself. Hunter said he asked for a written endorsement from Kelm and got it. So the only violator was Frosty Bivens himself, falsely accusing me to defend his Church Growth buddy Paul Kelm. I later learned that Bivens was another student of Fuller Seminary, like Larry Olson, David Valleskey, James Huebner, Reuel Schulz, Wally Oelhaven, Fred Adrian, and many others. Yet Bivens denied he ever went there, just as Valleskey did. So both of them falsely accused me of lying about them when I spoke the truth.

Anyone who expects common decency from the Church and Change bunch is delusional. They have deceived their way into power and they are not going to change their habits now.

As anyone can see, Church and Change deceived the leadership about the Kelm call and the Stetzer conference. Their added deception is to suggest there is no Stetzer conference.

I am thoroughly enjoying this because plenty of people are leaking information to me.

Posts from Church and Change Obi-Wans, robots, and Useful Idiots (with money) are always welcome here.

---

From Bailing Water:

John said...
I want to ask how an anonymous commenter can scream 8th commandment at me.

How did I break the 8th commandment? All I did was post that Ed Stetzer was speaking at the next C & C conference. I also mentioned that several WELS pastors sat at his feet back in April. How is this breaking the 8th commandment? You drew the conclusions.

Now you tell me. Is it a sin for Stetzer to present at the C&C conference (as long as he doesn't lead a prayer?) Does one principle over-ride another?

October 20, 2008 5:52 PM


Anonymous said...
My question is: Why would WELS members (clergy & laity) WANT to have Ed Stetzer as a keynote speaker?

Another question I have is: Why do the congregations that choose to not use Lutheran in their names WANT to be part of WELS?

October 20, 2008 6:10 PM


Tim Niedfeldt [Felt Needs] said...
No it is not a sin for Stetzer to present(not even if he says a prayer..just if the attendees participate in it).

No it is not a sin to point it out if you don't like it.

No there is no 8th commandment thing being broken in this instance.

and finally although I appreciate knowing someone is out there who might support something i say, I will not go so far as to say that there is 8th commandment breaking going on (and its fair to say I've taken a word or two of criticism). Sometimes there are strong words, fervent words, sarcastic words..all said out of zeal and maybe frustration at times. I think this is all in the realm of acceptability in a public forum. Now I can name a few places on the internet where the 8th commandment hardly exists.

I think that whole 8th commandment thing is thrown around too much...as if disagreement or presentaion of a topic is putting someone else down. Its the same as those who throw out the "I'm offended" trump card in church meetings..honestly have we truly forgotten how to be men?

maybe if we as a society had not created a few generations of sissys (my generation being one of the worst) we could talk, debate, argue, criticize, and chastise freely without crying 8th commandment foul

If you can't stand the CPU heat get out of the blogosphere.


Tim

WELS Conference of Presidents Know All about Stetzer

For a large fee I will speak to your WELS sheep.

"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."

NW DP Englebrecht

***

GJ - The quotation above was sent to the pastors in that district, so it is public knowledge.

The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name III: Church and Change Conference 2009

Church and Change board member Bruce Becker is also the Administrator for Parish Services. He issued a stealth call to Paul Kelm, without telling the Synod President. Now there is a stealth conference.


What happened to the Means of Grace?


As of October 20th, Church and Change Has Not Announced Their Speaker, Baptist Ed Stetzer

The Assemblies of God loved him! Why shouldn't WELS?

Church and Change booked Ed Stetzer for their next conference, apparently after a bunch of WELS pastors went to a pan-Enthusiasm conference.

WELS Church and Change must have paid him a substantial fee in advance, or they would not be on his list of speaking engagements.

However, an extensive search of the Church and Change site reveals no conference planned for 2009, no mention of Stetzer, no inkling of the joy they found at the pan-Enthusiasm conference.

Stetzer will be with New Age Methodist Leonard Sweet right after his WELS gig. Readers may recall that Church and Change booked Leonard Sweet, but that blew up in their faces. Stetzer's appearance at a Sweet event shows how these frauds are inter-twined.

