WELS Convention Wrap - From the SP

From the office of President Mark Schroeder

Nearly 400 delegates met last week in Saginaw, Mich., for the synod's 60th biennial convention. With "Christ's Love, Our Calling" as the theme and with the cross of Christ as the focus, the delegates spent the week prayerfully determining how the synod can best carry out its dual mission of preserving and proclaiming the gospel.

Beginning with an inspiring worship service at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, and continuing with the president's report, two doctrinal essays, and daily devotions, the delegates received guidance and strength from the words and promises of God. Presentations by missionaries highlighted both the blessings and the opportunities in our mission fields. Reports from all areas of synodical work painted a clear picture of the many ways in which we are walking together to serve people with the gospel.

The budget
As expected, the budgetary challenges facing the synod occupied a major segment of the delegates' attention. An open hearing on Monday evening gave delegates the opportunity to discuss the two budget options presented by the Synodical Council. The prevailing sentiment was that neither option was desirable, since either choice would result in additional reductions in ministries that were considered core ministries of the synod. The floor committee dealing with the budget listened to the delegates' input and concluded that a third option should be considered. It recommended a budget that requires no further manpower cuts in Missions or Ministerial Education and instead reduces funding for Technology by $150,000; Financial Services by $100,000; Communications by $50,000; Parish Services by $200,000; mission counselors by $100,000; and travel and meeting costs by $400,000 across all areas of ministry.

This proposal by the floor committee was overwhelmingly adopted by a margin of 80 percent to 20 percent.

The convention also expressed consensus agreement that Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) are the primary and foundational support of the synod's work. In view of that, all congregations are encouraged to emphasize CMO in their planning and budgeting.

Ad Hoc Commission
For the last two years, a special Ad Hoc Commission worked to identify possible improvements in the way that the synod carries out its mission and ministry. The commission's wide-ranging report and recommendations were addressed by six separate floor committees. In the end, 63 of its 65 recommendations were approved. In a few cases, recommendations were amended slightly but still reflected the original intent of the commission. The convention did not approve the recommendation to study the creation of three new districts and did not approve a recommendation to alter the voting membership of the Synodical Council. All 30 of the commission's endorsements of action already taken were favorably received.

The convention favorably received the preamble to the Ad Hoc Commission report. The preamble contained a summary of the mission and purpose of the synod and encouraged that the section be distributed throughout the synod and that pastors be encouraged to share and study this summary with their congregations.

Parish services reconfigured
In the section of its report addressing the need to strengthen congregations and their members, the Ad Hoc Commission recommended a redeployment of Parish Services. The change involved placing the ministries of Parish Services under the direct responsibility of the Conference of Presidents. It also involved removing the Parish Services board and eliminating the position of administrator. The convention approved this recommendation but made provisions for a Parish Services Council, which will coordinate the work. Policy-setting and calling responsibility for the newly configured Parish Services will rest with the Conference of Presidents. Budget reductions for the ministries of Parish Services will also mean a reduction in administrative and staff positions.

Other significant decisions of the convention

• The convention encouraged Home and World Missions to redirect manpower and funding in order to continue to enter new fields when appropriate and advisable.
• A gift policy will be developed that will decrease the number of special funds, limit the creation of new funds, and better utilize dollars in existing funds.
• The Conference of Presidents will address the issue of congregations that provide little or no support for the synod's work through their Congregation Mission Offerings.
• Areas of Ministry were directed to continually monitor staffing levels and to provide justification for all positions.
• The bylaws were amended to reduce the size of circuits to "normally not more than eight" congregations.
• Ministerial Education schools were encouraged to reduce costs, control tuition, and increase merit-based scholarships, if possible.
• The convention called for the development of a flexible program of continuing education for called workers.
• The Conference of Presidents was directed to initiate a synodwide review of key doctrines and practical issues. This review would also provide materials and guidance for studies at conferences and in congregations. Topics to be studied are the efficacy of the means of grace, Christian vocation and church and ministry, care of souls (evangelical Christian discipline), and the sacramental life.
• The full-time position of vice president for mission and ministry was changed to a part-time first vice president. Pastor James Huebner was elected to this position; Pastor Joel Voss was elected to serve a partial term as the second vice president.
• The convention strongly encouraged congregations to direct the savings from the planned VEBA premium holiday to the WELS operating fund.

