Church and Change in The Little Sect on the Prairie

Preaching to a PowerPoint. I wonder where that came from.

Pastor Nathan Krause in his Sunday suit.

ELS Pastor Nathan Krause gave a presentation at the last Church and Change shindig.

Trouble in Paradise by ELS Bad Boy

September 22

Abiding Shepherd's website-A review

I spent a bit of time looking over the website for Abiding Shepherd in Cottage Grove, the first congregation of the ELS to implement (and bold enough to call them) contemporary services.

In assessing the site the only thing Lutheran about it is they at least maintain the name Lutheran in their church name. That's more than many WELS congregations, periodicals, etc. do. At one LWMS rally I actually heard one report from the national rally that it is more advantageous to not use the name Lutheran and if we insist on retaining the name Lutheran, we are being selfish.
The name of Jesus is mentioned once on the site (at least I could find no other mention). This is on the "mission statement" page, and the mention of Jesus Christ is found in the now defunct mission statement. This is only one of two places the name Christ is mentioned (on this page as "Jesus Christ") The other mention is on Family Education Night under the Bible Study link. Here it mentions "Christ's sacrifice" as part of the study on the Chronicles of Narnia movie. This will probably be an interesting study, even if led by a layman instead of the called shepherd, er, spiritual administrator. Ugh. Business models for the church. Yuck. Ick.

If the contemporary service is anything like this contemporary church website, I don't think there is much of substance here. Hopefully the website is incomplete and the good stuff is coming right around the corner.


contemptible service again
A real quick note. The fact that many do not see the connection to the 1 Corinthians verses I quoted in the previous post and the Divine Service is exactly why we have a problem in Lutheranism today. Those verses have everything to do with the Divine Service. Typically (admittedly, I can't speak to Krause's service, I've never been to it) the "service" of contemptible services focuses on man's service to God rather than God's Service to man through the Means of Grace. It is based on a theology of glory rather than the theology of the Cross. I would expect this of the reformed, but the Lutheran Confessions make it clear that even a sanitized version of a heretical service does not make it right to use it. More when I have more time.

---

Krause's Mission Statement:

BRING THEM IN!

LIFT THEM UP!

SEND THEM OUT!

[GJ - A plastic surgeon in Scottsdale has the same mission statement.]



Our mission statement until January, 2003 was "As God's children, united by faith, we are committed to praising God with our worship and our Christian lives, and to use the Gospel of Jesus Christ to nurture fellow believers and to reach out to others, all to the glory of God."

While this statement is still true and at the very core of our ministry here at Abiding Shepherd, the church leadership developed this simple statement that our friends and members could carry in their hearts as we meet throughout the week with each other and our community.

***

GJ - Confidential to Norm Teigen. The ELS is directly involved in Church and Change.

PS - Norm Teigen has been told this is "an experiment," so aping the Reformed is fine in an "experiment." WELS has been experimenting with Church Growth for three decades. Even with common law marriage, living together for seven years constitutes a marriage enforceable by law. I think the Little Sect has watch the common law marriage of WELS and Fuller/Willow Creek with envy and awe. Now they want to shack up with Deformed theology, too.

Becker and Bucks: Church and Change

Patterson, Church and Change kingpin, gets a huge grant each year to pay the cost of his vicar. These vicars are trained in Church-and-Changeology. Tell me, this is not giving money to Church and Change? Wake up and smell the rot.

Church and Change board member Bruce Becker is pulling down a princely Administrator's salary (higher than a seminary professor's) while fighting the duly elected Synod President. And, to top this off, Becker is using synod money to install his Church and Change ally, Paul Copy-and-Paste Kelm, at The Love Shack. Where does it end?

From Bailing Water:

Anonymous said...
I remember that last year there was a link on the WELS official website that allowed registration for the Church and Change Conference. (I am sure they would not provide a link to something they did not approve).
Hopefully they will not supply that link for the November, 2009 conference.
It did appear to have synodical backing last year. Also men in WELS leadership positions were and still are a part of Church and Change. These are people we lay people look up to for guidance in our spiritual lives. When the leaders lead us in this direction.....it does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out. If it walks like a duck.......

October 23, 2008 12:30 PM


Anonymous said...
From wels.net and other internet research, it appears that local congregations support C&C conferences and they get grants from places like Thrivent (besides charging for their conferences), is that correct? They meet once a year? And, also, there is some connection/accountability with DPs, COP and/or Parish Services? C&C is made up of WELS pastors and like-minded participants, so besides promoting CG methods, what influence do they have on the synod (apart from within local congregations and supportive ministry)?

