Some serious study of the Church and Change operation in WELS, with plenty of help from WELS laity and pastors, has led me to the following conclusions about Church Growth in WELS.
Doctrinal Unity
They have training at Fuller Seminary, Trinity Deerfield, and Willow Creek in common. They are anti-confessional, like all unionists, and identify with Pietism, making works the cause of justification (as Hoenecke wrote).
The Word of God
Every union effort has forced Lutherans to give up the efficacy of the Word and the Biblical teaching of the Sacraments. Following Calvin and Zwingli, the Chicaneries believe the Word is not effective, so they must make it attractive, germane, and reasonable.
Worship as Entertainment - The Sneaker Service
Because they do not believe in the efficacy of the Word and Sacrament, the Chicaneries turn the Sunday service into entertainments to titillate and recruit members from other churches. They hide Holy Communion, Holy Baptism, the liturgy, the Creeds, and most hymns. They turn the sermon into man-centered, navel-gazing coaching about time management and getting friends.
Management by Deception
Following their Fuller mentors, they never disclose what they are doing. They have no qualms about outright lying to people. Valleskey portrayed his alleged study of Church Growth as virgin territory when he had been teaching it at Mequon for at least five years. Valleskey denied going to Fuller when I asked him, but bragged to David Koenig that he studied there. Bivens bragged to a group of pastors about going to Fuller, but later wondered where I got the idea he went there. Don Patterson claimed to have issues with Church and Change, but he was a leader at one conference and supports their work by taking WELS workers to union meetings like Exponential. DP Englebrecht pretends to be against Church and Change at Conference of Pussycat meetings, but he loves and supports C and C, and told Ski as much. Pastor Tim Glende, who "gets it," has attended two recent conferences of false teachers where he deceived his own congregation about where he was going and why, letting them imagine he was attending WELS conferences. One meeting was the Babtist Drive 09 event. The other was in Seattle, but the exact identity is still hidden. (Driscoll? - likely. He is a C and C fave right now.)
Money Grabbers
The Chicaneries exist mainly by draining money from outside sources - synod offerings, Thrivent grants, foundation grants. They spend money wildly on themselves while claiming they are doing the Gospel work no one else will do.
Money As THE Means of Grace
The Chicaneries do not trust in the Means of Grace, so they make money THE Means of Grace. Under Gurgel-Mueller, they spent all the Schwan money and looted the designated funds, as if blowing millions would make a difference without the Word, as if peddling false doctrine benefits the Gospel they deny by word and deed.
Notice that their mission efforts--like Doebler's Rock N Roll, Ski's The CORE, and New Life, Rockford--consume vast amounts of money to move WELS members into another unit.
C and C pastors of established pastors spend lavishly on their own buildings in the name of evangelism, with the costly aid of Jeff Davis, C and C Board Member.
Ashamed of Lutheran, Ashamed of the Gospel
The Chicaneries have slowly removed Lutheran from everything - the magazine, WELS Lutherans for Life, the hymnal, church names, and now even church - The CORE.
The Chicaneries use their self-serving adiaphora expansion clause--everything is a matter of indifference--to do whatever they want, to imitate their neo-Babtist heroes like Andy Stanley.
They Copy False Teachers
The current favorites among false teachers are: Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle), Leonard Sweet (Mars), Andy Stanley (Atlanta), Hybels (Willow Creek, Chicago), Beeson (Granger Community Church, Indiana), Ed Stetzer (no parish, just a talker), and Craig Groeschel (Oklahoma - works with Stanley).
They use the movies, sermons, sermon themes, graphics, and ideas of the false teachers listed above. Kelm and Parlow have copied sermons verbatim and posted them on the congregation websty as their own. Parlow sent a Hybels email out as his own, plagiarizing Willow Creek emotions! Ski presents Groeschel sermon sets in the same order with the same graphics, thanks to free downloads from Life Church.
They Need Full-time Female Assistants
Randy Hunter, Matt Doebler, Ski, and Jeff Gunn all have female assistants. In the past, the pastor's wife did a lot of the work for free and often went to conferences. Now the assistant gets a full-time salary and goes to conferences. They do not need ordination because C and C creates women pastors without the formalities.
They Drive Out the Opposition While Whining
Like their crypto-Calvinist forefathers, they cannot tolerate confessional Lutherans. The District Popes, professors, and Chicanery pastors have worked together to get rid of anyone who questions their doctrinal agenda. At the same time, a raised eyebrow will get them crying "Eighth Commandment!" like little girls. They sniffle about being persecuted while extending the Left Foot of Fellowship.
They Control The Love Shack and Schools
Most of the staff at WELS headquarters got hired during the Mueller-Gurgel regime, and they are dedicated to Church and Chicanery. Their grasp of the Word is shown in their contempt for the elected leader of the synod.
Lazy Brains, Lazy Pastors
Their plagiarism is one clue about their personalities, and that is on display on their websties (my term for websites that remind me of pigsties). Grunting in the mud of false doctrine, they fatten themselves while doing no work in the Word at all: no study, no sermon writing, no visitation. As soon as one false doctrine conference wears off, they rush off to another one to inspire them. And yet, they despise Lutheran conferences and the fellowship of their brother pastors.
This Minority Group Networks
They began taking over WELS in 1977, with the publication of TELL magazine. They know their own through Church and Change meetings, Willow Creek and Fuller alumni networks, and secret email lists. If I find something good on a websty, like the "life coach" at St. Mark Depere, it is changed quickly so they can cry out, "Liar!" That is why I copy and paste, kelmishly, and provide the links while they last.
Will Not Defend Their Doctrine
The doctrine of the Changers is all borrowed, a mixture of Methodism, Babtist principles, and marketing through entertainment and felt needs. They blubber and screech on Ichabod but never give their names. They never defend their doctrine, because they cannot intellectually. Besides that, they are too chicken to identify their real passions. Many comments are too obscene to be published, even when bowdlerized.
