Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Corky Koeplin Essay":
I grew up at Atonement and fondly recall Pastor Koeplin. I would love to read this essay if anyone can find the text somehwere. It shocks and saddens me that synod leaders would try to discredit this essay by claiming he was "brain damaged" when he wrote this - but I suppose it's easy to pick on dead men, what with them not being able to answer back and all.
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Here is the text of the paper - Click here.
Note that the essay text is now at the top of the convention information.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Koeplin Essay Found! in the Ichabod Archives":
Corky's paper should be on the convention agenda.
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GJ - I went to a WELS convention some years after I sent the Koeplin essay to Christian News for publication. Someone had removed the cover letter on top which said, "For circulation among the brothers only."
The convention began with a solemn declaration that no one could publish anything about the convention unless that individual had permission from the synod. Later, one pastor said to me, "Did you hear that announcement? That was because someone leaked the Koeplin essay to Christian News."
I said, "I know someone leaked it. I did."
"You did?"
Twitters, blogs, and email mean that this kind of information reaches people quickly. But people have to make an effort to stay informed.
11 comments:
The time has come for WELS leaders to try on the "The Corky Koeplin Essay." It certainly fits meaning they are the "brain damaged" ones. How these hack politician got where they are defies logic and any kind of justice.
Can we get some graduate credit for all this heavy reading lately? Surely this merits a drive-by D.Min.
+ Dr. Diet O. Worms.
WELS: a religious oligarchy serving the special interests of a few leaders and their families.
The point is that God chastises us just as harshly when we are well-intentioned but stupid as when we are smart but harbor bad intentions.
Church members live with so many delusions that they make Alice in Wonderland look like she was in the real world. No matter how many times they get burned by pastor-led ideas, members cannot accept the reality that their synod is not what they think they should be.
WELS members need to grow up and start acting like adults before WELS leadership trashes what took over a hundred years to build up.
Corky's paper should be on the convention agenda.
"I went to a WELS convention some years after I sent the Koeplin essay to Christian News for publication. Someone had removed the cover letter on top which said, "For circulation among the brothers only." "
More deceit and deception. What else is WELS good for?
Corky correctly realized that the leadership was abandoning its integrity and former relationship with God. Once they had control, power went to their heads. The will of God mattered less than their own self-centered desires.
I have a different take on the Koelpin paper. First I believe that he did the right thing in writing this paper. He took a bullet for all those in the WELS who had their heads covered in pollen and fully stuffed into the flower bed of Holy Mother Synod. He correctly identifies the effects of false doctrine and practice at work then and fully flourishing now.
I diverge from many here when I say that he and others like him enabled the error to take root and flourish. Note how he identifies the majority of pastors as Progressive Conservative (PC's)and describes them like this, "rooted in Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions and yet not afraid to "try something new or different." There is no life outside of the Word. Nothing but the Word brings contrition and faith and nothing but the Word sanctifies and strengthens faith. When Lutherans have the pure Word in the Scriptures and Confessions why "try something new or different". In my opinion they opened the chicken coup door.
The PC's give due credit to the Holy Spirit for good results and attribute the 'bad' results to human inadequacies. Bad results. The promotion that there are in the church bad results is a notion promoted by false teachers trying to sell a 'good' results process or method. If a pastor is indeed rooted in Scripture and the Confessions and teaches the Word purely and administers the Sacraments rightly what 'bad' results could there ever be? God gives the increase - 'good'. God allows or gives the decrease - 'good'. Most today see loss of members as a bad thing but if you are teaching the Word purely and administering the Sacraments rightly then you should expect some to be offended and leave. Narrow is the path and few there are that find it. It is God who uses His Word to work contrition and faith or to harden hearts. Ignore everything but to ensure you teach the Word purely and administer the Sacraments rightly.
PC's pray fervently for extra measures of sense so that the "new" does not get in the way of the Spirit's work. The new - ah, practices the PC's are not afraid to try. First it's important to note that Christ said, "for he that is not against us is for us." Anything that is truly of Christ and faithful to Christ doctrine will not "get in the way of the Spirit's work." If that were possible. There isn't anything that has ever or will ever get in the way of God's work. His will be done. There is a clear inference here though that at the time the PC's were playing with things they ought not to have been.
Cont -
Cont -
PC's recognize that change and new are inevitable and wants to be certain that the changes are rooted in WELS heritage. No, Christ built His Church upon himself which is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is no new change that the Church has to inevitably adopt. There is nothing new in Scripture, there is nothing new in the natural sinfulness of carnal flesh, there is nothing new in the eternal Gospel of Christ. The PC's were duped into believing that change in the Church was inevitable - this is false doctrine. And to make it worse Koelpin admits (in his opinion) that the PC's were trying to ensure the changes were rooted in the WELS heritage and not specifically in Christ's doctrine alone. Here again the PC's were enabling the false teachers doctrines and practices to take root.
PC's were quick to recognize and say that non-WELS folk may indeed have some good ideas and sound methods which we may "sanitize," adapt and adopt" Is this not the same thing being said today which has lead to WELS pastors and Vice Presidents worshiping with Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostals? Is this not the same argument used to promote the Church and Change, Emergent New Age efforts in the WELS? Sanitize - sanitize Leonard Sweets satanic doctrines and methods. Open the chicken coup doors….the PC's kicked the walls down.
Koelpin goes on to say, "nor do they subscribe in any form or fashion to some sort of a "conspiracy theory" that "someone" or "some group" is quietly and persistently trying to drag the WELS to "the left". Oh really? I think they should have and it should be clear to everyone that this is exactly what happened. And those someone's and those groups have not gone away but have only gotten stronger and stronger on the false doctrine and practices that the WELS administration allowed to grow and fester on your dollars. Cheers to Koelpin for taking a bullet for the WELS, jeers to Koelpin for his part in allowing it to happen.
Enjoy your convention - it isn't Christ's synod anymore.
In Christ,
Brett Meyer
I believe that some who comment on this blog are to Lutheranism what the John Birch Society is to politics. As Birchers find a communist under every stone, some on this blog find a "Church Growther" in every comment that does not come from themselves.
I frequently attended Atonement when I was at the seminary. When Koeplin said that he was trying something "new and different," he was talking about things like singing "All Glory be to God on High" in place of the "Gloria in Excelsis" in TLH page 5 and page 15liturgy. I assume that some bloggers on this site would include Dr. Martin Luther as a raving WELS Lutheran "Church Growther", because as a PC he actually wrote chorales to take the place of liturgical chants -- fool that he was.
Some time ago, I wrote that I thought that the WELS would profit most from an every member visit from July 1 through December 31. Someone ripped me apart as a stark raving liberal who has never spoken out against Church Growth in WELS. I have, in fact, spoken against it with many at the "Love Shack," with district leaders, with my congregations, at conferences, and with those espousing it. I may have even spoke against it directly with more individual WELS "Church Growthers" than the person who accused me of being complacent. I have also paid what I consider rather high prices for my comments against Church Growth.
I certainly agree that Church Growth is a major, if not the number one, issue in WELS. I am not at all in disagreement with Ichabod and I enjoy the clever way Ichabod presents the issue. However, I do take exception when people who are on the right side and who have been addressing the right people are accused of complacency and "aiding and abetting" the Church Growth movement in WELS by people who are reading more into statements than is really there.
I believe that all bloggers need to be careful not to read all blogs through Church Growth sunglasses. It makes you sound foolish and extreme, when you want to sound wise and level-headed as we face root out this error.
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