Victory of the Penguins

Victory of the Lamb - Church and Changers:

Sunday was our very first Bible Quest at Showtime Cinema. We lerned (sic) how penguins teach us to care for other. Philippians 2:4 “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Victory of the Lamb
Victory's first Worship at Showtime was a big hit. Come back again this next Sunday for worship at 9:30am but make sure you come early for Fellowship by 8:45am or whenever you can.Sun 7:57pmVictory of the Lamb

(Tim) I just want to thank everyone who helped out today. It was great to see it all come together. I walked into the Theater at 7:30 and had my nose involved in setup inside and walked out at 9:00am to see the lobby transformed. I saw phenominal (sic) work on setting up the electronics. everybody pitched in and it was great...I only wish we could have had the same crew working on my lawn this fine day.

Bible Quest

Please Read This: Veterans of Drive 08 and 09, Willow Creekers, and Fullerites

Martin Chemnitz, editor of the Book of Concord,
primary author of the Formula of Concord,
student of Luther and Melanchthon

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Doug Englebrecht - It's 10 PMDo You Know Where You...":

Two years ago I joined the local WELS church after having been Baptist most of my life. I do believe what I was taught in confirmation classes and could see where my old church had gone astray. I am sad to watch as my new church is drifting slowly but surely to look and act exactly like my old church. What is the alternative? I am at a loss.

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St. Paul, Muskego (WELS) has the logo for Fireproof Your Marriage on its front page. The graphic boasts that the movie came from the same folks who produced Facing the Giants. For those who missed Facing the Giants, the plot revolves around a football coach at a Christian academy who has a losing team, a disastrous car, a childless marriage, and a bummed-out look on his face all the time. He yields himself to God (the only sacrament among the Reformed) and:

1. His wife gets pregnant.
   
2. His team starts winning.
   
3. Grateful parents buy him a brand-new truck.
   
4. The entire campus of the school breaks into little prayer groups.
   
5. He smiles.

Needless to say, Peter Pan-denominational is a Church and Change activist, using The Simple Church, which is--naturally--Babtist.

Why the Shrinkers Cannot Win, If the Word Is Applied

The Shrinkers of Church and Change get their power from the gullibility of members and pastors, but also from their proven history as liars, bullies, and slanderers.

One pastor said that he is like many others, afraid to lose his position by speaking out. Why is that? Read a few nasty-grams from the Shrinkers. They never disclose their names, but they are busy on the legendary WELS grapevine spreading stories about anyone who dares to question them while covering up for their pals.

Some may imagine that Ski, Glende, Buske, and Katy are the only WELS workers coming back from Drive 09, the Babtist conference in Atlanta. Since Parlow went to the last one, we can assume plenty of the Chicanery leaders were there as well. They identify with the Babtists. They read Babtist books (when they read), listen to Babtist tapes and podcasts, and buy Babtist programs.

The Shrinkers are Pietists, not the Biblical Lutherans they pretend to be. They cannot abide being examined by someone who knows comparative dogmatics. (Nota bene: they cannot spell comparative on their own website. They cannot do what they cannot spell.)

If a Doctrinal Pussycat cannot expose the doctrinal errors of the Shrinkers, he could leave the ministry because he is not "apt to teach," a requirement for pastoral ministry.

I have yet to see a single refutation from a Shrinker sent to this blog. The Church and Chicanery comments boil down to:

1. You are wrong (no reasons given).
   
2. You use lies and half-truths (no examples given).
   
3. You are a bad person.
   
4. Obscenities.
   
5. You are angry and bitter. But, I hear WELS pastors read Ichabod every day and laugh their heads off.
   
6. Bad spelling, bad grammar, bad sentence structure.
   
7. Starbucks uses real whipped cream, so you are wrong.
   
8. Britain's Got Talent is 100% honest, so you are wrong again.

Question of the Year, From Anonymous

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Cover Story versus The Facts":

Who is Brett Meyer? And what qualifies him more than anyone else to judge what the Bible has to say about justification and women participating in the worship service? It's not enough to say "I'm right and you're wrong." Show us your credentials, Brett.

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GJ - This is funnier than Anonymous saying, "You are a gutless coward." All the nasty, vindictive, and obscene comments come from Anonymous. I am sure there are a few of them with that pen name. What qualifies them? I post the comments to show what Church and Change has done for WELS.

I also get long, Scripture-filled statements on my need to repent, signed Anonymous.

