Missed Opportunities To Stop the CG Juggernaut

The Sausage Factory turns out Enthusiasts because the professors love the Enthusiasts painstakingly etched into this graphic.

The Word and the Confessions can rescue Lutherans from the Slough of Despond, but nothing else will.

Below are some missed opportunities in WELS, when hordes of pastors and laity should have rioted, waving pitchforks and torches:

1. Ron Roth and others began their TELL newsletter in 1977, to promote CG.
   
2. David Valleskey was hired at the Sausage Factory.
   
3. Paul Calvin Kelm went from editing TELL to heading Evangelism at the Love Shack.
   
4. All the Mission Vision fiction.
   
5. Every new hire at the Love Shack.
   
6. Perish Services expanding under Wayne Mueller.
   
7. Wayne Mueller denying in print that there was any CG in WELS, but also claiming the CG in WELS was confessional. GA grad? You betcha.
   
8. Perish Assistants.
   
9. Wayne Mueller voted out of the VP slot, the VP-elect getting the vapors, and Mueller voted back in. Groundhog Day.
   
10. Lutheran Parish Resources starting in Columbus, thanks to DP Mueller and VP Kuske, with Stolzenburg and Zehms in charge.
    
11. Pilgrim Community Church, Columbus, started by Kuske, Zehms, Stolzenburg.
    
12. CrossRoads in South Lyons, also started by DP Mueller, with help from Rick Miller, Mark Freier, Kelly Voigt.
    
13. CrossWalk in Phoenix, Jeff Gunn.
    
14. Cross-Something in Chicago.
    
15. Latte Lutheran, with Randy Hunter.
    
16. Rock and Roll, with Doebler.
    
17. African safaris and free vicars with Don Patterson.
    
18. Taking Lutheran out of various names, such as the hymnal, the magazine, the emerging churches above, WELS Lutherans for Life.
    
19. Time of Generic Grace, with Jeske.
    
20. Charis, Church and Change.
    
21. The CORE.
    
22. Steve Witte on the Asian board.
    
23. Jim Huenbner, First VP.
    

--- mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Missed Opportunities To Stop the CG Juggernaut": I find it ironic that you refer to the WLS as "The Sausage Factory" because they all come out the same but you continue to gripe about the differences between WELS churches. Kinda contradictory don't ya think?

*** GJ - I got the nickname from Jay Webber. He told me the ELS calls Mequon "The Sausage Factory" because they all come out the same. That GA-induced conformity has been useful in conforming everyone to Church Growth doctrine - false doctrine. Back in the old days, if they did not get enough from Valleskey, they got a dose a week after graduation, when a seminary was forced upon all graduates. If that was not enough torture, they will ordered back a year later for another dose - from Paul Calvin Kelm, Larry Oh!, and future first VP Huebner. So you missed the point, again.

--- mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Missed Opportunities To Stop the CG Juggernaut": Okay... but the nickname is still totally off because I know plenty of WELS pastors who are anti Church Growth. I don't think Jay was in all seriousness when he said that. Maybe just a joke. *** GJ - I would like a list of the articles or papers they have published against Church Growth, starting with Jay's list.

--- Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Missed Opportunities To Stop the CG Juggernaut": In the Peoples Bible Teachings, Church-Mission-Ministry, Prof. Armin Shuetze Has a few things to say concerning church growth: "By its emphasis on addressing the "felt needs" in a society, it shifts away from the inportance of proclaiming forgiveness in Christ by a proper use of law and gospel with ultimate goal of eternal life in heaven. "In the felt needs approach ... sanctification becomes the means to fulfill the prospect's need for acceptance, fulfillment, and a better life through the victory over sin." "God has not promised that everyone who hears the good news will come to faith. The church cannot expect more success than its Lord." "How do we measure succeess ? And growth? Even one sinner who repents and turns in aith to the Lord Jesus causes rejoicing in heaven." "In the 1950's a missionary in India for the Disciples of Christ, Donald McGavran, was troubled by the lack of numerical growth. His concerns began what has become known as the Church Growth Movement." There is much more I could quote. I recomend you read the book for yourself. Schuetze echoes the same thing that Pastor Jackson has been saying. The CG pastors could learn from this book. In Christ, from WELS church lady *** GJ - John D. Schuetze has published a Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly article where he emphasizes the Means of Grace. I hope he has good connections, because a lot of WELSians are allergic to that message.

--- mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Missed Opportunities To Stop the CG Juggernaut": First I would like to say that there are probably papers written against it and secondly, even if there WEREN'T papers that doesn't mean you can just write off every pastor in the synod. There are those in the WELS that are against C&G. It just isn't fair to put a giant black mark on the entire synod just because there's no one writing papers. I'm not trying to defend C&G, I dislike it as much as you do but I do have to defend a sister synod. Yeah papers are a good way to oppose something in your synod but there is leading by example. I think that's what most of them do. *** GJ - It is indeed comforting to know that there are "probably papers written against" Church Growth. If I wrote off every pastor in WELS or put a black mark on the entire synod, I would not bother posting. I spend little time on the LCMS and even less on the ELCA, because both are far gone. Perhaps someone could write a paper about the Appleton Dumbling gang. Or, they could lead by example and kick the Enthusiasts out.