Stetzer links back to WELS.net, not to Churchandchange.ugh.

WELS Belles - Girly Men Who Cannot Admit They Are Lutheran

I too skeered to say I am Lutheran.

Some people at Bailing Water have provided names of WELS congregations where the confession is hidden. I will add this list to my previous one. Some are repeats, but some are new:

Church and Change Congregations from Tim Felt-Needs:

St. Mark's Depere
St. Marcus, Milwaukee
Crosswalk, Laveen, AZ
Crossroads, Chicago
Christ the Rock, Round Rock, TX
Sure Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
Victory of the Lamb, Franklin, WI
Hope Lutheran, Oconomowoc, WI
Solid Rock Ministries, Appleton, WI
Christ the Rock - Round Rock, Texas
http://www.ctrtx.net/
Point of Grace, Milwaukee (copy and paste veteran from DePere)
Also, a newly forming Solid Rock Ministries - south of St Mark De Pere - Pastor Jim Skorzewski

This Doufus ELCA Congregation...No - Wait. WELS!?

Let's adulterate the Word with...coffee

Welcome

Sometimes, just the thought of church is painful—words repeated without meaning, everyone acting like their lives are perfect, feeling judged, or just being bored. What if there were a place you could worship and ask questions without feeling like you had to hide your real self?

That place is here, at St. Andrew - Waunakee. You don't have to hide anything here because God already knows you. He knows that you have problems, inside and out, and He offers you free of any cost the solution to those problems: His Son Jesus. Do you know where your problems come from? Do you know what Jesus did to take care of them? God wants you to know that. He wants you to know HIM.

At St. Andrew – Waunakee, we gather on Sunday mornings to connect with God and with each other. It’s come as you are, because God doesn’t care what you’re wearing or whether you need just a little more caffeine.

Worship Sundays at 10:30 AM

Casual About Church, Serious About God
St. Andrew - Waunakee
5757 Emerald Grove Lane
Waunakee, WI 53597
Phone: (608) 831-8540
Contact Via Email

The sponsoring church admits to being WELS on its home page. The pastor has an M.T. degree from the Sausage Factory. That seems appropriate - M.T. - no such degree, but certainly empty.

---

Trading Markets.com

No need to dress up for some Wisconsin churches

Sun. October 19, 2008; Posted: 02:49 AM

Do you want to trade professionally? Click here.

WAUNAKEE, Oct 19, 2008 (The Wisconsin State Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- BKS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating --

A couple of months ago, St. Andrew Lutheran Church wanted to do something different to attract parishioners, especially those put off by the rituals and trappings of traditional churches.

So it ripped up its pews and filled the sanctuary with an eclectic mix of earth-tone love seats, sleek armchairs and coffeehouse tables.

The communion rail came down, and the pulpit went out the door, replaced by a stone-slab table with a base made from a neighbor's fallen tree. The newly added cappuccino machine and coffee grinder look just like the ones at Kwik Trip -- indeed, they were donated by Kwik Trip.

"There are plenty of churches in Waunakee and plenty of Christians who already have churches in Waunakee. We wanted to target the people who aren't churched," said Kristen Koepsell, worship director.

This relaxed approach, in which God doesn't care about your posture or your caffeine addiction, has taken hold in numerous churches, although St. Andrew may be taking it to a new level. Many churches now offer at least one service with a looser, more conversational format, often involving a live band.

"There's a trend toward people being more interested in approaching the spiritual and sacred on their own terms," said Robert Glenn Howard, a UW-Madison associate professor in communication arts and religious studies.

This suggests a de-emphasis on the institutional components of religion, including the formal setting itself, Howard said. The Internet is fueling part of this change. People expect their voices to be heard -- they're used to contributing to online forums -- so there's a shift away from a top-down, centralized approach, he said.

"It's all part of the idea that the most important thing is for the individual to connect with the divine, and it doesn't really matter if you do that with a 19th-century hymn or a rock 'n' roll song," Howard said.

