A Mouse in Doubt

Anonymouse has left a new comment on your post "From One of Many Excommunicated by WELS":

Would you care to elaborate on the excommunications? Again, I see nothing here but charges. You offer no proof. This is just typical of you, Greg Jackson.

***

GJ - That is typical of Mouse, to start accusing. I don't have enough mental energy to make up stories. I use my brainpower up exposing the lies of Church and Change. Now that is a creative bunch.

I could name people because I know a lot of them. I have met them. Some write to me. Some are related to family friends. Some were members of my congregation. I will list what I know, without names for the most part.

1. One pastor gave a paper questioning WELS' dependence upon AAL funding. He was driven from the ministry. He never recovered from the shock. I met him and know his daughter and son-in-law.
   
2. A number of laity were excommunicated for participating in Scouting. Two different families were LCA members when I was serving in Michigan. St. Paul in German Village had a Scout troop and a Pioneer group. They also had very active Masonic members. St. Paul (ironic name?) started Church Growth under the anointed leadership of Floyd Luther Stolzenburg. Alas, the congregation has only shrunken more.
   
3. WELS drove several ministers of the pulpit for questioning the NIV. Before, WELS was all-KJV. Then they were NIV-only. I met one of the ministers at a conference.
   
4. Bruce Becker specifically drove Howard Festerling from the ministry because Howard taught the efficacy of the Word alone (and kept insisting on it). Two other pastors I knew from the Toledo area were also driven out of the ministry by WELS. Their crime was questioning the Fuller spin on "make disciples." Note that the KJV never made that error. For the innocent readers: "Making disciples" is the motto of all Lutheran CGM fanatics.
   
5. I know a brilliant family, formerly WELS. They had some questions about the Sampler. The Sampler! The pastor stopped at the house and said, "You are no longer in fellowship with WELS."

I could list more examples, but my typing fingers are growing weary.

Mouse - you may post your apology on this story. Perhaps on the other one too.

Boom Times for Mega-Church Foreclosures

The Bigger They Are, The Deeper in Debt

Metropolitan Baptist Church was bursting out of its home.

From a group of freed slaves in Civil War-era Washington, Metropolitan Baptist had grown into a modern-day megachurch and community service powerhouse. In 2006, construction began on the congregation's dream complex in Largo, Md. — a $30 million campus with a 3,000-seat church, an education center and an 1,100-car parking lot.

Last year, the congregation sold its church in Washington. Preparations began for the move to what leaders had taken to calling "God's land in Largo."

But on Oct. 20, their plans were abruptly put on hold.

The Rev. H. Beecher Hicks learned that financing for the project had dried up. Construction stopped. And the congregation found that it was homeless — reduced to renting space and struggling to find new financing.

Add houses of worship to the list of casualties of the mortgage crisis.

Foreclosures and delinquencies for congregations are rising, according to companies that specialize in church mortgages. With credit scarce, church construction sites have gone quiet, holding shells of sanctuaries that were meant to be completed months ago.

Congregants have less money to give, and pastors who stretched to buy property in the boom are struggling to hold onto their churches.

"The economy has dramatically changed over the last year to 18 months in a way that very few, if any, had expected," said John Stoffel, administrative pastor at Seabreeze Church in Huntington, Calif.

Seabreeze spent about $12 million on a new complex that was completed in 2007. But a drop in donations, partly due to a rift between the pastor and some church members, forced the church to renegotiate for an interest-only mortgage. Stoffel said Seabreeze hasn't missed a payment, yet the mortgage is far from the church's only debt. The church also owes $1.2 million — due this year — on bonds that helped finance the project, and must repay a $200,000 loan that a couple took out on their house to help Seabreeze cover its costs.

It's hard to quantify just how many churches are at risk. Foreclosure records are scattered throughout county offices nationwide. Completing a foreclosure takes months or longer, so it's too soon for many failures to show up on a company's books. In financially stressed churches, clergy are often reluctant to discuss their plight. They don't want to alarm their congregants, and they fear that any complaints about their dealings with banks will backfire.

"Right now, when you're at the mercy of the lenders, you don't want to look like you're coming out against them," said Bishop Eugene Reeves of New Life Anointed Ministries International in Woodbridge, Va.

The 3,500-member Pentecostal church near Washington needs a couple of million dollars to finish its new $19 million complex. Construction stopped last spring when New Life's lender said it would make no new loans to the church, Reeves said.

"We now have children who don't have classrooms to get into, adults who have to go to an overflow room," Reeves said. "We have parking issues. We don't have enough spaces for cars."

Across the country, congregations large and small are struggling to pay off debt:

_Reliance Trust, an Atlanta company that is trustee for nearly three-quarters of the church bonds in the U.S., has seen "some increases in delinquencies," said spokesman Tony Greene, though he would not elaborate.

Among its clients is Temple Beth Haverim in Agoura Hills, Calif., which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last July and owes the company more than $7 million, Reliance said in court documents. The property is estimated to be worth less than what the synagogue owes.

_Strongtower Financial, an arm of the California Baptist Foundation, said in a prospectus that 10 percent of its $119 million in outstanding loans were in default as of March 31, 2008, its most recent required reporting date. Chet Reid, Strongtower's president, said the specifics were private, but the company had only one foreclosure in the last decade — in 2006.

_The Evangelical Christian Credit Union, a major church lender with more than $700 million in loans last year, moved to foreclose on seven of its 1,100 loans in 2008, said Mark Johnson, the company's executive vice president. The company has had "a noticeable increase" in late payments, and two more foreclosures are expected this year, he said. By contrast, the Brea, Calif., company said it had no other foreclosures until 2007, when there were two.

These problems may seem minor compared to the epidemic of foreclosures on private homes. But church mortgages have always been considered one of the more solid investments, with lenders often boasting of only one or two foreclosures over a billion dollars in loans.

Even in bad economic times, people still go to church, which helps shield congregations from downturns, lenders say. Churches also have more flexibility than some other borrowers in cutting expenses. They can end charitable programs or trim staff and still stay open for business.

"You can certainly make a bad church loan if you try hard enough," said Dan Mikes, who leads the church banking group of Bank of the West, a major lender. "But if you're careful and you don't overlend, and you're cautious in the way you underwrite, you're fine."

However, the recent boom years brought changes that made the industry more vulnerable.

Firms looking for new lending opportunities in a time of easy credit entered the industry, and competition escalated. The size and number of church loans skyrocketed, with several companies reporting double-digit annual growth rates before the bust.

Some lenders even got into the business of securitizing church loans, combining them as an investment in the way banks did with home mortgages. In 2006, Strongtower Financial, based in Fresno, securitized church bonds for the first time, with a $56.3 million offering.

Roland Leavell, president of Rives, Leavell & Co., a church bond broker in Jackson, Miss., said that firms specializing in church financing often aped their commercial loan counterparts, lending too much money without a thorough check of what their clients could afford.

"The starting point was the commercial banks," Leavell said. "When somebody on one side of the business gets moving fast and loose, it makes every body else move fast and loose."

Johnson, of the Evangelical Christian Credit Union, insists that his company upheld its strict underwriting standards throughout the flush years when the firm was growing at an average rate of more than 20 percent annually. He said the economy alone is behind the recent troubles.

"Our history would say that we had done a really good job," evaluating clients, he said. "It has become very visible to everybody today that the recession hit 18 months ago. The foreclosures we've seen have coincided with that."

But foreclosure and bankruptcy records paint a more complex picture of some of the company's failed clients — and raise questions about whether the pressure for profit altered the industry's normally ultra-cautious approach.

Among the company's foreclosed-upon clients is Juanita Bynum, a former hairdresser and popular Pentecostal preacher. In 2006, she got a loan from the evangelical lender to buy a $4.5 million lakeview property in Waycross, Ga. She planned to use it for her ministry headquarters and to open a spa for beauty treatments and spiritual guidance.

