Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Financial Picture More Dire Than Expected":
I am a WELS member and I don't know what to think about your blog. Part of me says well someone else notices the things I have. Part of me asks is it sinful or is it right? You'll notice I'm being cowardly and not signing my name.
I do think it's sinful nature that causes all of this and I pray for all of us. I too worry about sin but I am trying to trust in God to take care of it.
I do think putting sin in the light is a good thing. I know of more than one case of sexual molestation that has gone on and was not reported to the police. In fact the person who was molesting was kept in their job and yes the Synod's insurance has paid for it and maybe that is what it is going to take to stop that kind of enabling. Bad publicity and rising insurance costs come from bad decisions being made. Why would anyone want to help another in their sin is beyond me.
In response to the rent issue, I know of churches who greatly undervalues the cost of the rent on the parsonage so it reduces the tax cost. I have also known Pastors to get state assistance because they say they are in the poverty level. If you add in all their perks they make well over most of the congregation. I've also heard Pastor's speak about their work much like a lawyer does - in 6 min increments.
Gone are the days Pastors made house calls. All I ever get is a voice mail message and I'm lucky if my call is returned by the Pastor. It seems some are turning their jobs into becoming managers. I'm sad about that as it shows a lack of caring. But I also think it is a sign of the times.
I'd like to ask why is there so little accountability in the church? We are to abide by the governance's of our state but I think many skirt around that and no one enforces the constitutions. If you call anyone on it they call you a heretic. I have seen more than a few men drop off of council because of it.
But just how are we suppose to deal with sin inside the church? I will tell you I notice it, spoken out and have been criticized for it. IMHO these actions have hurt the members in worshipping their God. It is one reason I and I know many others who have pulled back from service.
I am not leaving WELS because I think they are the best thing out there - they preach the true word of God and as we approach the reformation I am reminded about the reason I love being a Lutheran. Remember what Luther's 1st petition was. Repentance.
So I am not sure about this blog but I keep coming back to read it. Maybe it's a good thing you're putting some of this in the Son-light. I pray God takes care of the rest.
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GJ - All the synods cover up. In the case of one Shrinker, Missouri and WELS and the Little Sect on the Prairie all cooperated in enabling the criminal himself and in attacking anyone who dared object to a pastor having sex with the wives and daughters of the members. WELS and Missouri were happy to shake the money tree connected with this criminal, whose repentance consisted of claiming he was persecuted.
Do not overlook the Good Old Boy Network. Fred Adrian was famous for being so bad as the DMB Chair, Michigan District, WELS, that he was forced out. His married vicar went to state prison for molesting a minor girl in the congregation. WELS fought the lawsuit and lost, to the tune of $400,000 and promptly appealed the verdict. How do you like that - WELS taking a member to court? Fred wrote a happy letter to the congregation, saying, "Insurance paid for it."
However, Fred wrote two different vicarage reports, one saying he knew, one saying he did not know. (GA at work.) Fred resigned from the ministry but he has a call in the district again. There is only one sin in WELS - questioning WELS. Ditto ELS and LCMS.
5 comments:
No doubt about it, WELS is decaying and dying from within due to corrupt leaders.
Somebody has took take a stand. Martin Luther was facing the death penalty for his stand! Paterson is the last person we need as District President. There are conservative(true to the Word)pastors that could take the call. The SCD can rise before it falls.
from WELS church lady-soon to be Junker Georgette
It's so easy to see how these things go on in congregations. All one has to do in some congregations is to watch how officers and board members are 'elected'.
If the pastor doesn't want someone to serve, they do not get on the 'ballot'.
It'd be great to leave such a congregation, but staying can be the lesser of the evils available.
"There are conservative (true to the Word) pastors that could take the call."
Pastors who are true to God's Word and the Lutheran Confessions do not exist in the WELS.
They all confess a new gospel, a new declaration of righteousness and have destroyed the central doctrine of Scripture in thier current confession. Opposing Christ and the Confessions they profess that the whole unbelieving world is righteous, forgiven of all sin and, by divine verdict, been declared by God to be guilt free all before faith worked by the Holy Spirit. Christ declares that no one is forgiven prior to faith in Him. Christ declares that the Holy Spirit's faith grasps hold of the fact that Christ paid for all sins and that by believing that your sins are then forgiven, you are justified through Christ and righteous in God's sight just as Christ is. WELS teaches that faith grasps hold of the fact that the whole unbelieving world was already declared forgiven when Christ paid for the worlds sin. That faith doesn't make of an unjust man a just man as Scripture and the Confessions declare but is just a open and empty hand accepting that you've already been declared forgiven. You are no different after faith than you were before faith.
The WELS and all Lutheran Synods confess this false gospel of Universal Objective Justification. Anyone who does is condemned by God and stand outside the body of Christ as Paul clearly states in the first chapter of Galations. There are those in the Lutheran churches who out of ignorance or hypocrisy do not confess the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification but believe they are forgiven and justified by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone and not before faith. These are part of the invisible Church and are part of the body of Christ.
In Christ,
Brett Meyer
Gone are the days Pastors made house calls. All I ever get is a voice mail message and I'm lucky if my call is returned by the Pastor. It seems some are turning their jobs into becoming managers. I'm sad about that as it shows a lack of caring. But I also think it is a sign of the times. The more they can push off onto the elders or cell group leaders, the less they'll have to do.
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Pastoral calls are a thing of the past. My family are all WELS at different churches and the discussion has come up about how the pastors never ever come to visit. Except for the address on the mailing list, they wouldn't even know where you live. They are just too 'busy' to do their jobs. I've seen how busy my pastor is just running from one kids baseball game to another soccer match. I'm sure it's his mentality that he only has to work just one day a week and then for only a few hours. It's no wonder they copy and paste a sermon. Many are neglecting their flocks.
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