Monday, November 30, 2009

DK Has It Right




There is a national shortage of pink paper - as in "none left" because of the pink slip campaign.

dk has left a new comment on your post "Apostates in WELS Will Win in the Short Run":

Hey Professor,

When is a council going to be held?

Things need to be shaken up. Those who adhere to the Confessions need to collectively leave (whatever Synod they belong to). Missouri and WELS and others still possess Confessional pastors--these guys need to be in contact with each other.

Is it more important what acronym IDs your church, or is it more important what confession you publicly proclaim? I truly believe that if many WELS pastors could diminish their concern for the WELS institution, reapportioning that concern for Doctrine, a Confessional body could emerge from the fray.

IF you subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions as correct exposition of Scripture why do you care about affiliation?

***

GJ - I agree. My point about the pink slip is that there is a national movement, widespread, against the impoverished and spineless leadership of this country. So many people have obtained pink slips to mail Congress that there is no pink paper left in America.

In the same way, if the laity and the few confessional pastors make a point of protesting the blatant apostasy they see around them, there will be an effect. The Word will accomplish God's will.

The Word of God has not failed, but people have failed to apply it to themselves and to the visible church.

Apostates are activists, gravitating to money and positions of power. Confessional Lutherans need to stop bargaining for crumbs while the liberals are eating their lunch.

Apostasy applies to all the Lutheran groups, not just ELCA. The solution is the same in each group - apply the Word of God.

Apostates in WELS Will Win in the Short Run




Lacking in WELS - a learned ministry and the church militant



People have voiced their conclusion, separately, that the apostates will win in WELS. One is a pastor. Several are layman. The laymen think the Chicaneries are too entrenched to uproot.

The political component is impossible to ignore. The WELS school system, ever since Ted Hartwig infected it at Mary Lou College, is consistently liberal. Closing Northwestern College was a successful (albeit crooked) attempt to end a conservative bastion in WELS. Even then, NWC was not exactly a fortress of orthodoxy, and the faculty members were too timid to fight for their cause. Is MLC stronger because of that merger? It is weaker and more apostate, just like the Andover-Newton-Colgate-Rochester-Crozer-etc-Divinity School.

My take - MLC, Bethany, and WLC will not survive as separate entities and they know it.

The only way to get rid of the apostates would be to end the teacher vote that supports spineless and two-faced Doctrinal Pussycats. The largest WELS state has the most parochial and Area Lutheran High School teachers - also the worst DPs. And that is saying something! In the unlikely event of DP removal, the teachers will vote in another set of banana DPs - yellow, green, and just plain rotten.

If the teacher vote is not neutralized, the only other solution is the demolition of the WELS schools, from pre-K to the Sausage Factory. An outsider can see that their educational system only serves to promote the mainline cause, creeping apostasy. I do not think the CG gurus in WELS will become Pentecostal and perform fake miracles. I know some have turned Pentecostal. The majority will become honest atheists, like Curtis Peterson, Robert Schumann, and Mark Freier. The Chicaneries are already mainline, unionistic apostates. They are only one step from heart-felt, compassionate atheism.

As Brett Meyer noted, the pipeline is full of students trained in apostasy, too full of themselves to know it. Reflecting the in-your-face attitude of MLC, the vidiot students could not even fake contrition. Instead, they "forgave" those who did not appreciate them out-outting the Fire Island boys.

Here are additional factors militating against any real change in WELS, which is currently an unimportant nub in the Fuller Seminary mainline network:

  1. Holy Mother WELS is infallible so any criticism is harmful to the institution, especially when it is valid, scholarly, confessional criticism.
  2. Too many people are closely related or friends through school, so that makes it difficult to drop the hammer on the guilty, even when found with a murdered spouse.
  3. Thrivent unites Lutherans in ELCA, Missouri, WELS, the ELS, and the CLC (sic), a built-in and cleverly funded pan-Lutheran union.
  4. Few are educated in the Confessions.
  5. Even fewer are inclined to fight for the pure Word. That generation is the WWII generation. The Boomers are too lax and self-centered to shed a drop of blood for doctrine.
  6. Hardly anyone is in shape for the fight.

In the long run, we all have to face our mortality and the Day of Judgment. I wonder - how much will the size the buildings and parking lots matter before the Throne of Grace? Can someone despise the Means of Grace, mocking the Word, and cop a plea at the last minute, based on statistics?



Lutheran pastors crow about numbers and say nothing about being faithful to the Word of God. "Join us - we are friendly and successful: watch us grow."



One thing is needful, and you have chosen wrong, WELS.


Simple Solution for Christmas Programs



Many churches keep old Christmas programs and use them again. The classic Christmas programs are the same - the sedes doctrinae of the Virgin Birth and traditional Christmas hymns.

I think the old LCA programs, because they used this format, were better than sitting around on couches, for pity's sake.

Apostates Continue Merging To Stay Alive




Annie get your gun. The libs are merging again.


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Foundation Grant Allows For Needed Installation":

Andover Seminary near Boston and Colgate seminary combining due to decreased enrollment and their endowment fund down to a paltry $40 million between the two schools. Ironically, they use the same euphemism that Seabury Seminary did last year when they downsized--that they are merely finding a "new model" viable for delivering seminary education in today's world. In other words they are flat broke and would go bust within a year if they didn't do something drastic.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Foundation Grant Allows For Needed Installation":

Andover Seminary near Boston and Colgate seminary combining due to decreased enrollment and their endowment fund down to a paltry $40 million between the two schools. Ironically, they use the same euphemism that Seabury Seminary did last year when they downsized--that they are merely finding a "new model" viable for delivering seminary education in today's world. In other words they are flat broke and would go bust within a year if they didn't do something drastic.

http://www.crcds.edu Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

http://www.ants.edu/news/detail/andover-newton-opens-talks-with-colgate-rochester-crozer-divinity-school

"...this joint venture may usher in a new model for graduate theological education."

"If a partnership is established, the schools would have a combined endowment of approximately $40 million and an enrollment of 450 students. Andover Newton and CRCDS are both accredited by the Association of Theological Schools."
/ Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

http://www.ants.edu/news/detail/andover-newton-opens-talks-with-colgate-rochester-crozer-divinity-school

"...this joint venture may usher in a new model for graduate theological education."

"If a partnership is established, the schools would have a combined endowment of approximately $40 million and an enrollment of 450 students. Andover Newton and CRCDS are both accredited by the Association of Theological Schools."

***

GJ - The mergers and cooperative ventures are too numerous to summarize, so I will let Wikipedia do it: "Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School is a theological college of Baptist origins. The present day school, which sits on the top of a hill in the beautiful setting of Highland Park in Rochester, New York is a product of several mergers.

The school is liberal and ecumenical in theology, with Baptists, United Methodists, Presbyterians and members of other denominations on its faculty and in its student body. Degrees can be obtained in cooperaration with Bexley Hall, an Episcopal Church seminary, which shared its facilities and administration from 1968 to 1998 (and continued at the campus under a separated administration until 2004), and St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry, a Roman Catholic theological school which shared its facilities from 1981 until 2003, and since has moved to a nearby site.

It is a small school with seven full-time faculty and 14 part-time faculty, and slightly more than 100 full-time students. The current director is Eugene C. Bay, who was previously the head pastor at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

The school is also home to the graduate studies Physical Therapy program for Ithaca College. It contains the Center for Foot and Ankle Research and a movement analysis lab." Wikipedia

My source is being too kind about Andover, which is also a merged school:

"Andover Newton is a product of a merger between two schools of theology in 1965: Andover Theological Seminary and Newton Theological Institute. Andover Newton takes the earlier founding date of the Andover Theological seminary for its founding year." Wikipedia

Andover split from Harvard, but they tried to reconcile. They have cooperated over the years.

Yale University is another split from Harvard.

Normally these mergers are called two cripples sharing the same cane, but this is a herd of cripples hoping and praying they can survive the financial death panel - sharing the same cane - endowment funds.