But she never paid her property taxes on time and ended up owing tens of thousands of dollars, said Steve Barnard, the Ware County tax assessor, who threatened to auction off the land over the debt. The credit union paid Bynum's outstanding tax bill before foreclosing on her land last December, when Ware said the property value had dropped to only about $2.5 million.

Another church with shaky finances and a big debt: the Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ in Fort Worth, Texas.

The congregation began floundering soon after Shiloh's prominent pastor, Sherman Allen, was publicly accused of molesting women and beating them with a paddle. The accusers said that Allen's superiors in his Pentecostal denomination — the Church of God in Christ — had evidence of the allegations for years and did nothing to stop him. Allen has denied any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the credit union that holds the church's mortgage found another scandal — this one involving money. In court documents, the attorneys said the church could not explain how it spent $100,000 in income in 2006, that a $30,000 anniversary bonus paid to Allen in 2007 "is potentially a fraudulent transfer," and that the church couldn't provide financial statements from a certified public accountant for 2005 and 2006.

The church filed for bankruptcy in February 2007; the Evangelical Christian Credit Union says Shiloh owes it nearly $3.8 million on a 2005 loan, and sought to foreclose.

As in the residential mortgage industry, tight credit has had a chilling effect on loans to houses of worship. Reid, the head of Strongtower, said his company is doing less lending, but he would not discuss specifics. Johnson, of the Evangelical Christian Credit Union, said the company isn't making loans to new clients.

"We're struggling to do a good thing for our community," Hicks said. "Hopefully, we'll get past this impasse and move forward."

From One of Many Excommunicated by WELS

Re: Brett Meyer's Ichabod post about women reading liturgy in WELS.

The statement in the post which summed up WELS for at least the past forty years said it all. WELS "practice is detached from doctrine". In the 1970's the big controversy about government grants to Milwaukee Lutheran High School resulted in ex-communications of WELS members who protested to Synod, then protested publicly, for public largesse is a public matter. The lay members did so on the basis of WELS Statement of Belief published in 1967 which said, "We reject any attempt on the part of the Church to seek the financial assistance of the State in carrying out its saving purpose." The response by some synod leaders in defending the use of government grants was: We didn't seek the grants, they were offered to us. The more things change the more they remain the same.

***

GJ - WELS Pharisaical law is amusing. They were once dead-set against gambling, written policy. Now they are gung-ho for gambling - ever since some big giver was involved in casinos. WELS legalized gambling.

Some other excommunications have included: criticizing the budget process, favoring the KJV over the Reformed NIV, and questioning AAL (now Thrivent). WELS removed men from the ministry over the last two. The big one - daring to critique the Church Growth Movement.

PS - Joining the Boy Scouts went from mortal sin to A-OK.

Tweets in the News

The author of the Tweety bird song died at the age of 91.

Most of the people using Twitter seem unaware or unconcerned that their words are posted to the Net and kept there.

A juror from Arkansas used Twitter during a jury trial where he bragged he was giving away $12 million of Other People's Money. (Church and Change probably added him to their Rolodex - pronto.) The Tweets will be cited in an effort to overturn the verdict.

A Twitter message is called a Tweet. I have found Twitter useful in tracking the Church and Changers. I am not alone in using Twitter as radar. As soon as I activated my Twitter account, a Church and Changer put himself on my list, so he could receive every message. I find Twitter a waste of time, so I never post.

But oh the joys of tracking people on Twitter. One practical benefit is the list of followers and those being followed. Church and Changers follow Mark Driscoll and like to suggest to each other the latest Emerging Church stuff to read. Nancy's World is one Schwaermer on the list for the pricey executive assistant at the Popcorn Cathedral. She also posted a stinging comment on Ichabod. It reminded me of being stoned to death by popcorn.

One point of Ichabod is to get the Schwaermer to read the blog daily, and that is working. They have to read it, even if uncomprehending, in order to post their latest spelling errors. I follow Wesley's motto: "If you can't convert them, at least make them angry." They are annoyed if I write about the past, present, or future, so I am looking for a time zone they approve. They hate quotations from Luther and the Concordists, but they love Stetzer, Sweet, and Groeschel.

Ski and his pricey executive assistant continue to refer to Appleton on their Twitter as A-town, their own term but not one favored by long-time residents of the valley. I hope they never tweet about the Appleton landfill. I can only guess what they will call that operation. Mrs. Ichabod adds, "We live in Phoenix, not in P-town."

Ski cannot help revealing the shallowness of the Popcorn Cathedral of Rock. His website has no reference to Lent because there are no Lenten services. His grand opening is the Sunday after Easter. Until then he only has Sunday evening services announced - with Craig Groeschel sermon themes and texts. He is sharing Lenten duties at his friend's WELS congregation, so the mission to date has almost nothing to do with reaching the I-hate-church crowd, even less to do with the most important content of the Christian Gospel: the cross and the empty tomb.

Sermon preparation, according to Ski's Twitter, means watching TV on his Imax screen. Other peak moments have included firing up the popcorn machine and watching the Wizard of Oz on the giant screen, dancing down the aisles.

Do the Church and Changers ever imagine they are the Great and Terrible Oz, the frightened man hiding behind the curtain?

Or perhaps they identify with the Cowardly Lion? They erase their own revealing material as quickly as they copy the wisdom of the Schwaermer.

Genuflecting to pop culture could best be signified by leading the coffee-saturated congregation in a rousing version of "If I Only Had a Brain."

Twitter in My Google Told a Tale on You
I recall when the Church and Chicaneries went to Defcon-5 to deny Stetzer was invited to speak for their November conference. They were so shrill that one of my sources started to believe them.

The Conference of Pussycats already discussed the invitation. More enlightening were three different pieces of data, starting with Babtist Ed Stetzer's own Twitter. He recorded the moment when WELS Church and Change hired him to teach them the Word of God. He also blogged about speaking to WELS and Missouri, making fun of Confessional Lutheranism (shocked? - you bet I was!). And Stetzer added both WELS and Missouri to his speaking engagement list. Stetzer is no longer a pastor with a congregation. He simply talks about being a minister - as long as people pay dearly for it.

The Chicaneries were squawking so loudly because their stealth leader, Kudu Don Patterson led a group of them to hear Stetzer at Exponential last year. That was probably the start of the Stetzer hire. So C and C responded by saying, "How do you know we haven't canceled him?" I knew from Stetzer's Twitter and his schedule. The dates are recorded for posterity:

1. Stetzer and Patterson at Exponential pan-denominational event, where Lutherans paid but did not speak.
   
2. Stetzer hired by Church and Chicanery.
   
3. Stetzer blogging to make fun of Lutherans and doctrine.
   
4. Stetzer listing WELS and Missouri on his speaking schedule.
   
5. Conference of Pussycats meeting.
   
6. Silence, deceit, and denial from Church and Chicanery.

If I Only Had More Grants

I could while away my daydreams
Watchin' movies on the Big Screen
Consultin' with Andy.
And popcorn I'd be poppin'
And the money never stoppin' -
If I only had more grants.

I would preach like Craig Groeschel
For any individd-el
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts Craig'd be thinkin,
They would say, “Another Lincoln!”
If I only had more grants.

Oh, I could tell you why
Sub-woofers make me cry.
I could think of things I never thunk before,
And then I'd sit and think some more

I would not be just a Changer,
My head all full of danger,
My sermons Groeschel’s chants.
Perhaps I deserve you,
And be even worthy erve you,
If I only had more grants.

Every Litter Bit Hurts

What If the Babtist Church Has Better Coffee?Crown of Life, Corona, CaliforniaGoes Latte and Pop

The old way, which is not way cool anymore.

I ran into this WELS congregation by Googling "WELS, Leonard Sweet." I saw that he was drooling over the latest Sweet book and publishing his weekly offerings. The offerings were catastrophically bad, gushing red ink. Overnight he was warned and the Sweet reference disappeared with the offerings. I was scolded (not by name) for mentioning his offerings, which he listed for everyone to see. That was not classy, he claimed.