The Waunakee church, 5757 Emerald Grove Lane, was built in 1990 as Lord and Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church. But the congregation never really took off. "We weren't reaching out into the community very well," said Dick Bernards, a former president.

So two years ago, St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Middleton took over the church's assets and began operating it as a satellite location with the same name.

St. Andrew is now considered one congregation with two buildings. This gave church leaders the opportunity to try something different in Waunakee without risking a lot, said the Rev. Randy Hunter, who serves both churches.

"It's not intended to be disrespectful of anyone's desire to worship in a more formal setting, but we know that for many people, that's just not their thing," he said.

The Middleton location continues to hold a traditional worship service, while the Waunakee site experiments with a laid-back structure.

Hunter's sermon is videotaped at an early Sunday service in Middleton, then broadcast on large screens later in the morning at Waunakee. After the sermon concludes, Waunakee parishioners talk about it in small groups, then a layperson brings them back together for a brief discussion.

The congregation's motto is "Casual about church, serious about God." Communion is still offered every week.

"The message is the same, it's just repackaged in a way that may be a little more inviting for some people," Hunter said.

Gene Berg, a founding member of Lord and Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church, said he likes a traditional worship service but is giving the casual approach a try. He appreciates that prayers and religious readings are still part of the Waunakee service.

"I'm getting there. I'm warming up to it," he said.

St. Andrew spent about $40,000 on the remodeling, including the services of a professional design consultant. Many parishioners pitched in, including Sarah Homan, who helped select the contemporary furniture by visiting local coffeehouses and Barnes & Noble.

Inspiration for the stone table with the tree-trunk base came from a desire to replicate the simplicity of ancient worship services, Homan said. "We really went back to the Bible, to books from Genesis to Revelation that talk about wood and stone altars," she said.

In many ways, the changes are a return to basics -- the opposite of a modern approach, Hunter said. "It's keeping it real. You can't hide behind a pulpit or a robe."

The Waunakee sanctuary seats 65 and so far has been averaging about 50 people each Sunday, including some unfamiliar faces.

"Personally, I'll gauge our success by how many new people come through the door who haven't been going to a church," Hunter said. "If it becomes a place where current members just want to hang out because it's cool, then I don't think we will have succeeded."

To see more of The Wisconsin State Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Wisconsin State Journal Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

***

GJ - The spirit of mockery is thriving in this corner of the Wisconsin sect. Doubtless the District Pope is busy disciplining anyone who...criticizes the caffeine congregation. The essence of Deformed theology is using a hook or gimmick to attract people to the Gospel - adulterating the message of the cross. What better way than to have a cross resting in a cup of coffee as the official logo?

Some people were offended at the government sponsored "art" called Piss Christ. That photo showed a tradition cross or crucifix in a glass of urine. As gross and stupid as that was, the faux-art was nothing compared to this faux-Gospel sponsored by WELS.

The message is - Means of Grace worship is boring, painful, meaningless. All the Church-and-Change congregations have the same rant in their ads, even former ones like CrossRoads in South Lyons, Michigan. Look at the words again, copied below:

"Sometimes, just the thought of church is painful—words repeated without meaning, everyone acting like their (sic) lives are perfect, feeling judged, or just being bored. What if there were a place you could worship and ask questions without feeling like you had to hide your real self?"

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "This Doufus ELCA Congregation...No - Wait. WELS!?":

This article made me cry and I am in pain after having read it. There should be public outrage and outcry from both laity and clergy. I cannot believe that President Schroeder and the Conference of Presidents puts a stamp of approval on this. I am not able to place offerings in my envelope directed to synod with a clear conscience.
May God help us all.
Perhaps I stand alone; this is not the WELS I was instructed and confirmed in. How can we, the laity, and the pastors I used to look up to just stand by and watch this?
I am needing to step away and not just look away.

