Convert from the Church Growth Movement

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Convention Monday - Good and Bad":

...."In light of Pres. Schroeder's remarks, how can they even keep the Core - or others like it - open another day?...."

Well, they'll just continue on with what they are doing without question in most cases. They'll lay low for a while and consider that they are suffering for Christ and take assurance from the CGM teachers that "they will take all sorts of criticism from the nay sayers and just need to keep moving forward and undeterred."

BUT there IS hope. I was pretty well in the camp of CGM albeit unknowingly. I was a pretty good Pietist as well. But guess what? The confessions cleared up my thinking.

Interestingly I was feeling very uneasy about things I was doing and involved with - basically teaching and preaching without a call. I talked to some very well respected friends, pastors and people well grounded in confessional Lutheran doctrine. I started reading - even reading what the likes of Rick Warren and C. Peter Wagner had written, but mostly confessional stuff. I was convinced by the TRUTH that what I was doing was not right.

So there is hope for those well meaning folks out there who out of wholesome, yet misguided, zeal want to share the message of Christ. Through the Means of Grace this is accomplished. I have yet to see a CGM program that hasn't detracted from this and have seen the emphasis put elsewhere. Unionism seems to always follow or lead in these efforts as evidenced by some of our leaders going elsewhere to learn at CGM teachers' feet. They are missing the spirit of the doctrine of fellowship.

S.D.G.

WELS Convention Thread for Tuesday

Intelligent remarks, observations, and factual accounts are welcome.

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Luther: Bach paid attention to him.

Click here.

Bach was an orthodox Lutheran--shush, don't tell--and the Lutheran Church was blessed during the time of orthodoxy.

Notes on the President's Report

Curtis Peterson came from the LCMS to be a WELS pastor.
He served on the WELS world mission board, constantly promoting the Church Growth Movement.
He is now an atheist, publishing with the foundation called
Freedom From Religion.
Above is one of their efforts.

WELS SP Mark Schroeder started out by talking about slogans. I imagine this was a hint about the misleading slogans of Church Growth.

He gave a general view of Gospel work.

He described the world of the Roman Empire during First Century, which is just like today. (ELCA will have everything but a toga party to celebrate that.)

Schroeder emphasized the Word and Sacraments, quoting Isaiah 55 about the efficacy of the Word alone.

He also described the Means of Grace, a phrase ignored in the last 30 years.

Success is to be measured by faithfulness, not by the theology of glory but the theology of the cross. He clearly described the marketing approach of Church Growth, soft-pedaling the Gospel, making it appealing to the self. Not packaged.

"Effective, powerful Word."

"Making the Gospel reasonable or attractive" to those who are perishing means changing it, and "then we will have failed."

"WELS has described itself as a confessional synod." He distinguished between the quatenus and quia subscriptions of the Book of Concord, doctrine and practice.

WELS began by people being sent by unionistic, Pietistic mission societies from Europe. These groups emphasized the marks of Pietism, which he named - prayer versus the Means of Grace, feelings versus the objective truth of the Gospel, etc.

Bading began changing the commitment of the synod in 1861.

Faithfulness to doctrine is not opposition to mission work. (The Shrinkers claim otherwise.)

The synod grew in the 1960s and 1970s during the crisis with the LCMS. (Note that TELL began to unravel this in 1977.)

People cannot hide behind adiaphora.

"Doctrine shapes practice."

Also - "practice influences our doctrine."

Warnings about Evangelical and Reformed theology. Methods emphasizing feelings named.

"Generic feel-good Christianity" criticized.

The last part is an extensive discussion of budget woes, past and present.

Let's Discuss Wasteful Spending

There are many more stories to tell about wasteful synod spending, but these stand out as prime examples.

Victory of the Movie Theater
They were excited to lease a movie theater, so they can lease anti-Lutheran films from anti-Lutherans. Their soccer camp equates the Resurrection of Christ with winning a game. Didja know soccer is a Means of Grace?