I could tell there was a network of Church and Change informants, and now I know a number of them. They all squawk in a raucous chorus, a cacophony of bad manners, worse doctrine, and disgraceful spelling.

Before I get into Corona aping the Babtists - there used to be a tradition among Lutheran congregations. They did not try out something new unless the others were informed and in agreement. The idea was to show respect for worship and not undercut others by going freaky for the sake of attendance bumps. Someone might be able to cite a source for that. I remember reading it, but of course that was just a joke in Columbus.

Here is the new Crown of Life, verbatim from their webpages:

Worship
Crown of Life is now meeting in two places for worship. We would love to meet you and to have you as part of our community.

Sunday Mornings at our Corona Campus

8:30 a.m. ~ Traditional Worship called Heritage of Faith where Pastor Rick wears vestments, we make use of the liturgy, and a pianist leads our worship with hymns.

9:30 a.m. ~ Adult Bible Study led by Pastor Rick.

10:30 a.m. ~ Contemporary Worship called Faith for Today. The service is led by Pastor Rick and our own COL Adoration Band, using video projection, and singing the best of today's Christian music. Children's education and nursery are offered foloowing (sic) the children's message. Pastor dresses more casually at this service--no gown or vestments.

Sunday Mornings at our Beaumont Campus
9:00 a.m. - Sunday morning worship begins in Beaumont on March 15, 2009. Style of music is contemporary/coffee house -- today's best Christian music with an acoustic sound and light percussion. Service also include video projection. Children's education and nursery are offered following the children's message.

What to wear? You will find people dressed in shirt & tie and dresses. You will find people wearing jeans and polo shirts, shorts and tee shirts. Come dressed in whatever way you find comfortable and appropriate for worship. The Bible doesn't prescribe a dress code for worship and neither do we.

After the Service please stay for coffee and a snack. In Corona, that takes place on our shaded patio where you'll also find the CommUNITY Center with booklets, magazines and a place to plug in and sign up for activities. In Beaumont, the coffee is close by, along the side buffet in the Oak Valley Room.

***

GJ - Going multi-site means going Mars Hill. The Church and Chicaneries cannot admit that their guiding lights are Leonard Sweet, Mark Driscoll, Craig Groeschel, Andy Stanley, and other peddlers of spiritual Spam. Their idols plagiarize each other and the motivational circuit, and the C and C followers plagiarize them. Lutheran worship services glorify God by offering Christ crucified through Word and Sacrament. The Church and Chicaneries offer:



And:

St. Marcus School in Top 50 for Funding

Mark Jeske, Time of Grace, school impresario.

No wonder Bruce Becker high-tailed it to St. Marcus.

In 2001, the school ranked in the top 50 of grant recipients in Milwaukee, coming in at $360,000 from only two grants.

So Your Organist Kills and Burns Up a Church Member.Next Job? Wheatridge Foundation!

When synods work together, Jeske is there, collecting the rent.

Long-time readers remember when a homosexual organist, Eric Henstenberg, murdered a female church member and burned the house, hoping to hide the crime. When they tied the crime to him, he accused the dead saint of trying sexually assault him. No one believed him.

The congregation was LCMS, Texas. The organist was working on the next LMCS convention (2004). The pastor was John Nunes, who fled the scene and showed up next as the head of the liberal Wheatridge Foundation.

Nunes was a featured speaker at some event recently. Apostates take care of their own.

St Marcus received a $25,000 grant from Wheat Ridge in late 2008:

http://www.wheatridge.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=khLSKZPDLoF&b=3891075&ct=6347545

Affiliation
Wheat Ridge is a recognized service organization of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod and an affiliated social ministry organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

On the Board of Directors is:

Ms. Wendy Greenfield
Vice President of Development & Communications
HOPE Christian Schools
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
wendylgreenfield@yahoo.com

Look for Jeske, Inc. to leave WELS when SP Schroeder wins re-election. I expect a small part of Church and Chicanery to leave with him, but only if they have congregations--like St. Mark Depere--large enough for Kieschnick or Mark Hanson to covet.

New Vicar?Karl Gurgel Re-Ups at Holy Word, Austin:Be Sure To Audit the Books

Karl Gurgel (left) at a high-church WELS service: no Geneva gowns.

From: Pastor Patterson
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Subject: [Holy_Word] Pastor Gurgel responds to call
To: holy_word@yahoogroups.com


Dear Saints,

Last Sunday in our quarterly voter's meeting we issued a call to Rev. Karl Gurgel to come and serve us in a "one year part time call" to help us continue our mission to reach the lost for Christ in the North Austin and surrounding areas.

Below is his letter of acknowledgement. Please keep Pastor Gurgel and his wife Barb in your prayers as they deliberate what God would have them do. It would be a wonderful blessing to have them among us for a year or more - but we know that God in his wisdom will make them a blessing wherever he sends them.

In Him,

Pastor Patterson

P.S. If you would like to send him an encouraging email just reply to me and I will give you his address.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Members of Holy Word,

It's a privilege to serve the Lord, recognizing in the Call of God's people, the Call of the Lord himself. It's encouraging to recognize in the Call you've extended to me, the pleasure God may still grant me to serve his people.

Your commitment to extend the reach of God's Kingdom beyond yourselves is obvious in your adoption of your ten-year plan. The growth in the Word of God you envision for yourselves continues to provide the foundation for all your future plans. If the Lord leads me to accept His Call administered through you, it would be a privilege and pleasure to serve the Lord among you.

I would ask you to continue to remember my wife, Barbara and me, in your prayers. God-willing we will arrive at a decision before the end of March. May God's blessings also rest upon you.

In His Service with You,

Karl R. Gurgel

***

GJ - Some of you did not realize I was on this email list, too. Church and Change is leakier than a meeting of GOP conservatives.

I wonder if Kudu Don Patterson got a grant for this special call. My intuition says, "Yes!"

The opposition is loading up their ammo for the 2009 WELS convention.

Consider this: Gurgel was Doctrinal Pussycat when his district was given the MilCraft estate (Golf) and they managed to run that into the ground. The widow was cheated out of a lot of money so she sued WELS in court and won. Gurgel had no trouble going to court to oppose a widow who lost everything. She won a million dollars.

Gurgel's next triumph was getting the Schwan money, the largest charitable gift ever, and running the synod into total insolvency. When the synod treasurer informed Gurgel that they could not spend designated gifts, Gurgel fired the treasurer and blamed the treasurer for the disappeared funds. That is the essence of the synod owing money to the synod. Some call it skimming. I call it the typical stewardship of the Church and Change crowd: spend Other People's Money on your own wild hare projects.

Read the Kuske Report, linked at the top left side of the page. Kuske failed to note that his Church Growth buddies were the ones who devastated the finances of WELS.

Gurgel once wrote that "denying I have the spiritual gifts of leadership would be false modesty." I have to commend someone who can do so much damage and still get a vicarage call.


"Sorry to stop you, but we are looking for the new vicar at Holy Word in Austin. We are told he is carrying How To Success in Business Without Really Trying and the other set of synod books,
the ones marked Wauwatosa Charities.
There they are in the back seat!
I'm afraid you'll have to go into town and talk to Interpol."

---

GJ - One of my many sources says that the Ichabod exposure of free vicars has shut that spigot off. There are only 1,437 to go.

Remember, Ichabodians, the Church and Changers run on Other's People Money, not on the Word, so keep tightening those spigots.

Women Liturgists in WELS? Why Not?

Marva Dawn and Marie Meyer (Herman Otten's sister) are the two leading feminist theologians of Missouri.
Apparently, this is the Before photo for Lorial makeup.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Mouse Remains A Daily Communicant at Ichabod":

The idea of taking your neighbors words in the kindest possible way has, in the Lutheran Churches, become a belief that there is Doctrine and then there's Application of Doctrine. This is how they can destroy what it means to be Justified In Christ changing the Holy Spirit's faith into their man made faith (the withered outstretched and empty hand) with the Doctrine of UOJ and then defer to Subjective Justification to exclaim that it still takes faith.

