ID of false teachers who are outside the framework of fellowship and therefore good to pay for books, videos, sermons, conferences, and joint worship - Top row from left: The mask is Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill, Seattle; then Okie Craig Groeschel of Life Church; the cheerful Babtist is Ed Stetzer, now much slimmer; the white-haired guy with the goatee is Pentecostal Babtist C. Peter Wagner; the black and white goatee photo is Donald McGavran, Disciples of Christ, Planned Parenthood advocate; to his right is another goatee - Leonard Newman, New Age Methodist and C/C keynoter; Snuggling Huebner's face is Bill Hybels, Willow Creek, where many WELS pastors have been trained with mission funds; Below McGavran and Hybels is Andy Stanley, Babtist leader of Drive 09, 10, etc - trainer of champeens like Ski, Glende, Katie, and many more WELS workers. Obscured by Huebner is Catholic Archbishop R. Weakland, featured speaker at Wisconsin Lutheran College, home of Church and Chicanery.
Ichabodians may recall that James Huebner, Paul Calvin Kelm, and Larry (Our Staph Infection) Olson have served a Church Growth consultants throughout WELS. Huebner even brags about it on his websty.
Jackson: "Where were you trained to be a consultant?"
Huebner, gulping: "Fuller Seminary."
I remember a pastor advising me that Larry Olson was a harmless heretic and Huebner was in a position without power. Unfortunately, clever apostates drift into place over the years. Some may think they can beat up the Shrinkers and let Huebner have a position as a sop to apostates' wounded feelings. The Shrinkers do howl so fearsomely.
But that would be a mistake, telling the fed-up laity that doctrine does not matter after all. Huebner's anti-Lutheran statements have been overshadowed by the ridiculous errors of Kelm, Olson, Valleskey, and Radloff, but Huebner is just as toxic.
Here is a sample:
"'Church growth.' I've seen people cringe when they hear those words. I think I know why. They react negatively because they feel 'church growth' implies an obsessive fixation with numbers and statistics."
Pastor James Huebner, Spiritual Renewal Consultant, Notebook, School of Outreach IV, Seventeen Ways to Keep Your Church from Growing, p. 178.
"We can't do a thing to make his Word more effective. But surely we can detract from its effectiveness by careless errors and poor judgment. It just makes good sense to utilize all of our God-given talents, to scour the field for appropriate ideas, concepts, and material (sic), to implement programs, methods, and techniques so that we do not detract from the effectiveness of the gospel we proclaim. Church growth articles, books, seminars, and conferences can offer such ideas and programs."
Pastor James Huebner, Spiritual Renewal Consultant, Notebook, School of Outreach IV, Seventeen Ways to Keep Your Church from Growing, p 178.
