This was mislabled the Plywood Palace, which was a boys' dorm.
I made a mistake in my Human Nature.
One WELS observer says, and I agree, that MLS will not survive synodical budget cuts. I pointed out that the Gurgel-Mueller Church Growth administration killed enrollment first with insane tuition increases, then finished the job by talking up the closing of the school. One flapjaw at The Love Shack even put out a story after the defenestration of Gurgel, that MLS could be closed anyway, in spite of the convention. The press reported Rev. Flapjaw's remarks, and SP Schroeder had to do damage control. That has been a feature of the Church and Changers, always undermining the stated goals of the convention.
Two other factors are the birth drought in general, which lowers the recruitment pool, and the poor location of the school. They should have spent their money relocating MLS a long time ago. I imagine parents think of the location whenever they choose which prep to support.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Michigan Lutheran Seminary, RIP":
Hi, we don't need the synod postition (sic) either. The president's (sic) of the schools(who are very capable men) can report to the synod president and their respective boards which currently act like nothing more than an advisory board with calling authority. Church growth didn't get us into this mess. Leaders and called workers who can't comprehend challenge and meet expectations are the reason we are here. If you want to blame this all on church growth then you better start looking at all the called workers who can't achieve goals and our killing our churches with the lack of enthusiasm and effort to try and share the Gospel. I don't like the entertainment and some of the tactics of church growth but I am irritated with the notion that this is THE problem.
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GJ - Once prep tuition went from being a bit pricey to being a bone-cruncher, the preps lost a whole group of students who might have attended. The schools were bled dry on purpose by the Church Growthers, so now they are kosher. I don't believe the writer realizes how many millions have been diverted to pay for Fuller, Trinity Deerfield, and Willow Creek training; to fund CG missions that went EC, Roman Catholic, or LCMS (POP-Lutheran, Columbus); to experiment; to jump-start WELS; to pay off lawsuits caused by criminal church workers; to publish slick but useless magazines; to give CG buddies high-paying jobs at The Love Shack.
The Church Shrinkers are allergic to doing congregational work. Kelm is almost parish-experience free. He did start an ELCA church near Pittsfield, which is still going, I heard. Larry Olson had one call, which never grew, so they made him Waldo Werning Professor of Church Growth at MLC.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Michigan Lutheran Seminary, RIP":
I often wonder if possibly the prep system is no longer relevant. During the past several decades, the number of WELS high schools has increased dramatically. Areas previously not served by WELS high schools now have them. For example, the metro Detroit area now has Huron Valley Lutheran High. MLS used to (maybe still does) get many of its dormer students from this area.
I have run into a number of prep alumni who have not sent their children on to prep school (where they would need to be dormer students). Sometimes this is because of the expense; often it is because there is another school within commuting distance.
Perhaps MLS could be turned into an area Lutheran high school. I have heard that some of the area WELS Lutheran high schools do provide limited facilities for dorming students.
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GJ - Doubtless the area high schools have competed for the same students. The genius of WELS can be seen in closing the New Ulm prep and moving it to Prairie, where no Lutherans live. The New Ulm area parents immediately built an area high school, a fairly big one. Some parents like to see their children more than twice a year. Martin Luther College lost many of their students because Norm Berg would not support WELS parochial schools with mission support. Norm was always channeling Fuller nonsense because he went there, like all the Mission Board people. MLC did not get the students who wanted to become teachers because the teaching positions shriveled up. WELS liberals are good at shooting themselves in the foot.
Perhaps in the long run this was going to happen, but the Church Shrinkers are the ones who got the tuition way out of balance and de-motivated a generation of students. How they mismanaged the money is the theme of the Kuske Report, linked in my set of WELS 2009 Convention files.