The CORE
Regurgitated Groeschel. $250,000 spent so far - in Fox Valley, loaded with WELS congregations. Two full-time staffers, a pastor and a female assistant.

Rock N Roll
In spite of two full-time staffers and a $20,000 Antioch grant, this Round Rock mission is not setting the prairie on fire with copied sermons. Two full-time staffers, a pastor and a female assistant.

Latte Lutheran Church
Couches, movie screens. Gourmet coffee. Vicar. Two full-time staffers, a pastor and a female assistant, but does the pastor count when he is just on a movie screen? Featured in FIC, so it must be good. Randy Hunter got a vicar assigned, thanks to the DP, so Randy must be kosher.

CrossWalk in Phoenix
Pastor Jeff was TopGunn at Church and Change, until the money ran dry. The congregation was kept out of WELS membership by a vote of the district. He is shopping a call at WLC, the fetid womb of Church and Change.

Kudu Don Patterson has a well established church with a huge staff, but he needed another free vicar so he could hunt for zebras in Africa - and for Enthusiasm in Orlando.

CrossRoads in S. Lyons, Michigan
Unfair! they shriek. "They are no longer WELS." Ah yes, but DP Robert Mueller and VP Kuske approved the start of this congregation, which had three WELS pastors involved - Rick Miller, Mark Freier, and Kelly Voigt. All three pastors are thanked by Pastor Joe for establishing the Evangelical Covenant Church.

More Insubordination To Come

The Love Shack staff (WELS Headquarters) has shown its colors by their acts of open insubordination, ever since their security was threatened by the election of SP Schroeder, two years ago.

FIC Spin for Church and Change
Some items are well known. FIC has continued to be the synod-funded printing press for Church and Change, with the recently fired Jim Aderman--a former Chicanery board member--slotted to teach WELS about the Ten Commandments. Each issue of FIC has featured articles by Shrinkers. Why? Because Church and Change = Synod Staff, and Synod Staff = Church and Change. Who started Church and Change? The Synod Staff did, with synod offering money. How nice.

FIC featured one of the more outrageous Shrinker congregations, Randy Hunter's Latte Sect, with the cross blasphemously resting in a coffee cup as their logo. As I recall, the logo was not printed with the article. Too bad - that might have made some DPs wake up.

Paul Calvin Kelm Call
Bruce Becker's Perish Services insisted on calling a new person, in spite of the obviously budget crisis. They were admonished by the SP not to spend more money and not to hire a polarizing figure. When everyone opened the call report that fateful morning, they all learned Paul Calvin Kelm had a call from St. Mark Willow Creek Lutheran to The Love Shack - thanks to defiant Becker and Perish Services. No one told the duly elected Synodical President that the call was issued. I have been at The Love Shack. Walking down the hall is not much of a struggle, even for an overweight staffer. The appointment was clearly arranged as a kick to the ribs. Kelm, who turns 65 in December, was not exactly a symbol of youth and energy.

So what did the Shrinkers do? They cried out with one voice that this was not so. I checked two different trustworthy sources (as others did). My version was verified - Kelm was hired behind the back of the SP, against Schroeder's clearly expressed counsel, and the news slipped out in the official WELS call report. Bruce Becker was being paid as the head of Perish Services while leading Church and Change. When his position was threatened, he left for - Time of Grace with Mark Jeske, one of the founders of Church and Change.

Stetzer Conference Invite
In keeping with their sneaky, deceptive methods, the Shrinkers invited Babtist Ed Stetzer to be their keynote speaker at the November, 2009 Church and Change conference. This happened after District VP Don Patterson took a bunch of WELS workers to the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida, where Stetzer spoke. At about that time, Stetzer announced he was speaking for Church and Change. He put it on his Twitter first. He blogged about it, making fun of the Lutheran Confessions in the process, and also added the gig to his official calendar. Thus, Stetzer affirmed his speaking engagement for Church and Change three different ways.