With this duo they're able to say that growing the Church is purely a work of the Holy Ghost through the Means of Grace and then with the application of that doctrine contradict God and list the ways in which we can remove the barriers that keep the gospel from being effective.

The Northwest District of the WELS used this same approach when dealing with using women in the congregation to read the liturgy.

Here's a quote from District President Jon Buchholz [Arizona-Las Vegas-California District] promoting this understanding when he was included in a discussion coming from my contention that Pastor Schewe, WELS Des Moines Washington, was wrong to have the women in the congregation read the Liturgy. Pastor Schewe began the reading and then had all the women read the next section of the liturgy then all the men in a round robin style.

Pastor Buchholz:
"Second, to the specific issue of women in the church, remember that there are principles and there are applications of principles. The principles are always inviolate. Some applications of principles are always inviolate. Other applications of principles may vary depending upon a whole passel of factors, including but not limited to: strength or weakness of faith; cultural sensitivities; customs of the people, and church etc. (An example might be the way Luther dealt with the radicals at Wittenberg who wanted to take the Reformation too quickly. He backed off and moved slowly, allowing the word to do its work in people’s hearts before he instituted things like Communion in both kinds—certainly a biblical practic e.)

In asserting that Pastor Schewe was wrong to allow women to read sections of Scripture antiphonally, you want to be careful that you don’t turn the application of a principle into the principle itself. The principle that women are not to teach or have authority over a man is inviolate. Some applications of that principle, e.g., women pastors, women teaching men in Bible study, etc., are inviolate. However there is quite a stretch between women teaching (i.e., expounding, explaining, clarifying and elucidating Scripture) and reading Scripture antiphonally and collectively without giving instruction. (This doesn’t mean that Scripture itself is not instructive; that power to instruct inheres in the word. And, as you well know, the power and efficacy of the word to instruct is n ot made more or less effective whether it’s read by a woman or a man.)

Another question that may well be raised is whether a practice is wrong (i.e. inherently sinful) or merely ill-advised under the circumstances. Since in this case in point you’re dealing with an application—not the principle itself—there are a number of criteria that are to be evaluated to ascertain the benefit or detriment of an application. Does it pander to or foster a particular false belief? Is it an accommodation to worldly practice and mindset? Is it edifying? And so forth ."

WELS has fostered an understanding of doctrine which allows their practice to be detached from their doctrine.

In Christ,
Brett Meyer

***

GJ - Missouri has done the same while bragging about it. When I knew seminarians at Our Lady of Sorrows in St. Louis, about 15 years ago, they said, "We are orthodox in doctrine but loose in application."

Mequon has had women leading the worship service. The Little Sect on the Prairie did the same at their copper-top chapel. When some in the ELS objected, the response was, "Maybe it was a mistake if some of you have a problem with it."

Once I told John Lawrenz about St. Paul in German Village having members who phoned my women members, saying, "Transfer to our church so you can vote." That upset him the first time. A little later he was on the opposite side of the issue and said, "I didn't know you were sensitive about that issue." He made it sound like a medical condition.

Paul Kuske was openly sarcastic about adiaphora, saying maybe it hurt the "weak in faith," so that could be a problem. His adiaphora at Pilgrim Community Church included the name Lutheran, their deliberately deceiving people about its identification when phoning to invite them, the Creeds, hymns, and the liturgy.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Women Liturgists in WELS? Why Not?":

As proof that false doctrine grows like a weed:

August 18, 2006

From: HTLC Board of Elders

Stan Bauer

Tad Doviak

Monte Ewald

Dave Fulton

Kevin Nack

Dan Smith

Mark Tacke

To: Brett Meyer

Dear Brett,

You originally e-mailed the Board of Elders regarding the question of antiphonal worship at Holy Trinity.

After prayerful consideration and study of the Word in this matter we believe that antiphonal worship is a proclamation or reading of God's inspired word and is not considered to be 'teaching' the congregation.

***

KJV 1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

WELS Constantly Being Revised Version - But I do not suffer anyone to question how we are changing things, but the man must be in silence.

A Simple Test

According to Sausage Factory President David Valleskey,
anyone who opposed his beloved Church Growth Movement was a "legalist."
His journal article, he told Guy Purdue,
was aimed at "that legalist in Ohio, Greg Jackson."

I find the products of Church and Change congregations (beehives) appallingly ingnorant. They are not only ignorant of the Confessions but also of the Scriptures. They like to say, "Lord, Lord," but never imagine they are simply fulfilling the warning of Matthew 7:21 -

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

They like to attack the Book of Concord and brush it aside, or say, with great smugness, "We worship Jesus, not Luther." But their glib assertions, which I have heard from many a Babtist and many more ELCA Lutherans, are really a rejection of the Word of God.

There is a simple test for every doctrinal assertion. If it can be proved from Scripture alone, it is valid. If it rests on the authority of a human author alone, it is unScriptural and most likely anti-Scriptural.

Church of Rome
I will start with the obvious, since some readers have already watched the fall of the cheap statue of Mary, carried about as an idol. The extra-Biblical claims about the Virgin Mary are false doctrine because the Word of God says nothing and implies nothing about the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Assumption of Mary, and Mary as Queen of Purgatory. Those claims are supported by post-Biblical authors and much later worship traditions, which grew until they became a cult of Mary displacing the grace and mercy of her Son.

Likewise, Purgatory is derived from Greek and Latin authors, not from the Word of God. There is no passage in the Bible, not even in the Apocrypha, which commends prayers, sacrifices, and masses for the dead.

Lutheran Issues
The Enthusiasts always want to eject the liturgy from their beehives with some kind of false justification. I tried their excuses out on a Jewish Lutheran who knew Jewish worship as much as he knew Lutheran worship. I asked, "Do you agree that the liturgy is a Medieval invention, not from Biblical Old Testament worship?" He laughed and said the claim was ridiculous. Jewish worship today is still built around appointed lessons, hymns, chants, and seasons. Pentecost is still celebrated by Jews, although with a different emphasis. Modern Pentecostals never observe the Day of Pentecost, as one Baptist professor of worship noted, with some wit, with only two in the audience wildly applauding his speech.*

Church and Changers are ashamed of the Sacraments. They would like to hide them so no one is offended. Willow Creek hides their Lord's Supper too. How Biblical is it to claim the Scriptures and hide what the Word of God offers for our spiritual benefit? The Sacraments are easily provens from dozens if not hundreds of passages. Those who doubt infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, and the Real Presence of Christ in Holy Communion also reject the efficacy of the Word. Therefore it is no shock that those who water down, explain away, and adulterate the efficacy of the Word also join their Enthusiasts officially after years of serving as the Amen! chorus.

The Church Shrinkers want to import everything from the Enthusiasts so they can enjoy the luxurious lifestyles of televangelists. But the Shrinkers only want to do this with Other People's Money: government tax revenue, the synodical offerings, Thrivent, Schwan, and the foundations. They talk missions while soaking up as much loot as they can. Look at Kudu Don Patterson. He and his buddies have enough money to hunt in Africa on a regular basis, but he goes to the synod to pay for his vicars.
Sacrifice a little, VP Patterson. Pay your own vicars and hunt at the nearest petting zoo. Shoot those animals with a Canon.

Universal Objective Justification
Readers will note that all the literature supporting UOJ is built around a few recent sources. One is E. Preuss, who became a Roman Catholic after he saw a brilliant sunset. Nevertheless, his idiotic comments are often cited as proof of UOJ.
My favorite is "Hottentots are justified." Without faith or the Word, of course.

The other sources claimed are Walther, Pieper, and their disciples. No Biblical passage says that "God justified the entire world when Jesus rose from the dead," but they cite many passages without explanation. They have to skip the Book of Concord and Luther. Recently, Otten supported UOJ by citing the Brief Statement of the LCMS. His closest ally in Missouri, Robert Preus, rejected UOJ in his last book. The UOJ Stormtroopers ignore that simple fact.