St. Mark's DePere Hails Kelm Copy-and-Paste Call to The Love Shack

Kelm: "I thought I requested a bigger office."

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

***

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.

---

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.

Tireless Ichabod Research Team Reveals Shocking New Keynoter for Church and Change Conference - Baptist Ed Stetzer

Baptist Ed Stetzer: Another phase of Church Growth idiocy for the masses - and WELS - and Missouri. Becoming Missional.

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer has planted churches in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and transitioned declining churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. [GJ - No bio tells where he got these so-called doctorates. Oh wait, I finally found a real bio at Trinity, where Olson studied. Here's Ed - Ed Stetzer is affiliate professor of research and missional ministry at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He earned his BS at Shorter College, his MAR at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, his DMin at Beeson Divinity School, and his MDiv and PhD at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. A DMin is not a real doctorate. An MDiv is just a seminary degree. Big deal. Southern Baptist is a very liberal Baptist school. They would not answer whether they believed in the Virgin Birth, when asked by the president of their denomination!] Ed is a columnist for Outreach Magazine and Catalyst Monthly, serves on the advisory council of Sermon Central and Christianity Today's Building Church Leaders, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USA Today and CNN.

Ed is Visiting Professor of Research and Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Visiting Research Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and has taught at fifteen other colleges and seminaries. He also serves on the Church Services Team at the International Mission Board.

Ed is currently interim teaching pastor of First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, TN.

Ed's primary role is President of LifeWay Research and LifeWay's Missiologist in Residence.

He has written the following books:
• Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age (2003),
• Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (w/ Elmer Towns, 2004),
• Breaking the Missional Code (w/ David Putman, 2006),
• Planting Missional Churches (2006),
• Comeback Churches (with Mike Dodson, 2007),
• 11 Innovations in the Local Church (with Elmer Towns and Warren Bird, 2007), and
• Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living (with Philip Nation)





Most are open to the public but you should check with the web page or house for more information.

Ed's 2008 and 2009 Speaking Dates


November 6, 2009
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church and Change Conference
Milwaukee, WI


October 11-19, 2008
Fall Pastor's Vision Trip Central & Eastern Europe Region
Krakaw, Poland

October 20-21, 2008
Colorado State Convention Annual Meeting
Denver, CO

October 22, 2008
The What if Conference- LifeWay Adult Ministry Institute
Nashville, TN

October 24, 2008
Chapel Speaker
Union University
Jackson, TN

October 28, 2008
2008 Arkansas Baptist State Convention
Bentonville, AR

October 29, 2008
LifeWay Chapel
Nashville, TN

November 5-7, 2008
NOC08-The National Outreach Convention
San Diego, CA

November 10, 2008
Maryland/Delaware Pastor's Conference
Dover, DE

November 12, 2008
Refuel - 2008 Illinois Pastor's Conference
Springfield, IL

November 13-15, 2008
American Society of Church Growth Annual Conference
Biola University,
La Mirada, CA

November 17-21, 2008
Guest Professor
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Chicago, IL

Nov. 30, 2008
The Summit Church
Raleigh Durham, NC

Ed's 2009 Speaking Dates
2009
January 8, 2009
Nazarene National Pastors Conference
San Diego, CA

January 14, 2009
Breakout Session
North Central States Rally
Indianapolis, IN

January 19, 2009
Mississippi State Evangelism Conference
First Baptist Church Clinton, MS

January 26-27, 2009
New Mexico Evangelism Conference
Hoffmantown Church, Albuquerque, NM

January 28,2009
Dallas Leadership Network- Innovation 3 Conference
Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, Carrollton, TX

February 2, 2009
National Discipleship Meeting
Assemblies of God Headquarters
Springfield, MO

February 11-12, 2009
Association of State Executive Directors Annual Meeting
San Antonio, TX

February 16, 2009


Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary/North Carolina State Evangelism and Church Growth Conference