When I quote the false teachers verbatim, Anonymous tells me this is a violation of the Eighth Commandment and Matthew 18. However, Anonymous knows exactly what is going on in my mind, reading my evil thoughts, and denouncing me for those imagined thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

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More toxic waste from--you guessed it--Anonymous:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

My guess is, GJ, that those who don't sign their name have known you in the past. They know what kind of person you are, they know how twisted your reasoning can be, and they know how you have ruined reputations first in Christian News and now on your blog. Can you blame them for not signing their name? Everyone who has known you realizes exactly what you would do to their reputation. Don't act so naive.

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GJ - Several things drive these people wild:

1. They do not like being found out or quoted, and quotations are my speciality.
   
2. They hate citations from Luther, Chemnitz, Chytraeus, and the Book of Concord.
   
3. They loathe the laity who have figured them out. For instance, marketing specialists know that the Shrinkers are just dabbling in marketing.
   
4. They believe, but their hides bristle (Epistle of James).

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

(DEEP RESONATING VOICE)Who is Anonymous? Who beckons me forth to show my credentials?

Dear Anonymous, you ask, "what qualifies (Brett)... to judge what the Bible has to say about Justification and women (reading the liturgy) in the worship service?"

First, I'm not judging Scripture but the false doctrine of wolves who, wrapped in the freshly shorn wool of young souls, teach and practice against the Word of God. It is Pastor Schewe and his ilk that say God's Word, Christ, is unclear and grey. The very source of all Christian doctrine and the very Word of God, which is the supreme Judge and Foundation of Christian faith, has been declared muddy and uncertain by these false teachers.

Second, 1 John 4:1 says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Beloved refers to everyone who by grace, through faith, trusts alone in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. This is my confession and as such am included in 'Beloved' and intend to test the spirits whether they are of God. I will also speak openly, using my name, because I am confident that I confess the Words of Scripture and Christian doctrine as declared to all men in the Bible and correctly explained in the unaltered Lutheran Confessions. If I know that I speak and confess Christ's doctrines how can I not boldly do so using my real name and reject the shame that comes from fearing what the world may do to me because of my confession.

Third, I'm not the first to make these confessions of Christian faith concerning women teaching the congregation in the Divine Service. Martin Luther states in “Lectures on 1 Timothy” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 28) 1 Tim. 2:11. “Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I believe that Paul is still speaking about public matters. I also want it to refer to the public ministry, which occurs in the public assembly of the church. There a woman must be completely quiet, because she should remain a hearer and not become a teacher. She is not to be the spokesman among the people. She should refrain from teaching, from praying (ie: leading in prayer) in public. She has the command to speak at home. This passage makes a woman subject. It takes from her all public office and authority.” The Confessions condemn UOJ as enthusiasm and the quotes supporting this are endless and can be found on Ichabod.

Fourth, although Walther taught the miserable doctrine of UOJ he did provide a faithful sermon on this very subject. Walther, "Oh my friends, if you had recognized some time ago, that the office of judge belongs by right to you, you would not have fallen into such great and so many errors. Your preachers went the way of error, and in false trust in man you followed them without first examining them. How sad the results have been! Therefore, know and guard your rights; examine everything and keep what is good. This, however, leads me to the second point of our meditation. It is this: If the judgment over the shepherds belongs to the sheep, they have to know the true doctrine and be certain of it."

Now this is just to Anonymous - you need to read this sermon. http://www.cfwwalther.com/heck/walther13.htm

In Christ,
Brett Meyer

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Ayn Rand has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

And tell the "original" Anonymous poster to stop stealing the opening lines of my novels.

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Stan Eukrich has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

I'm glad people are seizing on this useless ad hominem stuff.

Credentials? How about "literacy" for a start? I'll cook for a large party and someone will ask me, "How do you know how to cook so well?" Usually I just say, "I can read." Mr. Meyer can also read--you know, that thing we're encouraged to do with the Scriptures? It's really as simple as that.

I wish I had grown up reading the Confessions...I was WELS-educated from first to twelfth grade and I don't think I could've spelled "Concord" if you spotted me "C-n-c-r-d."

Incidentally, Acts 17 does not tell us the Bereans presented credentials to St. Paul, though this may be an argument from silence...

