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Pastor L has left a new comment on your post "From Appleton - The Entertainment Capital of WELS ...":
Just weeks after coming to the Northern Wisconsin District five years ago I learned the lay of the land. One area pastor even verbalized it when he said to me, "It's a good ol' boys district."
That will not change as long as Doug Engelbrecht remains as District President, a post he's held for upwards of twenty years. While I must respect the office, long ago I lost respect for the man holding it.
A seven-month pastorate is unheard of in the WELS. The district presidents have agreed not to extend a call to a pastor until he's been at his current church FOUR YEARS. As I understand it, Pastor Christenson was spared 3 1/2 more years in Appleton because a more kind-heart DP included him on call lists in his district. It wasn't because DP Engelbrecht was trying to help the ministry!
It amazes me that more lay people at St. Peter aren't asking, "Why did Pastor Christenson leave so soon." Golly, usually when there's a change in pastors it's headline news. Somehow this got buried on page twenty at St. Peter!
Sad to say, we're becoming a synod of cover-ups. I,for one, plan to repent in the new year and ask more questions.
I probably won't ask my district president, though. There are many times in my five years that I've left phone messages and e-mail messages and never received a response from DP Engelbrecht. My circuit pastor has said, "You mean you didn't hear from Doug? He said he was going to contact you."
So, now you know why I'm not too worried about getting in trouble with my district president. I don't think he knows my phone number or e-mail address!
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Light from Light
St. Peter’s Upcoming Call Meeting
December 12, 2009 by Rick
St. Peter church in Appleton/Freedom, WI has scheduled a meeting for December 14, 2009 to discuss calling a new pastor. However, our congregation still has not been informed as to why Pastor Christenson left after only seven months.
On December 1, 2009, I met with Pastor Christenson for over two hours. According to Pastor Christenson, not one member of our church council approached him to inquire as to why he was leaving. Pastor Christenson had approached our church president, Mr. Denny, to discuss the problems with our ministry and practices here at St. Peter. However, according to Pastor Christenson, President Denny acted as though he did not care.
Pastor Christenson had a divine call, and he took that call seriously. So should we. He had to ask for another call as a result of extremely serious problems with the ministry and practice here at St. Peter. Pastor Christenson should not be blamed for leaving, he needed to leave for his own spiritual health and the spiritual safety of his family.
However, Pastor Christenson does have a duty to speak and to tell the truth and the whole truth no matter the cost. Here are some suggested questions for our church council to ask Pastor Christenson:
1. Why did you leave St. Peter after only seven months?
2. What did your wife do after first hearing Pastor Glende preach on Maundy Thursday?
3. How do you evaluate the preaching of justification at St. Peter?
According to Pastor Christenson, his definition of contemporary worship is not the same as Pastor Skorzewski’s and Pastor Glende’s definition of contemporary worship. Pastor Christenson is a believer in contemporary forms of worship, and would often play the guitar. However, he also believes that it is important to have good practices, and to preach Christ crucified and the true Law and Gospel.
The preaching of Christ crucified through the true Law and Gospel has been sorely lacking here at St. Peter.
Posted in St. Peter & The CORE, WELS, religion | Tagged church and Change, church Growth Movement, Pastor Ski, St. Peter Church, WELS, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Time To Tell the Truth at St. Peter, Freedom, Wisc...":
Pastor Christenson will remain quiet if he ever wants another position in WELS. WELS does not tolerate telling stories outside of WELS.
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GJ - That is true - WELS is allergic to the truth. All institutions are similar that way, but WELS is extremely thin-skinned, so the biggest problems are not addressed. That benefits criminals, adulterers, and false teachers. Look at how WELS leaders are allowed to deny going to Fuller while they brag about going to Fuller. However, responsible people can find out the truth without putting Pastor Christenson on the griddle. The question is whether they want to do that or not.
This comes at an interesting time, when another Chicanery (Zak) has fouled his own nest. Watch a few more Chicaneries fail in the next year, without a safety net of synod, Thrivent, and foundation loot to prop up their circuses.
13 comments:
Pastor,
Please keep this post front and center. The people at St. Peter's need to know that they are being being duped by Skorzewski and Glende into listening to and following false doctrine. They are being lied to and deceived, no longer hearing the gospel, and they need to know it!
Rev J
Can this get its own sub-page along the side? I think this needs more of a highlight than the thirdpage it currently sits on.
All of the St. Peter sermons are on the download section of thier website... if some on could take the time to critique one, it would be so helpful to thoses of us who have not taken a sermon writing class and not experts on figuring out what is missing from it and the problems of what we are hearing each sunday. Seriously.