Another factor is the overhead for all those beautiful stone and brick buildings when people favor online education. Today I talked with a used car dealer who wants to take college and law school under an accelerated program, the first part online.

Foundation Grant Allows For Needed Installation






A large but anonymous foundation grant has allowed Mary Lou College to install a radar dish on Old Main. The college president, who did not want to be named, said, "If we would have had this earlier, a lot of stress could have been avoided concerning that video." He asked not to be named, adding, "They know which video."


Is There Hope for the Appleton Dumbling Gang?




Here I stand, batter up.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Here Is the Dirt on The Dirt Conference":

I was a visitor at St. Paul in Appleton (becoming known as the "AntiCore" among the locals)for Reformation services, and heard one of the finest sermons I have ever heard. What do you think? Is there still hope for Appleton as long as St. Paul is there? Some people there see it as the last hope for Lutheranism in the city.

The link: http://www.stpaulappletonwi.com/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=13563&sec_id=2608

***

GJ - I read the sermon, mindful that the Lutheran confessions not only affirm the positive but also denounce false doctrine. I have heard reports of WELS pastors in the area not sharing a pulpit with Parlow or the recentedly departed Witte (both men having anti-Lutheran DMins in Church Growth).

Appleton reminds me of Luther's statement about one point of doctrine leading to a whole country being lost. Schwaermer doctrine needs to be identified and denounced for what it is - anti-Christian, anti-Biblical, and definitely anti-Lutheran. Doctrinal Pussycat Engelbrecht is the human shield for Shrinkers in Fox Valley, just as Rutschow is the human shield for Jeske, Inc.




One only needs to read Katie's Tweets to know The CORE's doctrine. Now the disorder has spread so widely that no one knows where to start and where to end. A year from now, many Enthusiasts will be feeling the hurt for a lot of reasons. Nevertheless, the real beginning has to be Confessional education at all levels. I suggest colloquy for the DPs, to see if any of them agree with the Book of Concord on the evil nature of Enthusiasm and the essentials of justification by faith alone.

WELS Church and Change Hilarity Continues





Chicaneries are still registering people for their November conference.
Wasn't that - like - a month ago?


Adam Mueller (son of Wayne) will turn your church around for you. CG has had 30 years to build up WELS, but has 30 years of shrinkage to show for it. Phone Adam collect. His websty link is Gunn's sect in Laveen (Phoenix), Arizona. Joe Krohn graduated from CrossWalk, Laveen, upgrading his status to RockMeister at The Church From Scratch in Round Rock, Texas. RockBlogger quit his blog and heard the gong on the Gong Show.

Jeff Gunn will build your church from Scratch. That is what people fear - Old Scratch in charge of another CG money pit. If Gunn knows so much about this, why did he look for a job at Wisconsin Lutheran College (Brigadoon WELS)? A better topic would be "How A Failing Non-WELS Congregation Can Take Over a College Board of Directors." Jeff is too modest.

"Congregation -Conference Breakout 103.... Growing Your Congregation’s Staff from Within
Dr. Lawrence Olson (Fuller DMin - not a doctorate)
The WELS Congregational Assistant Program (CAP) encourages and equips members, men and women alike, for a broader ministry within a congregation. WELS Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI), which guides and assists men from a broad cultural spectrum through their pre-seminary and seminary training." [GJ - Do CAP and PSI have CG written all over them if Larry Oh! is promoting them?]

Contemporary Music - Doing it up
Pastor Jeff Gunn
Crosswalk - Phoenix, AZ
Pastor Gun is also a great resource for:
Marketing a Church a Target Community
Small Groups - Starting them Successfully
Outreach Methods - Getting Involved
Churches - How to Build One From Scratch
Researching Alternative Ministry Methods and Models - How To Do It and Pull Workable Ideas From It
Email: jeff@crosswalkinlaveen.org
Website: www.crosswalkinlaveen.org/


Contemporary Worship - Conference Breakout 501....
Creating Irresistible Environments with Contemporary Worship
Pastor John Parlow
Explore transferable principles that will help you build a church for outsiders to come to and hear truth that makes a difference now and for eternity. Now is the time to shed ethnic rationalizations, personal preferences, and doomsday attitudes that are offered as excuses for outreach failures. The truth is the Gospel is timelessly relevant, the church and its representatives may or may not be relevant; the Gospel is timelessly efficacious, the church and its representatives may or may not be effective. Let’s talk about building ministries that are dangerously Christian.
If you are interested in getting your hands on this conference workshop PowerPoint or want more information, email the speaker by selecting the link below!
Email: john.parlow@stmark-depere.org
Website: www.stmarkpartners.org



Church Extension Fund - Conference Vendor
Tim Probst

Vice-President Marketing & Development
WELS Church Extension Fund, Inc.
2929 N. Mayfair Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53222-4398

WELS Church Extension Fund exists primarily to provide financing for mission-minded endeavors and projects that are under the direction of WELS Board for Home Missions. WELS CEF provides loans and grants to qualified mission congregations for the purpose of acquiring land sites, renovation and construction of ministry facilities -- used as tools for gospel outreach.

Direct line: 414-256-3276
Toll free: 800-729-9357
Fax: 414-256-6480

Email: cef@sab.wels.net
Website: www.wels.net/cef


Conference Keynote Speaker: Breakthrough Thinking in WELS Ministry
John Di Frances

From John’s experience, the Evangelicals are great at connecting with people, but are often lacking in the depth and solid foundation of biblical truth. John joined a WELS congregation because he is convinced that WELS teaches the truth of God’s Word. But he has also observed that WELS isn’t necessarily very good at connecting with and engaging people or being seen as relevant to life today by non-Christians. John is personally convinced that WELS can impact our world in ways that surpass the impact of the Evangelical movement. But to do so will require some break-through thinking.


Email: jdf@difrances.com
Website: www.difrances.com


Crosswalk - Phoenix, AZ
Pastor Gun is also a great resource for:

Marketing a Church a Target Community
Small Groups - Starting them Successfully
Outreach Methods - Getting Involved
Churches - How to Build One From Scratch
Researching Alternative Ministry Methods and Models - How To Do It and Pull Workable Ideas From It

Email: jeff@crosswalkinlaveen.org
Website: www.crosswalkinlaveen.org/



Contemporary Worship - Conference Breakout 501....
Creating Irresistible Environments with Contemporary Worship


Pastor John Parlow

Explore transferable principles that will help you build a church for outsiders to come to and hear truth that makes a difference now and for eternity. Now is the time to shed ethnic rationalizations, personal preferences, and doomsday attitudes that are offered as excuses for outreach failures. The truth is the Gospel is timelessly relevant, the church and its representatives may or may not be relevant; the Gospel is timelessly efficacious, the church and its representatives may or may not be effective. Let’s talk about building ministries that are dangerously Christian Schwaermer.


If you are interested in getting your hands on this conference workshop PowerPoint or want more information, email the speaker by selecting the link below!

Email: john.parlow@stmark-depere.org
Website: www.stmarkpartners.org



Contemporary Worship - Conference Breakout 506....
Your Guide to Starting Your Own Alternative Worship Experience
Pastor James “Ski” Skorzewski and Staff Minister Brian Davison
Changes are taking place in the worship world. There still remains a strong interest in blended and contemporary worship among many in our midst. A number of WELS congregations have been conducting blended or contemporary services for years. This workshop will provide help and guidance from someone who has undertaken the process at St. Marcus in Milwaukee. Topics to be discussed include how to begin a blended/contemporary service in a small/traditional congregation so that everyone is blessed; recruiting musicians, vocalists, and technical persons; equipment needs; stage presence; best music to use at the start; copyright matters; music/worship sources (websites, friends, etc…); use of contemporary liturgies; establishing a WELS network for those interested in helping each other with materials, ideas, and encouragement; and the awakening need for more joyful experiential worship in our midst.
If you are interested in getting your hands on this conference workshop PowerPoint or want more information, email the speaker by selecting the link below!
Email: brian.davison@stmarcus.com, james.skorzewski@stmarcus.com
Website: www.stmarcus.com
[GJ - Learn how to turn $250,000 into a membership gain of +9 in less than a year!]