The Church and Change websty announced the conference but not the speaker. Why so deceptive?

The Chicaneries went wild denying Stetzer, in spite of the published evidence. I wonder if Stetzer got the message - "We love you, Ed. Be our speaker. But we will deny you three times before the cock crows." At some point the Conference of Pussycats actually stomped their paws and demanded a dis-invite.

The Chicaneries were not happy. I never got their listserve messages on this, but I heard they were hissed off, the snakes that they are. Several of their leaders were invited to a Come-to-Jesus meeting with the SP. They were also told to keep him informed. Why would an official organization of WELS have to keep the SP informed? Who does he think he is?

Now we finally have the agenda of Church and Change for November. But first they will have a stealth meeting in August, at The Sausage Factory, with Bruce Becker speaking under the cover of the WELS Prayer Pietism Institute. They also have a women's ordination lobby called Jars of Clay. Shrinkers are like bunny-rabbits. Leave them alone for a few days and they have babies. They cannot grow the Church, because they do not know how, but they can reproduce if left alone in the dark.

Howling Mad When Exposed
Various people have given me links and documents. The Shrinkers did not like having their secret listserve published. Most believers would ask, "Why is a discussion group secretive?" One discussion showed how no one could dissuade Paul Calvin Kelm from having Leonard Sweet as the Church and Change keynote speaker. (I actually thought Sweet was canceled.) The Shrinkers say, "Come to us and talk to us," but Kelm said he wasn't even going to discuss the issue with anyone.

Earlier, when I was learning about Church and Change, EastCoast told me the group was finished, gone, shut down by Gurgle. So I said, "Really? Then why is their next conference registration being linked right from the WELS.net website, via the jumpwords?" That was for 2007. Like I said, Church and Change = Synod Staff, and vice versa. The 2007 conference was limited to Lutheran Shrinkers, but they went back to the roots of pure Enthusiasm for 2009, until stomped again.

Ski and The CORE
Lenski pointed out (in Acts, I believe) that Lutheran pastors should not innovate unless they discuss proposed changes with brother pastors. Instead, some people decided to spend a boatload of money ($250,000 already) on an alleged mission placed one block from a large, established WELS church with a downtown ministry.

Ski and Bishop Katie do not hesitate to display their study with Groeschel, Stanley, Beeson, Driscoll, and others deliberately copying Groeschel's sermons.

Ski is on the board of Church and Change. Ski and Bishop Katie were previously at St. Marcus, Pastor Mark Jeske. Questions? Buehler? Buehler? Anyone?

WELS Convention Monday - Good and Bad

I heard many reports about SP Schroeder's opening remarks, but I cannot get the video to run so far. That suggests the servers are unable to keep up with the demand.

Readers are understandably ecstatic about the affirmation of Biblical, Lutheran doctrine and Schroeder's outright rejection of Church Growth doctrine. I will say more when I can hear the address itself.

Lutherans have been looking for this ever since Fuller Seminary took over their synods in the distant past. I date the WELS takeover from 1977, when Ron Roth began publishing TELL with a positive endorsement from SP Naumann. As bad as Mischke was with CG, Naumann let the ideology get started. Likewise, Robert Preus installed a CG program at The Surrendered Fort. Before he died, Preus wrote against Romanism, which was taking over the seminary as an answer (?) to the Shrinkers (Werning, et al.). Thus Enthusiasm is countered with more Enthusiasm, Romanism promoted by errorists to stop in inroads of Fuller Seminary!

Al Barry was elected LCMS President around 1992, when the doctrinal errors of CG were well documented. I was invited to the Purple Palace by Paul McCain, but he turned hostile the moment I said Barry was too mild about CG. Thus Missouri squandered an opportunity to turn from unionistic Pietism and Enthusiasm. Nine years of unchecked growth and Barryolatry gave Missouri the reign of Kieschnick.