No one HERE is saying the sermons are missing something. Your PASTOR said it was missing something. Then he left because he couldn't co-exist with what he was witnessing.
Perhaps he left because of the establishment of women of the congregation writing liturgical responses, singing and leading the congregation in worship and presenting seminars on how to redirect your churches ministry using church growth materials, video clips from Willow Creek and so on.
Hey, "whatever isn't forbidden in Scripture is permissable." Right?
Fine lines and no discerment.
Pastor Christenson will remain quiet if he ever wants another position in WELS. WELS does not tolerate telling stories outside of WELS.
Maybe AFTER he gets settled into his new place and is firmly established there, he can then safely open up as to what exactly the problems were. He obviously has a story to tell. And it should be told.
In the People's Bible Teachings, Christian Freedom, Pastor William E. Fischer had this to may about Justification:
"As a gracious God he did not put any conditions on his justification of the alienated world. He did not say, "If you live up to commands, then I will justify you." He did not even say, "I will forgive you if you believe in me." His universal justification stands, whether people believe it or not. Some would have us believe that God justifies only those who believe in him. But that would rob us of God's grace and blessed truth of our-and, yes, everyone's-justification."
"But God's grace was not finished; he left nothing to chance. He knew that this marvelous gift would come only to those who believed in Christ, and he knew that none of us had the power to work faith in our own hearts. So he sent the Holy spirit to convert us through the gospel. And through that faith we are justified; we have been truly freed from sin and its curse, from death and its fear, from Satan and his power."
Can somebody, Brett or GJ, pick out the two contradictions. I am a layman and I spotted it real quick.
This book was published in 1996. I can feel Pastor Christensons pain concerning false-teachings.
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
It's easier to pick out contridictions when it is in written form. It's not always easy when you are listening to a sermon.
While this blog often debates the wording of justification... and when it happened (on the cross or at the time the Holy Spirit enters the soul and to whom (only believers or all people), Rick did not specifically say Pastor Christenson disagreed with HOW it was taught if and when it is taught. He implied it was lacking.
If I had to guess I would say that some of the problem with the sermons is that they focus on "social gospel" or our sanctified life. Obviously, some clarity from Pastor Christenson would help.
I heard someone mention that Pastor Christenson seemed like he was more comfortable preaching in the "old style" vs. the new modern style at The CORE ... whenever there is a Sem student preaching, we also hear the "old style". No wonder the layity is confused.
According to their website ( http://www.stpetercares.com/home/2440/2440/docs/Bulletin%20-%20Announcements%20-%2012-20-09.doc?sec_id=2440 ), it appears as if they have called a new pastor. I hope he is aware of the whole picture.
As a member of St. Peter, I have every confidence in the ministries of Pastor Glende and Pastor Ski. I would go to war for them, and trust that they have hearts for God and for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and him crucified. I have been a faithful, active member there for many years, and would hold their ministry up to any kind of examination. If there is false doctrine there, let us examine it - all we get here is guilt by association, smears, leering comments and condemnation.
To see the scurilous things posted on your site, to see that you allow people to say things like "I heard..." and have very little attribution, and try to condemn men who are trying to lead the lost to eternal life, is shameful, but then you need to decide how you want to conduct yourself.
If you want to continue in believing that salvation and eternal life can only be achieved by worship circa 1970 or before, and that all things God breathed can only be found on pages 5 or 15 of the Lutheran Hymnal, so be it.
Pastor Christenson left because he wanted to become the lead pastor, and also because he was not comfortable in a setting with a 1,000 members as St. Peter currently is. You may want to cast aspersions and try to make more of this then there is, if so, have at it. The truth does not live on this website, so you probably won't want to start now.
Maybe if you tried to enrich and engage the loveliness of the saving message of the gospel, instead of acting like wannabe Pharisees, you might have some positive effect on the kingdom. But that is not who you are - you will probably not even have the courage or intellectual guts to allow a comment like this here for others to consider.
No one at St. Peter or the CORE is criticizing traditional WELS worship or its practices, and our Thursday evening and early Sunday morning service are tradional. It just is so curious to me why so many who hold to the tradiotional methods of worship find the need to criticize other forms of worship.
St. Peter FREEDOM, WI.
Free to do whatever you like. Living up to the name of the town I guess.
Free to do whatever. Maybe they should rename it to St. Peter Anitnomian, WI
On being cool with the the kids, ie: "being down with your peeps"
The Word of the Lord....
". . . know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a FRIEND of the world is the ENEMY of God." James 4:4
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