Someone wrote me about the WELS beta website, now being tested. He thought Lutheran was not being emphasized enough.
The situation is similar to the time when Jack Preus was elected LCMS President, backed by members and pastors, but not at all by the synodical staff, who got their jobs under the previous liberal administrations. Here is a story from those days - When Jack stepped onto a floor of the office building, every door slammed shut.
When Mark Schroeder was elected WELS Synod President, he inherited a staff from Gurgel, Wayne Mueller, Mischke, and Kelm. Perish Services (Wayne's first domain) was and is interchangeable with Church and Change leadership. FIC--the name says it all--was and is the Xerox room for Church and Change. The world and American mission boards were Fuller-trained, hotter than Georgia asphalt for Church Growth, but oblivious about their own results (division, scandals, lawsuits, millions of bucks wasted).
Was someone removed from the ministry for reciting, verbatim, the sermons of Hybels at Willow Creek? No problem - they made him head of technology. That may be why Church and Change was pronounced DOA after one conference while they were registering people for the next conference on the WELS.net website. That Chicanery link is not likely to appear for the upcoming conference.
The Shrinkers have fouled their own nest by fighting the will of the convention, undermining the elected leader, and opposing clear directives. They say "Lord, Lord" and "Jesus, Jesus" but they do not recognize Biblical mandates. Clergy make the most obnoxious trouble-makers because they learn their skills from destructive congregational trouble-makers.
The LCA was organized with General Motors as the model! They learned not to lavish so much attention on a huge structure, because the costs were infinite. Every denomination will have to downsize permanently now. This is a good opportunity to put synod drones out to pasture, perhaps back to work in a parish or school.
Lutheran synods are not going to improve unless the members and pastors get serious about doctrinal study. I enjoy providing lessons on various topics. At Bethany we have gone through the entire Book of Concord, Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, and the history of Pietism. Our next study is Galatians, with Luther's commentary as the main book.
