Fruit of the Stealth Mission

KJV Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Valleskey said "Yes!" and this is the result.

I. J. Reilly has left a new comment on your post "Hymns and Music":

At first I wondered how emotion could possibly be removed from music as raklatt suggests in his post. Then I listened to Insurance Salesman Jackson try to sing in one of his "services" and I perfectly understood how it could be done. Bravo for showing us the way, GJ!

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GJ - This fake-named person has been sending his peevish comments on a regular basis for a long time. He finally revealed he is a member of Ski's The CORE, fastest money-gulping operation in the Wisconsin Synod. Why did he join? Because Ski's coolness caused the son to want to come back (shoes and rock being the Means of Grace).

Animated by hostility toward Lutheran doctrine, this person wastes his time observing that I cannot sing well. What a revelation. And yet I sing the great hymns anyway, the best I can. Paul qualification for pastors is that they be found faithful, not tuneful.

When I look at the Bethany blog map, I see the globe lit up up with people who are reading the sermons, many of them copied and sent to others. Meanwhile, people have free services (no secret passwords, unlike some WELS churches) to watch live and to watch recorded, plus adult studies - live and recorded.

After burning more than $20,000 per month,The CORE Lutheran Church has reached how many non-WELS members? How long will that continue before someone pulls the plug on the funding?

We know that WELS members have left one local church for The CORE. Is this considered a vital mission in Fox Valley, transferring members?

Ichabod has been successful in getting the Shrinker faction reading about Lutheran doctrine on a daily basis. Bad news, Stetzer fans - WELS and ELS members appreciate the blog. Worse news - clergy thank me personally for the blog.

The highest accolade is the way web information is locked down and changed after being exposed in Ichabod.

1. WELS Pastor Tim Glende no longer makes his gawking, bug-eyed pose with Katy Perry ("Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl") available from a Facebook search. In fact, Tim Glende has closed off the general Facebook search altogether.
2. WELS first successful stealth congregation, Crossroads Evangelical Covenant Church (? ! ?) in S. Lyons, Michigan, no longer thanks WELS pastors Miller, Freier, and Voigt for getting them going. Who got to you, Pastor Joe?
3. Church and Change has the same bad spelling and the November 2009 conference announced on its main page - my biggest failure.
4. Pastor Rick in Corona, California, erased his disastrous offering figures and his gushing Leonard Sweet comments a few hours after I posted my shock at both.
5. Pastor Mark Walters, a regular at Chicanery conferences, threatened to shut down Ichabod, but changed his mind soon after.
6. Joe Krohn, another Chicanery conference regular, and promiscuous poster on the not-so-secret Chicanery listserve, started another feeble blog or two. Someone has to defend false doctrine - why not Joe?
7. Tim Felt-Needs, blogger for Victory Cinema and Soccer Camp, has joined the battle with more copycat posts. Creativity is not a strongpoint among the WELS Shrinkers.

NKJ Proverbs 7:22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter,

Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Fruit of the Stealth Mission":

Reilly's fondness for the Emergent Church has the same origins as this Luther Qwest UOJ promoter:

Posted by Dr. Erich Heidenreich on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 -
12:00 pm:
"Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I have returned from my long silence here on LQ to offer to
everyone my sincere apologies, and to recant and repent of my long-time arguments regarding Objective Justification. I have studied much since our last marathon thread!
Please forgive me for my errors. I pray that my words did not lead
anyone else into error. I identify my error as stemming from
unconsiously troubling myself and others about what remains the
secret counsel of God, trying to solve the mystery of election -
"why some and not others?" Studying FC XI again in depth was
especially helpful in ending my sinful search for the answer.
Then, in dealing for weeks with a loved one who was despairing
due to the weight of the law and doubt over her own faith, I saw
the true necessity and beauty of Objective Justification, though I
never used the term. The objective truth of Christ's universal
forgiveness has lifted the veil of tears from her eyes and given the
peace the passes all understanding.
Finally, I desire to thank all of you, but especially Pr. Rolf Preus for his tireless correction of my errors here on LQ. Without his patient teaching, and that of my own wonderful pastor, Rev. Roger James, I would still be in grave error and not have had the true doctrine to offer to this loved one. Thank you, Pr. Preus, for staying true to the pure doctrine of the Word! The Righteousness of Christ is objectively imputed to all people. I say that now without hesitation.
Sincerely,
Erich"

