Vendor Sponsors:
WELS Church Extension Fund: Our mission is to provide financing for mission-minded projects in cooperation with the WELS Board for Home Missions. WELS CEF provides loans and grants to qualified mission congregations so they can acquire land and build or renovate worship/ministry facilities – used as tools for gospel outreach. http://cef.wels.net/
Groth Design Group is an architectural firm founded in 1994 specifically to design for churches and community-based organizations. The architects, designers, and staff of Groth Design Group offer value to churches by seeking effective and innovative design solutions reached though interactive partnership with church leaders and membership.
We strive to understand and respect our church clients’ traditions, resources, and visions. We gauge the success of each religious project by three measures: 1) Does our work inspire the hearts and minds of the Christian community? 2) Did we exceed the church’s expectations? 3) Was Groth Design Group a worthy partner with them on the journey? We listen, then lead. Architecture that serves. www.gdg-architects.com
Highlights Media, Whether you need video to promote a company product, raise funds for your non-profit organization or capture a live event, we provide concept to completion using broadcast quality equipment with High Definition capability. You can also view video samples under "Portfolio" on our website or request a free DVD. www.highlightsmedia.com
Pan-Lutheran Member Sponsors:
Cornerstone Stewardship (Jeff Davis and Ron Roth) is a firm that assists and partners with LCMS and WELS Lutheran churches, schools and other organizations by providing stewardship education, planning, and funding programs. The strength of Cornerstone is getting a commission plus fees with all projects it undertakes. We realize stewardship appeals are a spiritual issue first, a thank offering second. We strive to teach God’s people spiritual principles for living lives out of thanks for him. www.joyfulgiving.net
Since our founding in 1990, EXCEL has become one of the largest full service architectural and engineering firms in our region. Our staff consists of multi-disciplined specialists in a cross-section of institutional, commercial, process, and manufacturing industries. Working together as a customer-centered team, we integrate every phase of a project from start to finish - saving our customers time and money, while assuring that the highest quality standards are met. You can rely on us to create a design that reflects your unique ministry – as well as is aesthetically lifting and provides the function you need.
At EXCEL we have only one mission - to surpass your greatest aspirations. www.excelengineer.com
Time of Generic Grace Ministry (LCMS Registered Service Organism) is an outreach media ministry with a mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible through the most advanced technology available. Pastor Mark Jeske of St. Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin delivers weekly non-Lutheran messages which are aired on regular broadcast television in more than 22 markets across the United States and can also be viewed on the Internet. The program also airs around the world on satellite TV on Daystar Television Network, the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Network and the American Forces Network (AFN). www.timeofgrace.org
GOLD SPONSOR:
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans We're Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a faith-based, not-for-profit financial services organization nearly 2.6 million members strong. As the nation's largest fraternal benefit society, we are here to help members, their families and others. We help every day through the financial solutions we offer, member activities we support and the resources we provide the Lutheran community.
If you're like most Lutherans, living your faith matters to you. It's important to Thrivent Financial, too. We share this value in the help we provide with and through our members. We also work through our foundations to provide grants, gifts and other assistance to Lutheran organizations and other causes - helping to address needs and issues important to Lutherans. For more information, visit www.thrivent.com.
If you're like most Lutherans, living your faith matters to you. It's important to Thrivent Financial, too. We share this value in the help we provide with and through our members. We also work through our foundations to provide grants, gifts and other assistance to Lutheran organizations and other causes - helping to address needs and issues important to Lutherans. For more information, visit www.thrivent.com.
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TM has left a new comment on your post "WELS Extension Fund Sponsors Church and Chicanery ...":
Check out the "Core Values" of the Groth Design Group. Particularly amusing is their commitment to the holy grail of all liberal endeavors: Social Justice.
Sustainability: I agree that God wants us to be good stewards of creation, but He blessed us richly with resources we need to survive. Put simply, if humans do not exploit earth's resources, we will all die. Finally, I would hope that even the Church and (money) Changers worship God before they worship the earth.
Diversity: again, I firmly believe that discrimination (against the categories listed) is sinful and don't disagree that this is admirable. The danger here lies in joining in the ecumaniacal chorus of post-modernism which seeks to reduce any firm principles to a pragmatic mush.
Equity: again, sounds good on paper. The danger here lies in their attempt to find solutions that accommodate differing points of view. This pragmatic slur comes straight from Kant's post-modernist handbook. Whether this company believes in this or not, they are being strategic in attempting to ride the current wave of Socialist sentiment that is infecting our society.
Building Consensus: here they talk about the pragmatic reconciliation of differing views. I could care less if they want assemble a "human rights" tribunal or engage in alternative dispute resolution to decide what color tiles to use in the bathroom. The real danger here is their stated standard operating procedure: COMPROMISE.
Compromise is exactly what groups like Church & (money) Changers Inc. attempt to do by importing foreign concepts into the ministry. Ayn Rand (noted atheist)said that "In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."
Unfortunately, we all know the end result when the Word of God is compromised.
Social Justice is a cruel bag of tricks used by Satan to hoodwink unsuspecting souls into believing that man, of his own volition and good works, can attain the divine status of a saint.
That C&C is sponsored by this company with these particular values surprises me not when the methods that C&C is so eager to cut-and-paste from are from the sinful world.
"...the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." 1 John 5:19
"...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.... Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good." Romans 12:2, 9
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." 1 John 2:15-17
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." John 15:19-20
