The original artwork can be found here. (Mequon graduates, left click the link. Thanks.)
Once again, I have to ask, "What do the Church Growth numbers tell us about the stated aims of the Movement?" Fuller's Ponzi scheme may be bigger than Bernie Madoff's.
Years ago, family friends went to me at my mother's funeral. They were LCMS and on my mailing list. They thanked me for the doctrinal bulletins, which were emailed in those primitive days. They were supporting their conservative Missouri pastor, but afraid the apostates in the district and congregation would drive him away.
WELS members should take note of the doctrinal unity established through Fuller, Willow Creek, Trinity Deerfield, and other beehives of Church Growth. Those who are filled with Enthusiasm are united across synod lines. They read the same books, pervert worship the same way, and think in the same categories. Sometimes WELS pastors think they are entering paradise to leave Wisconsin and join Missouri. In reality, they are accelerating their abandonment of Biblical doctrine. After Missouri will come ELCA or a Babtist group. Then atheism. Jungkuntz led the way.
I am not saying WELS is the fortress of Lutheran orthodoxy - far from it. Look at the State of Wisconsin DPs - all Schwaermer. But, as one General Council theologian wrote - those who abandon the Confessions will soon abandon the Scriptures as well. Pietism turns into atheism in one or two generations.
5 comments:
Woe to those who follow errant leaders.
"Not saying that WELS is the fortress of Lutheran Orthodxy"
Now Pastor GJ, I have to be at church in one hour. I promise we will not abandon the liturgy or the Scriptures. After the devil sent his stormy evil, WELS is the only thing you have left to work with. Save the WELS!(GJ you can't be preaching a social gospel.)
Time's running out , I have to head over to that "fortress."
God's blessings Pastor GJ.
from WELS church lady
WELS church lady, but you're in fellowship with those individuals who have rejected Christ, His righteousness, the faith that brings forgiveness of sins. You're in fellowship with those who teach the abhorent false gospel of UOJ to men, women and children when if believed and confessed brings condemnation for rejecting God's righteousness through faith in Christ.
You state, "After the devil sent his stormy evil, WELS is the only thing you have left to work with."
What we have left to work with, the only thing God gave us to work with, is Holy Scriptures. WELS being a human organization is only as good as it's faithfulness to Scripture. WELS' own confession of This We Believe rejects the central doctrine of Scripture. God has also, by His grace, given us the clear and correct explanation of Scripture in the Lutheran Confessions.
Matt 10:37, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." This applies to synods also.
In my opinion it is good to work through error and struggle to correct error in doctrine and practice. But when the struggle changes your focus from defending and contending for Scripture and becomes an effort to extend Synod then the human organization has replaced God's Word ("WELS is the only thing you have left to work with").
This may not have been the breadth of what you intended to convey but I'm responding to how your statements were written.
In Christ,
Brett
Prez Kieschnick's new CPH book coming out in 2009 is church growthy, judging by the title. If one does a Google search on "awaking the sleeping giant," what appears is books by motivational speakers, self-help books for turning teachers in leaders, and evangelical church growth books. Well, we know what books Kieschnick reads, and it sure isn't Luther's Works.
Also of concern is one church growth ministry, Empty Tomb, already claims the trademark to the phrase "Wake the Sleeping Giant," and that ministry is only 3 hours away NW from St. Louis in Champaign, Illinois.
That reminds me of how the term Ablaze! was copyrighted by a Texan revivalist, and Kieschnick was the Texas LCMS DP for the longest time. (I guess CG is big in Texas in both the WELS and LCMS.)
Kieschnicks' credentials as a church growth practitioner are burnished by his plagiarism, the CG rite of passage, so to speak. It's similar to how one wishing to join a gang may have to rip off car hood ornaments or take a stolen car on a joy ride.
So it appears that any ministry within a few hour's drive of Kieschnick has to worry about their trademark phrases and original material being Kelmed by Kieschnick.
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http://www.emptytomb.org/potential.html
"...Wake the Sleeping Giant are property of empty tomb, inc."
http://www.wakethesleepinggiant.info/faqs.html
Christians are working through the Wake the Sleeping Giant campaign to challenge churches across the U.S. to increase their outreach in Jesus' name.
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Campaign, IL, is only 3 hours away from St. Louis, or 182 miles:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Champaign,+Illinois&daddr=St.+Louis,+MO&geocode=FcQgZAIdSYO9-ikbaZfejdAMiDHPv3W0R3j1MA%3BFc-0TQIduUaf-in5ju36qbTYhzFb4Lsiyuo5vg&hl=en&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=39.347891,-89.276549&sspn=2.667648,3.295898&ie=UTF8&ll=39.368279,-89.23645&spn=2.666838,3.295898&z=8
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Waking the Sleeping Giant: The Birth, Growth, Decline, and Rebirth of an American Church, By Gerald B. Kieschnick
http://books.google.com/books?id=APB6QgAACAAJ&dq=sleeping+giant+waking&lr=&ei=ankhS4r7NJj2ygTozMG2Cg&cd=20
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Waking the Sleeping Giant: 101 Ways to Miraculous Motivation By Rosiland Miller
http://books.google.com/books?id=nFecQQAACAAJ&dq=sleeping+giant+waking&lr=&ei=iHkhS9nxAaDAzQScooyrCg&cd=21
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Google Books search on Waking Giant and Gospel:
http://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=sleeping+giant+waking+china+gospel&btnG=Search+Books
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Awakening the sleeping giant: helping teachers develop as leaders By Marilyn Katzenmeyer, Gayle Moller
http://books.google.com/books?id=puI0IdO4AAkC&pg=PA102&dq=sleeping+giant+waking&lr=&ei=iHkhS9nxAaDAzQScooyrCg&cd=25#v=onepage&q=sleeping%20giant%20waking&f=false
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Norm Fischer comments:
http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=8538#comments
December 10th, 2009 at 20:55 | #2 Reply | Quote
Speaking as one who lives in Champaign, IL, it is empty tomb. They intentionally do not capitalize it.
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