Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Leadership Includes the Laity and Pastors":
you wrote
"Someone posted a few comments critical of Synod President Mark Schroeder's leadership of WELS. With the possible exception of Church and Change, most WELS members and pastors are favorably impressed with the SP's performance.
I thought the critical comments missed the mark completely."
Maybe conservatives are critical of Schroeder because they see a person who truly has been given authority but who is not decisive or strong. Do you think it would better to oust the C&C crowd quietly,or do you think it is better to publicly address public error? I vote for the second.
Laypeople (who aren't leaders) are being led astray by them, so wouldn't it be good if they were officially rebuked? That's why I see Schroeder as another game player. And I have not heard any decisive words from the man. Just hints; hints are not good enough when people's souls are on the line.
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GJ - I would like to urge people to use their time and energy constructively. Applying the Word means doing that at every opportunity and never flinching. We do flinch, of course, but we have to return to the battle again and again. Sadly, WELS and Missouri leaders decided that one battle per lifetime was enough. WELS did the split with Missouri, and Missouri kicked some of their liars out. After that, Holy Mother Synod could do no wrong.
I suggest writing SP Schroeder about what he is doing right and wrong, showing your own support for Biblical, Confessional principles.
However, the local congregation and circuit are just as important. I had to force the Columbus circuit to meet, even though regular circuit meetings were required by the constitution. Who was in that circuit? The District VP!
If the circuit meetings do not regularly address doctrinal concerns, the rot will spread quickly, as it has already. Fixing will take as long as the rotting, so get to work. Twenty years ago, only elderly ladies had the spine to contact me and talk about these doctrinal concerns. Now men with young families are actively engaged in these issues.
Martin Chemnitz insisted on regular meetings of his diocese when he was made a bishop. The diocese also insisted on him earning a PhD in theology. His leadership and superb education did not make his life easy. Jack Preus' biography of Chemnitz is good to read in these "last days of an old, insane world."
The Lutheran Church fell into schism when Luther died in 1546. The Book of Concord was published in 1580. Do the math: it took 34 years to repair the damage, and that was done by the greatest theologians of the age - the Concordists. Even then, the struggle continued as men were urged to sign this new confession of faith. Romanticizing the Reformation is dangerous. It was much more dangerous and difficult than today.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "More On Leadership":
We're workin' father, we're working. We just get frustrated.
Your advice is like gold: Write SP Schroeder "about what he's doing right and wrong", I will do that. But my fear is that he's got 1000 emails to read daily, and most of them involving bureaucratic trivialities from people he knows personally. Why would a stranger writing pique his interest?
I want him to be bold (and I have personal connections that tell me he IS the man for the job) but I wonder if the political pressures of his position (being in the WELS) would castrate the strongest of men. We have many examples in history of men being rendered impotent simply because they continue on within the established framework.
Never-the-less I will write Schroeder and encourage him to be fearless.
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GJ - I imagine there are a lot of emails to read. Personal letters can be more effective than emails because they are so rare. Face-to-face comments are worthwhile, too.
More needs to be done at the local level. That may be as basic as getting an adult class going on the Book of Concord, or providing copies of the Book of Concord for the congregation to use. I am not sure which books are in print for studying the Book of Concord. People need to become familiar with the text itself. I used to read the Large Catechism, printed in a solo volume by the ALC, whenever I had the chance.
Since everyone wants a new translation again, why not get a bunch of New KJVs to use in the congregation, along with KJVs? The KJV is the most precise translation and the New KJV is the next best. Why do Lutherans have to settle for the worst? The two are closely related. If a KJV reading seems too opaque, the New KJV will provide the modern words. If the New KJV goes Reformed ("make disciples), the KJV offers the original language.
A lot of dirty tricks are going on in all the synods. ELCA Bishop Kenneth Sauer was no pal of mine, but he was so alienated by the extreme trends in his synod that he now urges people to leave ELCA with their congregations. For a master politician and ELCA loyalist to make such a break is remarkable. But look at how ELCA started - the ex-LCMS liars were given a lot of power. The final meetings to approve the merger were chaired by lawyers who accepted no opposition. Everything was a steamroller. ELCA ACORNed itself. Sauer participated in that debacle and found himself spit out after decades of labor for the liberals.
Jerry Kieschnick is leading Missouri as far away from the Lutheran Confessions as possible. I was predicting years ago that he would shut down Ft. Wayne in the name of merging the schools and saving money. Now they are discussing shutting both schools. Good riddance, I say. Ft. Wayne could keep its charter and land by pretending to be another school for Missouri. It was a Missouri college before it was a seminary. Jack Preus moved people around to scatter the liberals. When he was done, Seminex was a pimple instead of a 400-student school.
Members of WELS are frustrated? I imagine they are. Let me give one little example of how things are handled by apostates. As many readers know, I get raging, insulting anonymous comments on a regular basis, especially when I dare to expose Church and Chicaneries and their heroes. Below is a summary of one incident that I researched from multiple sources and published.
- Church and Change board member and Perish Services boss Bruce Becker kept angling for another consultant for his empire.
- Due to budget fears, SP Schroeder urged that board not to call another Perish Assistant. If they did, he cautioned them not to hire a polarizing figure.
- The board did not listen to the Synod President, so he stopped meeting with them.
- As the economy went into a five spiral crash, the board went ahead and hired Paul Calvin Kelm, the worst possible candidate. For some reason, St. Mark Willow Creek let him go!
- Calling anyone was one slap in the face. It also burdened the synod with an unnecessary expense. You may recall that no First VP was hired to replace Wayne Mueller, even though Schroeder could have insisted on that and used a friendly face to help him with his work.
- Calling Kelm was another slap in the face.
- The dirtiest trick (almost) was keeping this information from the SP until he read it in the call list.
- Next the Chicaneries insisted that Schroeder knew about the Kelm call. That was tantamount to calling him a liar.
- I knew these facts from various people, who relayed them to me. Finally, I was called a liar for publishing something known around the synod.
- Multiply this many times over, and that has been the experience of SP Schroeder. Every issue of FIC is another ad for Church and Change false doctrine. I imagine that is frustrating too.
In Mark Jeske's eyes, squozen shut, I see the panic of a man running around trying to prop up his empire with more foundation grants and Thrivent loot. That is why he needed Missouri RSO status. Bad news will arrive for at least another year. America has $1 trillion in bad commercial mortgages coming due. Like home mortgages, the bad loans are divided among a zillion investors. Many huge commercial projects are now in foreclosure. Banks are using "extend and pretend" to keep bad loans from becoming liabilities. This latest crisis will hit foundations and insurance companies for some time to come. Schwan is cutting back severely. So is Thrivent.
I expect Jeske to take his Church and Change gang out in the future. It is nothing more than an extension of his maladroit leadership. Several--like Ski, Gunn, and Doebler--are pastors only because of huge subsidies. They may be making tents too - intentional ministry, if you will. Every region seems to have its Church and Change experiment. Why has this happened? The local pastors and members have tolerated the intolerable. All they need to do is confront the miscreants and aim them back to the Word and the Confessions. The extent of the rot must frustrate anyone trying to deal with it. Defunding error is the second step.
