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.
