Saturday, December 19, 2009

More Party in the MLS




Ever vigilant, the State of Wisconsin Doctrinal Pussycats (WELS) protect their domain from any incursion of confessional Lutheran doctrine. Well done, thou good and faithful servants of Beelzebub.

Do you remember how the saints of Martin Luther College and Wisconsin Lutheran College pounded me about the first WELS gay video - Party in the MLC?

Apostates of a feather do flock together.

I have no use for the pop music of today, most of it less tuneful than a cat being skinned alive. I am ignorant about the celebrities, unless they have been arrested recently.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the guiding lights of The CORE posing with Katy Perry. I did not know who the young woman was until I found the notation on Ski's page. His security is not very good.

Since Tim Glende locked down his photos and still featured the same young woman on his main page, I decided to do a little more research.

I learned that Katy Perry grew up in a strict Christian home where she was not allowed to listen to pop music. She had a good voice and sang in church, so she tried to make her mark as a Gospel singer. That did not work out, so she became famous for "Ur So Gay" in 2007 and "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008.

"It was that feeling that Katy Perry rode to massive success last year. Her monumental hit ‘I Kissed a Girl’ was without a doubt the song of summer 2008. Released in early may, the single carried through and made the singer a massive star."

The entertainment world loves to watch someone move from a strict Christian household to the joys of wanton diversity. I will let the colleges and seminaries ponder whether they have anything different to offer. They can read the lyrics of both songs by Googling them. They can listen to Miss Perry while oogling her on YouTube.

Party in the MLS -
Sharing from the Ski Wall of Fame Hall of Shame




Junior-Senior Banquet, 1990, at Michigan Lutheran Seminary.
The tags are:
In this photo: Ski James Skorzewski (photos), Tim Glende, Renee Westphal Kober, Chad Salo, john zubke, Stephen Parker (photos), Nathan VanNorwick



Ski and Katy Perry
who became famous with "Ur So Gay."
Nicole Lepke
I see you haven't lost your ability to finagle your way in! Awesome pics Pastor Ski! :)
Marcus Jacobs
My front office is really jealous.
Brooke Krueger
ha! I will have to show my dad this - he has a crush on Katy
Holly Thomas Glende
Hey, why did Tim let her borrow my outfit?



Ski and Keshia Cole



Ski and Fergie

Brianna Rhodes
Katie is going to be so jealous!
Marcus Jacobs
So jealous my friend, just sooooo jealous.

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Ski and Paramore
Ali Van Heuklon
i'm so jealous. so insanely jealous. paramore's amazing :]
Erin Keese
jealous!!!
Malcolm Brown
heh coach ski. what do you do now? and where you get that marvel shirt?


Ski and MariQueen - West Indian Girl
She broke with WIG when she married into Nine Inch Nails.
Mrs. Nails posed for Playboy, an informant (probably CLC) wrote.


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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "From WELS - The CORE - Mixed Message on Reaching t...":

I can see why Ski would have a bunch of picks of attractive women on his Facebook page. Let's face it. The man is sexy AND a good theologian.

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GJ - You are pranking us, right?

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mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Party in the MLS - Sharing from the Ski Wall of Fa...":

Right, because and who is making the qualifications for an idiot here? You are. Do you have any grounds to do so? No.

It's like this:

If you are a white person and you post a picture of you with a black person than you are an idiot. (Please note this is only for arguments sake, I'm not racist)

Right. Why am I an idiot? Oh, because you made up an arbitrary rule because for whatever reason you get to say what goes.

Logical fallacy? I think so. Has pastor Ski posted any sinful pictures? No. Has he violated anything biblical? No.

So maybe they're not the most morally upstanding people but if you were to take a picture with you're friend who is just as bad would Jacko get up in arms about it? I bet not.

Both of you have simply no ground to stand on.

And Jacko I think it's just plain creepy that you're Facebook stalking Ski.

And you're wrong about the Ad Hominem thing too. You can strike off the bat using ad hominem to discredit someone before they (sic) can make an argument; what Jacko is doing. [GJ - To capitalize or not to captialize, there's the rub. Why not do both and let the reader decide?]