God blessed our synod convention last week with a group of delegates who were truly about their Father's business. While not everyone agreed with every decision, the sense of unity in belief and in purpose was clear. We pray that, just as God blessed the work of the convention, he will now bless the work that we continue to do together in his name.

Detailed information about the convention is posted on the convention Web site: www.wels.net/convention

Serving in Christ,
Mark Schroeder

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GJ - Everyone who keeps his Book of Concord close at hand was impressed with SP Schroeder's leadership of the convention.

The agenda was changed from
Grow the Administration/Shrink the Schools to
Keep the Schools/Shrink the Shrinkers.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Convention Wrap - From the SP":

Anon@5:39

Any actual anecdotal or substantive proof behind what you said. Over a brief skim of the BoRaM, it was pretty decisive that the churches not give CMO are

1) Churches that fall into the "contemporary" category
2) Churches in districts rife with CGM ministers
3) Recent missions.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Convention Wrap - From the SP":

Hard to say, but I think the Appleton / Green Bay area may be at the top of the list (Northern Wisconsin District I think). It's a really sorry situation in the Fox Valley. You have:

CORE (the Queen Mother of CG "congregations")

St. Mark DePere(Parlow / Kelm)

St. Matthew Appleton (contempo worship / dying congregation / Pastor is close to Ski)

Eternal Love Appleton (contempo worship / children's sermons, etc)

Bethany Appleton (contempo worship, cell groups, projectors, etc)

St. Peter Appleton / Freedom (the church that called Ski and is the "sponsor" of CORE)

Mt. Olive Appleton (may be starting contempo worship)

There may be more, but these are the congregations that I know have, to one extent or another, polluted themselves with CG elements.

Safe (or safer) churches up there would include St. Paul (one block from CORE), Riverview (Appleton), and Immanuel (Oshkosh).

Is Wayne Mueller's Replacement as First Veep a Shrinker?

On Bailing Water:

Anonymous said...

Freddy,

As one who has worshipped now and then at the church served by the first VP, I'm astonished that you'd call him a known CGM advocate.

Your July 26 post on your own blog identifies Ev-Luth congregations. The things you say you're tired of enduring are not found at his church.

August 5, 2009 9:10 AM

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"'Church growth.' I've seen people cringe when they hear those words. I think I know why. They react negatively because they feel 'church growth' implies an obsessive fixation with numbers and statistics."
Pastor James Huebner, Spiritual Renewal Consultant, Notebook, School of Outreach IV, Seventeen Ways to Keep Your Church from Growing, p. 178.

"We can't do a thing to make his Word more effective. But surely we can detract from its effectiveness by careless errors and poor judgment. It just makes good sense to utilize all of our God-given talents, to scour the field for appropriate ideas, concepts, and material (sic), to implement programs, methods, and techniques so that we do not detract from the effectiveness of the gospel we proclaim. Church growth articles, books, seminars, and conferences can offer such ideas and programs."
Pastor James Huebner, Spiritual Renewal Consultant, Notebook, School of Outreach IV, Seventeen Ways to Keep Your Church from Growing, p 178.

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GJ - Huebner was trained at Fuller Seminary to be a Church Growth consultant, as he admitted to me. Paul Calvin Kelm ran this so-called Spiritual Renewal Program after getting himself into constant trouble running Evangelism. Kelm was also an early editor of TELL, which the synod began to promote the Church Growth Movement (starting in 1977 with Ron Roth). Kelm and Larry Olson (DMin, Fuller Seminary) ran around WELS retooling the WELS pastors in a massive CG promotion. The same three men were used to brainwash new Sausage Factory grads one year after being ordained (in case the Enthusiasm wore off).

