WELS Boram

May 22, 2009

Brothers,

We are pleased to announce that work on the 2009 Book of Reports and Memorials (BORAM) is now complete. As a male called worker or convention delegate, you will be mailed a copy May 29; you should have it in hand the first week of June. In the meantime, you can read, download, or print a PDF version.

BORAM will also be available to the synod at large next week through our convention Web site, http://www.wels.net/convention.

When BORAM went to press, it contained the most current information on nominations for convention elections. Be sure to check http://www.wels.net/convention for the latest updates and other convention information.

Serving you in Christ,

Joel Hochmuth
WELS Director of Communications

Seminex - The LCMS Scandal

The leaders of Seminex, LCMS, lied about their doctrinal apostasy,
bewitched the students, and left with a ton of rare,
stolen books from the Concordia, St. Louis library.

1. They went outside the denomination to earn their doctorates.
   
2. Their academic efforts were rewarded with choice positions teaching the seminary students.
   
3. They pretended to be Old School while teaching the students their new doctrine, absorbed from false teachers.
   
4. They loved Gehrke and Jungkuntz, men with doctorates who taught the Word of God was full of errors.
   
5. They organized political groups which polarized their synod.
   
6. By the time they were found out, they had taken over most of the seminary and all of the synodical political structure.
   
7. They screamed and howled when they were exposed.

No, this is not a tale about the LCMS explosion called Seminex. That story just happens to have repeated itself in the Wisconsin Synod. In fact, many of the LCMS Seminex leaders graduated from Northwestern College, Watertown, that bastion of orthodoxy. Jungkuntz and Gehrke taught there until they were finally exposed as false teachers. They moved up to the LCMS, then to ELCA. Their college students became the apostate CGM leaders of WELS.

Dr. Jungkuntz taught at Northwestern College, where he was a favorite of the liberal students, who still get misty over him.

The Sausage Factory prides itself on turning out identical products. When Valleskey was hired as their Church Growth professor, the tide of apostasy washed away doctrinal discernment. Valleskey became VP, then president of the seminary. Wendland is another Shrinker and Valleskey's pal Bivens is the VP.

***

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Two Approaches - One of Them Dead Wrong":

'they all end up buying Hell when they could have heaven for free.'

Truer words were never spoken. Isn't it sad that these dog and pony shows like Sweet, Stetzer, Stanley, Groeschel, etc. think so highly of themselves that they themselves make money off the fools who spend great amounts of money to attend their seminars? If they were truly concerned for all those lost souls in the world, wouldn't they share all this valuable information with the masses for free?

***

GJ - The founder of Christian Science realized that people value expensive religious information. Of course, that fad has gone the way of zoot suits and 23 skidoo.

I give away everything, and all I get from Minnie Mouse is grief.

Rock N Roll - Three Years Later, Tons of Money Spent - 30 People

Busta Gut is singing the blues now.

Whoever taught Matt Doebler to copy the sermons of false teachers--and grow through grants--should be given the Left Foot of Fellowship.

Why do 30 people also need a staffer earning $50k? No wonder Doebler went to the Antioch Foundation for a $200,000 grant - for a worship leader, etc. The Antioch Foundation was going to solve all their problems...not. Rock N Roll still got $20,000. Rock N Roll has its hands out for district mission money too.

The Doctrinal Pussycats gathered in solemn assembly at Patterson's Safari Church and blessed the Church From Scratch. No, that is not my nickname for the congregation. If you type in churchfromscratch.net in your browser, you get Doebler's church websty.

***

GJ - Recently, Rock N Roll had a total of 30 people in attendance. No wonder Minnie Mouse is upset about Bethany. We have no grants, no subsidy, only a volunteer Altar Guild.

Mrs. Ichabod said on May 10, "Remember, before I was the Altar Guild, I was a mother."

We have up to 50 in attendance, when Ustream is working right, and many more who use the saved video files. Thousands use the Ichabod and Bethany blogs, but the Rock N Roll blog de-rezzed after a few feeble tries. Even the Rock N Roll flies are gone. Oops, I mean the files are gone.

Your WELS offering money at work, folks. Doebler is a black hole for funds and his buddy Patterson needs a free vicar again. I guess they heard the hymn wrong. It is not "Preach the dross," but "Bear the cross."

Two Approaches - One of Them Dead Wrong

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Raising Them Right at Church and Change":

C&C takes a capital intensive approach instead of a labor intensive one. The cost spirals out of control as they make one high-risk maneuver after another saying God will provide the means. This is testing God as much as the Devil telling Christ to jump off the temple mount.

***

GJ - That is a good point, one which I have been thinking about. Lately I have been reading books about the tycoons of the 19th century: Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J. P. Morgan. Rockefeller and Carnegie owed much of their success to looking at costs, down to the penny. Rockefeller figured out how many rivets to put on a kerosene can and saved millions by reducing the total. Carnegie knew how much a steel factory cost to run, so he could calculate profits. Both were far ahead of their time in using statistics and paring costs (often at the expense of the workers, the competition, and the public).