***

GJ - Does the Wisconsin Synod have anyone who understands web publishing? The WELS.net site was a disaster and still is. The server seems to have devoured the November issue of Forward in Chicanery.

Mr. Leyrer, a product of the system, shows an abysmal ignorance of Facebook, a series of web pages. I thought the younger generation was hip on computers. Perhaps they teach oogling rather than Googling.

Reading web pages for information is called research. Facebook pages are available when people open them for a) friends, b) friends of friends, or c) everyone with an account. Facebook users are saying, with their photos, "This is what matters to me." Visitors to that den of popcorn and rock, The CORE, tell me that Ski carries on about all the celebrity photos he has posted in his office. Apparently, they are clothed poses.

I find Leyrer adopting the same Antinomian attitude which prevailed in Columbus, Ohio. It was a sin to consider clergy adultery and divorce wrong. Posing with a tart on Facebook is virtuous, edgy, and doing everything-short-of-sin to reach entertainers who extol homosexuality.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Party in the MLS - Sharing from the Ski Wall of Fa...":

Pranking you? No way! Ski's a complete double threat - a fine looking man AND a theologian of profound depth. No wonder the ladies like him! It's like someone has spliced together the DNA of Martin Chemnitz and Brad Pitt.

Seriously.

No, seriously.

***

GJ - I agree: Martin Chemnitz' abs and Brad Pitt's theological acumen.



Martin Chemnitz


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mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Party in the MLS - Sharing from the Ski Wall of Fa...":

Oh cute Jacko! You called me a product of the system. That is so endearing. Wait a minute... didn't you go to MLC AND the WLS? I think we have a winner! You sir, are just as much a "product" as I am.

Yeah, using the web to find information is research. Using the web to find pictures of people you want to slander is called being creepy.

Even if you consider Ski's pictures to be a sin it's a good thing you contacted him in a loving manner to take them down first before posting them to your blog and getting everyone else involved, isn't that right Jacko?

OH WAIT. YOU DIDN'T.

***

GJ - I went to accredited schools. I learned a lot about computers and the English language. Wisconsin teaches its disciples to be Antinomian deceivers, full of themselves, WELS without water, clouds without rain, tossed by every wind of doctrine.

There is an interesting root to the verb "publish." It is "public." If someone witnessed Ski waving around a girlie magazine and bragging about the topless girl from a confirmation class, he would need to go to Ski in private. However, when someone has made public his false doctrine (mindlessly channeling Groeschel) and his pride in posing with pop-tarts, Ski can be admonished in public.

I do not need to admonish - just show the evidence. The way things disappear after showing up on Ichabod is legendary. What are they ashamed of?

The Eighth Commandment Stormtroopers (day-shift UOJ Stormtroopers) never go to me privately. No, they want to publish their blubbering nonsense on a blog read around the world. That is especially true for people who only have three or four readers, all with the same last name.

"Oh, isn't our boy smart. What did he mean to say, dear? Should we leave him in Europe a few more years until he learns English? Good, I want to use his room for sewing and LWR packages. Why does it still smell like burnt rope? I hope that goes away soon."


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mjleyrer has left a new comment on your post "Party in the MLS - Sharing from the Ski Wall of Fa...":

Wow, bravo Jacko, hit the nail on the head with that one.

The thing is though, that Facebook pictures aren't a public thing. Publishing would imply that they were meant for EVERYONE to see. Lot's (sic) of people don't have Facebook and what you have done is taken the pictures off Facebook and maliciously uploaded them onto your blog. Smells like copyright infringement to me.

"Just showing the evidence" isn't any better. If I find my neighbor sleeping with a woman other than his wife and then publish a picture of it I'm just "showing the evidence" right? Yeah, you're doing the same thing.

I'm still trying to find the false doctrine of pictures with celebrities too.

And I'm not in Europe anymore. Back in the U.S.A. it was just paining me to be so far away from you Jacko.

***

GJ - I am surprised extradition worked so fast.

