Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Going Galt, We Bought the Ichaboat from the Duggar...":
"Even the guys you gripe about the most in this post (Patterson et al)"
uh..I guess you forgot about Patterson's 1st home - the Stelljes mansion, his 2nd home - the dude ranch, and the fleet of vehicles in his driveway.
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GJ - Gurgle was such a poor leader of WELS that he was forced out of office. In WELS that is considered a disgrace, because most men stay in the same position forever, until the angel Andrew takes them away. Gurgle stacked The Love Shack with Church and Change partisans, got his Church and Change brother a teaching position at the seminary, burned through the Schwan money and millions in designated funds. How did he get elected when he did the same with the MilCraft Estate and lost the court case? Perhaps some people wanted a repeat performance around the leaky bucket of cash.
Gurgle should have retired, but after his Asian holiday at synod expense, he landed in Don Patterson's back yard and got himself hired. As the quotation above shows, Patterson lives large while demanding a free vicar every year. Remember that, sports fans, when he runs for office. Oh yes, the WELS pastors run for office. They drop big hints about where they want to be. They frown when pastors complain to them about this and that, as if they will right all wrongs, after doing nothing for decades. They gladhand everyone while dissing the competition.
After I identified the Patterson network, each member of the network contacted me in some way to say they were not part of the Patterson network.
Patterson is so frightened of the truth coming out that two blogs started to counter Ichabod. Both of them shut down and erased all the websty files. One was semi-anonymous. The other was anonymous. This is the way WELS guys get their wet work (CIA lingo for murder) done - they say: "I wish you would do something about this. You know I have to keep a low profile. Here is what you might write..." I am not saying Don himself did that. But anyone from his circle could easily have done that.
Antagonistic traffic increases whenever I focus on the Chicaneries or Patterson. Some people laugh over being kicked off the Patterson/Chicanery mailing lists. Why? I have many sources, because people know the real Don Patterson.
Gurgle's conduct should remind everyone that he does not respect the office of Synod President. When he was busy wrecking the synod, Issues in WELS began to sort out what was going wrong. The big meeting was going to have 200 pastors in attendance. Gurgle showed up to glower at everyone. Because the pastors knew he would be there and identify them, very few showed up. Once DP Free died, the group fell apart and the files were erased from their website. Nevertheless, influential people made it clear to Gurgle that he was finished as SP. Probably the last straw was the money situation (before the world financial crisis) because that is often the tail-end of incompetent leadership.
I know from various sources that the Chicaneries at The Love Shack (the whole staff, more or less) fought SP Schroeder from the beginning and still oppose him on a daily basis. WELS Love Shack behavior is a repeat of Jack Preus' election as Missouri SP, when the apostate staff slammed doors shut whenever Jack was on their floor.
If Gurgle and Kudu Don respected the will of their own synod, they would let Schroeder and the new leadership do their work. Instead, their insubordination is a constant cause of grief.
KJV Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
I know how the Shrinkers work. They leave a trail of rodent fecal matter behind wherever they feed upon the work of others, bragging on their blogs and webties. Like the false teachers who invaded Galatia, they offer law for the salvation of souls. They loathe real work and never break into a sweat while moaning about how they labor for the Lord. Their only work is taking over and benefiting from what others have done.
Even now Perish Services is turning another congregation into a Reformed sect, using badly edited boilerplate, charging $20,000 to $35,000 for the same Fuller ideas that have wrecked other congregations. Once that is done, Perish Services will say, "You need to remodel and expand your building. Ron Roth and Jeff Davis will be happy to raise the money for you, for a fee plus commissions."
Patterson and Gurgle represent the Good Ol' Boy network that created, supported, and advanced doctrinal apostasy.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Game Plan - Follow the Money and the Patterson Net...":
Don Patterson will never become WELS SP or even a DP for the following reasons. First: educational pedigree. If WELS were NCAA Div I, Patterson would be the equivalent of a JUCO transfer wanting to play first-string: two years at some Texas ag school, off to Bethany for a couple more, then lands at WLS. He lacks language skills which may partly explain his penchant for uncritically adopting the latest reformed theo-jargon. Hate to say it but it shows. Evaluate his Forward in Christ articles, for instance. Filled with fluff. Secondly, how likely is it he'll leave behind his sunny Southfork lifestyle for some cold dreary, northern-tier state? Third, he'll never withstand the withering scrutiny reserved for one is who is not WELS "system-trained". That's not a slight against Patterson; just a fact about the internecine tendencies of the WELS "brothers" toward one who is "not one of us"
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GJ - You are right about the pedigree. The proper one starts with Kindergarten in a WELS grade school in Wisconsin, Northwestern Prep only (no leaders or profs come from MLS, Prairie, or Mobridge), and Mequon. It helps to be a tutor - unwritten rule.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Game Plan - Follow the Money and the Patterson Net...":
The Good Ol' Boy network lost its focus. Concern for the continuity and growth of WELS often displaces the Word and work of the Lord. The more they obsess over the future of the institution the more it declines secularly and spiritually. Such little faith.