We have just seen an era where the facts did not matter in regard to stock prices or home values. Illegals were getting mortgages and flipping houses in six months. I remembered someone who went bankrupt doing that in another era of hot housing, so I was not tempted - not that I could have done it anyway.

The old way of running a denomination and a congregation was to count the pennies. Mischke's entire operation consisted of an office at NPH with his wife Gladys as his secretary. That was not long ago. But he and Gurgel built a kingdom at The Love Shack with Thrivent, Schwan, and offering money.

I served in two congregations with very good incomes for their time. No one would have imagined me going to a distant conference one month plus flying to another one the next month. Ski and Glende did that, with others still in hiding. Nor could I have published a parish bulletin which lied about where I was going and what I was doing. Glende's bulletin misled his congregation both times by omitting all the key information, such as where and what. And the money spent! Mercy.

When the big money rolls in, common sense goes out the window. As the writer says above, the concept suggests that money will replace labor. A wise pastor wrote me that pastoral conferences (Hybels, Beeson, Driscoll, Sweet, Stetzer, Stanley, Groeschel, et al.) come from congregations reaching a plateau. Their new money-raising phase is incredibly greedy - "Come spend a few days with us and we will share our secrets."

I went to a Church Growth conference in Columbus because a Lutheran lay leader asked me to report on it. I counted about $60,000 in fees, not to mention the books sales. Many were leaving with 10 books in their arms and a glassy look in their eyes. Selling dreams is a great gig. One of my students goes to events like that just to get pumped up, but he leaves his wallet, checkbook, and cash at home.

The Church and Chicaneries are all addicts of these mirages. Certainly a few of them have learned to prostitute themselves and adulterate the Word enough to look good to others. When they adulterate the Word and offer coaching instead of the Gospel, they attract rich adulterers who purr at their words. Nevertheless, they all end up buying Hell when they could have heaven for free.

I have seen the glassy eyes so many times, it makes me sick to think about it. A District Mission Board chair (LCA, then another in WELS) crows about "people moving into this zip code," because Fuller told them that was the key to a growing church. Get in there and spent a hunk of dough, but spend it at Fuller first, then go back for refresher courses at Fuller. And send some of your people, so the underlings are up to speed.

I have talked to people who listened to Paul Y. Cho, a creepy guy so deep into the occult that he would have been burned at the stake in better times. No matter what I said, the addict would murmur, "But he was so exciting and inspirational." Yes, bow down to me and all this will be yours.

The Church Shrinkers have all gotten high on the Kool-Aid. Now their names are coming out in the open. Using money as their substitute for trusting in the Word, they have enjoyed the good things of life while dogs licked the oozing sores of Lazarus. The Church and Chicanery gang need a confession of sin and a battery of criminal lawyers, a veritable Dream Team for their Mission Vision.

Baptist On The Church Growth Movement

Probably not copied from Fuller, Willow Creek, or Mars Hill:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=13009220225

Or Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel.

Raising Them Right at Church and Change

Anonymouse Yells "Coward" Again

Anonymouse has left another clueless comment on your post "Rev. Kristen Administers the Means of Grace":

For someone who claims to be such a staunch Lutheran, your Ascension 'communion' service was a joke. You call that administering the sacrament? How do you do a baptism?

You may not agree with how some people are conducting church, but at least they can administer the sacraments. You should be ashamed of your behavior and hiding in your little box. Get out in the world. Start your own church instead of hiding your light.

I have posted on this subject before and I'm sure you will in cowardly fashion delete this as you have the others because you know that I am right and you have no defense. But you still have to read this and maybe some day it will sink in. Your arrogance will do you in.

---

From a signed email:

Good evening Pastor,

What a beautiful Ascension Service! Thank you! It was very interesting the way you used the four Gospels and showed how they are each separate books but yet all mesh together. I really enjoyed everything.

***

GJ - Mouse - Check out the map on the Bethany blog. We are all over the world. I also teach all over the world. When I quote Luther to various religions and denominations, they never have hissy-fits.

The video services were created for those who wanted them. There has been no effort to keep them a secret. Every service is posted, not only with the saved video file, but also with the written sermon and The Lutheran Hymnal service.

In contrast, Church and Chicaneries:

1. Hide their sermons, which are often copied from Groeschel, Driscoll, and others.
   
2. Hide their sermon titles, which are copied verbatim from false teachers.
   
3. Claim the sermons of others as their own, then hiding the evidence (Kelming and Parlowing).
   
4. Buy manufactured Bible lessons from Mars Hill (Driscoll) and others.
   
5. Offer no Lutheran content on their glitzy websites, but boast about being relevant, real, relational, comfy, cozy, and caffeinated.
   
6. Mock the Means of Grace by offering their entertainment schemes as an antidote to Christ-centered, confessional, liturgical worship services.
   