Spiritual Growth - Conference Breakout 203....
Lookin’ for Love in all the Wrong Places

Sharon Buck and Karen Harmon - Jars of Clay Ministries
Christians, especially women, are uniquely created and positioned to share the love of God with others. Explore ways to revitalize your own sacred romance with God and compassion for lost souls.If you are interested in getting your hands on this conference workshop PowerPoint or want more information, email the speaker by selecting the link below!
Email: sbuck1@comporium.net, jkyharmon@cox.net
Website: www.jarsofclayministries.com
[GJ - Would their advisors be CG gurus? Who wrote this ad? Cosmo?]

Website - Ministry Resource
Matt Doebler
Develop a website, which shares ministry resources (such as special services, Bible studies), for different areas of ministry. Find someone who has web-developing skills. Does not need to be an expert. Basic skills are needed. Find a free or cheap web server. Figure out your goals. Who is your target audience? What do you want to share? Find some dependable contributors who will submit quality material. This will save you some time on reviewing everything that you are given to publish. Use MS Word format for submitted material and "save as ... web page". Can import easily into web pages. Other technical issues, consult an expert. Keep updating periodically - an unchanging web site is a dead web site. Promote by any means possible. I have tried the WorldWide Winkel & conferences
Email: doeblermc@yahoo.com
[GJ - As of this morning, Doebler has exactly one page posted on his websty, a map to his Rock And Roll sect. I have posted more content this morning than Doebler has in a week, but I don't have a $20,000 grant from Antioch. Grants must induce paralysis.]


Website - Using Virtual Tours as a Ministry Resource
Cordes Photography
Caleb Cordes
Caleb specializes in creating web-based virtual reality tours. Better than still photographs, VR tours allow website visitors to experience space in an entirely new manor. They can move from room to room at their own speed and interest, experiencing the true feel of a space. VR tours are especially useful for businesses and even churches, as they enhance the power of introduction that websites offer. For an example, click the link and check out Grace Downtown's VR tour of thier (sic) new outreach center.
Email: info@cordesphoto.com
Website: www.cordesphoto.com
[GJ - Does Caleb edit the Chicanery websty too?]

Parent's Ministry - CEO
Brian and Tracy Lampe

Your baby is now a teenager, going through all of the teenage rites of passage. Between school, friends, God, and a social life, their lives seem to be a foreign country to you. The little boy or girl that once told you everything now has to be hounded to give you even a snippet of thought. Yet there are three things you should know about what is going on in your Christian teen's head that will make your relationship a little better…

CEO also has programs for:
Men's Ministry
Students Ministry
Couples Ministry
Corporate Ministry
Shipping with UPS
Email: Brian@CEO-Ministries.com
Website: www.ceo-ministries.com/parents.html



Perish Assistance - WELS Perish Services

Want some great ideas, content and contacts for your ministry? WELS Parish Services was made just for you! Visit their website for information on:
Evangelism - [GJ - How to chase Lutherans away, shrink the church, and brag about numbers.]
Worship
Youth Discipleship
Parish Schools
Adult Discipleship
Special Ministries
Perish Assistance - [GJ - Go down the tubes. We can show you how - for $25,000 or more.]

Website: www.wels.net/bps



Photography Volunteer Program
Jonathan Favorite


Director of Worship Arts
Crosswalk - Phoenix, AZ

Jonathan specializes in getting the talent excited with a church. Starting groups for:
Music
Techs
Graphic Arts
Video Production
Creative Arts

Phone: 602-304-0072
Email: jonathan@crosswalkinlaveen.org
Website: www.crosswalkinlaveen.org


Prayer - WELS Prayer Institute
Steve Witte, Shelley Mattes and Reg Draheim
The WELS Prayer Institute exists to promote and encourage prayer throughout the WELS for WELS leaders, pastors, churches, and ministries. God has clearly given us this command to pray in Ephesians 6:18-20, and many other places throughout the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
Visit their website, join in on a prayer and be encouraged!
Contact Shelley Mattes for more information.
Email: shelleymattes@yahoo.com
Website: www.welsprayerinstitute.com
[GJ - Visit Gordon Conwell seminary, where Witte earned his prestigious DMin. Soon after he was hired for the WELS Asian board. Does anyone else suspect the Prayer Institute is another Shrinker farm?]

Group Ministry -Small
Pastor Peter Panitzke
Two 40 day programs with daily devotions and small group sessions.
Email: ppanitzke@stpaulmuskego.org
Website: www.stpaulmuskego.org
[GJ - Peter Pan-denominational is a frequent writer for FIC,, the Xerox center for Church and Change. Frankly, I am surprised that FIC will print SP Schroeder's articles.]

The Zen of Global Warming






Zen Buddhism comes up from time to time, in world religion class. One participant spent a years studying Buddhism and still found Zen impossible to explain. The cartoon above is the best explanation I can find, and it fits the Global Warming hoax as well.


Scientists have well defined rules. My high school introduction to chemistry and physics taught me a few things about lab work. The teachers were horrified that we tore pages out of our lab books. That was a sacrilege. We had to keep the notebooks of our observations intact and dated. "How else can you prove your observations?" My thoughts were, "Who cares what I observed?" Later I realized that the notebooks survived the scientist. As one account says - after the lab explosion blew up a scientist, they realized from his notebooks that he was storing one element in the wrong container.


The Global Warming scientists have admitted now that they do not have any original data for their theory, because they destroyed it. In fact, one cabal leader admitted that he always destroyed data requested under Freedom of Information, causing people to wonder why scientists needed to be forced to release data in the first place.


Dennis Miller has the best answer to Global Warming, uttered years ago: "One hundred years ago, people were still using outdoor johns. They did not care about measuring temperatures." Another critic pointed out that averaging temperatures is nonsense anyway, since averaging a 90 degree day and an 80 degree day yields a meaningless number that fits neither one.


I bow to Freddy Finkelstein in this area, because I am not trained in science. He obviously knows the technical side of things. His latest post on the topic and an earlier post are both worth reading.


Nevertheless, I am intrigued by the relationship between Zen, Global Warming, Church Growth, and UOJ. They belong together as vast conglomerations of nonsense.


Like Global Warming, Church Growth was founded on manipulated and meaningless statistics. C. Peter Wagner, who earned a named professorship in that fantasyland at Fuller Seminary, had to admit, years ago, that Church Growth principles "do not work." However, enough books and articles have been written to establish a network of CG fanatics in all denominations, from the Salvation Army to the Church of Rome. Wagner's admission had no affect on ChurchGrowthery, which changes names for the Fad du Jour: Contagious, Purpose-Driven, Missional, Emerging.