Pastor Tim closed down his photo albums. Until then they were web pages "open to everyone." Please read the instructions. Nevertheless, he left his bug-eyed pose with Katy Perry on his main page. When did you sign on as his attorney? I hope you do not charge anything, because your legal advice in on par with your grammar. Violation of a copyright would include selling a protected photo for financial gain. Those photos are marked.

That old heresiarch, Stadler, tried to copyright his false doctrine, as if no one could copy it and discuss his protected words. No one tried to make money from it, although there is a lot of money in false doctrine. Just ask Perish Services.

"Maliciously"? Now you are judging motivation and thoughts, a strange and wonderful ability. Apparently your Divine Nature is not limited by your Human Nature.

If you can find a woman to explain it to you, ask what it implies when a married guy has to pose with a number of young women of scarce talent, momentary celebrity, and limited clothing. Add to that the position of pastor. There are passages about loose women in Proverbs and qualifications for a minister in the pastoral epistles. They will shed some light on your questions.

Ski and Glende want to change WELS in Fox Valley. They have done that.




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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Party in the MLS - Sharing from the Ski Wall of Fa...":

Poor MJ Leyrer,

I had a hard time following his um and so because and who kind of writing. Clarity my friend.

I showed the pictures of Glende and Ski to my wife. I too have occasion to take photos with celebs. I asked her if I posted a picture of a young tart, like the pics our astute and well adjusted pastors show on their Facebook pages, if she would be offended. Yes was the answer. I asked if she thought it prudent. No was the answer. Oh, nice comment by Glende's wife by the way. Encourage and stand by your man Holly. Never mind any sort of rebuke.

I asked a young lady who is reformed and a Marine Chaplin what she thought. She thought it odd, but also figured, "Well if someone feels that the pastor is someone they can relate to, then it's o.k. It may bring someone closer to Christ." Source considered.

I asked a man in his 30's who is ELCA and son of an ELCA minister what he thought. He felt that since many congregations are growing old and shrinking in numbers - this is the reason why your are seeing the trend to gravitate toward "vapid pop-style worship" tendencies that lack any depth. He noted that he disagrees with this and notes the same of his theologically liberal father.

So gone is any objective means to measure any sort of propriety in actions and display of integrity. Gone is the Bible. Our pastors should be above reproach and not moving toward the edge and appear as though they are snugging up to a saucy tart. Gone are the days of being bound by an accountability that is higher than that of your average Joe in your congregation. Now it is anything at anytime for any reason and damned be anyone to challenge "Tyrant" in the photo.

I like how are young collegians are trying to justify these self absorbed reverends with claiming that they are not sinning. Read some Lutheran theology for once kids. All we do is sin. Nothing we do is without the stain and stench of sin to paraphrase Luther. They seem to be throwing this intentionally in the faces of the week willed circuit and district presidents, who see them "Follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it." I think they are just waiting to get some real and justified response from the COP. It almost seems as though they are saying, "Bring it on baby." Face it, they have their minions and would likely be able to self support if anything was done. Then being free of any sort of leadership, they could do anything they pleased then. I think this scares the life out of many leaders in WELS who have allowed this to go so far.

Wikipedia Empowered Global Warming Huckster






Wikipedia stoked the fires of global warming, by fraud and deceit.


December 19, 1776


"Number 1 of this series is of particular historical interest, for it was written during Washington's retreat across the Delaware and by his order was read to his dispirited and suffering soldiers. The opening sentence was adopted as the watchword of the movement to Trenton:"

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Read This Without Guffawing - I Dare You





Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Denominations as Hot-Air Balloons":

Speaking of hot air balloons and church growth... http://www.lhtc.org/

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Lift High the Cross (LHTC) provides joyful encouragement and dynamic tools to strengthen and revitalize congregations and schools in their outreach and growth efforts. We provide outreach and invitational evangelism training and dynamic Christ-centered opportunities to boldly proclaim the saving message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Lift High the Cross Ministry consists of the spectacular Lift High the Cross hot air balloon which is eight stories tall, displaying two 40-foot Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod cross logos, and also the impressive JESUS, The Hot Air Balloon which stands 110 feet tall. Lift High the Cross Ministry also offers JESUS, the cold air balloon which stands at 30 feet tall. When these balloons are combined with the power of the Gospel message, supportive prayer and a joyful stirring of the Spirit of the Lord, the saving message of Christ can boldly be proclaimed whenever and wherever the balloons are seen!

