"At least get him into pull-ups."
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ski Articulates the Vision":
Anon 8:40PM. I encourage you to write to or phone President Schroeder. Email to Mark.Schroeder@sab.wels.net
Telephone: 414-256-3201
In the article posted it says: "We work really hard to have an environment set up where Jesus is alive and active."
They are working hard on the wrong focus. Don't they know Jesus is already alive and active?
Pastor Skorzewski - if you are reading this - don't make so much work for yourself. PROCLAIM HIS WORD and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. You don't need to help Him. He doesn't need your help. Perhaps Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel have led you to think you need to help the Holy Spirit. Your statements are making other WELS congregations in your area look corrupt when it is really you and The CORE that are using perverse methods.
If some WELS congregations continue in this direction I do hope there is a split. It does not do any good to sit around and talk about the disunity. This junk has gone on more than long enough. God is being mocked.
---
Anonymouse has left a new comment on your post "Popcorn Cathedral of Rock Ready To Go Live":
“PROCLAIM HIS WORD and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. You don't need to help Him.”
---------------------
I have heard this from WELS pastors for years while they side-step the question of “to whom?” The statement calls for disambiguation.
WELS pastors enjoy proclaiming his word over and over to fellow WELS members, children of members, the choir, etc. Generally speaking they are not talking about sharing the Word with the unchurched, non-members, etc. Without clarification the listener must infer or guess at what the pastor is saying or intending to say.
Along come pastors like Ski who strive to reach out to the unchurched in need of the Word. Anything he does is threatening because it makes the typical pastor look lazy by rehashing sermons to existing members.
What to do about it? The coup de grace results in attacks on Ski stating that he is not proclaiming the Word in the one and only acceptable way – like fellow pastors preaching to the choir.
No wonder WELS members feel confused!
***
GJ - Plagiarizing false teachers has been excused by Church and Chicanery because they alone have been reaching out to the unchurched. Ha!
Read your Stetzer, Joe Krohn, aka Anonymouse. He was dead wrong (based on his own thientific survey) about what the unchurched want. They happen to like traditional worship and real churches.
Whether they do or not, the purpose of the Sunday service is to worship God, not to recruit new members through Sneaker Services. Sadly, the Enthusiasts have many different manipulative methods for sneaking people into their beehives. They really damage people with their authoritarian, dishonest, and greedy tactics. One ex-Lutheran began complaining about his sect. I began reciting what they were probably doing to him. He looked at me in shock. How did I know? I said, "They are all pretty much the same - all Law, but their own law."
Sunday worship means emphasizing the Means of Grace so people know the instruments of God's forgiveness. They should trust in the Word rather than their feelings. The Shrinkers appeal to the emotions--mostly fear and guilt--and mock the efficacy of the Word.
The Second Veep of the Wisconsin Sect mocked the efficacy of the Word in print. Was he disciplined? No, he was honored with a high and meaningless office.
Larry Olson, the Waldo Werning Professor of Enthusiasm at MLC, also mocked the efficacy of the Word in print. Was he disciplined? No, he was put in charge of Staff Ministry, to multiply the number of women ministers in WELS.
Paul Calvin Kelm lectured people on why the Word is not effective, so The Love Shack moved him back to become an expert.
The Church Shrinkers are self-indulgent clowns, posturing about their great love for Jesus while tearing down the divinely appointed Means which convey Him to us.
Book of Concord Lutherans do not trust in themselves or their works, but broadcast the ever-effective Word.
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Popcorn Cathedral of Rock Ready To Go Live":
PROCLAIM HIS WORD "To Whom?"
