Ask Randy Hunter, WELS, a fave of FIC.
After 30+ years of Church Growth in WELS, Missouri, and the ELS, shouldn't we start turning the tables on the Shrinkers?
I am not sure who tickled Ron Roth into Church Growth, or who recruited Valleskey and Bivens into studying at Fuller Cemetery, where Christian doctrine dies. I do know that Kent Hunter and Waldo Werning were the chief salesmen of Church Growth in WELS during the 1980s. Floyd Luther Stolzenburg was trained by Hunter before he graciously pretended to be a WELS expert (without joining WELS).
Hunter and Werning were praised by Valleskey in his Church Growth notes. The canceled Wisconsin Lutheran College program was going to feature Hunter and Werning.
I have read their books. It takes a strong man to read their works without bursting into laughter. Weakling that I am, I hooted until tears rolled from my eyes and blurred my vision. I did not have Church Growth eyes.
Hunter (DMin, Fuller) and Werning (Fuller alumnus) both emphasize that people need to get out their graph paper and look at the congregation's numbers. If the numbers are down, they are doing something wrong.
So let's apply that to the fruit of their labors, for which they charge a pretty penny indeed. Their numbers are down across the land. They have wrecked Missouri and WELS, with the ELS trying to catch up with their influence.
The CORE - Let's get out the graph paper and Excel software for The CORE. Big numbers (money blown) and small results. The CORE is a hobby for the Shrinkers of Fox Valley, Wisconsin.
Rock And Roll in Round Rock, Texas - After all that money spent, Rock And Roll has one web page (a map), recently dismissed rocker/entertainers, and perhaps 30 in attendance.
CrossWalk in Phoenix - still not a member of WELS. Have they had a service of Holy Communion yet? Believe it or not, the spineless clergy of that district were recently discussing CrossWalk's lack of communion services. The next version of CG will have people not mentioning God for fear of offending the unchurched.
If Jeff Gunn has been so blessed by his Emerging Church Growth principles, why is looking for another job?
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post ""We Condemn You for Your Numbers, Now Judge Us for...":
The evil coalition in WELS is much bigger than anyone suspects. How many have been trained and sent forth since David Valleskey started slavering about the Fuller rot? They are almost everywhere in the synod.
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GJ - The clergy had two opportunities to oppose Valleskey's doctrine, before he unloaded in his hideous book. When he gave his Figs From Thistles paper at the Ohio Conference, the 20+ pastors could have condemned him. The four of us who critiqued his doctrine were driven out of WELS.
The next chance came when Valleskey published his deceitful, dishonest paper in the Quarterly. Of course, the toothless faculty could have condemned it. That would have been a surprise. The clergy as a whole could have pilloried it. Dead silence. I published a review of the paper and the ELS(!) had a hissy fit over my review, not over Valleskey's false doctrine. Orvick endorsed Valleskey with a paper given to the ELS pastors, who rolled over and played dead. So pardon me if a wry smile crosses my face when the ELS pastors talk about being Confessional.
5 comments:
The evil coalition in WELS is much bigger than anyone suspects. How have been trained and sent forth since DV started slavering about the Fuller rot? They are almost everywhere in the synod.
Anon 8:03
Hi, good point. Sad but true. If only we could beat the C&Cers with spell-check. I'm sadly convinced that the WELS is doomed without fearless action: That is NOT to say that the many conservative Confessional pastors and churches in the WELS are doomed.
We are going to have to rely on the rural WELS segment to step up and Just Say No to Enthusiasm.
Professor: In your footnotes for chapter five of TSW, you mention some essays by a Pastor Vernon Harley that are well written and worth reading, but I can't find them anywhere. I'd like to have some LCMS writing to present to my my pastor in our discussion of UOJ. (It helps if I can give in-synod sources) Would it be too much trouble to post these, maybe in your required reading section?
Also, I was wondering if you had any further thought on the Maier essay that I brought up.
thanks for your work,
Even if the hirelings were able to generate membership growth using Church Growth methods and programs it would not be of God. Church Growth rejects the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who works through Word and Sacraments alone to harden the hearts of the impenitent and work contrition and faith in those God has called.
It is merciful that God does not allow them growth when they reject the Means of Grace. It is an opportunity for them to see their sin and by the grace of God return to Him in true repentance. If God would allow them growth from their false doctrine and practices they would be like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren, successful in the eyes of the world and ever more hardened against the Word.
My opinion is that they are not growing because without the growth they do not have the money, the life blood of the church growth movement, to exist alone. They will begin to join other apostate denominations until they eventually must join the Antichrist in the Roman Catholic Church. The current adoption of the Emergent Church New Age doctrines in the Lutheran Synods is the beginning of this. UOJ's rejection of the Holy Spirit's faith leaves them without the foundation with which the Lord helps us endure in the one true faith. Hebrews 11 speaks to this very clearly.
The ELS is "the little synod that couldn't."
Speaking of the ELS, has anyone heard from Norman? I thought he was the ELS "Official Spokesman." Chime in if you are hanging around the blog.
from WELS church lady
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