We provide a friendly, festive, non-threatenting (sic) setting for congregations and schools to bring new people into Christ’s family. Specialized outreach and balloon team training is provided.

We also offers one and two day workshops to provide insights, train and equip congregations to do outreach evangelism within their communities.

Lift High the Cross Ministry strives to provide opportunities for powerful and effective evangelism and to strengthen congregational outreach and growth efforts. We seek to spread the saving message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and desire to boldly give God glory and further His kingdom!


Bury My Knee at Wounded-Heart




Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Ichaslang Lexicon":

"Before that, it was Dr. Martin Luther College, nicknamed Dumb Man's Last Chance, for those men who decided teaching parochial school was easier than all that Greek and Hebrew."

I really hope this is some sort of joke, Pastor Jackson. Why do you have no love in your heart? You are one of the most bitter, angry people I have ever seen. I really, really feel sorry for you. All of those degrees have done you zero good. Luther is just a man. And the Book of Concord is not the Bible. Please, keep the hurtful and sinful comments to yourself, and start offering practical advice to the people that you disagree with. 

***

GJ - I wonder if this is from a regular reader, the wounded heart lady from St. Marcus Of No Denomination. She called me a Pharisee and promised to pray for me. As a former Pharisee herself, she knew about my hardened condition. She signed her name to that one, but I deleted it, to avoid any guilt by association accusations from St.-Marcus-by-the-Hood.

Dumb Man's Last Chance is a joke from WELS, passed on from someone whose brother is a WELS pastor. The gentleman who told me the joke is one of the funniest people I have ever met.

Someone reading this blog and checking out Ichaslang will not be soothed by my jeremiads. But thanks for drawing attention to one of the most popular features.

The Chicaneries do not read very much, and they often read with no comprehension. I just posted practical solutions for all Lutherans this morning - hours ago. Someone immediately wrote that it was better than the $15,000 boilerplate sold by WELS as a Perish Services consultation. I suggest reading Modest Proposal for Lutherans.




Dr. Vogel - Luther's Professor





Luther commented that we should pay attention to Professor Vogel (German for bird), who starts each day without any food and no idea where it will come from. Yet the bird begins with Matins, singing praise and thanks to his Creator.

I promised one reader that I would write about Creation, gardening, and birds again.

Northwest Arkansas is a wonderful place to live. The winters are mild and short, a good combination. That means I can plant hardy bulbs again. I may try tender bulbs as well. Roses are definitely on the list for spring.

Our yard has a limited expanse of grass in the front, a woods next to the driveway, and a wooded ravine behind our house. When Sassy takes me for a walk, I start by yelling, "Let's kill a squirrel!" She races around the yard, never getting close to any creature, but always willing to try.

Our living room has large picture windows looking out over the ravine and the deck. Mrs. Ichabod laughed that I wanted suet for Christmas. I used to get bags of it for almost nothing in Midland. Now I have to order it from Dunhill.

I am hanging suet bags in the front bushes and from the rafters outside the picture windows. Birds really need the energy from fat during the winter, and insect-eating birds are especially attracted to suet.

Duncraft is one place to order supplies.

I may put up a corn feeder on one tree. The silhouette is there on one tree from the previous renter. I am wary about attracting raccoons and other critters to the deck. They may already sneak in at night for dog food and water. If I add corn to the deck menu, they may come inside for dessert.

I am putting a shallow dish with water on a concrete block for a birdbath. Like humans, birds enjoy baths all winter. In Midland I had a birdbath warmer, a source of constant amusement for friends. I often used a gallon of water of day, because flocks of birds stopped by for a bath, lining up two by two in some cases, for their turn. They would jump in, splash around, and get pushed out by the next in line.

