LCMS DP John Wille graduated from The Sausage Factory, one year before Mark Jeske.
"Rev. John C. Wille serves as president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, South Wisconsin District. He assists congregations with pastoral Call lists, congregational policies and church worker relations. The District president (DP) also provides leadership, direction, and oversight to all the work and resources that our District office provides in support of the 214 congregations, high schools, Christian day schools and preschools that make up our South Wisconsin District. As called upon, he offers personal, committee, and congregational counsel. The DP represents us and speaks on our behalf at the national council of presidents gatherings and various other venues."
Exclusive from Debrox:
The initial go-between for Jeske and Kieschnick may well have been Mequon classmate John Wille, who jumped ship and prospered in Missouri.
The classes move together through prep school (sometimes), NWC (in the good old days) and The Sausage Factory.
Jeske's work is more than pan-Lutheran. It is pan-denominational (excluding the Lutheran Confessions, of course). This fits into the Mission Vision of Kieschnick's LCMS.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Mequon Connection in Jeske Exit":
If not proof, I would have to say all the facts that have been presented here certainly point to it. Moreover, what has been presented here is easily verifiable. Jeske graduated from WLS in 1978. Wille graduated in 1979 (according to the WLS website). They were indeed classmates who were just a year apart.
Here is the link to the graduation photos:
1978--http://archive.wls.wels.net/files/1978.jpg
1979--http://archive.wls.wels.net/files/1979.jpg
Mark Jeske, if you are out there, why don't you just straighten us all out on this issue? You have a radio broadcast and websites after all? Seems like it would be pretty easy to do if he wanted to. All he would have to say is that "I am 100% committed to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and its full confession of faith."
I have heard both Mark and John Jeske preach. Mark, like his father, is a very gifted preacher. It is a terrible shame and waste that he has chosen to use his gifts in this way. It is he, his like, and their doctrine who are causing division in WELS, not people who, like the Synod Pres., call them on it.
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Chief Little Hat has left a new comment on your post "Mequon Connection in Jeske Exit":
You must like doing ecclesiastical jig saw puzzles, Rev. Ichabod. You're fitting the Mark Jeske piece with the DP Wille piece.
May I try fitting some adjacent pieces.
Ah, the Rev. Dean Zemple piece: It fits with the Wille piece. Wille welcomed this former WELS pastor and Church Growth advocate into the LCMS fold, placing him at the LCMS congregation in Sullivan, WI. following his resignation from his WELS congregation in Lannon, WI. about 5 years ago. Zemple is already elevated to the role of circuit counselor. Additionally, Zemple is a rabid Ablaze promoter.
Next, the Mark Freier piece; the Freier piece fits the Zemple quite nicely. Zemple vicared under Freier in Wauwatosa 20+ years ago.
Not last, nor least (there are still lots of pieces) the Wendy Sue Fluegge piece. Ms. Fluegge was a rising WELS contemporary music entertainer until she recently left fellowship with the above mentioned WELS Lannon congregation. The Wendy Sue piece fits with her former Pastor Zemple's piece.
As the Church Growths keep changing, fitting the pieces remains a dynamic task. Keep on puzzling.
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GJ - Mark Freier is still being thanked for helping to start an Evangelical Covenant Church, CrossRoads in S. Lyons, Michigan. I believe he was also part of the Coral Something blowup in Florida. I see Elton Stroh (Love Shack) graduated with Jeske. Rick Curia and Charles Papenfuss, the bookends for Kokomo Justification, are in that class. Add James Witt III, a Shrinker with a DMin in Shrinkage from Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Louis. (Kelm got his drive-by DMin there too, but he's much older.) Bob Schumann, fanatical Shrinker, is also in that class. Bob graduated from St. Paul in German Village to Thrivent.