To the congregation and any visitors present! Proclaim it, proclaim it, proclaim it! That is what you are called to do! Keep pointing your sheep to the Cross and NEVER STOP. What happens when GOD'S WORD IS PROCLAIMED over and over and over Sunday after Sunday after Sunday? The Holy Spirit works faith. God's Word does not return empty! Members cannot help but to tell family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, even strangers the Good News that you, pastor, have been PROCLAIMING TO YOUR SHEEP. Perhaps they will invite a friend or relative and then that friend or relative will hear you PROCLAIM AND PROCLAIM AND PROCLAIM God's Word and the Holy Spirit may work faith in their hearts and they will tell their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers....and then they just might not be able to keep the Good News to themselves and they will invite their friends............
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Popcorn Cathedral of Rock Ready To Go Live":
To the first Anon on this comment thread:
Ski is not being criticized for deviating from the "one acceptable way" to proclaim the Word. He is being called to account for channeling a false Gospel, one that focuses on works, rather than faith. While his methods are questionable, it is his message that is contemptible.
You fail to support your inference that most WELS pastors are lazily rehashing their sermons and only preaching to existing members. Does this happen in some congregations? I'm sure it does - pastors are no more immune to slothfulness than the rest of us. However, there are many faithful pastors who take the time to study Scripture in the original languages and carry out their own exegesis. They put in the hours of hard work needed to dig into Biblical truths and write a sermon that clearly communicates Law and Gospel. Isn't this one of the primary purposes of their seminary training and the legitimate expectation of the congregation which called them?
Ski's use of sermons from another source (LifeChurch.tv) is true laziness. No study or discernment required - just plug and play.
And, by the way, it is not exclusively or mostly the pastor's job to seek out and proclaim the Good News to the lost. Members who are eager to point the finger at their pastor should instead look in the mirror and stand rightly accused of "forsaking their first love." (Rev. 2:4)
+Martinus
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Popcorn Cathedral of Rock Ready To Go Live":
For all of you critics who have NEVER heard Pastor Ski preach a sermon, I was at The CORE. Do you know what I heard tonight? I heard that I was a terrible miserable sinner. I heard that the one and only way to heaven is through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I even heard a quote from Martin Luther, it was even in the bulletin! I sang that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. I sang that my God is holy. I also learned that there are hundreds of thousands of souls who are dying every single day and are spending eternity in hell because they think being famous or being a good person is going to get them to heaven. I dare each and every one of you to hear a sermon from Pastor Ski and listen to the same sermon preached by Craig Groeschel (they are available on itunes) and then come back to this blog and try to claim that they are the same sermon. I tried. It didn't work. WELS pastors who follow the preaching schedule laid out for them all use the same text but that doesn't mean they have identical sermons.
***
GJ - Walther said, "The closer to Luther, the better the theologian." I would edit that to say, "The closer to Groeschel, the worser the theologian."
Ski has revealed that he adores being trained by false teachers, that he is allergic to his own pastoral conferences. He worships with false teachers and copies them.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Popcorn Cathedral of Rock Ready To Go Live":
Anon at 9:13 p.m. - your comment makes no sense. Please explain yourself.
I have done my research. I have personally talked to people who have attended St. Peter's Appleton and the CORE and I have talked to some of Ski's fellow pastors. I have read and viewed for myself the resources Ski is referencing and I have read the things he has publicly written. I have (recently) studied what Scripture has to say about associating with false teachers and proclaiming a confusing message.
I don't take assertions on one blog at face value without validating them in several other ways. On the other hand, after investigation, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then...
If you have firsthand knowledge that Ski is doing the Bible study and faithfully preparing his own sermons - prove it. If you can answer why he is associating with heterodox pastors and using resources from a reformed source - do so. Otherwise, your retort is childish and meaningless.
Be advised that Ski has already rebuffed these kinds of questions from some of his fellow pastors - not an encouraging sign.
+Martinus
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Popcorn Cathedral of Rock Ready To Go Live":
The fact is that there is no substance to the accusations. Why should Anon have to prove ANYTHING since he actually has first hand knowledge, while the accusers do not? Prove your own falsehoods and assumptions.
I'm afraid that's hopeless for you, Martinus because it can't be proven. There's no foundation in fact.
