Guest Blogger:
I'm guessing that only 10 of the 40 seminarians next May will receive a call, since there are so many experienced missionaries and pastors now without calls, and families besides. Of course, nowadays, plenty of seminarians have children and a wife, too.
Care to venture any guesses on the state of the WELS in one year's time? BTW, that would make a great entry on your blog. Ask the blog readers to make their predictions about where the WELS will be in, say, June 2010. Also, for the C&Cers, they can copy and paste predictions from someone else, and claim they are their own. :)
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GJ - When I was an adjunct at Glendale Community College, all of us newbies got the computer survey course. Due to shortages of faculty and large enrollments in computer science, I began to teach web design and Unix/Linux. Then as enrollments went down, the senior faculty took back web design and Unix/Linux. At the same time I went over to the big school, the senior faculty had to take the survey courses because no one wanted advanced computer classes anymore.
The same thing is happening with calls in WELS. Pastors are glad to take anything when their old position disappears. They are taking the calls that might have gone to seminary graduates. That is not all bad - for the congregations. Those congregations get well trained men who get a picture of ordinary life in a not so glamorous congregation. The graduating seniors will have to wait a long time for a call, I am afraid.
Feel free to post your response. I will Kelm the best ones.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Predict the Future of WELS":
Idea people are dime a dozen – i.e., C&C and many pastor-leaders. Those people disdain work. Doing the Work of our Lord falls in line with a quote of Thomas A. Edison, “What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” Unless WELS finds pastor-leaders willing to focus on nurturing and outreach instead of fiddling away their time, it will find itself destined to failure, and finally its demise.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Predict the Future of WELS":
The upcoming senior class at MLC is about 23, which could very easily translate into 16-18 who present themselves for calls into the ministry in 4 yrs.
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The Lund's Lives as Lutherans has left a new comment on your post "Predict the Future of WELS":
I am confused by this website and the harsh and cynical writing and venom towards WELS and other church bodies that are full of confessional Lutherans.
Why would you not ask the Lord's blessings upon the people in leadership and talk with them. An incendiary blog with hurtful speech does no one good and the kingdom of God much damage.
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GJ - By all means, stay away from Luther's sermons. But perhaps you already have.
13 comments:
The economy will take a big hit when more Baby Boomers turn 65.
Pretty soon the cities and perhaps the US state and federal govt will look like GM which had 70k workers and a million retirees. Businesses
and individuals will move out of the big cities even more than they already have, just to get away from paying the pensions and receiving little municipal services in return
(schooling, roads, etc).
So I bet the judges will allow the bankruptcies just to cut down on urban sprawl, and to save the cities. Otherwise, the US will become like the Roman Empire which lost many of its cities after the first century AD.
Pastor Jackson correctly assesses the situation. My tiny congregation far from regular Luhteran territory had two ex prep school professors on it.
The handwriting is on the wall. God has had it with all the idolatry of distractions in WELS. Where the evil rule the good. WELS will decline to being a delusionary sect running widely in different directions before it jumps into the sea and is drowned.
All of the leaders will be demon-possessed swine.
Given the number of congregations (currently, ahem) these small seminary classes mean we'll have a shortage of preachers in a generation.
The upcoming senior class at MLC is about 23, which could very easily translate into 16-18 who present themselves for calls into the ministry in 4 yrs.
Morally bankrupt and financially insolvent, WELS awaits an epiphany to realize that it has already passed away.
My prediction is that the current financial troubles for the WELS will continue even if the economy improves, and its all the synods own fault, too. Why's that? The financial planners they send out say everyone who wants to retire comfortably must have at least $750k in savings. So while everyone builds up their nest eggs, who will put enough in the offering plate?!
The current stock market crash was partly caused by the Baby Boomers slowing consumption and putting much of their savings in the stock market. The system doesn't work if everyone saves. Many look down on the poor saying that they don't save, and thus they are poor. However, in the Orient everyone saves and there is little consumption, and most everyone is poor! The situation there has improved only because of Western consumption allowing for their export-based economies.
Why Baby Boomers flooded the stock market is financial planners, including those that the WELS synod sends out, spread the mantra that "to retire comfortably, one must have at least $750,000 in savings." Of course, it is not possible for every Baby Boomer to have such a nest egg and to have the system work. Also, if every baby boomer did have such a nest egg, that's probably more wealth than exists in the entire world!
Of course, church offering suffer when everyone is padding their nest egg to that extent, and that's one reason the WELS prep and colleges became more expensive and, consequently, less well attended, and the synod went into debt, etc.
Idea people are dime a dozen – i.e., C&C and many pastor-leaders. Those people disdain work. Doing the Work of our Lord falls in line with a quote of Thomas A. Edison, “What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” Unless WELS finds pastor-leaders willing to focus on nurturing and outreach instead of fiddling away their time, it will find itself destined to failure, and finally its demise.
Charlatanism in WELS will complete the destruction of the synod.
I am confused by this website and the harsh and cynical writing and venom towards WELS and other church bodies that are full of confessional Lutherans.
Why would you not ask the Lord's blessings upon the people in leadership and talk with them. An incendiary blog with hurtful speech does no one good and the kingdom of God much damage.
Talking to WELS leaders does no good. They are practiced at rationalizing any fool idea.
If WELS leaders want to learn the error of their ways, they can read this blog to see that they are only fooling themselves.
Running damage control for WELS only exacerbates the situation. With damage control WELS acts / feels like all their chicanery is validated and blessed by God. Also, it serves to mislead members and deceive them. Is this what God wants?
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