Apart from the activities of the CG trio, there are the actual quotations above, which have not been retracted and repudiated by Huebner.

The CGM trio above has served as the launching pad for Ski, Doebler, Hunter, Stolzenburg, and many others. The rotten apple CORE does not fall far from the tree.

Pietism, UOJ, and Halle University

A little church history lesson - Knapp promoted double justification in his Halle University lectures. His translator used the terms objective justification and subjective justification before the Missouri Synod began.

SceleratissimusLutheranus has left a new comment on your post "Pietism, UOJ, and Halle University":

You can find a picture of Knapp here: http://www.google.com/books?id=cZkRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&lr=#v=onepage&q=&f=false.

I can find no picture of Knapp, so this is the book from which Google took its scans. Note that the Universalist Historical Society donated the book. Universalsim teaches that everyone is saved. ELCA's Gospel reductionism and UOJ are flavors of Universalism.

The first union theologian, Spener, encouraged and worked with Francke, who became the central figure of Halle University, which was founded to promote Pietism. Francke's son-in-law, Freylinghausen, edited the Pietist hymnal, and served as director of the Francke charities. Knapp became a supervisor of the Francke charitable institutions when Freylinghausen died in 1785.

From the English translation of Knapp's Christian Theology, which was widely read in German and English, in America and Europe, before the Missouri Synod began and throughout the 19th century -

§ 113. UNIVERSALITY OP JUSTIFICATION. 817

It is universal as the atonement itself; vid. § 111, II. If the atonement extends to the whole human race, justification must also be universal; i. e. all must be able to obtain the actual forgiveness of their sins and blessedness, on account of the atonement of Christ. But in order to obviate mistakes, some points may require explanation. Justification, then, is universal,

(1) In respect to the persons to be pardoned.

All men, according to the Bible, may partake of this benefit. It was designed for all; vid. especially Rom. 3: 23. 5: 15 (§ 111),

318 ART. X. § 113. UNIVERSALITY OP JUSTIFICATION

in opposition to Jewish exclusiveness. It is bestowed however conditionally ; certain conditions are prescribed which are indispensable. Those who do not comply with these conditions, are excluded from the enjoyment of the benefit. Justification and forgiveness are not, therefore, universal in effect (actu); and this solely through the fault of men.*

Another conclusion from the universality of justification is, that every one may be sure of his forgiveness. This certainty, however, must not be founded upon inward/ee/ing-s, which are frequently deceptive ; but upon an actual compliance with the conditions on which God will forgive sins. If any one finds in himself the signs of true faith, of sincere love to God and Christ, of a renewed heart, and of a virtuous Christian disposition, he is justified. Rom. 8: 16, " The holy, Christian temper wrought in us by God, gives us the clearest and surest proof, that we are the children of God." 1 John 3: 7. 2 Pet. 1: 9, 10. This certainty is in the highest degree necessary to our tranquility and happiness. 1 Tim. 1: 16. ICor. 6: 11. 1 John 5: 18—20.

(2) In respect to sins and the punishment of sin.

(a) As to sins; the position that all sins, without exception, are forgiven for Christ's sake, is proved partly from the power and efficacy of the atonement of Christ, which is extended to all sins (vid. § 111, and the texts there cited) ; and partly from the texts which promise forgiveness of all sins, even the greatest and blackest, to those who comply with the prescribed conditions of pardon. Ezek. 18: 21, 22. Ps. 103: 3. 1 Cor. 6: 11. Ephes. 2: 5. 1 Tim. I: 15. The sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be regarded as an exception ; vid. § 84.

(6) As to the punishment of sin ; the answer to the question whether the pardoned are exempt from all the punishments of sin, whether therefore justification is plena et perfecta, may be learned from § 111, II. The natural and physical evils which result from past sins, indeed, remain ; but they are mitigated and rendered more tolerable, and are divested of the terror of punishment, by the ces-

* [Translator - This is very conveniently expressed by the terms objective and subjective justification. Objective justification is the act of God, by which he proffers pardon to all through Christ; subjective, is the act of man, by which he accepts the pardon freely offered in the Gospel. The former is universal, the latter not.]