---

*The place was Wheaton College. The only two who appreciated the lecture were the author and Mrs. Ichabod.

Sinuflect Toward Rome And This Is What Happens

---

Comments posted below the video:

"Hello, Statue Warehouse."
"Hi Doris."
"You need another MA-12? That's the second one this month!"
"Who was it this time?"
"OOOOH, you know Rupert's not suppose to carry anything over 10 lbs."
"Well, I'll send it express, you'll have it Wednesday morning."
"We'll talk to you in a few weeks."
"Bye-bye."

---

"the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a melon patch their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good." Jer10:3-5
"They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols." Jer10:8

---

Information on the video:

Maybe you shouldn't assign the frail elderly men the task of carrying a giant heavy church statue to the alter (sic).

A Worship Leader Who Doesn't Need a $200K Grant

Church and Change, RIP:Retreat In Progress

Bruce Becker, board member, Church and Change, has moved his operations to Church and Change Headquarters, St. Markus.


The triangles going up to the fish's mouth
represent synodical money, Thrivent and foundation grants,
devoured by the apostates at Church and Change.
The triangles leaving the fish's rear
symbolize the toxic waste left behind as they poop on everything sacred.

Mouse Remains A Daily Communicant at Ichabod

Anonymouse has left a new comment on your post "A Highly Trained WELS Pastor Writes His Sermon":

I have an idea! Perhaps it is because you don't take your neighbors words and actions in the kindest possible way.

WELS Liberals Always Misrepresent the Adiaphora Issue

The Wauwatosa Seminary building was influenced
by the Addams Family revival movement in architecture.

Several attitudes have led WELS into the Slough of Despond. One is the Wah-wah-tosa bewitchment. The original intentions were not so bad, but now the current products of The Sausage Factory use the Good Old Days as an excuse to avoid all doctrinal study, because "we only need Lenski, the Triglotta, and boxer shorts." The Triglotta is never opened and Lenski is panned for being wrong on justification by faith. The jury is still out on the boxer shorts.

Wisconsin pastors always use the Adiaphora as an excuse to do whatever they want, although "whatever they want" is consistently in line with Baptist and Pentecostal practices.

They miss the whole point of the article. When a minor point of practice (an adiaphoron - matter of indifference) is being used to promote false doctrine, then confessional Lutherans are bound to avoid--or bound to practice--that very thing.

This issue developed during Melanchthon's compromising attitude toward the Interims, when he tried to please the Romanists by giving in on what was called adiaphora.

Now the WELS pastors have dumped the liturgy, the Creeds, and sound Lutheran hymns in favor of appearing and sounding just like the Deformed pastors they envy. Every little point is an adiaphoron, they claim, so nothing is left. Somehow they even justify plagiarizing the sermons of false teachers, wolves in sheep's clothing, more likely - faded bluejeans and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt.

The Key Passage, Book of Concord, Formula of Concord, Adiaphora:

10] We believe, teach, and confess also that at the time of confession [when a confession of the heavenly truth is required], when the enemies of God's Word desire to suppress the pure doctrine of the holy Gospel, the entire congregation of God, yea, every Christian, but especially the ministers of the Word, as the leaders of the congregation of God [as those whom God has appointed to rule His Church], are bound by God's Word to confess freely and openly the [godly] doctrine, and what belongs to the whole of [pure] religion, not only in words, but also in works and with deeds; and that then, in this case, even in such [things truly and of themselves] adiaphora, they must not yield to the adversaries, or permit these [adiaphora] to be forced upon them by their enemies, whether by violence or cunning, to the detriment of the true worship of God and the introduction and sanction of idolatry. 11] For it is written, Gal. 5:1: Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage. Also Gal. 2:4f : And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. 12] [Now it is manifest that in that place Paul speaks concerning circumcision, which at that time had become an adiaphoron (1 Cor. 7:18f.), and which at other occasions was observed by Paul (however, with Christian and spiritual freedom, Acts 16:3). But when the false apostles urged circumcision for establishing their false doctrine, (that the works of the Law were necessary for righteousness and salvation,) and misused it for confirming their error in the minds of men, Paul says that he would not yield even for an hour, in order that the truth of the Gospel might continue unimpaired.]

***

GJ - This is a time when no Lutheran church should ever appear to be Romanist or Reformed/Pentecostal, not even in the most minor details. To excuse praise bands and aping Andy Stanley as cutting edge evangelism is just plain tom-foolery.

The true legalists are those law-salesmen who really believe that they can reproduce a Lutheran version of Willow Creek by following the Willow Creek laws and joining the Willow Creek Association (as Parlow, Kelm, and Trapp have done). They only reproduce a third-rate version of a liberal, anti-confessional, soon to be Unitarian congregation. They are not shining the Gospel light but spreading falsehood behind a glistening screen of lies. Their Father Below is proud of their work.

Worthwhile Thoughts on Worship - From Finkelstein

Cover by Norma Boeckler

Freddy Finkelstein said on Bailing Water...

Anon @12:08 has a very good point. The Confessions do more than confess, they point to practice as proof of our confession. In the statement he cites, Melanchton (sic) answers the accusations of Rome, that we stand outside of the One True Church, by a) declaring the accusations False, "Falsely are we accused...", and by b) pointing the Romans to our practice as proof of our answer, as proof that we are catholic, "...for the Mass is retained among us..."

As for FC X (Epitome), it is elucidated further in Article X of the Thorough Declaration, stating directly that practices which would associate us with the heterodox are not adiaphora, but are to be avoided as prohibited by God (emphasis mine):

“When under the title and pretext of external adiaphora such things are proposed as are in principle contrary to God's Word (although painted another color) [such as, fundamentally anthropocentric worship practices replacing christocentric practices, which openly conceal the Marks of the Church by removing the Sacrament from the Divine Service, which adopt worship practices defining human acts of worship as a Means of Grace, or which promote human experiences as assurance of salvation --FF], these are not to be regarded as adiaphora, in which one is free to act as he will, but must be avoided as things prohibited by God [the practice of immersion, for instance, falls into this category --FF]. In like manner, too, such ceremonies should not be matters of indifference, as make a show or feign the appearance, as though our religion and that of the Papists [or the Reformed, or the Baptists, or the Pentecostals... --FF] were not far apart, thus to avoid persecution, or as though the latter were not at least highly offensive to us; or when such ceremonies are designed for the purpose, or required and received in this sense, as though by and through them both contrary religions were reconciled and became one body; or when a reentering into the Papacy [or turning to the Reformed, or the Baptists, or the Pentecostals... --FF] and a departure from the pure doctrine of the Gospel and true religion should occur or gradually follow therefrom.”

The point is, the Confessions point us, as well as our adversaries, to our Practices as proof of our Confession. Therefore, our Practices must manifestly prove our separation from the heterodox and from sectarianism.

JB states that it is abhorrent to put words in the mouths of the Confessors, to make them say what they do not say. I agree, but at the same time, I say, it is abhorrent to take words from their mouths, to make them say any less than they do, by failing to take their words at face value. Much of what the Confessions say is very easy to understand, if one is accustomed to didactic reading -- neither secret hermeneutic nor deep knowledge of dead languages is required to to unveil their "true meaning."

I ended my 03/11/2009-5:14PM comment by stating that the only winning play is to return to our Confessions. They require a Church Practice that proves them. In the Confessions we will find a degree of freedom in Practice, but no freedom to jettison manifestly catholic rites; and we will find the requirement to remove from them only what cannot be practiced without sinning.

Freddy Finkelstein

March 12, 2009 1:51 PM

A Highly Trained WELS Pastor Writes His Sermon

"Mmmm. Someday that will be me on that Imax screen."

Sitting in the theater working on my sermon watching Marquette on the big screen. I love have (sic) cable on the IMAX.
about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Don't Buy the Bull

Angus Dei, as spelled by the Music Man on Bailing Water.