The CG network, thriving on semi-secrecy, unites people across denominational lines. Dom Perignon Patterson should have no interest in matters anti-Lutheran and non-WELS, but he gathered a bunch of WELSians for the Exponential Conference. He has "issues" with Church and Change, which fails to explain why he showed up at their latest conference to regain the momentum lost to Lutheran doctrine, worship, and a few choice convention votes. I noticed that the current list of Exponential speakers includes a lot of faves for The CORE and the Chicaneries:
    Babtist Ed Stetzer (hired to speak at the latest Chicanery conference but canned by popular demand);
  1. Mark Batterson - the Mogul of Movie Theater Ministry, on Katie's list at CORE;
  2. Two Granger staffers - where Ski and Katie trained and met a former member of St. Marcus, who loves Granger Community Church. Awkward!
  3. Mars Hill - where Ski, Glende, Katie trained, when not eating out;
  4. Etc. Etc.
By the way, Ski and Bruce Becker are no longer listed as Chicanery board members, perhaps because the board was getting overloaded with Mark Jeske employees. Missouri is officially taking on that crowd, via their support of Time of Generic Grace. Does Kieschnick know the Jeske operation depends on massive amounts welfare from Thrivent and the foundations - all doing about as well as Dubai World? Where does UOJ fit in with the frauds of Global Warming and Church Growthing? The twin theses float above Lutherdom, unsupported by any data at all. The twin theses are:
  1. God declared the entire world absolved from sin, regardless of faith, giving every single person the status of guilt-free saints.
  2. Atoning for the sins of the world means that God declared the world free of sin - the double justification scheme kelmed from Knapp.
The data shows the missing link in UOJ is the Halle Univesity Pietistic lecture book by Knapp, used by Protestant denominations in America, published before Walther landed in America with the Stephan migration. The double-justification formula in Knapp is exactly the same as the double-justification scheme in F. Pieper, acolyte of Walther.

Some dissonance may stem from the differences in the original German edition of Knapp and the famous English translation, where the translator provided the double-justification in his own footnote. Walther and Pieper published in German, so it is most likely that they used the German edition of Knapp.

How did double-justification become the distinctive produce of the Synodical Conference when the mainline denominations were using Knapp in English until the end of the 19th century? My guess is that the mainlines simply became Universalist in doctrine and no longer cared about the topic of justification.

The ELCA/Seminex mantra of Gospel Reductionism (everyone is saved, regardless) is only one baby-step away from double-justification, since absolving the world of sin leaves nothing to justification by faith. Meanwhile, the Synodical Conference remained rather isolated, circling the wagons around Walther and Pieper. All the support for UOJ is based upon Walther, Pieper, and their numerous disciples in the Synodical Conference, whether Missouri, WELS, or the Little Sect on the Prairie. The common denominator is not Lutheran orthodoxy but Reformed doctrine via Pietism.

Church Growthing loves absolving the world without the Word, without the Means of Grace, without faith. The CG gurus are apostates who have little interest in Christian theology. They love their numbers, manufactured, manipulated, self-serving. As Luther said about the Enthusiasts - they hate the Word but fill the world with their words.


Sunday, November 29, 2009

Modern Biblical "Scholarship" Parody - Using the Beatles

First Sunday in Advent






The First Sunday in Advent

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time


The Hymn # 245 God Loved the World 4:6
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn # 290 We Have A Sure 4:89

Age of Apostasy

The Hymn # 305 Soul Adorn Thyself 4.23
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 463 For All the Saints 4:31

KJV Romans 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

KJV Matthew 21:1 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. 8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.


First Sunday in Advent - The Collects of Veit Dietrich
Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank Thee, we bless and praise Thee forever, that Thou didst send Thy Son to rule over us poor sinners, who for our transgressions did justly deserve to remain in the bondage of sin and Satan, and didst give us in Him a meek and righteous King, who by His death became our Savior from sin and eternal death: We beseech Thee so to enlighten, govern and direct us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may ever remain faithful to this righteous King and Savior, and not, after the manner of the world, be offended with His humble form and despised word, but, firmly believing in Him, obtain eternal salvation; through the same, Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

The Armor of Light

KJV Romans 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Whenever I read about justification, I find this quotation – that justification by faith is the chief article of the Christian faith.

"This article concerning justification by faith (as the Apology says) is the chief article in the entire Christian doctrine, without which no poor conscience can have any firm consolation, or can truly know the riches of the grace of Christ, as Dr. Luther also has written: If this only article remains pure on the battlefield, the Christian Church also remains pure, and in goodly harmony and without any sects; but if it does not remain pure, it is not possible that any error or fanatical spirit can be resisted. (Tom. 5, Jena, p. 159.) And concerning this article especially Paul says that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Formula of Concord, SD, III. 6, Righteous of Faith before God, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 917.
In the Synodical Conference, the next step after this quotation is to attack justification by faith, to attack faith itself, and to extol the idea of everyone being forgiven, absolved, justified without faith. And they call that the pure Gospel, not even comprehending that they are repeating the heresy of ELCA called Gospel Reductionism or the older heresy of Universalism.
Like John, Paul used night and day to symbolize falsehood and truth. The night was especially oppressive in ancient times because few used illumination, even in palaces. That may not have always been the case, but I have read of one palace where the pretender’s face could not be seen. Lacking streetlights and houselights, night was a good time for hedonism in all cultures.
As seen in Paul’s discussion in Galatians, tampering with the Gospel was not a small matter, but a major one. Especially dangerous was creating an alloy between false doctrine and sound doctrine, as if a little falsehood was harmless.

First of all, the word justification always means “justification by faith” in the Scriptures and in the Book of Concord. It is confusing, if not evil, to use a term differently from its use in the Scriptures. Merging terms is a trick of unionists and all false teachers. They glide from one thing to another and expect to dazzle people.

Baptism is not communion, and the Holy Spirit is not the Word. Baptism and communion are both sacraments, the visible Word, but they differ. I heard one worship expert say that babies should get communion because babies are baptized. Then perhaps babies should be ordained since babies are baptized. There must be a reason why God gave us forgiveness in different forms. Infant baptism is the purest form of the Gospel, as Luther said, because babies do not have the reasoning power to reject what God offers so freely, declaring them forgiven, taking away the power of original sin, planting faith in their hearts, and granting the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

That is clearly different from Holy Communion, where discernment is necessary and commanded by the Apostle.
The work of the Word is the work of the Holy Spirit, so we know from the Scriptures that when one is mentioned, the other is also included. That does not mean the Holy Spirit is the Word. We know what we do from the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Word. It is very important to realize the divine power of the Word at all times and to recognize the effectiveness of the Word because the Holy Spirit.

The term monergism is used for the Christian faith. That means that God acts alone, according to the Scriptures.

The Atonement was Christ’s act on our behalf, taking on Himself the sins of the world. Before that time, people recognized sacrifice as atoning for sin. In the Greek cycle of tragedies, the human sacrifice of Iphigenia was seen as a terrible crime done to appease the gods. In Judaism, animals were sacrificed in the Temple. Their blood atoned for the sins of the people, leading them to understand the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

Monergism means that God acts alone in converting us through the Word and in justifying us. For adults, conversion means godly contrition created by the Holy Spirit at work in the Law, faith created by the Holy Spirit at work in the Gospel Promises. God creates that contrition and that faith. The trust generated by the Promises of God receive God’s declaration that we are forgiven because of Christ.

When people confuse the Atonement with justification by faith, they create a formula completely unknown in the Scriptures, the Confessions, and the theologians after Luther.

The Atonement means that Christ redeemed the entire world from sin, paying the price and releasing us from the dominion of Satan and death. This Atonement is also described in other terms, such as redemption (two different words), propitiation, expiation, and reconciliation. Each term has a history and associations with it.

The Word of God assures us that there is no human contribution to forgiveness and salvation. Whenever human effort, works, or merit get involved, people start to wonder if they have done enough. That is also a fine way to motivate people with the Law, saying, “Are you really worthy? Have you done enough?”

The Atonement and its associated words cannot possibly mean that “God declared the entire world forgiven.” That brash statement cannot be found in the Scriptures, Luther, the Confessions, and the post-Concord writers. Not until the Pietist Burk was such a notion in print (as far as I know at this point).

Moreover, in surveying all of orthodox Lutheran literature, the man who knew it best said (and I paraphrase for the moment) – justification only means justification by faith. No one is forgiven apart from faith. (Robert Preus, Justification and Rome)

The “reconciliation” use for absolving the world means simply that God is reconciled to the world by means of Christ’s sacrifice. That was the ultimate concern in ancient days. Unlike today, people had a great sense of their sinfulness and the need to pay for that sin. They believed in such things as a purging after death (Plato) and various forms of sacrifice. Many of the pagans went through initiation into secret or mystery religions where they engaged in various acts to participate in the revelation of the saving secret. One ceremony involved walking under a grate while a bull was sacrificed above, baptizing the initiate in blood.