Wikipedia on Knapp - What WELSians should know:

Georg Christian Knapp (September 17, 1753 - October 14, 1825) was a German Protestant theologian who was born in Glaucha, located near Halle. He was father-in-law to theologian Johann Karl Thilo (1794-1853).

He studied theology at the Universities of Halle and Göttingen. In 1777 he was an associate professor at Halle, where in 1782 he became a full professor of theology. In 1785 he was appointed kondirektor of the Franckesche Stiftungen (Francke Foundations), an educational and cultural institution that was founded in 1698 by August Hermann Francke [GJ - Pietist].

Knapp was a prominent member of the Pietist movement, and a representative of Biblical Supranaturalism. He was the author of Die Psalmen Übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen (The Psalms, Translation with Annotations) (1777), and Vorlesungen über die christliche Glaubenslehre, which was later translated into English as "Lectures on Christian Theology".

Schleiermacher, the father of modern Protestantism, remains a favorite of apostates. He influenced Karl Barth, who is Fuller Seminary's favorite theologian, according to a WELS pastor who studied there.
F. D. E. Schleiermacher, 1768 - 1834:

Early life and formation
Schleiermacher was born in Breslau in Silesia, the son of a Prussian army chaplain in the Reformed church. He was educated in a Moravian school at Niesky in Upper Lusatia, and at Barby near Halle. However, pietistic Moravian theology failed to satisfy his increasing doubts, and his father reluctantly gave him permission to enter the University of Halle, which had already abandoned pietism and adopted the rationalist spirit of Friedrich August Wolf and Johann Salomo Semler. As a theology student Schleiermacher pursued an independent course of reading and neglected the study of the Old Testament and Oriental languages. However, he did attend the lectures of Semler, where he became acquainted with the techniques of historical criticism of the New Testament, and of Johann Augustus Eberhard, from whom he acquired a love of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. At the same time he studied the writings of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, and began to apply ideas from the Greek philosophers to a reconstruction of Kant's system.

Tholuck was considered the last of the Pietists at Halle, and he was influenced by rationalism. He called himself a Universalist. The Wisconsin Synod's Hoenecke studied at Halle University under Tholuck but also continued his studies in the Confessions.

Friedrich Tholuck, 1799 - 1877:

His lifelong battle was on behalf of personal religious experience, in opposition to the externality of rationalism, orthodoxy or sacramentarianism. Karl Schwarz happily remarks that, as the English apologists of the 18th century were themselves infected with the poison of the deists whom they endeavoured to refute, so Tholuck absorbed some of the heresies of the rationalists whom he tried to overthrow. He was also one of the prominent members of the Evangelical Alliance, and few men were more widely known or more beloved throughout the Protestant churches of Europe and America than him. He died at Halle. As a preacher, Tholuck ranked among the foremost of his time. As a teacher, he showed remarkable sympathy and won great success. As a thinker he can hardly be said to have been endowed with great creative power.

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GJ - Knapp is the missing link, explaining how Calvinistic concepts invaded the Lutheran Church through Pietism. So far, my only sources for UOJ are Burk, the son-in-law of Bengel - the leader of the Württemberg Pietists, and Knapp - one of the last Halle Pietists. Someone else found the Knapp connection, so more will come out about that in the next year.

Knapp is the missing link in confusing Atonement with Justification, yet he was far more careful in his language than the Synodical Conference UOJ Stormtroopers (J. P. Meyer, the early Robert Preus, the Brief Statement, F. Pieper, Franzmann, S. Becker, Pope John the Malefactor, Rolph Preus on UOJ days when he is not a JBF pastor).

The essence of Lutheran UOJ is God declaring the entire world forgiven, apart from faith, apart from the Means of Grace. Strangely, John Brenner began his convention essay on the Means of Grace with UOJ statements which repudiate the Means of Grace. Separating the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word is Enthusiam.