Yesterday, WELS elected one of the worst CG leaders, Jim Huebner, as First VP. I anticipated that Church and Change would rally the synod staff and most DPs to vote in a solid block for their choice. The CG minders always make sure that no word is spoken against one of their own, so they can turn lay votes their way too. Nevertheless, the post is not the same since Wayne Mueller made himself virtual SP and handed himself a fat salary to boot. Mueller was voted out of office, but the VP-elect, Kolander, refused to serve, so Mueller was voted back in. Why take illegal drugs when you can have the same nightmarish experience watching WELS elections?

Efficacy of the Word Alone
The power of the Word comes from affirming sound doctrine and rejecting false doctrine. If Lutherans cannot do this at every level, they are not Lutherans but Pietists.

Conventions have only the slightest impact compared to the doctrinal leadership of the officials, pastors, and laity. If there is a serious, synod-wide study of the Book of Concord, that will unfetter the doctrinal aptitude of the membership.

In the last year I began hearing from friends from long ago, not to mention new friends from blogging. Their response to SP Schroeder's leadership has been universally positive. In fact, he is the only official I can recall to have shown doctrinal leadership which is both Biblical and Confessional. For example, I admire what Jack and Robert Preus accomplished in their day, but they limited their efforts by appealing to the Biblical piety of Missouri, letting inerrancy suffice as an issue. As Scaer said about the Inerrancy Conference, "The only thing they agree on is inerrancy." Mrs. Ichabod and I went to the Chicago gathering, which Preus and Marquart also attended. It was a rainbow coalition, with some of the Lutherans representing a compromising inerrancy at that! The room was filled with Pentecostals, Babtists, etc. (Shrinkers will be saddened to learn that I refused to participate in singing.) To say that the Bible is completely true, without error or contradiction, is no more than claiming that water is wet. Stopping at the inerrancy of the Word is a grave error, one which killed the Missouri revolution and handed the victory to apostates lying in wait.

Pasadena Follies
The Fooler Seminary professors appealed to the vanity of the Midwestern Lutherans by saying conservative church bodies would grow--according to studies!--if only they would unleash the power of marketing. McGavran told Larry Olson (DMin, Fuller) to harvest with a scythe, "not with a penknife."

Starting with Robert Schuller, who claimed the invention of Church Growth, and Fuller Seminary, where McGavran and Wagner gathered all the denominational officials, apostasy spread to the point where chuckleheads like Hunter, Werning, Beeson, Stanley, Driscoll, Stetzer, and Sweet have assumed the role of Doctors of the Lutheran Church. This power was not grabbed by the Enthusiasts, but handed to them - with millions of synod offering dollars.

Naming Names
I remember John Lawrenz denouncing a fine paper by Pastor Sauer. "He named names!" That is one of the Shrinkers' worst condemnations. And - "They were not there to defend themselves!" John failed to recall that he was criticizing Sauer behind the man's back, naming names. In fact, he made Sauer's commendable essay look like sin. Sauer was not there to defend himself when John yelled, "His church is dead!"

Naming names has a fine tradition, going back to the Scriptures, if done correctly. The concept is simple - identify the false doctrine and who is teaching it. That is not a personal attack. Publicly refuting false doctrine is not a violation of the 8th Commandment. Matthew 18 is not required, for similar reasons. The most hateful thing a pastor or layman can do is overlook false doctrine, excuse it, and pretend it is not blasphemy against God's Word.

For all their professed sensitivity, the Shrinkers have proven themselves the Largest, Established, Permanent, Floating Slander Machine in Lutherdom. They transcend synodical boundaries, with Hunter and Werning just as active in WELS/ELS as they are in Missouri. Werning chased one critic of CG out of two different synods, Missouri and the ELS. Fellow Book of Concord students - he was not alone, as everyone knows by now. The Shrinkers cannot make a case for their doctrine, so they howl about their hurt feelings while burying their opponents in Dreck.