The market rallied as soon as I predicted a Dow-Jones of 5,000. The Wall Street Journal also suggested that as the bear bottom. Since then the DJ has risen by about 600 points. That means a major rally has lifted the average so high it is 50% of the previous high - 14,000. Such good news.

In today's paper is the unsurprising news that many huge insurance companies are limping and begging for TARP money: Met, Prudential, The Hartford. Others are in good shape: Northwestern Mutual, Mass Mutual, New York Life, TIAA-Cref.

If the gigantic insurance companies become strapped for cash, they have to stop buying equities. They are a major source of funds for Wall Street. There could be a run on some companies, like the earlier runs on banks. That happened years ago with one company located in St. Louis. They had some bad financial news. Suddenly their stock became worthless and they were bought up by Met Life.

The five largest banks in America (Citi, Bank of America, Chase, etc) have recently been called "dead men walking."

A lot of bad news has not come out yet. My prediction of a 5,000 DJ is still a distinct but unwelcome possibility.

Obamessiah, St. Marcus, WELS

Wisconsin Interest
Volume 18, No. 1
March, 2009

Miracle at St. Marcus
On the Frontlines of reform with writer Sunny Schubert

Henry Tyson shows how urban education can succeed in the right setting.


"I never wanted to be involved in helping the poor. My mother was born in Africa and was always very sympathetic toward the poor and people of other races. But the whole inner-city thing came about during my senior year at Northwestern," says the superintendent of Milwaukee's St. Marcus School.

"I was majoring in Russian, so in the summer of my junior year, I went to Russia. I absolutely hated it - just hated it. So when I got back to school, I realized I had a problem figuring out what to do next," he remembers.

About that time, he was having a discussion with a black friend, "and she basically told me I didn't have a clue what it was like in the inner city. She challenged me to do an ‘Urban Plunge,' which is a program where you spend a week in an inner-city neighborhood.

"We were in the Austin neighborhood, on the West Side of Chicago. It was a defining moment for me," he says. "I was so struck by the inequity and therefore the injustice of it all. I couldn't believe that people lived - and children were growing up! - in such an environment, such abject poverty."

"I knew after that week that I wanted to work with the urban poor. I felt a deep tug, like this was what I was meant to do. In my view, it was like a spiritual calling."

Tyson's Journey

It was the start of several journeys for Tyson: an educational journey into the failing milieu of inner-city schools; a physical journey that would carry him to St. Marcus Lutheran School on Milwaukee's north side, and a spiritual journey that would lead him to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

The programs he oversees at St. Marcus are the embodiment of everything he learned along the way. Tyson's students are proof of the ability of poor black children to perform just as well academically as their affluent white peers when placed in a highly structured and challenging environment, and testimony to the power of the Christian Gospel to transform lives.

Tyson, meanwhile, has become a powerful spokesman for the successes of the 20-year-old Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. He is an eloquent and elegant speaker with a direct gaze that conveys the strength of his convictions. It doesn't hurt that he is Hollywood-handsome as well, looking like he might be actor Colin Farrell's older, smarter brother.

AmeriCorps Volunteer

The 36-year-old bachelor was 4 when his family moved to the United States from Britain, but three years later, his parents sent him back to attend Felsted School in the south of England. That decision, he says, was based partly on tradition - I had five older siblings, three of whom were at Felsted - and partly because they were disappointed in American schools. Years later, he would come to share that disappointment.

After graduating from Northwestern, he joined AmeriCorps and was assigned to work with Habitat for Humanity in Chicago. "I became involved with several Habitat families, and through them I became aware of how bad many of the Chicago public schools were."

Then his boss invited him to dinner, where Tyson met fellow guest Arne Duncan, who would eventually become the reforming CEO of the Chicago public schools and President Barack Obama's pick for U.S. secretary of Education.

That night, over dinner, Duncan convinced him that education "was a more involved, systemic solution than housing" for the problems facing the urban poor.
Tyson enrolled in DePaul University, earning a master's degree in secondary education. "I had a good experience at DePaul, but I did not learn what I consider to be the critical elements of great urban education there. I'm a firm believer that great urban educators aren't educated on college campuses - only in great urban schools."

Which the Chicago high school where he began teaching emphatically was not. His fellow teachers lacked passion and commitment. The students were out of control. The classrooms were chaotic.

After a year, he moved to a suburban high school, which was somewhat better. But then a former colleague, Kole Knueppel, called him up. Knueppel had moved to Milwaukee to become principal of St. Marcus Lutheran School.

"You've got to come up here!" Tyson remembers Knueppel telling him. "We're going to do great things!"

Testing His Ideas

St. Marcus was about to undergo a $5 million renovation that would allow the student body to expand from 220 to 330. But best of all, St. Marcus would give Tyson the freedom to put his ideas concerning urban education into practice, and he would be surrounded by fellow teachers who shared his passion and commitment.


That was six years ago. Today, Tyson is superintendent of St. Marcus. Knueppel has moved on to head Hope High School, St. Marcus' "sister" choice school.


"When I got hired at St. Marcus, the first thing they did was send me to New York to look at a KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) school." He has visited other excellent urban schools in Houston and Chicago as well.

"What I saw in those schools revolutionized my thinking. When you walk into a great urban school, you can tell the difference immediately."

"The kids are focused. The teachers are teaching with passion. It's happy and calm.
The school day is crazy-long. There's direction. You see college stuff everywhere. And if you talk to a student, they make eye contact. They talk confidently, and they're polite."

That's what St. Marcus is like. At first glance, it looks like any school, albeit cleaner and neater than some. But the difference between St. Marcus and an average public school becomes apparent when students are between classes.

There is no jostling, no yelling, no slamming each other into lockers. The students, wearing uniforms of blue pants, blue blazers, white shirts and red ties, walk swiftly and quietly to their next class.

And they are excelling. Tyson pushed for them to take standardized tests, which are not required for private schools, and they are testing far ahead of their demographic peers.

Like their teachers, they are serious about learning. They arrive at St. Marcus as early as 6:30 a.m., and middle-school students often stay as late as 8:30 p.m. Tardiness, truancy and any kind of disruptive behavior are met with instantaneous discipline.

In the early grades, the teachers eschew educational fads like the new math or "whole language" reading instruction. Instead, they focus on the basics. In the upper grades, the curriculum is rigorous. Students are expected to complete three to four hours of homework every night. Along with academic subjects (including Latin), they have daily religious instruction.

"The transformative power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" is a crucial element of St. Marcus' success, Tyson says, and in his own life.

"I have never been a good Christian," he says. "Christ said only God is good. I am a miserable, broken sinner saved by grace, which brings me a tremendous amount of joy."

He and his colleagues are driven to share that joy with their students.
"We teach these kids that ‘God made you, God loves you, and God has a purpose for you. And when they know that, they will do anything to serve him."

"Love is absolutely the No. 1 ingredient" at St. Marcus, Tyson says. "The kids don't go nuts on us because they know we love them. There are all kinds of things you can do to kids in terms of discipline when they know that they are loved."

Long Hours, Hard Work

Likewise, St. Marcus teachers are willing to put in 12-hour days in service to God and their students.

"Any school that is successful has very extended hours," Tyson says. "That single point right there is absolutely critical. As long as the schools want to stick with the 6.5-hour day, we will never be successful.


"I never have to fight with my teachers. I think there are a lot of teachers out there who would jump at the chance to teach at a school like this. When you give a teacher the opportunity to change lives, the job becomes a consuming passion."

"Teaching is impossibly difficult. Period. You get better with practice. That's one thing that's wrong with our teacher training programs: Students don't spend enough time in the classroom, not enough time practicing.

"Urban education is not rocket science. Our model is largely stolen. People who are serious about school reform need to ask themselves why St. Marcus is more successful than most inner-city public schools at about half the cost," Tyson says.
"What we do here works. We should be replicating what works, but society has chosen not to."