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GJ - I do not think growth was ever part of the agenda. Growth was the smokescreen used by apostates to gain control. How could anyone be against the church growing? Only lazy pastors opposed the Church Growth Movement because the CG gurus worked so hard! Unionism is good because it helps the church grow. Etc.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Game Plan - Follow the Money and the Patterson Net...":
You forgot about Joe raising up his blog in defense of Patterson et al. (If you're gonna do church in Texas ya gotta have an electric guitar in the band- ala Alabama tune)
It is ironic to me that you have outed Patterson and ruffled some many feathers in the process. The C&Cers thought they had him deeply hidden.
But it is obvious with the Gurgle partnership that the war is still active.
As soon as DP Glaeske hangs up his boots the door is open for vp Patterson to shout "the southcentral will rise again."
Not sure if you found this partner yet: Rick Loewen of WLCFS.
He is a staph minister presenting at the SCD pastoral conference this month: welssc.org
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| October, 2009 | Rick Loewen | Spiritual Resiliency |
| January, 2010 | Wayne Fischer | Exegesis of Psalm 46 |
| John Hering | Josiah the Reformer: An Isagogical Study of the Reign of King Josiah and Its Applications to Today's Continuing Reformation | |
| Andy Retberg | "We Believe, Teach, and Confess": The Relevance of the Formula of Concord for Today's Continuing Reformation | |
| Steve Valleskey | Worship in the 1500s -- That We Can Use Today | |
| April, 2010 | Steve Dorn | Exegesis of Objective Justification Passages |
| Craig Born | Isagogical Study of Romans focusing on Objective and Subjective Justification | |
| Dick Schleicher | Is Objective Justification Universalism? Is Objective Justification a Denial of sola fide? or "Are the Damned Forgiven?" | |
| Rob Weiss | Justification by Faith Alone since the Reformation, especially focusing on the emergence of the terms "objective" and "subjective" in relation to justification | |
| Karl Gurgel | Justification as Habitus Practicus |
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GJ - The Patterson/Glaeske is all glory-halleluia over Justification Without Faith, and they are also an important node in the Jeske-Appleton-Love Shack network (aka Church and Change).
UOJ is Enthusiasm - and the Church Growth Movement is Enthusiasm. The two are found together all the time. Notice how they will beat UOJ to death at the same conference, but only one mention of the Confessions in the presentation titles.
The poor pastors who have to listen to this drivel about UOJ should read up on it before they arrive in April. I know several areas of the country where the laity have trounced UOJ advocates and left them with their mouths hanging open.
UOJ is not Universalism, because Universalism is honest. UOJ is crypto-Universalism.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Game Plan - Follow the Money and the Patterson Net...":
When Mischke chose not to run for WELS president, the likes of Paul Kelm, Ron Roth, Wayne Mueller, and John Braun were the powermen in synod and its media. They all knew Karl Gurgel from school and as a DP. It was well known before the election that Gurgel was "in the lead" to become the next SP. Why? Because he was in favor of closing Northwestern College and making the ministerial tract the second track at the synod's teacher training school, Dr. Martin Luther College. However, Gurgel's agreement with the SAB establishment in other areas made him the lackey for the Church Growth Movement leaders agenda. Some of the SAB establishment were even members of Gurgel's church in Lake Mills. Also, the old timers in the synod felt confident in Gurgel because they knew his dad, also named Karl Gurgel from his years of service in Caledonia, MN and Fond lu Lac, WI. He shot a straight arrow.
Mark Schroeder was elected synod president because he had the only viable solution for the synod's financial woes in the wake of Gurgel's announcement to not run for SP again. The parts of that solution that were enacted by the 2007 WELS convention along with some fresh confidence in the new SP brought a financial surplus in short time. I believe that we could say a second blessing came to the SP Mark Schroeder in the economic turndown. His first convention as SP clarified the mission of the synod and was given the privilege of sorting out which ministries are viable and best fit into the mission of the synod.
Patterson, or anyone else, will unseat Mark Schroeder only if the synod does not like the direction things are going. I see little chance of that in view of the last two conventions. The only advantage that those who would promote Patterson would have is his lack of a pedigree. They could only claim that WELS needs the wisdom of someone who is not an insider. They may point to Preus and Barry in Missouri as examples.
Incidently, the only reason the leaders come from Northwestern Prep is that the clear majority of WELS members live in the great Milwaukee area (SE District),the string of large WELS churches in the Watertown area (WW District), and the big WELS churches in the Fox River Valley area (NW District). That makes up a clear majority of WELS members. One may also add that the MI District and MLS have an attitude problem and the MN District has committed the unforgivable sin of getting the majority districts to close Northwestern College while they were napping. So, can anything good come out of MI or MN? The rest are off the map.
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GJ - Patterson's minders have chimed in, anonymously. They can start another new blog. They are good at that, for a few weeks.
