"No WELS in the future" - Blame It on Rio

"The vicar conducted the service today and mentioned in his sermon how bad things are in WELS. He even said that there may not even be a WELS in the future because of all the cutbacks and such."

In past, WELS had four preps, two colleges, a seminary, and very low tuition. But The Love Shack was just a love nest: Carl and Gladys Mischke in an office at the bottom of the stairs at NPH.

Graduation at The Sausage Factory meant getting all the tuition money back that was paid in - prep, college, and seminary. That meant the young shepherd and his shepherdess could have a nest egg to start in their first parsonage. WELS ended the practice because it was "too expensive."

Har, har. No one thought it too expensive to have conferences all over the world for the lucky few. One conference brought missionaries from all to meet in South America. One friend told me a well known pastor fell off the wagon there. Blame it on Rio?

Each year the synod got smaller and The Love Shack staff got larger. I recall 1988 or later being the first year when they suddenly needed an executive to head Perish Services. That had to be Wayne Mueller, recently vamoosed from the seminary. Things got worse, so he was upgraded to Synod Veep, a position WELS has left vacant for months. In fact, many people were visibly relieved when Wayne quit in a huff.

I recall Slick Brenner upset over all the money wasted by Perish Services. No one else was. I suggested buying direct from Fuller Seminary, to save overhead.

People who count the cost have teleconferences and online meetings. How many meetings would take place if each participant paid his own way? I am sure the rebuttal is something like this - "But we had a foundation or Thrivent grant. We had to spend the money or someone else would." I doubt that any grant pays the entire cost. Why would any synod to the right of ELCA want to take Thrivent money?

I plan on attending a conference in California. A company is sponsoring it for free to train us in an Internet business. Mrs. Ichabod and I will go in August, deo volunte, and pay our own expenses.

All our routine meetings are done with GoToMeeting or a similar technology. We talk to each other, see someone operate his computer, send messages, and spend very little of our own money.

WELS has slowly strangled its own schools for a chance to look like ELCA - to have a large staff and meetings around the world. The synod will find many ways to get by without spending on so many luxuries.

The pastors who enjoyed a free education took that away from the younger students so the elders could have free trips to exotic locations (but not Apache Land) and fat synod positions.