Erich's relative was struggling with unbelief. In steps UOJ which grants forgivness without faith - without the Holy Spirit's faith.

2 Cor. 13:5, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

Reilly reminds me of the mother who rejoices that her kids eat jelly beans and pop tarts at each meal because they had refused meat and vegetables before.
Baptist decision theology is poison.

***

GJ - Heidenreich's conversion from justification by faith to Pietistic UOJ was sad to witness:

Thank you, Pr. Preus, for staying true to the pure doctrine of the Word! The Righteousness of Christ is objectively imputed to all people.

Robert Preus' final book makes it very clear that the righteousness of Christ is NOT imputed to all people.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fruit of the Stealth Mission":

"After burning more than $20,000 per month,The CORE Lutheran Church has reached how many non-WELS members? How long will that continue before someone pulls the plug on the funding?"

What outreach? I do not care what you do when you sit back and wait for others to find your church. It is not outreach.

Is traveling to one conference after another outreach? No

Are weekly sermons in your church outreach? No

CORE despises doing outreach the way Christ did, and refuses to do it.

***

GJ - The Gospel Promises are always effective, because they are either sustaining faith, creating faith, or hardening hearts (as evidenced by Mormon and JW missionaries responding in hatred). Aping modern culture does not sustain or promote faith. "The church that marries the spirit of this age will find herself a widow in the Age To Come." I quoted that in Liberalism, Its Cause and Cure.

Hymns and Music

raklatt has left a new comment on your post "Worship - From WELS":

Combining "Thaxted" and the lyric of "Jerusalem the Golden" makes for romance and emotion.

The fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony and either the original lyric or the Joyful lyric are also to stir up human emotion.

Emotion is not a useful conveyance for the Word because of its temporary nature. Neither of those tunes should have added words to given them religious connotations. They need to stay in their pagan and secular realms.

The words of the lyric and its poetry come first. The musical setting for that poetry must only accompany and not out-shout the lyric as it does in both the Beethoven and this arrangement of Jerusalem.

The Beethoven theme has become trite and so will the Holst theme.

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Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Worship - From WELS":

I.J. Reilly asks: do you also object to the use of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement in the hymn "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee"?

Yes, I do, and for the same reasons. The final movement of Beethoven's Ninth is, by far, more well known as a herald of agnosticism than an instrument of worship to the One, True God. Adopting it as an anthem of Christian worship is, at best, an awkward and mostly unsuccessful attempt to co-opt overtly and deliberately agnostic art as sacred expression. Believe it or not, strange as it may seem, I have run into many Christians, even in pop-church Evangelicalism, who strongly dislike it. When they sing "Joyful, Joyful" they know they are really singing two different things at the same time.

For that matter, I also disfavor the use of Sibelius' hymn, Finlandia, originally included in his nationalistic symphony of the same name, but later re-written by him as a stand-alone hymn for use in Masonic rituals. It was later used as a national hymn and also incorporated by Scandinavians into church hymnody. Pretty song? Yes. Unfortunately, it carries with it far too much secular and Masonic baggage to be suitable as Christian worship, in my opinion.

Christians are far better off using original art for the purposes of Christian worship.