Wake Forest, NC

February 18, 2009
Empower Evangelism Conference
First Baptist Church Euless, TX

February 23, 2009
Church Planters.com Conference

February 24, 2009
North Carolina Pastors Conference
Ridgecrest, NC

March 2-3, 2009
Michigan State Evangelism Conference
Detroit, MI

March 7, 2009
Topics:
1-Reasons 18 to 22 Year Olds Drop Out of Church - Can the Church Close the Door?
2-Connecting Young Adults
Missionary Church North Central District
Reaching Next Generation
Granger, IN

March 9-12, 2009
Guest Professor, Church Planting
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Dmin Teaching
Chicago, IL

March 18, 2009
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Spring 2009 LifeWay Conference - Chapel
Wake Forest, NC

March 19, 2009
Protestant Church Owned Publishing Association Spring Conference- Protestant Pastor's Today
Nashville, TN

March 23-27, 2009
Guest Professor, "Entering the Missional Churches"
Biblical Seminary Dmin Teaching
Hatfield, PA

April 2, 2009
Webinar Presentation, "Mission, Missional, Missions"
The Mission Exchange Webinar
Nashville, TN (via web)

April 18, 2009
Acts 1:8 SENT Conference (Southern Baptists of Texas Convention))
First Baptist Church, Houston, TX



April 20-22, 2009
Exponential 2009- Nat'l New Churches Conference
Orlando, FL

April 21, 2009
National Conference on Preaching
Tampa, FL

April 24, 2009
Small Church Leadership Conference 2009
Nashville, TN

April 27-28, 2009
Missouri Synod Lutherans- North American Mission Executives
St. Louis, MO

May 1-2, 2009
Video Presentation
BGCO Missional Church Training
Nashville, TN

May 11-12, 2009
Campbellsville University, Church Planting Class
Louisville, KY

May 20-21, 2009
Church of God Church Planting/ Revitalization - Lab
Madisonville, KY

May 22-30, 2009
Pastors Mission Vision Trip to Europe

June 1- 5, 2009
Guest Professor, "Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth"
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Dmin
Wake Forest, NC

July 11-13, 2009
Sunday School Week- Ridgecrest
Ridgecrest, NC

June 14, 2009
Gracepoint Church
San Antonio

July 20-24,2009
Sunday School Week- Glorieta
Glorieta, NM

July 27, 2009
Breakout Speaker
The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Church Annual Meeting-Equip 09
Columbus, OH

September 21-28, 2009
Pastors Vision Trip-Third World Location TBA

October 12-14, 2009
International Mission Board Pastors Conference
Richmond, VA

November 6, 2009
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church and Change Conference
Milwaukee, WI

November 7-8, 2009
Len Sweet's Mountain Advance
Canaan Valley, WV

November 9, 2009
TN Baptist Pastor's Conference
Jackson, TN

November 12-14, 2009
American Society of Church Growth
Orlando, FL

November 30- December 1-2, 2009
Theological Symposium
Ridgecrest, NC

Ed's 2010 Speaking Dates
2010
January 4-8, 2010
Southeastern Seminary M.Div class
Southeastern Seminary

March 8-11
Missional Leadership D Min class, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

























Wow. I am tired. It may be 10pm here, but mt body still thinks it is 5am in Rome. Good night. 24 minutes ago
Home sweet home (or at least Nashville Sweet Airport). Almost home to see my princesses! about 2 hours ago
http://twitpic.com/gymw Hypothetically, if you took a pic of the Sistine Chapel before remembering you're not allowed to, this would be it. about 4 hours ago
Guide to the Blog

