The Ad Hoc Commission Report is summarized and linked here.
The Together message is linked here.
KJV Daniel 5:22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; 23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: 24 Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. 25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 This is the interpretation of the thing:
- MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
- TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
- PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
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Perish Services, bereft of Bruce Becker but burdened with Paul Kelm, will fight for its life in the next few months before the convention.
The Love-Shack-in-Exile is now located at Holy Word, Austin, Texas, where disgraced SP Gurgel is working with Kudu Don Patterson to retake the synod for Church Shrinkage. The Church Shrinkers have had their way since 1977, when Ron Roth started the pathetic organ of false doctrine called TELL. While talking growth, the Shrinkers have taught false doctrine, lined their pockets with synod money, and devastated the synod, defenestrating anyone who dared question their infallibility.
Patterson's wealthy suburban church can afford multiple safaris in Africa and two properties owned by Kudu Don, and yet they still have their hands out for synod subsidy when other entities are truly suffering from a lack of funds.
I heard Mark Jeske speak with typical arrogance about his desire to see Northwestern College closed. Apparently the faculty did not bow down to him while he was a student there. Or they mentioned Lutheran doctrine often enough to irritate him. Jeske will be another focal point in saving Perish Services.
Do not forget A-town, the Fox Valley churches led astray by John Parlow, Steve Witte, and Ron Ash. They are self-indulgent, bongo-drum beating beehives of anti-Lutheran activity. Parlow is a failure who could not scrape up enough funds to have one campus (denied, of course - anonymously). Like Jeske and Patterson, Parlow gets fat subsidies when his congregation should be supporting others.
The CORE is the shining light, the best example of what Perish Services, Church and Chicanery, and Schwaermer training has to offer:
- The name Lutheran abandoned as an obstacle.
- The word church also left by the wayside as a barrier to growth.
- Reaching out to WELS members; aka, skimming the cream while calling it a mission.
- Rock music.
- An obsession with hedonism.
- A full-time assistant to help with work that is clearly not being done anyway - minimal worship and Bible study, no Lutheran content provided, maximum Tweeting.
- And of course, wasting a great deal of money while providing a high visibility embarrassment to all Lutherans, regardless of race, gender, synod, country of origin, or sexual orientation.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perish Services in WELS Reads Writing on the Wall:...":
St. Peter's in Freedom, WI is the parent of their whorish daughter congregation, The CORE. Perhaps they've taken Freedom too far in their thinking of what is God-pleasing.
Certainly no one can claim this is a good use of resources and proper stewardship. Is there really no better use for $100,000 or whatever this costs to get off the ground?
They may gently reassure themselves that it is free grant money, so it doesn't really cost the congregation cash to run CORE. But it does cost them their reputation as proper stewards and discerners of right from wrong.
I Cor 4:1-2:
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perish Services in WELS Reads Writing on the Wall:...":
I think you guys should worry more about minding your own p's and q's and let the Lord decide how he wants his church to grow. If it is of man it will fail. If it is of God it will succeed and we must have the wisdom and MATURITY to accept either outcome as the Lord sees fit. You guys are the first to throw stones and yet how innocent are all of you? What divisive talk. You cling to your own understandings and you are as guilty as those you are accusing. You decry the mysteries of God and yet presume to know it all. May the Lord have mercy on all of us!
***
GJ - The Church and Chicaneries wanted to be judged by their results. That is fine, though anti-Biblical. They have decreased the size of the denomination during 30+ years of population growth. They have bankrupted the Wisconsin Synod during a time of enormous gift-giving through St. Marvin of Schwan. As Donald Trump would say, upon emerging from yet another bankruptcy, "You're fired!"

8 comments:
"A-town" now means "Apostasy Town"
St. Peter's in Freedom, WI is the parent of their whorish daughter congregation, the CORE. Perhaps they've taken Freedom too far in their thinking of what is God-pleasing.
Certainly no one can claim this is a good use of resources and proper stewardship. Is there really no better use for $100,000 or whatever this costs to get off the ground?
They may gently reassure themselves that it is free grant money, so it doesn't really cost the congregation cash to run CORE. But it does cost them their reputation as proper stewards and discerners of right from wrong.