Rob

October 23, 2008 1:01 PM


Anonymous said...
PER: Bruce Becker, Administrator
WELS Parish Services (also a member of the Board of Directors for Church and Change)

Church and Change is a grassroots organization comprised of WELS pastors, teachers, staff ministers, and lay people. Through its conferences, participants learn from one another, share ministry ideas, and explore new ways to bring the changeless gospel of Jesus Christ to a ever-changing world. It provides a rare opportunity in our circles for called workers and lay people from various districts to get together to talk about gospel ministry. Church and Change, in its organizing documents, has a stated desire to be connected directly to WELS synodical ministry through the Board for Parish Services. When hosting conferences, the Church and Change chairman apprises the district president of the district in which the event will be held. The organization also follows the guidelines established by the WELS Conference of Presidents for publicizing and hosting such events. In short, Church and Change is accountable to WELS on several different levels.

October 23, 2008 1:18 PM


Anonymous said...
here's my 2 cents worth...
anyone who's a member of c&c should remove themselves from the WELS membership list. start your own touchy feely church and rock on. leave the rest of us alone. i designate my church offerings go specifically to anything but the general fund. they're not going to send a penny of my offering up there to milwaukee to dole out back to this kind of nonsense. it's a church within a church. time to cut 'em loose. if the synod uppity-ups can't do that, i'll cut myself loose after 59 years of active WELS membership. it ain't what it used to be and as far as i can tell, those we've put in charge don't really care.

October 23, 2008 2:30 PM


Anonymous said...
Thank-you for saying that, Anonymous of 2:30 PM.

I agree with you about the offerings and it is the same in my household. I wish it was not so but I cannot support this stuff with a clear conscience.

I am being patient (so far) and hope this clears up but I have started my letter of resignation and will need to submit it if something cannot be done about the Church and Change group and all the stuff they are doing to "unLutheranize" WELS. I don't understand why they want to be part of WELS.

I came into WELS as an adult, was instructed and confirmed. I thought I had found a church and first learned of my salvation. I am so very very confused and upset with all that is happening. This is not how I was instructed that WELS' believes. I'm not even sure of my salvation anymore. The Church and Change group is leading me to view church and the instructions I had as if it was all a big joke. I took the pastor instructing me as serious. This is very painful because now I need to look for a new church and I don't even know where to start looking.

October 23, 2008 3:42 PM


Anonymous said...
Dear anonymous of 3:42:

While the concerns about C&C are real and justified, I believe that the information and discussion on this blog can give an overstated impression as to the importance and influence of this somewhat inocnsequential (sic) group. The group is not supported by synod dollars. It has a self-appointed board of six or seven people. They hold a conference every two years, attended by about 200 people (many of them lay people). In general, the vast majority of pastors in the synod do not and would not participate in what they have to offer. I would suggest that you talk to your pastor and other pastors you know before you make any quick decisions.

While discussions such as this can be helpful in identifying problems, it is really disturbing to that the unrestrained (and sometimes unfactual) talk is really harming individuals in their faith and causing them to question the sincerity of the pastor who instructed them in the Word and to doubt salvation itself. Perhaps in seeing the hurt and reaction of anonymous 3:42, commenters should weigh their words more carefully. By seeking to solve a problem, you may be creating greater ones.
October 23, 2008 4:06 PM

[GJ - The passage above is utter nonsense, deliberately misleading, and manipulative. Dealing with false doctrine will harm believers? Surgery and chemo hurt, too, but they are needed to remove a cancer. All false doctrine is cancer.]

Anonymous said...
Thank you 2:30pm also,

I believe that I will also start giving my offerings to my church's designated funds until these slippery mission grants are monitored more closely.

3:42...

I would start by talking to your pastor to see his take on the situation. Invite him to look at this blog. Ask him what his position is on Church and Change and pastors sitting at the feet of Baptists experts.

October 23, 2008 4:09 PM

Anonymous said...
Norman-

You didn't know that the pastor of our own C&C congregation, Nathan Krause at Abiding Shepard in Cottage Grove, WI., was a PRESENTER at the last C&C conference?? The cancer is in us, too. Krause even had a vicar in the past year or so.

ELSer

Official Denial

Mark Tiefel, in denial.

Mark Tiefel has left a new comment on your post "Church and Change: Clone Wars in Texas":

You may consider this my "official denial." I did not attend the conference.

***

GJ - I believe it. He means the Ed Stezter (Ketzer) conference, which led to the Church and Change invite. Patterson took a bunch there, including a staff minister.

However, District VP Patterson (Church and Change kingpin) is getting synod grant money each year to pay for his vicars. How many WELS members knew that?

Bucks for Baptists - Your Offerings at Work in WELS

District VP Patterson, Church and Change: "Baptist Stetzer fans. Gather round. My buddies have some loot for you, fresh from the suckers at Kingdom Workers. Offerings for Lutheran missions? No, we camoflage as Baptists down heah in Texas, yall. The rubes don't know this."

