Willow Creek and St. Mark Depere (WELS): Together in Ministry with the Unitarians

While we do not oversee the ministry expressions of individual churches, WCA Membership is intended solely for churches that hold an orthodox understanding of biblical Christianity. All WCA Member Churches have affirmed the central doctrines of the Bible reflected in the WCA Statement of Faith and also presented in the historic creeds of the Christian faith. WCA Membership is open to churches of any size or denomination that are marked by a deep commitment to furthering the cause of Christ.
Willow Creek Association

Paul Kelm went from St. Mark, Depere to Parish Services at The Love Shack (WELS headquarters). Kelm gave a paper at The Sausage Factory about how to improve the seminary. So did Gunga Don Patterson, another part of this odious network.

John Parlow (St. Mark, Depere) participated proudly at the Babtist conference hosted by Andy Stanley: Drive 08. Here he is posing with a Drive 08 worship/drama leader. The Texaco emblem is actually the Drive 08 logo.
You can trust your coffee bar
to the man who wears the star,
the big, bright, Drive 08 star.

Can you hear the buttons popping as Ski (St. Marcus, Milwaukee, now C.O.R.E.) strikes a pose with theee Andy Stanley. Is it an accident that Ski was at the same Babtist conference as Parlow and Kelm?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Willow Creek Community Church: Why Do Missouri and...":

I just looked up Willow Creek Association, and they recommend a wide variety of churches. Including St. Mark's Lutheran Church in De Pere, WI to Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Reformed, United Church of Christ, to even a nontrinitarian church in Oak Creek, WI called Parkway Apostolic Church. I think Willow Creek is kind of sketchy.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Willow Creek Community Church: Why Do Missouri and...":

"Dumb sheep." Because of their training, they simply follow religious leaders and do not think. Thinking is frowned upon because it raises doubts.

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Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Willow Creek Community Church: Why Do Missouri and...":

Anon @9:32pm,

Thanks for the heads-up on this. Here is the link, for those interested. Further, read Willow Creek's About Us page. "The WCA is a not-for-profit ministry..." That's ministry, and any church of the Willow Creek Association (WCA) is a partner and beneficiary of this ministry. St. Mark's DePere is on the list of member congregations.

Of all the Fellowship implications this represents, I'll limit my comments here to the most obvious and the most basic. Lutherans need to be reminded to read their Athanasian Creed. It's in the Book of Concord, and it's in our hymnals. We read it every Trinity Sunday. It states directly that rejection of Trinitarian teaching vacates one's claim to a Christian confession. A congregation cannot maintain a Unitarian or Modalist confession and be considered Christian. Period. This is our Lutheran Confession. For St. Mark's DePere to engage in "ministerial association" with those who reject Trinitarian teaching, and to allow their congregation to be listed with non-trinitarian "churches" as if they have equivalent Christian standing, while at the same time mouth subscription to the Confessions which condemn such association, can hardly be regarded as Lutheran, certainly not in any Confessional sense.

This is simply intolerable.

Freddy Finkelstein

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Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Willow Creek Community Church: Why Do Missouri and...":

I saw this at an ELCA church I visited several years ago. It's called "Liturgical Dance" -- and, yes, I seem to recall seeing at least rhetorical support for it in Forward in Christ (several years ago, now). It is supposed to mimic the impromptu celebration of the Israelites after they crossed the Red Sea, or the Dancing of King David as he entered Jerusalem with the Arc.

As a liturgical practice, I agree, it is simply a ridiculous spectacle, and has no place in Lutheran Worship. First, it is not Biblical, since such dance is not impromptu, immediately following unpredicted and manifest acts of God, as the accounts in the Bible describe -- it is, rather, contrived by man. Second, it is a spectacle that the assembly watches -- it is bald entertainment.

Having witnessed "Liturgical Dance" first hand, I can assure you that it produces only feelings of extreme discomfort.

Freddy Finkelstein

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GJ - I wondered how long it would take me to find St. Mark, Depere on the Willow Creek Association website. Answer - three seconds. On Find a Church I selected Wisconsin and saw the list, yielding this line:

St. Mark Lutheran Church De Pere, WI (920) 336-2485.

Here is the link:

http://www.willowcreek.com/wca_info/find_a_church/SearchResult.asp?Basic=1&Name=&State=WI&Country=

You will notice a lot of Lutheran churches on the list.

St. John Lutheran Church, Ellisville, MO 636-394-4100 (LCMS) is on the list for Missouri. When McCain was Barry's assistant at the Purple Palace, Missouri did nothing about the Church Growth Movement. When I dared to criticize Barry's tepid remarks about Church Growth, McCain became extremely hostile. If you think McCain has a theological position other than opportunistic, you are dreaming. That is why they say the road to Hell is paved with the skulls of church executives.

I suggest using Willow Creek's Find a Church to look up a member of your synod.