The Meanings of Missional (5 Parts)
Multi-site Churches
Young Adult Dropouts
Calvinism and the SBC
Book Review: The Story of Christianity
Good Intentions: Bob Smietana
Einstein quotes for missions and church planting
Kostenberger on the Church’s Mission in the 21st Century
Global Church Advancement - Church Planting and Renewal Conference
VIDEO - Billy Graham Preaching in 1958
Left Behind or Left Befuddled?
TeAmerica is now ConvergeUSA
Planting Churches in Budapest and Beyond
Video and Vision for Europe
Lost and Found Powerpoint at Catalyst
In Europe for God's Global Mission
Megachurch Interview: Daryl Largis
Keys to Kingdom Church Planting
Megachurch Research - Terminology
We Interupt This Blog from Altanta
Megachurch Interview: Brady Cooper
Warren Bird's Megachurch Dissertation
October 2008 (13)
September 2008 (20)
August 2008 (19)
July 2008 (20)
June 2008 (22)
May 2008 (24)
April 2008 (30)
March 2008 (25)
February 2008 (26)
January 2008 (18)
December 2007 (19)
November 2007 (25)
October 2007 (28)
September 2007 (32)
August 2007 (37)
July 2007 (15)

Ayers Ghosting for Obama - More Tests

This map, copied for Bruce Church, shows how close Obama's home is to Ayers' residence. Louis Farrakhan is close by as well. Convicted felon Tony Rezko arranged the purchase of the Obama mansion, apparently with money from a rich Muslim.


Test shows Ayers penned Obama's 'Dreams'

by

Jack Cashill

As I have contended in previous articles, there is considerable and growing evidence that Bill Ayers made a significant contribution to Obama's "Dreams from My Father."

Among other indicators, I have cited the stunning parallels in nautical metaphors and postmodern themes, as well as the nearly miraculous transformation of Obama from struggling hack to literary giant in just a few years.

On Friday evening I received a welcome call from a member of Congress who has found the evidence as convincing as I have and has intervened to have writing samples tested through a university-based authorship program.

Although no such program is fully reliable, all preliminary comparisons that I have run have tested positive.

Two comparable nature passages – from "Dreams" and Ayers' memoir, "Fugitive Day," respectively – scored very nearly identically on the Flesch Reading Ease test.

On sentence length, a significant and telling variable, 30-sentence sequences from "Dreams" and "Fugitive Days," each dealing with "community organizing," scored very nearly identically again, "Fugitive Days" averaging 23.13 words a sentence and "Dreams" averaging 23.36 words a sentence.

By contrast, the memoir section of my own book about race, "Sucker Punch," averaged 15 words a sentence and tested significantly higher than either book on the Flesch Reading Ease test.

I also tested verb repetition in all three books, using as a base the first 60 distinctive verbs in "Fugitive Days." In "Dreams," an eye-popping 55 of those verbs appear. In "Sucker Punch," 37 do, this despite the fact that I am closer in age and education to Ayers than Obama is.

Ayers' involvement in Obama's memoir is not nearly as improbable as it might sound. Ayers served as something of a literary guru for his radical Hyde Park neighbors in Chicago.

Rashid Khalidi attests to this in the very first sentence of the acknowledgements in his 2004 book, "Resurrecting Empire."

"There are many people without whose support and assistance I could not have written this book, or written it in the way that it was written," he writes. "First, chronologically, and in other ways, comes Bill Ayers."

(Column continues below)




A friend of the PLO, even back in its terrorist days, Khalidi was as tight with Obama as he was with Ayers. Obama acknowledged as much when he toasted Khalidi on his departure from Chicago in 2003.

It would seem as natural, in fact, for Obama to have made use of Ayers' famed "dining room table" and the literary help that came with it as it was for Khalidi.

In fact, based on comparisons of style and word selection, Ayers seems to have had a much greater impact on Obama's work than on Khalidi's.

New evidence suggests that there was a good deal of literary back-scratching going on in Chicago's Hyde Park. Obama, for instance, wrote a short and glowing review of Ayers' 1997 book, "A Kind and Just Parent," for the Chicago Tribune.

Obama, whose photo is shown with the review, describes Ayers' book as "a searing and timely account of the juvenile court system."

In that same book, perhaps with a self-congratulatory wink, Ayers cites the "writer" Barack Obama as one among the celebrities in his neighborhood.

Ayers' likely ghosting of "Dreams" matters not so much because of what Ayers was, but rather because of what Ayers is: a man still intent on destroying an America that, in his own words, post 9-11, "makes me want to puke."