I looked at birdbath warmers ($70 or so) and solar birdbaths ($20), then decided freezing is not really an issue. I have had the dog watering tank partially freeze a couple of times, toward morning. "Make do or do without" is my motto now.

In winter, birds want fresh water and baths most of all. Having a bath where they can be observed is great fun.

They also like various kinds of cover and shelter. They live and feed in three different levels (ground, bushes, trees). They often feed at one level and live at another. Our yard is the perfect combination, since an open grassy area is ideal, as long as bushes and tress are near. Previously I grew sunflowers, and I will again. The giant Russian sunflowers are good for perching and produce an astonishing amount of seed.





We have bluebirds in the area, so I may do more for them. (Buy mealy worms? Possible.) I already saw one in the ravine. We have plenty of owls, too.

Two things are essential for a good garden. One is compost. The other is a good earthworm population. I can buy a few red wigglers and let their lusty habits do the rest. They will spread out across the yard, as long as the soil is reasonably wet and hospitable. One author attributed our country's staggering fertility to the earthworms brought over by European settlers (potted plants, hooves of farm animals). That was the earliest example of illegal aliens doing the work that Americans wouldn't do.

Working with God's Creation is far simpler and cheaper than buying a lot of stuff for gardening. The first step is attracting the bird population.

Introducing the Stealthy Joe Krohn



Joe Krohn, Dom Perignon Patterson buddy, aka?
Joe Krohn's  Facebook album.
Video.


I finished two online classes, 20 students each, so I had a little time to enjoy the lax security of Facebook. They changed the settings overnight and that meant many features were suddenly open to anyone with an account. I found Joe Krohn on Facebook and MySpace. The Facebook site shows Dom Perignon Patterson and the CG gang as friends. The MySpace account is just for music. Never the twain shall meet.

Joe bragged on the Church and Change listserve that he was giving me a hard time, but he tried to claim on this blog that he was not Church and Change. His previous church was Jeff Gunn's failing CrossWalk entertainment center. He started a Rock and Roll Church blog, anonymously, but closed it down. He was a fan of the fake Ichabod blog, but that also closed down. All files were erased from both blogs. He seems to be well established as a musician, but Doebler's ungrateful parish canned him as Rockmeister.

Joe has appointed himself the official UOJ theologian, as well as the defender of all things Chicanery. Below are some selections from his deep, spiritual insights.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Say It Ain't So, Joe - Krohn Rock Group Dumped at ...":

The hatred and slander on this site makes me sick. There is no excuse for this, especially coming from Christian men and women.

Joe Krohn has left another Enthusiastic comment on your post "Try To Keep Up with The Finkelsteinery":

TWANG!!!!!

You are are a legend in your own mind.

There's only one thing worse than a snooty theologian and that's a snooty music buff. Your put down of anything that you don't like means:

a. You compensate for your insecurities by dissing 'bad' music and hopefully make yourself feel better. How's that workin' for ya?

b. You are obviously a non-musician. Go and tell Joe Satriani that anybody can do what he does. Stick to what you know, bad theology. Go here for good theology:

http://ichabodthegloryisdeparted.blogspot.com/

c. You are a frustrated musician who realizes you just can't hack it. I have heard you sing. I don't think you could carry a tune in a bucket. :)

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Joseph Schmidt answered the howls of Joe Krohn here.


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Anonymous said...
I wonder how the anti-C&C folks view Paul's ministry because if they apply their rules to Paul, he would be considered outside of our fellowship. I think I remember reading somewhere that St. Paul's favorite munchie was popcorn...I couldn't resist. :)

JK [Joe Krohn, Kudu Don Patterson's friend and ally]

January 29, 2009 11:37 AM

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Anonymous said...
I'm still not convinced by any of the confessional crusaders that anything is being done wrong in 'comtemporary' settings. We are all free to worship as we wish as long as it is Biblical. So worship as you wish according to your own preferences. Make sure you are not taking offense when none was given. Contemporary is no more a mandate than what traditional is. It is different and not meant to take the place of. It is merely an addition to.