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 Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Worship - From WELS":

Interesting. This is the new setting from the WELS Hymnal Supplement. The tune is named Thaxted -- the name of the favorite hometown of its author, Gustav Holst. This tune was written for the Jupiter cycle of his very popular orchestral suite, The Planets -- a series of tone poems written to describe the astrological characters the planets are named for. While the entire suite was inspired, in part, by the political times in which Holst wrote the work (he was a Fabian Socialist), and in part by the landscape and daily life of Thaxted (indeed, the tune Thaxted was inspired by the impressive image of the steeple of St. John the Baptist that rises above Thaxted), it was nevertheless written to celebrate the character and influence of pagan gods.

The tune Thaxted is inserted in the tone poem about Jupiter, "the Bringer of Jollity," in a section that has been described by some as Jupiter's descent to earth, where he leaves the celebration to woo female virgins. Thaxted is his love song. After his "courtship," Jupiter returns to the celebration. Even today, all the girls go goo goo when they hear this tune. It is a pretty song. Here is a YouTube video of the entire Jupiter cycle -- you can hear Thaxted solemnly emerge from the "jollity:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B49N46I39Y

It is interesting to me that in a Synod which does not allow wedding music by Wagner -- because of its pagan associations -- that they would publish much more recently written pagan-themed music. I remember hearing Jerusalem the Golden put to music from Holst's pagan tone poem five years ago (I think) at District Convention. They were "testing it." I immediately recognized it as having pagan associations and wouldn't sing it. Listening, then, to several hundred men sing this sugary/sappy love song just made me chuckle. The version has become the standard version at our church. My wife and I won't sing it, though -- and, yes, we've complained. But no one cares -- all music is amoral, right?

Freddy Finkelstein
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Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Worship - From WELS":

This is a valid difference. What of the words? I would argue that words are irrelevant, in both cases, to the point being made. If tunes by Wagner, all by themselves, carry pagan and/or secular association strong enough to forbid them, then the pagan tunes by Holst, regardless of the words superimposed on them, themselves carry these associations strong enough to offend, as well. Lipstick on a pig doesn't change the pig. No one among us, that I know of, has attempted to sanctify Wagner's music in this way. As it would be in the case of Wagner, by adding words to Holst's pagan anthem, all one succeeds in doing is preaching two different messages at once, even holding them both up as equivalent. This is the same issue foundational to the use of so-called "Contemporary Worship" -- strong associations not only with pagan and secular sources producing the music itself, not only of strong associations with heterodox church bodies that make use of the contemporary genre, but of its inherent ability to teach and reinforce false doctrine. The lyrics of so-called "Contemporary Worship" aren't bad primarily because the theology of its authors is bad, the lyrics are bad principally because they don't matter -- the experience produced by the use of this music, all by itself, regardless of the words, is not only sufficient but necessary to teach and reinforce their false doctrines regarding the Holy Spirit and the Means through which He works. There is no such thing as amoral music, and Contemporary advocates in America exploit this fact in their own interest.

I would further argue that invocation of "eating meat sacrificed to idols" is incomplete in the application given to it, above. Mention of this was not intended by Paul as a tool for identifying and ridiculing those with a supposedly weak conscience. The point is, whether anyone is known to have a weak conscience or not, if association of the meat to paganism is publicly known, don't eat it because of the offense such eating would create. Tunes by Wagner -- without the words he wrote to accompany them, I might add -- create offense. We don't use these tunes. Given the popularity of his wedding march, it is incredible to me that none of our talented Lutheran lyricists haven't written suitable words for it, if that is all that is required in order to make it suitable. Nevertheless, if, all by themselves, tunes written by Wagner ~150 years ago are still strong enough in their association with pagan themes to create offense, the tunes by Holst do as well -- more so given that Holst is a much more recent composer, that The Planets is much more popular among average folks these days than any of Wagner's works, and that his intentions with the music, and the stories he succeeds in telling with it, are so transparent and direct.

