Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Church Growth Go Zunder":
St. Matthew's has had a handful of members leaving the church partly due to issues with the school been split to two campuses and how the situation was handled and then eventually closing their school completly. Almost all the churches w/ schools in the area have had a family from St. Matthew transfer there because of that reason.
The CORE also had a few members transfer from Word of Life which also dispersed its members to many churches due to the fact it closed.
Poaching implys (sic) some kind of deceitful activity to obtain members. The CORE isn't standing in some other church's parking lot handing out flyers. However, the member transfers have been people who attended The CORE and decided to make them their home church. After reading some of this blog, I'm sure a few people have attended The CORE just to see what is going on over there. Is GJ a poacher for The CORE? He is no more guilty of being a poacher by blogging all the negative comments along with the exaggerations that lead to curiosity to find out the TRUTH than the poached that attended out of curiosity.
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GJ - The original anonymous claim was the Ski announced from Day One that he would never take members from a WELS church. Yet he only offered services when active WELS members could attend his movie theater with popcorn entertainment.
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JR has left a new comment on your post "Ichabod Helps The CORE Poach":
One thing I still don't understand is why the CORE had to set up shop in Appleton. If Ski's methods are so wonderful, and he wants to reach people by doing everything short of sinning, then why put this church in the synod's backyard?
If numbers are all that matter, wouldn't it have been better to set up the CORE somewhere with little to no Christians? Wouldn't it have been better to put this church somewhere that WELS wasn't already established?
The inconsistencies in the philosophy of these guys and the application of said philosophy are too numerous to mention.
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GJ - I will try to explain it in a few paragraphs. JR, you are asking pertinent questions. That makes you impertinent in the eyes of the Shrinkers.
First of all, everything they do and say is a lie. They know it, and they enjoy deceiving people. They are not Lutheran, and they know it, but they fasten their belts around their ears and say, "You are hitting below the belt. Foul!" whenever someone asks about their doctrine and practice.
My intuition tells me they knew they were doomed long before Mark Schroeder was elected. They knew someone would force open the books and find out what an appalling mess they made out of the Schwan gifts. I wonder if Gurgle went overseas so he could bury the real books under a Yumyum tree.
The CORE was started as the escape vehicle for the WELS Church and Change fans in A-Town. If everything went badly, they could have a legal entity from which to start over without all the pain of meetings, corporate papers, etc. The Seminex gang did that, creating a foundation called FLUTE to be their vehicle, although that particular vehicle did not lure enough rats out of Missouri.
Outreach? There is a WELS church a block away doing real outreach. The CORE filled their movie theater (only at night) with WELS members. I don't have the latest figures but the first reports made Bernie Madoff seem frugal and selfless. Ski, Glende, Bishop Katie and other WELS workers take off to Schwaermer training conferences more often than Hollywood stars enter rehab. They are addicted to the buzz of the hive.
Mark and Avoid Jeske wants his own little denomination, or perhaps a core group to take with him wherever he goes. Katie and Ski are Jeske products, loyal as Shelties. Church and Change is a Jeske operation, based on board members alone, although some hit their cloaking device for effect, magically disappearing (Becker and Ski). Watch Jeske and everything will make sense. He is featured on the LCMS websty. That is a pretty big hint. Jeske's classmates have gone over to Missouri and they are also CG. One is a Missouri DP, etc.
Another interesting approach would be to follow the money. How much did Ski sell his home for in Milwaukee? Did it sell at market or way above? Who bought it? And who sold him a home in A-Town? Where is all this loot coming from, to fund The CORE - certainly not from 9 new members in about a year. They couldn't afford to pay the lease and utilities.
People respond most to the money issues, but the real issue is doctrine. These people, pastors and laity alike, have been pried loose from Biblical doctrine. Their only comfort is a brotherhood of deception, laziness, and fraud. I would love to know who started it. Ron Roth was a founder, but who else was involved? That would be good for a real dissertation, not a DMin by Steve Witte, although that has some gems in it.
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