Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I Will Make Thee--After a Grant-Writing Seminar--F...":
Ya'll need to stop picking on Don. Until this blog exposed him he was perfectly content with fishing for the grants.
The Glory Has Departed
Friday, June 5, 2009
I Will Make Thee--After a Grant-Writing Seminar--Fishers of Grants
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13 comments:
More money solves everything for pastors and teachers who do not want to do the Work of the Lord themselves. As managers and contract administrators, they remove themselves from direct contact with the uninitiated and non-belivers. They despise the Work of the Lord!
MLS professors Tim Malchow, Kenric Peterson, Steven Westphal, Marcus Manthey, Larry Seafert and Dan Retberg have all had their positions eliminated.
The cost of oversized IMAX screens goes up by the day.
If synod hadn't spent all that money on an Imax theater, maybe they would have had money to fund the teacher's positions. Now tell me again how that Church Growth movement is helping to grow the WELS. And yet the positions at the movie house are secure and still receiving their funding right? Shame on you greedy WELS leadership that got us into this mess in the first place.
Positions are cut as fat cats vacation in Africa and spend their time fishing.
Why in the world would mother synod still grant Patterson a free vicar? Guess we know the answer. He is the chosen C&Cer. Just ask Gurgel who begged for a job so he could go fishing and hunting with Patterson.
Forget about Africa. We need to do some varmint hunting inside WELS to protect it from dirty critters like the Patterson gang.
Grants offer another form of funding after members are tapped out, or tired of seeing their hard-earned offerings squandered by prodigal management. While WELS leaders complain about the low level of giving, i.e., much less than 10% on average, this writer finds it surprising that members will even average 1.5%. Certainly more members would offer more if they thought it would be put to better use – for the Work of the Lord.
Too often this is not the case. Nearly all of the support goes to sustaining an institution little interested in going out and sharing the Gospel and Word of God. Meanwhile membership declines and buildings that were all so necessary before doing the Work of the Lord become dilapidated. All of this proves very depressing and demoralizing.
Too often there is little or no accomplishment to show after many exhausting years.
Time to clean the WELS cesspool.
Stuff envelopes at home for your church. Contact Kudu Don for details.
Kudu Don, China is calling for a man with your varied talents. Please go, now, and take Gurgel with you.
Ya'll need to stop picking on Don. Until this blog exposed him he was perfectly content with fishing for the grants.
I am not holding my breath for Don's epiphany.
Howdy Professor:
I agree with the above comments, and the general sentiment that a Lutheran church shouldn't be wrapped up in fishing for grants. I must argue that it's a problem with a larger scope than just the WELS, and that the WELS grant-fishers are really "with it" as far our contemporary culture is concerned.
The U.S., between 1965 and 1995 did a complete flip-flop; we moved from being a nation of producers to a nation of consumers. In 1965 90% of American workers were in manufacturing industries. By 1995 90% of workers were in service industries. I bring up the producer/consumer item because it's applicable to the grant-fisher question. Throw consumable money at the problem, the logic goes, and the problem will assuredly be solved. Pastors of all denominations and ilks criticize abortion, homosexually, and the other flamboyantly obvious problems with our contemporary culture. To do this doesn't take any special insight or strength of character. What Pastors needed and need to be preaching and teaching is a deeper level of discernment about how to maintain a balance of "in the world but not of the world".
Christians often use Rom 13:7, Luke 20:22 and Matt 17:26 to define our duty to secular governments, moralizing paying of taxes to fulfill our obligations to the 4th commandment. While these verses may give us guidance regarding respect of secular authority, the broader meaning is about how to maintain the balance between "in the world but of it". Jesus seems to be saying:
"Well, if this here polished piece of metal has some guy's portrait on it then it must be his...give it back. Don't get wrapped up in material triviality lest you be distracted from loving God and loving your neighbor."
American Christians serve the American master (pursuit of the "good life", happiness, or property...)as much as American non Christians. Our American system is constructed to help everyone serve that master flawlessly and efficiently.
Christianity in America has never been free of this second master. Today's reincarnation looks like Fuller, Willow Creek, The Popcorn Cathedral and the other masks of the Junket-Driven-Church.
But this problem is not just found in liberal Lutheran circles. Each of us (to a large extent) starts with the premise that serving the above-mentioned American master is an inalienable right. This is the fabric of who we are as a people---we just need our churches (and ourselves) to swallow the hard pill, learning to hate the one master and learn to serve the other, True God.
More pimpin' from the pulpit.
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