JK

February 2, 2009 10:26 PM

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Brett,

If you want an explanation about what is on CTR's website, I encourage you to contact the church directly through the website. I doubt Pastor Matt Doebler would ever see your request on this blog as there are more constructive things to be doing in the body. I for one will be taking my own advice. I will leave you with this question.

You seem to know specifically about what heaven is not. Tell me, what specifically is heaven like? That should be pretty easy for you, right? Make sure you include scripture references.

Its (sic) been real and its (sic) been fun. But it hasn't been real fun.

All y'alls will be in my prayers.

JK

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Joe Krohn is also a UOJ follower. All the Church Shrinkers in WELS love Universal Objective Justification, an opinion which is taken, word for word, from a Pietistic dogmatics book (19th century). There will be some red faces in the old Synodical Conference in a year or so.

I found Joe promoting his blog on Bailing Water:

Anonymous said...
I can't help but feel that your opening remarks are at the very least legalistic and at the worst judgemental. To say that high church liturgical is the only way to do corporate worship flies in the face of The Augsburg Confession and more importantly the Bible. I would be glad to discuss in detail point by point. My blog or yours?

JK
http://randrchurch.blogspot.com/



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By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them (Rock and Roll Member JK)

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Church and Change, Members of the Bored":

"A faithful Lutheran pastor in the tiniest Lutheran congregation is more productive than all the Stetzers put together. The faithful pastors sows the Seed of the Word with abandon. He does not bully God into giving him visible results to brag about in his next book. He is busy enough with studying the Word and the Confessions so that he has no time to tell every other denomination about the art--or is it the scam?--of Becoming Missional."........


...or he cruises the internet all day long and publishes a blog full of propaganda filled with the viciousness and venom of a Pharisee hissing like the vipers Jesus so aptly named them.

JK

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Look at the thief on the cross with Jesus. He never partook of the means of grace and yet he went to heaven that day. It was Grace by faith alone that saved the thief that day which was given to him by God through Christ's death. Christ died for ALL!!!

JK

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Now, please answer the question.

DOES (sic) GRACE AND JUSTIFICATION EXIST BEFORE A PERSON BELIEVES?

A simple yes or no will suffice if that is possible.

JK

***

GJ - Please study your Book of Concord, Joe Krohn, Rock and Roll theologian. Afterwards, read the blog sections on UOJ. No one is justified apart from faith. Atonement, reconciliation, propitiation, redemption (two different Greek words) - all express the truth that Christ died for the sins of the world.

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Modest Proposal for Lutherans




Future LCMS Synod President Harrison tried to make a rather stiff C.F.W. Walther look cool.


I have a much bigger audience now, apparently from posting gay videos and those photos of sultry young female entertainers. To take advantage of the surge in readership, here are some modest proposals for Lutherans:
  1. Each congregation will define its work in three categories only: liturgical worship, education, and visitation. Social activities will be allowed, but only as matters of supreme unimportance and indifference (as doctrinal issues were before the change).
  2. Liturgical worship will allow for absolutely no experiments aping the Pentecostal and Babtist Immersing Churches, because a confessional crisis does not allow the least compromise--even in matters of indifference--with false teachers.
  3. No discussions about "what we can get away with" will be allowed because the issue will shift from how many bongo drums drumming and fat cousins singing to the Book of Concord being violated. Book of Concord violations will be treated as questioning the Church Growth leaders used to be, subject to extending the Left Foot of Fellowship.
  4. Educational efforts will cease using modern, relevant, and edgy methods and focus on such irrelevant and antique notions as: Latin and Greek in the school, classical subjects (math, geography, history), a reliable Bible (KJV family of translations), the Book of Concord (no ELCA editions), and thoroughly dead authors and composers.
  5. Visitation will be the normal daily routine of the pastoral staff, with the senior pastor leading by example. Meetings will be called off with the explanation, "Sorry, I have visitations to do. A home-going pastor makes a church-going membership, you know." Shut-ins will be visited often, and hospital patients will always be visited at once.
  6. Sermons will be written out in advance and posted on the congregation's website or blog.
  7. The congregational library will include a fabulous selection of Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Chytraeus, the Book of Concord, Loy, Reu, Jacobs, Krauth, and Schmauk material, with extra copies of Luther and the Book of Concord. Real cool, useful Church Growth books will be used as kindling under the next CG consultant sent to the parish.
  8. Lutheran hymns will be taught to the children and adults, their use dominating all worship services.
  9. District and synodical positions will be avoided and shunned as energetically as parish calls once were. Pastors will say, "My heart is really in the synodical office building, but I felt compelled to accept this call." Listeners will think, "He can't stand the synodical headquarters, but he will never admit it."
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Modest Proposal for Lutherans": I wish this stuff was in our Parish Planning plan. For $15,000, this is simpler and easier than their book of 100 pages! GJ- Parish Assistance Consultant - nice sound to it! PW