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KJV Acts 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

Keep writing GJ and Brett. Everyone is able to read your vile bile and get a good sense of the sickness that permeates you both. When you have some time, paste a picture of Brett and yourself onto the southern ends of the north-bound horses. That's where they belong. You both are horse hinies and play the role equally well! Brett is not even a pretend pastor like you, Greg? He is pretty impressive! Maybe you should award him an Ichabod Jr. badge of honor!

Now, I've got to go. I'm going to make sure my wife gets the singing out her system at home, so she does not utter a sound at worship this week - you understand, that sillence thing! Shhhhhhh! Or, maybe humming is allowed since no one would confuse it with teaching? I'm going to see what Luther and Walther wrote about it. Maybe it is ok, so long as no guitar is involved? What about kazoos, are they liturgically neutral? I'm soooooooo confused!

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I. J. Reilly has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

I'm a bit of a newbie to this site, but I've noticed that most of the people who post do so anonymously, no matter which "side" they happen to be on. Are those on G.J.'s "side" who post anonymously doing so because they are afraid of "the other side," or are they doing so because they are afraid they'll eventually post something that will draw the ire of Gregory the Great, the Pope of Bethany? I suspect that it may be the latter.

I can't do what ten people tell me to do, so I guess I'll remain the same.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Question of the Year, From Anonymous":

I have an idea. If you would openly allow all posts to your blog be seen, without censorship or first needing approval, I am sure more people would openly post NON-anonymously.

Try it.

***

GJ - You betcha. I should let obscene material through, cussing, foul words. I am sure people would start putting their real names on those messages. They are not random messages either. They are clearly partisan, from the Church and Changers.

Also, I get messages designed merely to promote a blog or website. There is already enough spam out there.

I have an idea - start your own blog and follow your rules. Soon the potheads, dweebs, stoners, and crackheads will beat a path to your URL.

One Crusty Hold Out Against Ordaining Women Disagrees with Church and Change, WELS

A Latvian Bars Ordaining Women
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY,
Published: Wednesday, August 3, 1994


The oldest working pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia is 93. The youngest, ordained this year, is 18. The Archbishop of Latvia says the shortage of pastors in his country is so extreme that he has to take anyone he can get.

Except women.

In defiance of his predecessor in Latvia and almost all the larger Lutheran churches around the world, Archbishop Janis Vanags refuses to ordain women.

"It is true we need pastors very much," the Archbishop said, "but it is better to do without them than to do something against the will of God."

The rock-hard views of the 35-year-old Archbishop, who was elected six months ago, have bitterly divided Latvia's largest denomination. Deeper Than Usual Rift

Many other Protestant denominations are divided over the ordination of women. The Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, one of the largest in America, still refuses. But the rift seems deeper here, where the Lutheran Church is so closely identified with Latvian nationalism.

Mostly, the battle reflects a trend throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: Even after the collapse of Communism, faiths forged in persecution remain far more conservative than those nurtured in the West.

The issue of ordination of women is not just an internal dispute in Latvia. The issue has also alienated the Latvian-based church from branches in Europe and the Americas that were established by Latvians who fled the Communists in 1940.

This is particularly true of the American branch, a church that grew large and prosperous in exile. Talk of reuniting the Latvian church and its exile branch has stopped, and instead, some Western church leaders are quietly planning to cut back on money sent to Riga. Dispute in Estonia

The same dispute simmers in neighboring Estonia, where only 4 of the country's 100 pastors are women. But there, the Archbishop does not openly oppose ordination. In Lithuania, too, women can be ordained.

"I know of no other place where the ordination of women was started, and then stopped," said Archbishop Elmar Ernst Rozitis, who from Germany heads the Latvian Lutheran Church abroad. "At this time I see no real possibility of a resolution."

Sarmite Fisere, who became a pastor in 1989, the day the Synod in Latvia voted to ordain women, is particularly frustrated.

"It makes no sense," said Ms. Fisere, one of nine women who were ordained before Archbishop Vanags took office. He has not interfered with their work.

Latvia, with 2 million inhabitants, has about 300,000 Lutherans and only 89 ministers and 39 lay preachers to guide them. Ms. Fisere, for instance, is the only Lutheran minister in the village of Ogre (population 28,000). "The need is so deep, and the people have accepted us women completely," she said. Infecting Young Pastors

She said Archbishop Vanags's views were infecting many young pastors, who, she said, were increasingly conservative.

She said, "In my opinion, Vanags is too young and inexperienced."

Ms. Fisere and the Archbishop were seminarians together at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Latvia in the mid-1980's, in the early days of perestroika, when the authorities gingerly began relaxing the strictures against religious activity but still punished those who pursued the new freedom too eagerly.