Sunny Schubert is a Monona freelance writer and a former editorial writer for the Wisconsin State Journal.

More about St. Marcus


Located on Milwaukee's near north side, St. Marcus Lutheran School and its adjoining church and parsonage occupy a whole city block in the Brewer's Hill neighborhood.


The school, 2215 N. Palmer St., opened in 1875 to serve the children of the German immigrants who founded the church. Decades later, white families began leaving and were replaced by black families, most of them low-income.

Today, the neighborhood is again changing, with poor people moving out as the area gentrifies. "When I first started teaching here in 2002, most of our students came from the neighborhood," Tyson says. "Today, the only students from the neighborhood are our pastor's kids."

St. Marcus School has 330 students, up from 220 when Tyson started. Most are black; 85% are low-income students who bring with them $6,500 vouchers through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. St. Marcus' per-pupil expenditures are about $7,500 a year, compared to $13,000 per pupil in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

There are 45 full-time teachers and staff members. Teachers are paid almost as much as they would receive in the public schools, but are expected to work much longer days.

The school offers classes from four-year-old kindergarten through eighth grade. Admission is selective only in that returning students and their siblings are given priority. Any remaining vacancies are filled by a blind lottery among applicants.

St. Marcus does not cherry-pick its students, and Tyson says more than a handful would be considered "special needs" by the public schools because of learning, emotional or behavioral problems. Almost all respond to St. Marcus' formula of love and discipline.

In his six years at St. Marcus, Tyson says, "there have been about 10 kids we just couldn't reach. I very much regard it as our failure, not theirs."


For more about the school, go to: http://www.stmarcus.org/school/

***

GJ - Pay close attention to St. Markus and its relationship to Church and Change. Al Sorum, the heresiarch of The Sausage Factory, is also involved in this.

The voucher program seems like a great way to have heavily subsidized religious schools. The program began because industry leaders were appalled at the products of the public school system. But this is still a government-controlled school system. Liberals like Jeske and Sorum are quick to pounce on the government buck and plead for foundation funds. Then they sell this as a conservative program.

Surprise us some day and do something with your own money, St. Markus.

The best solution is to return to no taxation for schools and no funding for schools. Every family can fund its own education, whether at home or in convenient groups of home-schoolers, or private schools.

Public school teachers are so passive that they let grade school children hit them and spit on them. "Nothing can be done," I was told. I said, "Anyone who puts up with that is a fool." An education major asked, "What would you do?" I said, "Walk out. Eventually there would be a shortage." I went on to shock and appall the class by saying all tax money should be withdrawn. Schools are major centers of the illegal drug trade and also serve as promoters of legal but excessive drugging of students.

Social Security was invented in Europe to make people dependent upon the government and prevent social unrest. Most people would agree now that government control of any entity eventually freezes initiative, cost-cutting, and independent thinking.

FAQs: Frequently Avoided Questions

There is nothing like this aroma to get people
into the Popcorn Cathedral of Rock.


Q: Did you have a mid-week Lenten service?
A: We were planning for our small-group ministry.

Q: How much money are you getting for this circus?
A: None of your business because it is Other People's Money.

Q: Why does it take two full-time people to do so little church work?
A: The job is not done until the grant money is gone.

Q: Why start a mission one block from a huge congregation already working in the downtown?
A: Because we got the money to do it.

Q: What is the monthly cost for the lease, electrical, and other overhead items?
A: This is God's work and well worth it.

Q: When is your website going to have some original Gospel content?
A: As soon as we get some from Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley.

Mid-week Lenten Service

Paul Speratus wrote one of the first Lutheran hymns, #377, facing death for his teaching of Gospel truths.

Mid-Week Lenten Vespers


Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 6 PM Phoenix Time

The Hymn #552 Eventide 2.11
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 1 p. 123
The Lection John 15:1-10

The Sermon Hymn # 377 vss 1-5 Es ist das Heil 2.1

The Sermon – The Treasures of Heaven

The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45

The Hymn #377 vss 6-10 Es ist das Heil 2.1

God Gives the Increase in 1 Corinthians 3:4-9

1 Corinthians 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.


St. Paul’s mission to the Gentiles placed him in danger many times, even though he did not run away from God’s presence. The apostolic letters to the Corinthians leave little doubt that he encountered a host of major problems—from childish strife to gross immorality and desecration of the Lord’s Supper. This particular passage deals with the party spirit dividing the congregation, 1 Corinthians 1:11. Some identified with Paul, some with Apollos. [26] It should not surprise us that today conflict in the congregation is caused by exactly the same problem—an emphasis upon the person and a lack of trust in the efficacy of the Word.
Paul first attacked the problem of strife by negating the effectiveness of the individual. The ministry does not derive its divine power from personalities but from the Word. Our temptation to rely upon salvation by works, in spite of our confession, is revealed by the tendency to compare and contrast men when they are only instruments of God’s power. One cannot even compare the type of word, as Paul stated:

I have planted, Apollos watered;
but God gave the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:6

Many people find their gardening efforts thwarted because the seeds they planted did not germinate well. The proper amount of moisture needed for germination is taken for granted in America, unlike in Paul’s world. [27] We do not plant the last of our seed (Psalm 126:5) with tears. But where rain is rare and food is precious, the watering of the sown crop is essential. Paul’s comparison reminds us that planting and watering are both necessary, yet only God can give the growth.

J-230
"On what has now been sown
Thy blessing, Lord, bestow;
The power is Thine alone
To make it spring and grow.
Do Thou in grace the harvest raise,
And Thou alone shalt have the praise."
John Newton, 1779, cento, alt., "On What Has Now Been Sown," The Lutheran Hymnal, #46, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

J-231
“The work in Corinth was that of obtaining a spiritual crop. To Paul’s lot it fell to break the ground and to plant the seed of the Word; God caused the seed to strike root and to spring up. Then came Apollos and tended the young plants by developing the life of faith, by confirming the believers in their Christian knowledge; God’s merciful power accompanied his efforts and caused the plants to bring forth fruit. It follows, then, that neither he that plants nor he that irrigates is anything; they are mere instruments in the hand of God, the Lord of the harvest, who alone gives the growth, and to whom, therefore, all glory must be given: He is everything, He alone remains, all others are excluded.”
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible, The New Testament, 2 vols., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, II, p. 99.

The negation of the person is repeated in 1 Corinthians 3:7. Neither the sower nor the one who waters is anything. The only One Who causes growth is God. Paul’s inspired argument destroys the foundation for any strife about the abilities and labor of various people. The missionary who begins a congregation is nothing. The man who helps to germinate the work of the congregation is nothing. God causes the increase while we go through the motions.

J-232
"But ye have not the power to create faith. For there is a great difference between planting and giving the growth; as Paul says to the Corinthians: 'I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.' 1 Corinthians 3:6"
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 362.

J-233
“The two aorists: ‘I planted,’ ‘he watered,’ point into the past—the men did their little work and are gone. So it is still: each performs his little instrumental task and leaves. When he is describing God’s activity Paul writes the imperfect hu;xanen (gave the increase) which refers to an act begun in the past but going on and on indefinitely, for the tense is open and sets no terminus. Paul and Apollos have left Corinth, God is still there and causing the growing. Why quarrel about men when the Corinthians should unite in praising God?”
R. C. H. Lenski, Corinthians, Columbus: Wartburg Press, 1947, p. 128.

Those who doubt the power of the Word alone are exasperated by this explanation, saying, “If God can do everything and does everything, where do we fit in? Why even try?” In a world governed by Law, it does seem strange to say that God does everything, but nothing is more liberating than realizing we only need to be faithful. Pharisaical weakness makes us want to glory in our own deeds and not in God’s power, so we are inclined to adulterate the Gospel, sell it as a commodity, cheapen it, or make it appealing as a way of proving our worth. [28] The antidote is to boast about God rather than ourselves:

KJV 1 Corinthians 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:24)



J-234
"And it is of advantage, so far as can be done, to adorn the ministry of the Word with every kind of praise against fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own, if they sit unoccupied and silent in obscure places, waiting for illumination, as the Enthusiasts formerly taught, and the Anabaptists now teach."
Article XIII, The Sacraments, 13, Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 311. Tappert, p. 213. Heiser, p. 95.