Paul’s use of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5 is pure Gospel in showing that the price has already been paid by God’s grace. There is no act or virtue to earn this forgiveness. Christ has earned it. “Therefore be reconciled.” That is another way of saying – Therefore, trust in this sacrifice.

Satan accuses us in vain when we realize what justification by faith means. As Luther said, Satan does not want a single drop of our blood. He wants to own our emotions. That is our weakest area. When we take up the cross because of the Word, Satan is there to say, “See how your loving God abandons you. Why not join the free and open spirits who prosper, instead of living in the dungeon with the dead orthodox?”

Or Satan accuses us because of sin, to make us feel we will never be worthy of forgiveness. The false teachers know how to play that tune and they jump in with full force, offering formulas for confidence in forgiveness – formulas involving the Law. You need a cell group. You need the double tithe. You need my counseling, which is both valuable and costly.

Luther said to tell Satan, “I may well be 1000 times worse than you say, but my Savior has paid the price for my sins. Go away.” Anxiety over sin and depression over sin can lead people into self-destructiveness, since they imagine themselves “no good anyway.” Many pastors make shipwrecks of their faith that way, whether in anger or depression or anxiety.

Kelm, UOJ, and Church Growth




Knapp, the Pietist from Halle University, taught UOJ first.


It's been said that we Lutherans emphasize objective justification to the point that the individual's response of faith is ignored. How do we draw a line between the two?

Dogmatic "lines" are drawn only to isolate biblical truths for thorough study, to promote deeper understanding of what God has revealed and to recognize error and misuse of Scripture. Theology, like Scripture, relates doctrines to each other appropriately. Objective justification and subjective justification are like two sides of a coin, inseparable though subject to study individually.

Objective justification is the truth that God has declared all people "not guilty" because Jesus has atoned for the sins of all (1 John 2:2), that God has reconciled the world to himself by attributing sin to Christ and Christ's righteousness to sinners (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). Subjective justification is the truth that this righteousness-for-sin exchange becomes personal salvation alone by faith in Jesus Christ, that Christ's redemptive work is personally appropriated and God's justifying decree personally received by faith (John 3:16; Mark 16:16; Romans 1:17; Hebrews 4:2). St. Paul demonstrated the bonding of these twin truths in Romans 3, where he says both that we are justified by grace (objective, v. 24) and that we are justified by faith (subjective, v. 28).

Lutherans emphasize objective justification because God's grace is the basis and focus of our salvation, from Christ's work of redemption to the Holy Spirit's work of conversion. Both God's glory and our assurance are jeopardized by an emphasis on the "decision" and "experience" of faith in contemporary religion. Further, faith is only as good as the object of its trust. In a generation that has blurred the content of Christian faith and fostered a kind of "belief in believing," the objective reality of our justification must be emphasized.

Of course there are dangers in minimizing the role and importance of faith in our salvation. Universalism is the heresy that everyone will be saved, with or without faith in Jesus. Unless there is clear, emphatic teaching about faith, the church risks intellectualizing salvation, undermining Christian sanctification and devaluing the means of grace--word and sacrament.

Objective and subjective justification cannot be understood apart from each other. Emphasis is only the appropriate sequencing of these twin truths and a response to errors, which, of late, have primarily threatened objective justification.

Send your questions to Questions, The Northwestern Lutheran, 2929 N. Mayfair Road, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53222, Questions of general interest are preferred. Questions will be answered, however, only through this column.

Pastor Paul Kelm is the synod's administrator for evangelism. 1988.


Monumental Toxic Mercury Spill in Phoenix:
$800,000 Clean-up




Mercury

Read the story here.

All about mercury.

Heavy duty scientific description of mercury and its uses.

This story intrigued me for several reasons. One is its lack of focus on two boys stealing an unknown substance from a science lab and playing with it - all over town. How dumb are kids and teachers today? I knew what mercury was in grade school. More than one student had some and played with it, getting a drop from a thermometer or an old thermostat. We were warned not to do it because of its toxicity so that stopped.

Another reason is the article I published many years ago. Mercury is an interesting metal because of its affinity to gold and silver. As many people know, playing with mercury near a gold ring will result in a mercury coated ring. The mercury will not wash off. This property was used to mine gold and silver.

Mercury is still used to make fillings for teeth. Dentists call it silver or amalgam, but a more precise name is mercury amalgam. Silver is too brittle to be used as a filling, so mercury is used to soften the silver. The two elements bind up together and make a paste that hardens into the former cavity.

Mercury reminds me of Reformed doctrine, which has a great affinity for Lutheran doctrine. Once Reformed doctrine attaches itself to Lutheran doctrine, the two cannot be separated. Luther struggled with Reformed influence in attacking the truth of Holy Communion, first in his debate with Zwingli. As Bente has shown in his Historical Introductions to the Book of Concord, Calvinism took over after Luther died. The secret Calvinists controlled the Lutheran theology faculties, just as they do today.

Pietism is an amalgamation of Lutheran and Reformed doctrine. Most of the founders of Lutheran synods in America were Pietists, starting with Muhlenberg (General Synod) and ending with Walther, the Norwegians, Swedes (Augustana), Germans, and Gloomy Danes.

Every attempt to promote Lutheran-Reformed cooperation has depended on Lutherans giving up the distinctive Biblical doctrines of the Reformation - the efficacy of the Word, baptismal regeneration, and the Real Presence in Holy Communion. All the Lutheran groups have leaders who actively promote Reformed doctrine learned at summer camp (Fuller, Willow Creek, Granger, Northpoint, Mars Hill, Trinity Deerfield).

No Reformed group has covert Lutherans who:
  1. plot to introduce the efficacy of the Word and Sacraments,
  2. sell Lutheran books at Schwaermer gatherings,
  3. quietly get rid of faithful Reformed ministers or slander them into silence,
  4. talk glowingly about the Means of Grace while bashing Enthusiasm,
  5. publish articles extolling Luther and Chemnitz in the denominational magazines,
  6. lead seminars where students and pastors learn how to get rid of gimmicks and methods,
  7. offer worship services, just as experiment, where the liturgy, creeds, and an organ are used,
  8. organize parachurch groups to promote Lutheran doctrine.
And yet, Lutherans have being doing all that for the Reformed for 30 years! Spoiling the Egyptians means dousing the pure Word and Sacraments with the mercury of Reformed Pietistic doctrine and methods - just to see what happens.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Mark Jeske, Church and Change Leader, Featured on LCMS Home Page










John Parlow, Mark Jeske, Paul Calvin Kelm, Dom Perignon Patterson










Mark is featured with Time of Grace on the home page of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Has anyone heard of one denomination promoting the TV show of another one?


Catch "Time of Grace" on KFUO–AM

Tune in to KFUO–AM 850 or listen online each week as Pastor Jeske delivers a Bible–based message that provides the hope and truth of God's Word in down–to–earth "straight talk."

KFUO-AM airing a new show

KFUO-AM is now airing "Time of Grace," a weekly program featuring Pastor Mark Jeske, senior pastor at St. Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wis.

Each week, Pastor Jeske delivers a Bible-based message providing the hope and truth of God's Word in down-to-earth "straight talk."

Tune in at 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays to KFUO-AM 850 in St. Louis or listen wherever you are online at http://www.kfuoam.org/

***

GJ - Does anyone dispute now that Mark Jeske is joining the LCMS and taking his church and others with him?

I recall him discussing the amalgamation issue at Northwestern College. He was clearly on the side of closing the school, because the professors' attitude had been, "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Some people may say the same thing about Mark's exit, which has been covert and dishonest, just like his Church and Change groupies.

Mark is fifth generation WELS. He will never leave, but I see him featured on the LCMS site and not on the WELS site.