7. Devour subsidies in the name of mission, while scooping up members from sister churches in the name of evangelism.
   

Your Church Growth heroes of the past--Curtis Peterson, Mark Freier, Bob Schumann, Randy Cutter, Rick Miller, Kelly Voigt, et al.--have left the Lutheran Church or Christianity altogether.

That is quite a record. In this litigious society, in a secular setting, the professors at The Sausage Factory, The Love Shack officials, and the Doctrinal Pussycats would be defending themselves in court for destroying the corporation.

They have been court already, due to murder raps, MilCraft's insolvency (robbing widows), and the sexual abuse of minors.

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Anonymouse, revealing his Church and Chicanery education, has left a new comment on your post "Anonymouse Yells "Coward" Again":

Nice one, ya putz. As always you never addressed my charge about the sacraments. Instead you just parrot more of your own garbage. I looked at the viewer stats mostly in single digits. You call that reaching the world? Certainly you could do more in your community if you made half the effort you do now.

You are no more a Lutheran than those you run down and are just as guilty. You don't administer the sacraments because you can't and won't.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Anonymouse Yells "Coward" Again":

I too was encouraged by the breadth of the sermon. A special example was that the very disciples who had spent a few years in the presence of Christ were so weak in their own faith they went back to cowering behind locked doors or back to fishing to feed themselves.

Yet Christ came back to serve them again. "Feed my sheep," He said.


While some WELS pastors cavort with the Decisionists, Pr Jackson is showing that the disciples themselves couldn't make their own 'decision for Christ' stick. It took the Holy Spirit Himself to imbue them and to spread the Gospel.


+Diet O. Worms

Woe To Me If I Preach Not the Ants

The Sausage Factory graduates without calls can always get a job in a rock band. That area of ministry is expanding in WELS.

From Bailing Water:

Please, let us change the topic.

A relative was getting his vicar assignment from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. I watched the service on the web. The preacher, whom the bulletin said was a Prof. Hartwig did not preach the Gospel other than a passing reference or two to the word. He obviously then did not preach Christ crucified, in fact he went on at great length about the training of young ants by older ants, yes, ants. I learned more about ants than I did about Christ.

Is this typical of seminary prof's preaching (since this was a grand affair, I assume so.) If you don't believe me, check it out.

Oh, and as I heard from my relative, 11 seniors will not get calls.

Fabio

Rev. Kristen Administers the Means of Grace

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Randy Hunter Got A Vicar For Latte Lutheran Church...":

The manner in which you present Staff Minister of Worship Kristen Koepsell is incorrect. She is not a Rev. to the congregation. She preach (sic - don't go ghetto on us) to them nor does she tend to their spiritual welfare - that is the job of Rev. Hunter and Staff Minister Hochmuth. Check Kristen's job description here:
http://www.st-andrew-online.org/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=5563&sec_id=2361

St. Andrew is a great WELS congregation. Their Waunakee worship services are an excellent example of the 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 passages which close with these important words:
"...I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Rev. Kristen: "I say this with a full and complete understanding (and appreciation!) of the fact that the actual work is done by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace – but it is a great privilege and a great joy to be an instrument in ‘administering God’s grace’ in the form of worship gatherings."

***

GJ - Funny how all the C and C cults have women staffers starting out: St. Andrews-by-the-Starbucks, Rock 'N Roll, Cross-Eyed in Phoenix. Does anyone wonder where all the money went?

The Chicaneries have been promoting women usurping authority and teaching men (the real issues from 1 Timothy) for many years.

No surprise that the Odd Couple of C and C - Kathie Wendland and Rich Gurgel - produced the latest iteration of what the liberals can get away with - Heirs Together. No surprise either that they chose the same title as Richard Stadler's ground-breaking essay, which was nicknamed Errorists Together.

Notice the Staff Minister - another gift from Larry Oh! - "Our Staff Infection" - using insights from feminist Fuller Seminary, where he got his drive-by DMin.

And now a vicar too? Oh, the hidebound, rigidly orthodox DPs have stretched forth their consecrated and consecrating hands on this overly-caffeinated bunch.

Grounds for impeachment, if you get my pun.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Rev. Kristen Administers the Means of Grace":

She doesn't say she administers God's grace in the form of worship gatherings. She calls herself "an instrument in administering God's grace in the form of worship gatherings." The person who types up the worship folder or plays the organ could also be called an instrument.

***

GJ - There have been two Amens! to the Latte Easy Chair Church. One was the puff piece in FIC, the magazine serving as an expensive instrument of propaganda for Church and Change, but paid from the synod budget. The second Amen! comes from the COP giving Latte a vicar when others were refused.

Left unsaid in the comment directly above is exactly what Rev. Kristen does when she uses the language, the very words of pastoral ministry. But we have all learned from Fuller Seminary and its victims that "everyone is a minister."

Presbyterian Eviscerates the Latte Sensitive Cults

This Presbyterian minister is better than the whole COP put together.