Verse nine concludes the argument with an invocation of the Triune God. Paul holds the distinct office of the preaching ministry, making him, with all of his faults, a co-worker with God. He would have been shocked beyond measure to have all the members considered ministers too. They, with all of their faults, are the cultivation of God and the building of God. The three-fold expression emphasizes the preacher employing the power of God’s Word while the congregation enjoys the growing and the edifying accomplished by the Holy Spirit working through the Word alone. Thus we have a simple, yet profound way to remember the faithful work of the Christian Church:
The Word and Sacraments – Of God
The Growth of Souls – Of God
The Strengthening of the Congregation – Of God.



About Paul Speratus – copied from http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Speratus.htm

About the year 1506 he began his activity as a pastor in the bishopric of Augsburg. He remained a Catholic priest for over ten years. In 1517 he even wrote a poem in honor of Martin Luther’s famous opponent, Johann Eck. But very soon Martin Luther’s writings and the reform movement in Wittenberg began to bear influence upon him. At first, however, he hoped, like Martin Luther, that a reform could be carried through within the Church, so that celibacy and monastic vows among the clergy might be abolished. With courage and hope he took up the reform measures, when he became dean of Würtzburg, where both the bishop and several other leading men agreed with him. Speratus even went so far as to marry. This was several years previous to Martin Luther’s marriage. But the district was placed under a new archbishop, who was a very strict Catholic. When he learned that Speratus had broken the law of celibacy, he deposed him from office in 1520. Speratus and his wife then left for Salzburg, where the archbishop was friendly to the Reformers. He was again given the office of dean and at once resumed his efforts at reform work. But Speratus was undaunted and outspoken, and when he reprimanded his bishop for penuriousness he had to give up his position. On the way to a new field of labor in Hungary he appeared in Vienna and agitated against monastic vows and celibacy. He gained many followers. But he was excommunicated and accused of heresy. His life was now in danger, hence he left Vienna secretly and set out for Wittenberg. He journeyed through the town of Iglau in Moravia, and there he found both the officials and the people very favorable towards the reform movement. He was elected their pastor and preached with great fervor concerning the grace of God in Christ. He gained an extensive following. But a complaint had been sent to the king, and Speratus was soon cast into prison. For the second time he was face to face with death. But these trials only had a ripening influence upon him. Until this time he had been undaunted and daring; from now on a quiet resignation settled upon his mind and actions. From his prison chamber he sent many fervent letters to his dear congregation in Iglau Here he also wrote his famous hymn “Es ist das Heil uns kommen her” using a chorale melody from the 15th century. His imprisonment did not last so very long, however. The young emperor took another view of the matter and ordered the bishop to release him on condition that he should leave Moravia. Then he went at once to Wittenberg, 1523. Speratus was heartily received by Martin Luther and his friends. It was just at the time when Martin Luther was laboring to furnish the people with hymns in their mother tongue. In one of the very first hymn collections, the so-called Achtliederbuch, three of the hymns of Speratus were included, together with four by Martin Luther and one hymn by an unknown writer. Speratus assisted Martin Luther in many ways. Martin Luther held him in high esteem because of his piety and great learning. When Duke Albrecht of Brandenburg sought Luther’s advice concerning the introduction of the Reformation in his state, Martin Luther recommended Speratus for this work. The duke acted accordingly. Speratus became the first palace chaplain of Königsberg, 1524, and from 1530 bishop of Marienwerder, Pomerania.

Cutbacks at Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Louis

Leonard Sweet, professor of wikeletics, futurist, and world-class purveyor of intellectual Spam, should have prepared Concordia, St. Louis for future upheavals when he lectured there.


March 11, 2009

SEMINARY REGENTS ADDRESS FINANCIAL CHALLENGES

ST. LOUIS—The Board of Regents of Concordia Seminary has received reports on how the current economic situation is affecting the Seminary’s finances, and it has responded. Meeting February 13, 2009, and again in a special telephone conference call February 26, the Board passed several resolutions to help the Seminary cope with the situation.


Faced with an expected $4 million operating deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, and a significant decrease in expected income for the following fiscal year, the Board has authorized trimming payroll expenditures by some 20%. Initially, the Seminary will offer regular full-time faculty and staff who are at least 55 years of age and who have served the Seminary for at least five years a voluntary early retirement incentive offer. “While those who choose this option will no longer be full-time employees of the Seminary, some will continue their service to the Seminary in a limited capacity through adjunct teaching and other activities,” said Dr. Dale A. Meyer, Seminary President. “Because those who retire can continue to teach, we are confident that the Seminary will retain its reputation for having an exceptional faculty and staff.”

In a previous action, in January, the Board froze salaries for Seminary employees, accepted voluntary salary reductions from the President and Vice Presidents, and placed some maintenance work on hold. Mr. James Ralls, Chairman of the Regents, indicated that the Board “worked hard and long to address the current financial challenges.” Among the options cited by Mr. Ralls were “increased tuition charges, deficit spending, and cutting further into the value of the Seminary’s endowment.” The Board determined that these options would not be wise at this time and could jeopardize the Seminary’s ability to follow through on important elements of its strategic plan for the future.

The individuals offered the early retirement incentive will have time to consider the offer, which also includes some Seminary assistance for health insurance for those individuals and their covered dependents. To help them in their decision-making process, Concordia Plans will have benefit advisors on-site to answer their questions. “We want to take the best care of our people that we can under the circumstances,” said President Meyer. “We regret that cuts are necessary, but we remain confident that God can bring good from this situation. When we come out of the recession, we’ll see that Concordia Seminary seized the present economic downturn to take giant steps into delivering 21st century theological education. When that future comes, our ‘refined’ Concordia Seminary will be fulfilling its mission in the ‘new normal,’ not lost in the new realities. For now, however, the Lord is allowing us to be painfully refined.”

The early retirement offer is the first step in reducing the personnel expenses of the Seminary, but other personnel reductions will most likely be necessary. Expense cuts are also being made in other areas of the Seminary’s operations. Delaying some maintenance projects, freezing salaries, and tightening program budgets will contribute cost savings to help offset the anticipated deficit.

Dr. Meyer met with faculty and staff members on March 11 to explain the actions of the Regents. “I am not happy with this unexpected situation,” he said, “but by taking these actions at this time, the Regents are seeking to avoid accumulating debt and other consequences down the road that could jeopardize the Seminary’s mission.”

The Seminary is nearing the final year of its How Will They Hear? Campaign that, to date, has “been blessed with so many gifts from so many kind friends and supporters,” said Dr. Meyer. “We pray the Campaign is successful, despite the current economic conditions, so that the Seminary can regain a strong financial position for the important work it is called upon to do.”

Few If Any Takers on Australian Calls

I would start recruiting at an Outback Steakhouse. If that doesn't work, buy a bloke a few beers. When he can no longer say, "Bonzer Beer!" ship him out.


Bruce Church has left a new comment on your post "Get Rid of Your Troublesome Conservative Pastor, W...":

This is strange. Now Rev. Cascione is no longer seeking names of pastors to go to Australia even though he said the response was insufficient. I'm guessing that while there's a need, there's no money to get the pastors halfway across the globe:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reclaimnews/message/137

March 10, 2009

"Response for Names of Lutheran Pastors to Australia Insufficient"

A request has been sent out to help fill 30 vacant Lutheran congregations in Australia. We have had that number reconfirmed. In fact, in the next few years the number may soon go to 40 vacant congregations.

It is possible that no American Lutheran Pastors are interested in going to Australia.

At this time Reclaim News is withdrawing its request for more Lutheran Pastors who wish to serve a congregation in Australia.

Maybe they saw this photo.