My opinion,

Freddy Finkelstein

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GJ  - Mr. Klatt and Mr. Finkelstein have made good points. Some melodies are so closely associated with the words that people think of the other context. "How Firm a Foundation" can be sung to Adeste Fidelis, as indicated in the LCA hymnal, but everyone looks around when singing a Christmas melody to another hymn. That conflict reminds me of  the New Dick Van Dyke's  TV show failing because he had a "another wife," not Laura Petrie. Van Dyke lived in Cave Creek (Phoenix) and shot the failing show there, with his alien TV wife Hope Lange.

Some hymns are popular and sung threadbare for a time. "Life High the Cross" was over-appreciated and overused in the LCA, only to appear again in the WELS hymnal. James Tiefel predicted its demise.

The often-denounced hymns are really the best because they are not popular with the Methodist-Babtist crowd and emphasize Biblical doctrine rather than feelings. The denounced hymns are the German chorales, Gerhardt (but not during a centennial celebration), and Luther. Unfortunately, Lutheran pastors have been lazy in pleasing their Pietistic audiences while neglecting their congregations' doctrinal education. The Shrinkers have taken this tendency to a new, lower level by aiming at entertainment, training their members to join even worse sects.

I have always enjoyed popular music, but children raised with pop music alone never develop a capacity to enjoy real music. Our policy at home was to play only classical music, hymns, and sacred music. We never played pop or rock music in the car. The result was a Lutheran who knew classical music well and still enjoyed pop favorites.

I told a shocked and grieving college audience, "It takes very little talent to play rock music." I did a loud "TWANG!" and screamed. They asked me to repeat that and defend my thesis. That was simple. The entire class agreed that the Boston Symphony could play rock if they wanted, but very few rock musicians could join the Boston Symphony. The next week I brought Mr. Bose to play Pachebel's Canon as they arrived in class. Most of the students asked, "What's that?" and wrote down the name of the piece. I encouraged them to learn about classical music and appreciate - not as background music - but for its own value.

The same can be said for classical Christian music - not because it is old, although much of it has withstood the test of time, outlasting truly dreadful hymns. Classical Christian music is valued because it is good. Zinzendorf wrote hundreds of bad hymns and two good ones, both in The Lutheran Hymnal.

Jerusalem - Unofficial British Hymn - Inspired "Chariots of Fire" Title

Wikipedia

The Hymn: "Jerusalem"

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

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GJ - I posted this as a curiosity. While searching for a traditional version of "Jerusalem the Golden," sung by a choir, I found this. John Milton combined classical mythology with Biblical images in his Paradise Lost. This poem fits the Milton method, which is strange, to say the least.

Paul Tillich did the same, artlessly, in his bizarre Systematic Theology book. His liberal Union Seminary colleagues were shocked.

We Are Dealing With That Issue

Management by Objective - Ours

This is how apostate synods deal with problems:

• That never happened.
• I never heard that.
  
• Do you have proof?
• Who told you?
• No synod is perfect. If you find one, join it. And then it will no longer be perfect.
• Did you sit down with him and tell him his sin? You are the one violating the Word of God!
• We don't worship Luther.
• The Book of Concord is out of date. It's not the Bible.
• Do you know who my father is?
• We are dealing with it, but we have to keep it confidential. You understand, Fred? (Picks up the phone later. "Hey Bob. Fred was in my office. What have you got on him?")
• I know Greek. Do you?

Worship - From WELS

Losing Face on Facebook

Anything Goes District, WELS

Vice is a monster of so frightful mein.

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar, with her face.

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Alexander Pope, Essay on Man

Times have changed,
And we've often rewound the clock,
Since the Puritans got a shock,
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today,
Any shock they should try to stem,
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes.

ELCA Churches Finding Good in Doctrinal Chaos

I attended several LCA conventions (Chicago, Toronto) and one ELCA convention (Minneapolis) with Mrs. Ichabod. I heard many examples of synod worship. No one dared dissent from the infallible, inerrant leaders. The bishops, as they came to be called, were told what to do and say. In ELCA, the bishops were stripped of their power on the national level, reducing them to an advisory panel. Imagine my surprise when one of the bishops, Ken Sauer, began urging everyone to leave ELCA and join his new denomination.