***

GJ - Paul Kelm, izzat you?

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Modest Proposal for Lutherans":

More Amish, head in the sand, denial of the realities of living in the modern world. Oh yes, to ignore the realities of where Christians are in their daily lives and in their thirst to explore different methods of expression would escape you. You really do have nothing relevant to offer anyone, other than your continued anger at not having lived in the 19th century.


ELCA Puts a Happy Face on the Fallen Cross Story






ELCA NEWS SERVICE
December 17, 2009
Minneapolis ELCA Congregation Raises Spire Cross

[Click for larger image] Workers remounted Central Lutheran Church's cross to the building's spire Dec. 13.  Joe Bjordal photo  

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- A chapter in the life of Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis -- lived out largely in the public eye and one that has provided the opportunity to tell the story of Central's urban mission far and wide -- came to a successful conclusion this week.
   
Braving arctic-cold weather, members of the congregation gathered outdoors Dec. 13 and sang "Lift High the Cross" as Central's historic spire cross -- damaged in a rare downtown tornado last summer -- was raised by a 200-foot crane and permanently remounted on the church's spire.
   

The tornado touched down near Central Aug. 19 as the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was meeting at the Minneapolis Convention Center across the street.  Two outdoor, tented hospitality areas, set up to serve assembly voting members and guests, were destroyed. The storm snapped the center supporting mast of the spire, leaving the 14-foot tall, 900-pound cross dangling upside down. It was safely removed the following day.


Avowed Lesbian Elected Suffragen (Assistant) Bishop in Los Angeles



LOS ANGELES: Episcopal Diocese Elects Lesbian as Bishop Suffragan
Archbishop of Canterbury rips decision, urges repudiation of vote

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
12/7/2009

In a cliff hanging election that took seven ballots, the Diocese of Los Angeles elected an avowed lesbian to be the next Suffragan Bishop of the ultra-liberal diocese, setting off an ecclesiastical fire storm around the Anglican Communion that we have not seen since Gene Robinson, a non-celibate homosexual, was elected Bishop of New Hampshire.

The Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, 55, who now serves as a canon to the Diocese of Maryland bishops, will be the second elected outed homosexual bishop in The Episcopal Church, an act that is being seen as further isolating and clarifying the theological differences between The Episcopal Church and the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide who are orthodox in faith and morals.

Almost immediately, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement saying that the election of Mary Glasspool raises very serious questions, not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

He urged that the election not be confirmed saying it should be rejected by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees, and citing "very important implications" if it did.

"The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold."

Katharine Jefferts Schori, The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, told VOL that she never comments on episcopal elections and that it is keeping with her policy...it is in keeping with her established practice. There is speculation that the phone lines are running hot between Lambeth Palace and New York.

When he was confronted with a replica situation in 2003, then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold told The Anglican Church's Archbishops that he would not lay hands on a homosexual bishop. He proceeded to do so three weeks later arguing that how a diocese voted was not in his control and he could not step back from his responsibilities as Presiding Bishop. It is expected that Jefferts Schori will argue much the same thing. In Lebanon, PA, recently she denied, when questioned, that there had been any moratorium on non-celibate bishops elected to high offices in the church.