Several former WELS pastors are now Shrinkers in the LCMS, and they went to The Sausage Factory when he did. However, the key issue is the growing repudiation of Shrinkage by Enthusiasm in WELS. Kieschnick's Missouri embraces it. Shroeder's Wisconsin shrivels it.

---

TShinnick has left a new comment on your post "Mark Jeske, Church and Change Leader, Featured on ...":

So, the LC-MS has chosen to put him on their website. Why are we hating on him for that?

***

TShinnick has left a new comment on your post "Mark Jeske, Church and Change Leader, Featured on ...":

So, the LC-MS has chosen to put him on their website. Why are we hating on him for that? 

TShinnick has left a new comment on your post "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi - Recessiona...":

I fail to see how this post does anything besides slander the likes of Parlow, Jeske, Schroeder, Ski and the like. Perhaps you ought to write something constructive for anyone. Attempt it next time, please. I hope you quote this comment in such a post."

Tyler Shinnick

About Me

I am 21 years old. I'm currently in my senior year at Martin Luther College. I am studying for the pastoral ministry.
Tyler Shinnick

* Age: 21
* Gender: Male
* Astrological Sign: Pisces
* Zodiac Year: Dragon
* Industry: Student
* Location: Appleton : Wisconsin : United States

---

Tyler Shinnick (Martin Luther) wrote on September 24, 2009 at 11:38pm
I have struggled for quite some time as to why we subscribe to the Athanasian Creed as part of our confessions. This concern is because of the damnatory clause at the end of the creed: "This is the true Christian faith. Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved." Certainly, one must believe in the triune God to be saved, but the Athanasian creed doesn't stop there. Included in the creed is, "filioque", saying that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the father "and the son".

Are you really comfortable saying that whoever doesn't believe that will spend eternity in hell? I'm not. Did Jesus explain that to the thief on the cross? That's a quite small point of scripture that has been debated and has led to the biggest divide in the history of the Christian church. Are we seriously confessing that the entire Eastern church is a non-Christian group destined for hell? Would a single pastor in our church body assert that?

Yet they've all confessed it. Why?


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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Mark Jeske, Church and Change Leader, Featured on ...":

Tyler Shinnick's statements clearly show what's in the Synodical pipeline. The Confessional congregations deceive themselves if they think anything substantial was accomplished at the 2009 Convention. Shrinkers run the WELS education system. The MLC and WLC statements defending MLC homoerotic homecoming video are just another testament to the current condition of the WELS and a view to its future.

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mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Mark Jeske, Church and Change Leader, Featured on ...":

Yeah heaven forbid a orhodox Lutheran get on TV and actually spread the Gospel.

I don't really understand why we're hating on the LCMS for featuring him on their website either...It's gotta have something to do with that spreading the Gospel thing right? Or maybe it's because he reaches certain people who can't get to church. That could be it. Yeah, you're totally right he should get off the air.

[GJ - See Mr. Leyrer's blog for a goldmine of misspelled words and grammatical errors, overshadowed by incoherence on a grand scale. MLC/WLC grad or student?]


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mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Mark Jeske, Church and Change Leader, Featured on ...":

Oh come on. You guys are making Jeske sound like he's a freaking prophet of Baal or something. Calm Down.

I suppose we would rather have those people he's reaching with his TV show go over to the ELCA or maybe a baptist church.

Oh, and Jacko I left a special post on my blog just for you. Wink wink.

***

GJ - They need not attend a Babtist church when they have WELS pastors trained by Babtists. Jeske, Parlow, Kelm, First VP Huebner, Olson, Aderman, Witte, and Bruce Becker are the core of Shrinkage and false doctrine.

How the Little Sect on the Prairie Contributes To Apostasy




Norman Teigen (left) and Rolf Preus. Norman's father exposed the Synodical Conference error about the efficacy of the Word in the Lord's Supper. The ELS ministers chickened out on the topic,
just as they did with Pope John the Malefactor's destruction of the divine call.


LutherQuest(sic)



Rolf Preus: "When the synod is a church and a synod president with no altar or pulpit is nevertheless a pastor of the church then divine gospel authority is replaced by carnal legal authority not just potentially but necessarily.

The reason men cannot understand this is because they think they can understand the ministry of the Word apart from the actual divine justification of the sinner through faith. It cannot be done."


GJ - This comment is from a pastor I know:
Doesn't this sentence contradict UOJ? Rolf Preus arguing about the nature of the office of pastor!


---

Another person wrote:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Kurtzahn, The Pancake Pope of the CLC (sic), Unloa...":

Rolf cannot comprehend the contents of the book he "edited", with his brother, maybe because they so mucked up the text and references of their late father's book; JUSTIFICATION AND ROME by Robert Preus.

They gave the book a very poor layout. But more importantly, it is obviously tampered with in the actual text proper, as well as in the reference sections, in not a few, but many places.

Many quotes from the BoC that their father would, I believe, have intended being in the text proper (to give greater clarity to non-Lutherans reading it), appear to have been dropped by his boys, probably because too detrimental to the UOJ barrow the Preus boys so vehemently continue to push.

The true Apostolic/Lutheran Justification by Faith Alone teaching; nevertheless shines clearly through, on the whole,in spite of the afore-mentioned impoverishments.

***

GJ -  Some synodical trivia: I noticed that Rolf took on David Buegler here. Buegler was Jack Cascione's candidate for DP in Ohio. Cascione was delighted that his guy won - then his guy turned ecumenical overnight. What a shock! Rolf is Cascione's chapel dean at LutherQuest (sic). Rolf once went to the Ukraine to spend some Schwan or Stolzenburg money, thanks to Jay Webber. Birds of a feather do flock together - do not stand under their roosting places too long.

Rolf's position on the ministry, quoted above, contradicts UOJ. I hope he donates the manuscript of Justification and Rome to a library, so scholars can see what his father actually wrote. Having Rolf and Daniel edit it was a stroke of genius - like having two house painters touch up a Rembrandt.

The Little Sect on the Prairie had a chance to deal with doctrine when B. Teigen wrote his famous book on the Lord's Supper. Instead, they accepted synodical orders to silence themselves about Receptionism - the Synodical Conference error that the elements become the Body and Blood of Christ when received by the individual. The political reason behind the silencing was clear enough - no one could admit that Holy Mother Synod was ever wrong about anything. The doctrinal error behind Receptionism is Enthusiasm, thoroughly denounced by the Book of Concord - separating the Holy Spirit from the Word.

In muting themselves about Enthusiasm in the Lord's Supper, the ELS clergy and laity also silenced themselves about Enthusiasm in the Church Growth Movement. Orvick welcomed an essay endorsing Valleskey's Figs from Thistles essay (WLQ) and this endorsement was duly published in the ELS knock-off journal. CG is not just good - using it is analogous to plundering gold, silver, and jewels. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Amen. Here endeth the lesson.

Ditto the Mueller/Gurgle theses on the ministry. Once again the ELS clergy and laity rolled over and played dead. Are they the same group that stood up to the LMCS long ago? Obviously not. Emboldened, Pope John the Malefactor extended the Left Foot of Fellowship to anyone who dared to question Him (the divine pronoun used on purpose). I do not agree with Rolf's curious doctrine, but what Pope John did to Rolf's congregation was despicable: fire the pastor or get kicked out of the Little Sect.  Moldstad, who was voted into the VP slot by the WELSian faction, has no aptitude for theology. As John Shep predicted long before it happened, Moldstad's attitude was and is - "Walk the plank."

Enthusiasm and compromise have contributed to the the neutering of the ELS. Perhaps the clergy have taken this verse to heart - and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. (Matthew 19:12)

I am pessimistic that Rolf Preus, Jay Webber, and others can ever admit to the error of UOJ, even as they contradict themselves in public and in private. If the Word does consecrate and Church Growth is evil, as Jay Webber seems to say, then UOJ is simply a third cancerous growth of Enthusiasm.