The congressman's real concern is that Ayers may have influenced Obama's political philosophy as much as he seems to have influenced his literary style. Consider the following passage from "Dreams":

Some [tourists] came because Kenya, without shame, offered to re-create an age when the lives of whites in foreign lands rested comfortably on the backs of the darker races; an age of innocence before Kimathi and other angry young men in Soweto or Detroit or the Mekong Delta started to lash out in street crime and revolution.
– Barack Obama, "Dreams from My Father"

Although Obama's memoir is generally more restrained and politic than Ayers' "Fugitive Days," passages like the one above make one wonder which is the real Obama.

The reference to "angry young men in Soweto or Detroit or the Mekong Delta" reflects Ayers' worldview of America as a "marauding monster," one that terrorizes its own citizens of color just as it does those in the third world.

Ayers does not define himself as being part of this monster but rather sees himself and his colleagues as saboteurs "behind enemy lines."

Curiously, Obama used the exact same phrase – "behind enemy lines" – to describe his own status while working in corporate America.

Obama's best defense here is that he did not write these passages and may not have understood their implications. For one, given his age, "Mekong Delta" was not likely a part of his vocabulary.

Ayers and his radical friends, however, were obsessed with Vietnam. It defined them and still does. To reflect their superior insight into that country, they have shown a tendency to use "Mekong Delta" as synecdoche, the part that indicates the whole.

In his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days," for instance, Ayers envisions "a patrol in the Mekong Delta" when he conjures up an image of Vietnam.

Ayers' wife, Bernadine Dohrn, pontificated about "a hamlet called My Lai" in a 1998 interview, but to flash her radical chops, she located it "in the middle of the Mekong Delta," which is in reality several hundred miles from My Lai.

In "Sucker Punch," though I write extensively about Vietnam, I make no reference to the "Mekong Delta." I have never written those words before this article.

Similarly, Ayers would have had a much deeper connection than Obama to "Detroit," whose historic riot took place, shortly before Obama's sixth birthday.

Ayers was posted to Detroit the year after the riot and experienced its fallout firsthand. In 2007, on his blog, he "commemorate[d]" the 40th anniversary of what he predictably calls the "Detroit Rebellion."

For obvious reasons, the media and the Obama camp have held Obama blameless for knowing anything about anything before 1970.

"Why is John McCain talking about the sixties?" one Obama ad asks. "McCain knows Obama denounced Bill Ayers' crimes committed when Obama was just eight years old."

The fact that the Weather Underground did all of its bombing in the 1970s, a conscious deception on the part of Obama and his handlers, is not at issue here.

What is at issue is that, if my thesis is correct, Obama has maintained an intimate working relationship with a self-described "communist" whose actions Obama now calls "despicable" and "detestable" only because he has to.

This Is Old News about Obama and Ayers, But Part of the Evidence

Domestic bomber and killer Bill Ayers, unrepentant. His book mentioned below was Obama's favorite, as listed in the Chicago Tribune. Ayers mentioned Obama as a neighbor in that book. Some think Michelle brought Obama together with Wright and Ayers, but that overlooks Frank Marshall Davis, the known Communist mentor of Obama in Hawaii. Davis had great Lefty society connections in...Chicago.

I read this before, but it is worth posting with the rest.

Should a child ever be called a “super predator?”

A panel at the University of Chicago debates the merits of the juvenile justice system

Children who kill are called “super predators,” “people with no conscience,” “feral pre-social beings"–and “adults.”

William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court(Beacon Press, 1997), says “We should call a child a child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn’t suddenly an adult. We have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come from?”

Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak on juvenile justice at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the C-Shop of the Reynolds Club, 5706 S. University Ave.

The panel, which marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile justice system in the United States, is part of the Community Service Center’s monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago.

The event is free and open to the public.