VP Patterson wanted to be a good example, so he took a bunch of WELS clergy to hear Baptist Ed Stetzer, who will now present at the next Church and Change conference, though C and C is keeping it a secret for now. Doebler went along. Notice how Church and Change Baptists get all the loot for themselves?

10) Christ the Rock – Round Rock, Texas. Pastor Matthew Doebler. The ministry has been enriched by a generous grant ($13,000) from the Kingdom Workers National Project program. The ministry plan uses this funding to assist with salary and related expenses for the mission’s Administrative Assistant. http://www.ctrtx.net/ (related expenses: trip to see Ec Stetzer and buy an electric guitar....Patterson's rock and roll church)

"14) Vicars in Mission Settings. This program is designed to place vicars into a congregation with a mission setting and under the supervision of a pastor with a mission mindset." (ie cloning Church and Change vicars)

http://www.welssc.org/Reports/2008/2008-10%20DMB%20Report.pdf

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Bucks for Baptists - Your Offerings at Work in WEL...":

This is just one example of abusing synod grant money. Patterson has known about this process for years (it also helps that he has well-placed laymen on district and synod boards).

Patterson, Gunn, and R. Hunter all play this game well.

The Logic of Church and Change

Telling the truth about WELS makes me a Grinch.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What I Learned at Drive 08 - by Ski":

Maybe someone should write an article about you: "What I learned at Notre Dame," and then they can insinuate that you worship Mary, believe in purgatory and are semi-Pelagian.

***

GJ - The problems with your argument are Legion, like so many demons ready to jump into some obliging and suicidal pigs.

Ski is a WELS pastor, closely connected to Church and Change via St. Mark's (Jeske Church and Change branch) and his new stealth congregation. Ski bragged on his blog that he went to a Baptist conference with a group of WELS pastors, avoided a real Lutheran conference, and loved every second of his time with the Baptists.

What I believe about Roman Catholicism is published in Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, a book heavily promoted by Northwestern Publishing House, sold all over the world. Rev. Mouse might find some material about Enthusiasm in the same book. Some old, old quoations on this blog concern Romanism and the Protestant version of Enthusiasm.

I wish all the crypto-Enthusiasts would gush in public, like Ski. Valleskey was known for gushing in private, among friends of CG, but acting like Church Growth was a UFO when he was in public. He actually postured being forced into a study of CG when he spoke in Ohio (spoiling the Egyptians - couldn't even find an original excuse - had to borrow it from Fuller).

The longer the ELS-WELS-LCMS leaders avoid their doctrinal cancer, the worse it will be.

Norm Teigen - Am I My Brother WELS' Keeper?

WELS/ELS - Both have to explain to everyone why the ruling party is
non-Lutheran, and even anti-Lutheran in doctrine.


Bailing Water:

Norman Teigen said...
I will direct a message to President Moldstad on this subject and ask him for a clarification.

Remember that the ELS is a little synod and that every one knows every one else.

I don't think that the fact that the two synods, ELS and WELS, are in Fellowship means that each synod is responsible for what the other does (or doesn't do).

Can we not live with the idea that we are in agreement on most things but then recognize that the cultural differences that are part of our individual synods allow for some differences of emphasis and expression?

We have separate educational institutions and separate hymnaries. We have different histories. We like to sing different hymns. Some of us go to church on Christmas Eve and some of us do not. Some of us sing 'Jeg er saa glad' and others sing 'O Tannenbaum' on Christmas Day.

Doesn't that mean something?

Norman Teigen
ELS layman
{I am a member of the ELS but I do not presume to speak for the ELS. I am thinking of identifying myself as an ELS spokesman in the new year upcoming.]]

October 22, 2008 10:37 PM

***

GJ - Many years ago, Robert Preus, who was once ELS, sent a poster to Herman Otten about Church Growth. He wrote on it, "WELS is worse than we are about Church Growth." I wrote about the false doctrine in WELS 15 years ago. Every false teacher has been rewarded and promoted. At what point does a denomination admit that it has reduced itself to xeroxing the worst from Fuller, Willow Creek, and the Baptist marketeers?

The ELS has been complicit in the spread of Church Growth doctrine. Both sects stood up to Missouri in the old days. Now neither one can face the truth within its own ranks. They know what has happened. It is just too rewarding to let false doctrine spread.

Why should the ELS leaders risk their free world travels for a little thing like doctrine?

Norm knows that when his father published the correct view on Holy Communion, the Wisconsin and ELS leaders treated him like garbage. Have the leaders been any different with Church Growth? Yes - they have been far worse.

The silence of the lambs continues.