If one cannot divorce the ministry of the Word from the office, as Rolf did say on LQ (sic), quoted above, then UOJ is impossible.

One layman was struck by Kurtzahn and Preus looking down their noses at Lenski. This layman wrote:
"Just reading posts on the big I. I wonder what these guys do not like about Lenski`s comments about justification. What good does all Christ did for us without faith? Seems these guys do not want anything to do with faith and keep going on about the predestination controversy of the 1880`s. Also seems these are the same guys that promote the church growth stuff. I guess these guys make disciples."

In the past, the WELS pastors from the Bethany program seemed to have a much better grasp of Lutheran doctrine than did the pure-bred Wisconsin parochial school to NW prep to NWC to GA to Mequon students. Bethany program vet Dom Perignon Patterson is an exception, but I am told he started out well.

The only solution I can see for the ELS/WELS is having a multi-year, in-depth study of the Book of Concord. The Confessions are best studied in small sections, so they do not overwhelm people. I would start with the Formula of Concord (1580), since it constantly appeals to and uses the Augsburg Confession (1530) as its authority. I also like the Formula because of the issues addressed. Augsburg was more concerned with Rome. Fifty years later, Reformed influence also emerged as significant. Reformed doctrine is the biggest problem in the ELS and WELS today, especially since the leaders, past and present, are so smitten by it.

The major weakness of the Formula is quoting Luther. The conservative synods do not like Luther being quoted. That may kill any project involving the Formula of Concord.


The Wolf Demonstrates Schwaermer Homiletics





And I'll huff and and I'll puff and I'll...



 

BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN!



Do you also find it difficult to believe that anyone wants to clone Craig Groeschel?

The Dirt Conference was organized so people could learn the tricks of kelming Groeschel and other Reformed/Babtist fanatics. Groeschel appears to be Methodist/Disciples, according to his original ordination and his seminary training. In other words, he comes from the extreme Left of all denominations. His Life Church doctrine is posted here.

I use Google to track plagiarism in college classes, so I use it for doctrinal statements as well. I have made some comparisons before and posted them. I am struck by how closely the WELS Church and Change congregations match doctrinal statements with Groeschel and Evangelical Covenant churches.

Long ago various Lutheran writers warned pastors not to imitate the pulpit gimmicks of the Reformed. That is still a good idea.




Friday, November 27, 2009

Here Is the Dirt on The Dirt Conference





Isn't it time for Ski and Bishop Katie to be at another schwaermer conference?

I checked and found out they were not too far away, at Little Rock, for The Dirt Conference. They still advertise Dirt, and it was over several weeks ago.

I linked it, as always, so the Mequon, New Ulm, and WLC students can look up the information.

The idea is to learn how these Emergent Church types emerge, so newbies can figure out how to copy them without soiling themselves:


Lifechurch.tv - Copying started a long time ago at The CORE - free downloads from Groeschel!
Church of the Highlands
Gateway Church
Seacoast Church

New Life Church
Healing Place Church
The Life Church of Memphis
C3 Church
Bayside Community Church
Celebration Church, TX
Newspring Church

Bishop Katie wrote: "11/16/09 - Brought To You By The Letter Y
Call it venting. Call it a rant. Call it “up on my soapbox” if you want. But, I have something I need to get off my chest, an observation I made last week at the Dirt Conference and realized is true for us most of the time."

Before the Dirt Conference was a story conference. I believe Ski and Katie have already gone to more conferences than I have in my entire life.

Ski must be recovering because he has not blogged since July.

I would write more, but most of The CORE websty is restricted to MEMBERS ONLY. That means only 15 or so people on the entire planet can read the good stuff.


Get a large mirror. Practice sermon drama with Craig Groeschel, Life TV.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Here Is the Dirt on The Dirt Conference":

So, Ski attends all these "conferences" that are outside of fellowship. The Core websty ain't cha(sic - GJ - her sic) average WELS church blog. There are no pictures of Luther. The web designer could have, at the very least, included a lamb.(No, can't do that, might make the Core look too spiritual.) Why, tell me why, has Ski not been stripped of his pastoral duties? My pastor has stated that worshiping with the Baptists is wrong!

In Christ,
from WELS church lady

***

GJ - How could they extend the Left Foot of Fellowship when David Valleskey called it "spoiling the Egyptians"? The Ohio Conference endorsed Valleskey's odious paper and WLQ (aka The Popes Speak) published it as the latest revelation from God the Holy Spirit. The blog is still active where Ski bragged about how he worshiped awesomely with Andy Stanley.

Do not forget - the Appleton Dumbling gang is still tolerating this circus. I imagine a pastor or two objects, but Fox Valley remains the navel of the Shrinkage Movement in WELS.




The CORE is endorsed by DP Engelbrecht, guardian of pure doctrine in Northern Wisconsin.
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"  - Juvenal.
Who watches the watchmen?


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JR has left a new comment on your post "Here Is the Dirt on The Dirt Conference":

Not to mention that we're still waiting for that verdict on Jeske and the RSO status for Time of Grace.

I know finances are rough, but shouldn't these things be our synod's top priority?

***

GJ - The jury--his Doctrinal Pussycat--has returned a verdict: "Not guilty by reason of being fifth generation WELS."


The Jury


Global Warming Collection at the Finkelsteinery




 Here is the link to Freddy, also linked on the left column.


Kurtzahn, The Pancake Pope of the CLC (sic), Unloads on Lenski



Found on e-Bay. If you stare at this IHOP stack of pancakes long enough, an image of Steve Kurtzahn appears. Some call it a miracle, but others want their money back.




Steven Kurtzahn, WELS/CLC/WELS


Pooled Ignorance from LutherQuest (sic)

Dick Rockenbach (Drock)
Senior Member
Username: Drock

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 - 6:57 am: 
http://www.logos.com/products/details/3910
do any of you folks have this? Like it?
What weaknesses does Lenski have?


Pr Rolf David Preus (Rolf)
Senior Member
Username: Rolf

Post Number: 4141
Registered: 5-2001

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 - 7:29 am: 
Lenksi denies objective justification and teaches election in view of faith.


Rev. Stephen Kurtzahn (Hville79)
Intermediate Member
Username: Hville79

Post Number: 320
Registered: 6-2008

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 - 12:05 pm:
I would recommend Lenski, having used him from seminary days, but with the caveats Pastor Preus mentions. Those who have followed Lenski in totality have really gotten themselves messed up in these two areas--just look at what's his name over at Ichabod.

Lenski has some very good insights into the Greek that I have utilized often in my sermon work. But what I find interesting is how he will often disagree with Synodical Conference exegetes. In working through a text in the Gospels, for example, I find that he will often take an approach just the opposite of Ylvisaker or Kretzmann (who really mirrors Stoeckhardt). He doesn't mention the SC guys by name, but he explains their exegesis clearly--and then disagrees with it. There are times when I do go with Lenski because he makes more sense with the Greek. But there have also been times I've thought he's way off.

Overall, if you're looking to purchase Lenski, I think it would be a good investment that you will use for years to come.


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GJ - I do not know which guy is funnier - Rolf cannot comprehend the book he supposedly edited - Justification and Rome.


Kurtzahn was so bad in the CLC that David Menton did not want to be in the same room with him. Ask Kurtzahn about the sin of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, or whether incest is a sin. The first one is a crucial theological matter. The second is an adiaphoron.

Kurtzahn is a good example of someone who flips for career advantage. Here is an earlier letter, from Kurtzahn.1, before he become Kurtzahn.2 and Kurtzahn.3.

[GJ - Pastor Steve Kurtzahn wrote this letter April 30, 1996, when he was a circuit pastor in the CLC (sic). The letter is written to CLC Pastor Paul Tiefel, who shares the same grandfather and nickname (Teufel) as Mequon Professor James P. Tiefel. Paul Tiefel did not enjoy my CN  review of Valleskey's disastrous Church Growth textbook.]