The Archbishop, who was a chemist, said he lost his job and apartment when he began working as a lay preacher. Ms. Fisere said she was accused of anti-Soviet agitation in the seminary and was almost kicked out. They both took part in the nonviolent revolution that led to Baltic independence in 1991. At Odds With West

The Archbishop is also at odds with his male counterparts in the Western branch of the Latvian church, who have been working alongside women pastors since 1970.

"We in the exile church have put quite a bit of pressure on the Archbishop over this," said Vilis Varsbergs, a Chicago-based church leader who in August will become dean of the theological department of the University of Latvia, which is where the Lutheran seminary is situated. "But it has been resented."

Archbishop Vanags's position on the ordination of women was known before he was elected by the Latvian Synod of Bishops, and most Western church leaders favored the candidacy of Archbishop Rozitis. But most Latvians, including even liberal church leaders, preferred a lifelong resident of Latvia. Many Women in Seminary

More than a third of the students in the Lutheran seminary in Riga are women, and no one is quite certain what will happen when the first women come up as candidates for ordination.

Some could stay in academia, teaching theology. Archbishop Rozitis said he would ordain Latvian women if they came to Germany with the intention of working outside Latvia, but he said he was not ready to defy Archbishop Vanags's authority and ordain women to return and work as pastors in Latvia.

"That would start off a very tense time between our churches," he said. "It is hard to do something, and just as hard to do nothing."

Archbishop Rozitis said there was another, more drastic step.

The World Lutheran Federation, the Lutheran umbrella group in Geneva, could vote to suspend the Latvian Church, in an echo of steps taken in 1984 against two white South African churches that refused to reject their nation's apartheid system. Federation 'Not Our Pope'

But even that prospect did not seem to shake Archbishop Vanags. "I hope they will not go that far," he said calmly. "But they cannot tell us what to do. The president of the World Lutheran Federation is not our pope."

Seated beneath a portrait of Martin Luther in his office in the church consistory, an elegantly renovated building that was used as a Soviet Army barracks during the Soviet occupation, the Archbishop explained his stance.

"It's not that I don't think women are just as capable as men -- they often get better marks than men in the theological faculty," he said. "But we have to follow what the Bible tells us, we can't impose our ideas of human rights or equal rights."

The Archbishop declined to cite specific passages in the Bible that prohibit the ordination of women. "If I cite a specific passage, others would react and say it can be interpreted differently. It would not be serious." Mr. Varsbergs argued that whatever biblical strictures could be found against women as members of the clergy were the word of men -- not God. "Prohibitions against women reflected the cultural situation in Greece at that time," he said. To the conservative argument that Jesus did not have female apostles, Mr. Varsbergs replied, "If you apply that standard, then gentiles shouldn't be ordained, either."

Calling the dispute "the most divisive issue in the history of our church," Archbishop Vanags called on the other side to give in. "If I were a woman and my wish to become a pastor was dividing the church," he said, "then I would give up this demand."

Photo: The Lutheran Archbishop of Latvia, Janis Vargas, has reversed his predecessor's stand and refuses to ordain women as pastors, dividing his denomination. Recently the Archbishop said although the church needed pastors, "it was better to do without them than to do something against the will of God." (Chuck Nacke for The New York Times) Map of shows the location of Riga, Latvia.

Correction: August 9, 1994, Tuesday An article last Wednesday about the refusal of the Lutheran Archbishop of Latvia to ordain women misstated the name of the church's world body. It is the Lutheran World Federation. A picture caption with the article misstated the Archbishop's name. It is Janis Vanags, not Vargas.

ELCA Seizing Church Property

Admit it - you read Ichabod for the funny pictures posted.

Pew — this stinks! Congregation is homeless in church fight
By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper


The Brooklyn Paper / Kate Emerson
The congregation at Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 490 Pacific St. in Boerum Hill is now homeless, thanks to a bizarre dispute.

Mother of God! A splintering fight for control of a Lutheran church in Boerum Hill has left the dwindling congregation homeless.

Members of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church and the Metropolitan New York Synod, which oversees local congregations, have been tussling for control of the Pacific Street church for several years, but last week, the fight became public when some congregants rallied outside of the Lutheran organization’s Manhattan headquarters, claiming that the synod had seized their place of worship.