Ayers will be joined by Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School, who is working to block proposed legislation that would throw more juvenile offenders into the adult system; Randolph Stone, Director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago; Alex Correa, a reformed juvenile offender who spent 7 years in Cook County Temporary Detention Center; Frank Tobin, a former priest and teacher in the Detention Center who helped Correa; and Willy Baldwin, who grew up in public housing and is currently a teacher in the Detention Center.

The juvenile justice system was founded by Chicago reformer Jane Addams, who advocated the establishment of a separate court system for children which would act like a “kind and just

parent” for children in crisis.

One hundred years later, the system is “overcrowded, under-funded, over-centralized and racist,” Ayers said.

Michelle Obama, Associate Dean of Student Services and Director of the University of Chicago Community Service Center, hopes bringing issues like this to campus will open a dialogue between members of the University community and the broader community.

“We know that issues like juvenile justice impact each of us who live in the city of Chicago. This panel gives community members and students a chance to hear about the juvenile justice system not only on a theoretical level, but from the people who have experienced it.”

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/97/971104.juvenile.justice.shtml
Last modified at 03:50 PM CST on Wednesday, June 14 2000.

------------------------------

University of Chicago News Office
5801 South Ellis Avenue - Room 200
Chicago, Illinois 60637-1473 (773) 702-8360

Oh! Bomber Speaks

Obama and Ayers Shared the Same Small Office for Three Years; Building Now Demolished

Verum Serum

Crossing Paths Daily: Obama and Ayers Shared an Office

(Update: For Three Years)

John on October 16, 2008

It’s nice to be the guy getting tips for once instead of the guy sending them. Yesterday I got two great tips from Morgen, a reader who had found my earlier posts digging into the Obama Ayers connection. Both tips appear to check out and the second one is, I think, big news.

First, the smaller one…

This Chicago Annenberg Challenge website from 2002 shows the total amount of funds given to Bill Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop from 1995 to 2001. The amount is not the $175K I had reported earlier. According to this page, the total given under Barack Obama’s direct supervision was $1,056,162. Adding that amount to the money given by the Joyce Foundation and Woods Fund during Obama’s tenure brings the grand total to $1,968,718. Just shy of two million dollars! That’s a lot of scratch, to put it bluntly. And don’t forget, this doesn’t count the 3/4 million that went to John Ayers during the same time period.

Now here’s the second and bigger break, again big hat tip to Morgen for his work on this…

Bill Ayers and Barack Obama shared an office. Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop, the one Obama directed all that money to is located at 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607 [Note the link is to a year 2000 version of their website]. Here’s a screen grab from the website’s footer:



In 1998, the address for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama presumably worked, was 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607. Here’s a copy of their 1998 tax return with that address:



The CAC moved to a new address sometime in 1999 or 2000, but the shared office probably persisted for at least three years. I can’t say for sure because 1998 is the earliest tax information available online. [Correction: I can say for sure that they shared the same building for the years 1995-1998. Here is a 1995 progress report from the CAC with the same address.]

Now remember, the NY Times described Obama and Ayers as having “crossed paths.” Ben LaBolt, Obama’s spokesman said:

Mr. LaBolt said the men first met in 1995 through the education project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and have encountered each other occasionally in public life or in the neighborhood.

I’m going to suggest that two guys working in the same building for a period of years probably crossed paths pretty often. For all we know, they had lunch together on a daily basis. Maybe, in an effort at conservation, they were even carpool buddies. After all, Ayers is a guy from Obama’s neighborhood.

Would someone at the Times like to contact Mr. LaBolt for a follow-up?

Update: Made the correction above. Also, Obama was a state senator from 1996-2004. However, he still likely spent some significant time at the Sangamon street address, especially in 1995. But even after his election he would presumably be working on his CAC duties at the Sangamon office, not from some other location.

According to this letter dated 1995, Obama’s office was on the 3rd floor:



And according to this memo dated 1996, Small Schools Workshop was also on the 3rd floor:



Do you think maybe Obama and Bill Ayers ran into each other once in a while?