St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC)
2100 Sixteenth Street South West
Austin, Minniesota 55912
507-433-8191


April 30, 1996

Pastor Paul Tiefel
2015 N. Hastings Way
Eau Claire, WI 54703

This is in response to your April 27th letter.

First, let me say that when you phoned me you wanted to know what problems I had with Valleskey's book. You also mentioned on the phone that you felt Greg Jackson broke the Eighth Commandment.

It is because of the accusation you made on the phone against Greg that I spent so mujch space in my letter speaking of the review. You were the one who brought it up on the phone with me. Now you want to discuss it "only with Jackson's approval?" Let me repeat myself, Paul : I see no instance how or where Greg did such a thing as break the Eighth Commandment. [emphasis in original]

It is very disturbing that you and [David ] Koenig speak to false teachers in other church bodies like Valleskey, [James] Tiefel and Harstad (sp?) concerning the truthfulness of what Greg Jackson writes. Since when do you think they will agree with Greg? He has laid bare in the past few years the fact that many in the WELS and the ELS were Church-Growth oriented. Do you honestly think they would corroborate Greg's statements after that?

Allow me to make an analogy. Think back to the formative days of the CLC. What if you or Dave were on the floor of the WELS conventions back in the 1950's when it disregarded Romans 16:17, 18. Would you have gone to O. J. Naumann or Carl Lawrenz to see if Edmund Reim or Egbert Schoaller or C. M. Gullerrud were telling the truth concerning the error of the WELS/ELS? What do you think the response would have been if you had asked them, "Is Reim (or Schaller or Gullerud) telling the truth?"

When it comes to my pointing out the false doctrine of David Valleskey, Paul, it needs to be said that a false teacher can be recognized not just by blatant and clear statements of falsehood, like you are searching for when it comes to his book. But a false teacher can also be recognized when does NOT say something that he should, or when he says something in a confusing manner, or even when his writings exude a false spirit. For example, a person can be classified as a legalist and still say all the right words. But you know he's a legalist by the way he says these them or by what he does not say. Going back to the 1930's and 40's, particularly with the "Statement of the 44," many recognized that something was going terribly wrong in the Missouri Synod, but no one could really put a finger on the problem until after the fact. There are many things in the "Statement" that you and I could also p;robably have agreed with, but looking back upon that history we recognize now that there was an underlying liberal agenda being carried out in the LC-MS. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Getting back to Valleskey's book:

1. Unless I missed it somewhere, does Valleskey repudiate the Church Growth Movement taught by Fuller Theological Seminary by name? If he does, show me the page number.

2. On pages 199 through 204 Valleskey deals with the so-called "Seeker Service." He goes into a tremendous amount of detail about how Seeker Services are done. He raises many good questions that Lutherans should ask themselves before they become involved in such Seeker Services. But if Seeker Services are dangerous by trivializing and by even ignoring the Means of Grace, why does he leave the door cracked open by saying on page 204, "Althought it must be said that congregations may in Christian freedom utilize at least certain features of this outreach method..."

3. On page 201 Valleskey states, "The gospel is proclaimed at the Seeker Service, but not as a means by which the Spirit miraculously draws people into the church..." From what I have read from many different sources in the past and from what I have seen on television documentiaries, the Gospel of Holy Scripture is NOT proclaimed at many, if not most, of these Seeker Services. So why does Valleskey say, "The gospel is proclaimed..."?

4. On page 174, Valleskey quotes Joseph Aldrich approvingly. Where in the quote is there mention of the Means of Grace? The quote sounds very Reformed ot me ("He desire to build into you and me the beauty of his own character, and then put us on display...").

5. On pages 237 and 238 Valleskey speaks of the role of women in evangelism. I felt very uncomfortable with the two paragraphs because he is making a distinction between evangelism calling "in the name of and on behalf of the congregation" (p. 27, fifith line from the bottom) and "the ministry of the gospel conducted in the name of and on behalf of the congregation" (p. 238, fifth line from the top). Why would he make such an artificial distinction? Why would he also make the contrast in the statement "They go out, not as one with authority over the man, but as ones with a message to share"? Why would a man with his seeming intellectual prowess resort to such confusing language? WHAT IS HIS UNDERLYING MOTIVE? Are these paragraphs laying the groundwork for some new revelations to come out of the WELS in the future in connection with the role of women in the church? These are very legitimate questions we should all be asking!

When I read Chapter Five, beginning on page 213, I thought I was back working at the brokerage firm in Milwaukee, sitting at the feet of motivational speakers who were using Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. These concepts of planning, mission statements, etc. the Church Growth people at Fuller lifted right out of the business world and have applied to the church. All sorts of companies have mission statements today. I've seen them in the lobbies of hospitals and in many other public places. But the Church has its "mission statement" in Matthew 28:18-20. There is no need for a new one!

On pages 217 ff. Valleskey speaks of the value of a mission statement. He shows what happens "without a clear sense of mission" and he shows what can happen "with a clear sense of mission." Paul, take a very close look at Valleskey's points. [emphasis in original] All of this is being stated on the basis of A MISSION STATEMENT rather than on the basis of THE MEANS OF GRACE, THE GOSPEL IN WORD AND SACRAMENTS.

On page 221, Valleskey speaks of "congregational self-study." At the end of that first paragraph under step two he speaks of "a community profile." We used to refer to such activity as the canvass, so we could find out what neighborhood families are unchurched so we could share the simple Word with them. The Church Growth people speak of such "community profiles" so they can fill the "felt needs" of an area. From the way Valleskey is writing it woudl eappear that he is again going the Church Growth route. If he's not, why doesn't he make himself clear?

Valleskey speaks a lot about goals, action plans, policies and procedures, etc. Note the comment in the middle of page 225, "It is good for a congregation, and likewise its boards and committees, to ask and answer the question, 'Where would we like to be, under God, five years from now?' and then begin to take specific steps to achieve that goal.'"

The reason the CG people like such statements is that many times their goal is an increase in church membership. It is true, Valleskey warns about this on page 224, "A part of the goal, however, cannot be that as a result of this concerted effort, X number of people will be brought to faith and fellowship hurch." But then why does he spend so much time talking about it? Why do we need action plans, goals, etc. to figure out where we would like to be five years from now? The answer from every confessional Lutheran congregation should be: Five years from now we pray that we will continue proclaiming the Word of God in its truth and purity and administering the Sacraments as Christ instituted them. Period. [emphasis in original] Valleskey is lifting all of this stuff from the CG literature and interspercing comments such as the one on page 224 to salve the consciences of those who are still concerned about being faithful to the Word.

On page 230 in his example of developing policies and procedures, objective 1 is described as "To develop and maintain an evangelism awareness in our congregation." NOtice how this objective is to be implemented: articles (what should be in them?), greeter teams, adopt-a-goal, maintain tract rack (whould kind of tracts?), promote an evangelism Sunday, etc. All of these man-made methods are listed, but where in the world is there any mention of the faithful proclaimation of Law and Gospel? That is how true Scriptural evangelism awareness is developed and maintained.

Greg has already spoke of the differences in exegesis on Matthew 28 in his review, and how Valleskey is inconsistent in that regard.

There are other examples I could probably offer, but the above should suffice.

Paul, there are good things in Valleskey's book. I also learned when I read it. There are some good common sense suggestions in the second part of the book. But as you can see from the above references, ever so slyly, like a wolf in sheep's clothing, Valleskey is promoting the Church Growth Movement. [emphasis in original] I will argue that with anyone. God forbid, but my guess would be the next such book out of WELS will be even more CG oriented and even more blatant in its CG statements.

I hope this will finally put to rest the discord, mistrust and animosity this book has caused among brethren.

In His service,

Steve

Stephen C. F. Kurtzahn

cc: [CLC President] Dan Fleischer, [current world missionary] Dave Koenig


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GJ - Does anyone wonder why I put (sic) after the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) ?