Someone Asked This Question - What Is Wrong with Church and Change?

The question below included a plea to avoid using a cute kitty photo.

Question: "I would like to know what is wrong with Church and Change."

Church and Change was organized and funded to move WELS completely into the doctrinal errors of the Church Growth Movement. Church Growth began at Fuller Seminary once anti-inerrancy was made official doctrine at the school. Donald McGavran, from the left-wing Disciples of Christ, C. Peter Wagner (Pentecostal Baptist), and Win Arn were the three major figures in the beginning. Bill Hybels (Willow Creek Community Church, Chicago area) gained fame a little later.

Fuller and Willow Creek (not to mention Trinity, Deerfield) are the main places where CG gurus in WELS have been trained. The pastors in the domestic mission board and the world mission board were trained at Fuller. From the beginning, evangelism has been entirely Church Growth - both at WELS headquarters and the seminary.  The parish consultants were trained at Fuller to be consultants: Larry Olson, Jim Huebner, Paul Kelm.

Various seminary professors were trained at Fuller - David Valleskey and Frosty Bivens. I am sure others were, but I do not have their written confessions...yet.

Any Lutheran should have enormous problems with a significant portion of their ministerium trained at a schools where the faculty teach against the authority, inerrancy, and efficacy of the Word.

Worst of all, these CG gurus have lied about their training and doctrine.

So Wisconsin Lutheran College started Charis. I think Charis ran the symposium where Waldo Werning (Who's Who, CG) and Kent Hunter (Who's Who, CG)--both Fuller trained--were the main speakers. That was canceled and all the CGers pouted and fumed.

Charis started Church and Change with a grant from WELS. I am not keen about synod bureaucracies, but demi-semi-independent parachurch groups pose even more danger. Who supervises? In this case, the synodical bosses and Changers overlapped, with Bruce Becker as  a synod administrator paid way too much money by WELS and also a board member of Church and Change. One entity promoted and defended the other entity, and board members saw opportunities to advance their business interests in WELS: fund-raising for a fat commission (Jeff Davis) and socking the devil in the jaw (Brian Arthur Lampe).

Ski is no longer listed as a board member. He must be too busy attending monthly conferences led by false teachers  - and leading conferences for WELS.

Church and Change has sponsored programs and national conferences to advance their own agenda. Sadly, the previous three synod presidents (Naumann, Mischke, Gurgel) lacked the doctrinal discernment to see through the CGM. Naumann endorse the nascent movement when TELL began under the toxic leadership of Ron Roth. CG ran rampant under Mischke and Gurgel.

The three State of Wisconsin District Presidents swoon for Church Growth, too.

Many of the Changers are stealth leaders. Don Patterson is a good example. He tries to deny it, but his own agenda was revealed when he organized a group of WELS workers to attend the Exponential pan-denominational conference. When John Lawrenz (another stealth member) promoted the agenda on the top-secret C and C listserve, Patterson responded - "Pure gold."

The Changers make sure they are all funded, at the expense of genuine ministry efforts. But the real problem of the group is their false doctrine and unionism, which go hand-in-hand. One influences the other.

I have quoted the Changers extensively, and they hate it.

I have also quoted Luther and the Book of Concord against CGM, and the Changers hate that too.

Even more, they loathe the clear Scriptural passages that utterly refute their false doctrine and identify them as they are - wolves in sheep's clothing, blind guides who argue that we can indeed pluck figs from thistles.

I will be quoting Luther and others this weekend, in honor of the Reformation.

To find out more about both sides of the issue, click on the label "Quotations," which I normally use for quotation collections.

Thy Strong Word has plenty of information, too.

I would not recommend any "conservative" Lutheran seminary at this time. They are all in the bag for Fuller or the Church of Rome, or both.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Someone Asked This Question - What Is Wrong with C...":

Where would you suggest one study for the public ministry? Are there any good options outside of the Concordias, WLS, and Bethany?


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GJ - There are no Lutheran seminaries left, so there are no good options.