I Cor 4:1-2:
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
I think you guys should worry more about minding your own p's and q's and let the Lord decide how he wants his church to grow. If it is of man it will fail. If it is of God it will succeed and we must have the wisdom and MATURITY to accept either outcome as the Lord sees fit. You guys are the first to throw stones and yet how innocent are all of you? What divisive talk. You cling to your own understandings and you are as guilty as those you are accusing. You decry the mysteries of God and yet presume to know it all. May the Lord have mercy on all of us!
Anon 10:18
Why would you say this is not a good use of resources and proper stewardship? And why would you assume everyone feels the same way you do?
Anonymous who refers to "p's and q's": It is perfectly legitimate to point out doctrinal error and false methods, as we have done. Please demonstrate specifically where any critic is "clinging to their own understanding" or "decrying the mysteries of God." Examples have been cited to back up the criticisms of the CORE and those who are chasing after Reformed theology. Have the MATURITY to do the same for your critiques.
+Martinus
Anon 1:41PM,
Perhaps you're in a position to examine the financials of your church, perhaps at the next voters meeting.
Look at all that your church has taken in and spent in the past year. The total doesn't matter right now.
Look next at all that your church has done. Fill a sheet of paper with column after column of baptisms and burials, hymns sung to unknown strangers, hardened hearts cleaved open by the Word, fellowship and encouragement among believers, offerings to missions around the world and around the corner, and a congregation each week pleading for forgiveness of sins.
Perhaps if your church has an elementary school, note the names of each child that was born DRENCHED in wicked sin, as is every new generation. But by the commitment of your church, each child is shown the glaring bright mirror of Law and its consequences, and the Gospel of Christ as the atonement.
What else could be the core mission of a Lutheran Evangelical Church other than to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, nurture believers, and bring others to faith through the Word and Sacraments?
Compare what your church does with its budget to the $100k needed to fund a pastor, an assistant, rent, electricity, travel, refurbishing, janitorial, health benefits, projector bulbs, guitar strings, and soda pop for **just six months** of this new activity. ($100k is just an educated guess.)
Is there no better use for $100k? Is there no one in committee or council to stand up and say, "Is this wise?" Is there no elder to remind the younger generations of the hard times of the church, when the lack of a cash cushion led to unpaid staff? Have we forgotten the Talents, that of whom much is given, much is expected? (Matthew 25:14-30) Blowing $100k "in God's name" has a fearsome consequence, regardless of the grant source.
Anon1:41PM, I bid you peace this Holy Week. I initially wrote that I have no assumption that everyone agrees with me. But I realized I was in fact presuming that we Christians should try to cling to the Cross & Word. I know that is not always easy, but let us discern wisely and walk together?
+Diet O. Worms
Just face it, this blog is dedicated to anger, bitterness, and gossip. There is no basis in fact, just assumptions and "obvious" conclusions which are wrong.
If you actually check things out for yourself, you'll find plenty of liberties taken with the truth and omission of fact that would damage the vitriolic mission of Greg Jackson.
A guy with an axe to grind makes some interesting entertainment, nothing more.
GJ-
I don't know that being judged by results is necessarily anti-Biblical. Certainly the Bible talks about results in Acts. I think it is a context issue. Who is causing the growth is the context.
Everyone seems to have an opinion as to why WELS is shrinking and I don't know if anyone really knows the answer. Certainly there are congregations in the Synod who preach the Word and administer the Sacraments and live according to scripture and the confessions. And yet they continue to shrink. Why?
Regarding the lack of finances; this is a matter of perspective. Yes, there have been generous contributions. But in my experience it is because of the traditionally stingy giving on the part of the majority of our Synod body members that has precipitated this motivation on the part of the Schwans et al to bail out the WELS. Thank the Lord they have been given the heart of Jesus in their gift giving.
On a side note; there was another poster this week who put up a link to BookofConcord.com. I found it interesting that in Luther's Small Catechism on that site, Luther commands people to bless themselves with the sign of the cross before beginning prayer. I don't remember seeing this in the Small Catechism I studied in growing up which by the way I believe was published by NPH. The Apology to the Augsburg Confession refers to the Lutheran Church as recognizing three Sacraments paring down from the seven recognized by the Roman Catholic Church; namely Lord's Supper, Baptism and Confession/Absolution. The modern WELS Synod does not recognize the third sacrament laid out. I believe this has now morphed into the Ministry of the Keys.
I'd love to hear some commentary on this from you or others. I mean, what really constitutes a subscription to the Lutheran Confessions?
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