“They’ve been shut out of their own church without any recourse,” fumed the Rev. Norman David, a visiting, and renegade, pastor from Massachusetts who organized last Tuesday’s protest to regain control of the 1874 church. “The Synod thinks they can lord it over you and seize your property.”

The fight is complicated because not only is it being waged in civil court, but the two sides are contesting each other by the arcane rules of this branch of the Lutheran Church. Some of Bethlehem’s most-vocal critics want to dissolve their connection with the Synod — and need two votes by a two-thirds majority to do so.

One secession vote has already happened and a second is scheduled for May, David said.

The Synod claims that the whole congregation does not want to secede, but merely that some rogue members do. The Synod also does not recognize the outcome of the first alleged vote, nor the appeals from David and Muriel Tillinghast, the president of the Boerum Hill church’s congregation. (If her name is familiar, it’s because she was Ralph Nader’s running mate in the 1996 presidential race.)

The feud goes back to 2003, David said, when members of the congregation felt the Synod had become hellbent on shutting the church and appointed a pastor allied with the Synod leadership.

Lawsuits and countersuits followed. Events boiled quietly over in early January when the Synod changed the locks on the church, driving the small congregation to hold its services at Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Heights.

The Synod claims the building is in disrepair and is too hazardous for the congregation, and that members of the congregation have not allowed the Synod to make improvements. However, the only complaint on file with the city’s Buildings Department says that a stone parapet, which tumbled to the sidewalk and a public parking lot in 2007, has been resolved.

David and Tillinghast said the Synod wanted to shut down Bethlehem Lutheran Church to sell the property for a handsome profit, but they’ve fought back to keep their flock intact.

“They pay their own way and hold their own services,” David said, talking about the $160,000 budget the congregation ran on in 2008.

But Tillinghast herself wants to raze the 136-year-old church and redevelop the site.

“What I’d like to do is to have a new edifice, one that is 21st century. We’re dealing with a 19th-century church that didn’t have a maintenance program. We keep it going and it’s not so bad,” said Tillinghast. “We’d like to support entrepreneurial development in our neighborhood with artists and small offices. We want the church to be a hub.”

And she and her plans, known as the so-called “Vision,” have not had the full support of congregation, which is down to about two dozen voting members last year.

No one from the Metropolitan New York Synod would consent to be quoted for this article.

Perhaps a higher power will have to intervene.


Updated 05:46 pm, April, 30 2009: Story was updated to include more context about Muriel Tillighast.

Doug Englebrecht - It's 10 PMDo You Know Where Your Pastors Are?

Doug Englebrecht, DP, Northern Wisconsin--Anything Goes--District

Glende, Ski, and Katy are larning evangelism from the Babtists in Atlanta.

Buske is there too, but he is from Milwaukee.

Ski, Buske, and Parlow were there last year for Drive 08. Have you read Ski's blog about worshiping with Andy Stanley and how awesome that was?

WELS found enough spine to shut down the Waldo Werning-Kent Hunter love fest, but promotes Babtist touchy-feely decision theology?

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Doug Englebrecht - It's 10 PMDo You Know Where You...":

President Engelbrecht:
Please act on this.

Thank-you.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Doug Englebrecht - It's 10 PMDo You Know Where You...":

Pastor Englebrecht, where are your pastors and even more importantly - where is your spine? If you are not willing to do your job, please resign and let someone who is willing to keep a close eye on wayward pastors do that job for you! These pastors who prefer to learn from people with whom WELS is not even in fellowship with should be disciplined and made an example of as to keep others from getting the same idea. I personally am on the brink of severing my own lifelong membership with the WELS. Not that I am leaving WELS but that they have left ME. I anxiously await this upcoming synod convention and expect to see a harsh condemnation of this type of activity followed by not just lip service, but serious consequence to those who would try to hijack my church now or in the future. Without that, sadly I fear I can no longer associate with a church body that doesn't practice what it preaches.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Doug Englebrecht - It's 10 PMDo You Know Where You...":

Two years ago I joined the local WELS church after having been Baptist most of my life. I do believe what I was taught in confirmation classes and could see where my old church had gone astray. I am sad to watch as my new church is drifting slowly but surely to look and act exactly like my old church. What is the alternative? I am at a loss.

Church and Change Day at Martin Luther College

Actual sign from Church Sign Generator - they spelled Babtist wrong.

Read the PDF and weep.

I have a converter and may convert the document into Word. I don't think I can convert the presenters into Lutherans.