Penguins have been promoted into the teaching office of the church at Victory of the Lamb Movie Theatre. Watch the precious Victory of the Penguins. Come for the cute animal pix, stay for the popcorn. Check out the Bible Babes.
From Bailing Water:
Tim Niedfeldt said...
As a reference example for Anon 11:38am. Victory received $20K from WELS BHM...$15K the 1st year and $5k the 2nd. That accounts for all our WELS money as a level two mission. Most "R&R" churches are level 1's or level 2's only... meaning minimal or NO synod money.
These churches exist mostly as a daughter effort of a larger mother congregation and have a very short time to become self-sufficient. We are currently at 85% self-supporting and should be 100% by January 1st. (3 years time to achieve)
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Anonymous said...
Back to the original question: will the rock and roll churches have their grants cut...
There are no "rock and roll churches" receiving grants directly from WELS. They tend to be supported from organizations that agree with their methods. That probably won't change much. For all the talk on this blog about WELS' "rock and roll" ways, it is actually a very traditional church body.
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GJ - The financial situation is more complicated than some claim. Outside funds come from:
- Direct synod subsidy.
- Various mission enrichment grants. Doebler and Patterson have their hands out for those at the moment.
- Synod organization grants, such as Kingdom Workers. Church and Change has a plant on the board.
- Foundations, such as Siebert, Antioch, and Schwan.
- Thrivent ecumenical programs at the local, district, and national levels.
Grantsmanship comes from having a chokehold on all the sources of loot, such as planting Ski on one of the Siebert Foundation oversight committees. (He is in charge of bringing the popcorn.)
Large congregations are the source of most synod offerings. All the large congregations are cutting costs where they can, two different ways. They usually shed one or more full-time positions. They also cut back on giving to the synod. WELS is shedding all kinds of pastoral positions at the same time.
Wild hair mission projects may not feel so secure and smug in the future. If the money situation looks bad now, wait a year. In 2010, this year will look like one of the fat years.
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