Friday, March 13, 2009

New Vicar?
Karl Gurgel Re-Ups at Holy Word, Austin:
Be Sure To Audit the Books



Karl Gurgel (left) at a high-church WELS service: no Geneva gowns.


From: Pastor Patterson
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Subject: [Holy_Word] Pastor Gurgel responds to call
To: holy_word@yahoogroups.com


Dear Saints,

Last Sunday in our quarterly voter's meeting we issued a call to Rev. Karl Gurgel to come and serve us in a "one year part time call" to help us continue our mission to reach the lost for Christ in the North Austin and surrounding areas.

Below is his letter of acknowledgement. Please keep Pastor Gurgel and his wife Barb in your prayers as they deliberate what God would have them do. It would be a wonderful blessing to have them among us for a year or more - but we know that God in his wisdom will make them a blessing wherever he sends them.

In Him,

Pastor Patterson

P.S. If you would like to send him an encouraging email just reply to me and I will give you his address.

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Dear Members of Holy Word,

It's a privilege to serve the Lord, recognizing in the Call of God's people, the Call of the Lord himself. It's encouraging to recognize in the Call you've extended to me, the pleasure God may still grant me to serve his people.

Your commitment to extend the reach of God's Kingdom beyond yourselves is obvious in your adoption of your ten-year plan. The growth in the Word of God you envision for yourselves continues to provide the foundation for all your future plans. If the Lord leads me to accept His Call administered through you, it would be a privilege and pleasure to serve the Lord among you.

I would ask you to continue to remember my wife, Barbara and me, in your prayers. God-willing we will arrive at a decision before the end of March. May God's blessings also rest upon you.

In His Service with You,

Karl R. Gurgel

***

GJ - Some of you did not realize I was on this email list, too. Church and Change is leakier than a meeting of GOP conservatives.

I wonder if Kudu Don Patterson got a grant for this special call. My intuition says, "Yes!"

The opposition is loading up their ammo for the 2009 WELS convention.

Consider this: Gurgel was Doctrinal Pussycat when his district was given the MilCraft estate (Golf) and they managed to run that into the ground. The widow was cheated out of a lot of money so she sued WELS in court and won. Gurgel had no trouble going to court to oppose a widow who lost everything. She won a million dollars.

Gurgel's next triumph was getting the Schwan money, the largest charitable gift ever, and running the synod into total insolvency. When the synod treasurer informed Gurgel that they could not spend designated gifts, Gurgel fired the treasurer and blamed the treasurer for the disappeared funds. That is the essence of the synod owing money to the synod. Some call it skimming. I call it the typical stewardship of the Church and Change crowd: spend Other People's Money on your own wild hare projects.

Read the Kuske Report, linked at the top left side of the page. Kuske failed to note that his Church Growth buddies were the ones who devastated the finances of WELS.

Gurgel once wrote that "denying I have the spiritual gifts of leadership would be false modesty." I have to commend someone who can do so much damage and still get a vicarage call.


"Sorry to stop you, but we are looking for the new vicar at Holy Word in Austin. We are told he is carrying How To Success in Business Without Really Trying and the other set of synod books,
the ones marked Wauwatosa Charities.
There they are in the back seat!
I'm afraid you'll have to go into town and talk to Interpol."


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GJ - One of my many sources says that the Ichabod exposure of free vicars has shut that spigot off. There are only 1,437 to go.

Remember, Ichabodians, the Church and Changers run on Other's People Money, not on the Word, so keep tightening those spigots.