The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau has always been an outfit somewhat to the right of ELCA and to the left of Missouri. Many soon-to-be Roman priests comment on the site as well. That is often a topic, but the current debate concerns leaving ELCA. Two great points have been made.

One. The doctrinal debates are making people look at the Scriptures and the Confessions. They are no longer relying on the seminary intellectuals to tell them what to think. Wide open ordination of pan-sexual couples was the final straw about the integrity of ELCA leadership.

Two. The previous crisis in forcing a doctrinal union with the Episcopal Church made one thing clear. There is no possibility of reconciling the Reformed view of the Lord's Supper with the Biblical Lutheran view. They are incompatible. Hence, no legitimate fellowship is possible. (Hear that - WELS, ELS, LCMS?) That claim was based on the Formula of Concord, argued by an ELCA pastor.

If things get worse in WELS and the ELS, their pastors and laity may be moved to study the Formula of Concord, too. Beware, the ELCA members are not looking to join another Emerging Church circus with Whoopie Worship. They had plenty of that, done better, in ELCA. They are leaving ELCA informed and aware. Synod worship will not impress them.

Effects Without Causes - Nothing To See - Move On

Many people know that the ELS brought up WELS women celebrating communion. One of the unwritten rules is to avoid naming the situation or the people involved. That rule is necessarily broken when someone brings up error in doctrine and practice. Then numerous people claim to know all kinds of evil to toss at that person, so the individual can be buried under tons of synodical mud. Thus Corky was "brain-damaged" when he named and claimed Church Growth as an evil plaguing WELS.

Thanks to the code of Omerta (silence) in WELS/ELS, we do not know the exact details on WELS women taking on the pastoral role and celebrating communion. After serious discussions over coffee and danish, the ELS/WELS lagomorphs declared a "moratorium" on such pastoral acts until the dawning of a New Age. ELCA did the same with gay clergy. Same method - different synod.

The question remains - how did a group of women decide they could have their own communion service? Unless someone believes that effects have no causes, there must be some energy influencing this change.

Fuller and Willow Creek have been the centers influencing WELS, the LCMS, the ELS, and ELCA for decades. Willow Creek is conveniently close to the Love Shack of WELS, the Little School on the Prairie, and St. Louis. Fuller is handy for the West Coast and a great place for vacation learning - take in Disney and decide which is more fun: Mickey Mouse or Entertainment Evangelism.

Fuller and Willow Creek have had feminist policies in place for decades. Their stated policy is to discipline any man at Fuller who objects to women pastors. That is why apostates love Fuller - a Scriptural position is punished there, doubtless by a committee of Amazons with buzz-cuts and five o'clock shadows.

A man cannot join Willow Creek unless he agrees to place himself under the spiritual leadership of women. On the farm they call that an alter call. For a period of time WELS paid for their mission pastors to be trained at Willow Creek. A TV show about the clergy thus trained could be called "The Sopranos." (Willow Creek also demanded and got a feminist Bible translation.)

In WELS, the TELL Church Growth magazine--cheap as it was--grew into the Evangelism department, and that morphed into Perish Services - now gutted by action of the convention.

Decades ago, Wisconsin Lutheran College had David Valleseky and Larry Olson on its board. Now it has three members from the same non-WELS congregation on the board - the president and two board members. The two chaplains for the tiny college are Shrinkers too.

WLC invited Martin Marty and Archbishop Weakland to speak.

WLC begat Charis, which begat Church and Change, thanks to a generous three-year gift of WELS offering money, midwifed by Perish Services.

Church and Change worked with Perish Services to create many different expressions of feminism, unionism, and doctrinal apostasy.

• WELS Staph Ministry - an infection no one has tried to stop.
• Jars of Clay.
• Mission Counselors and Perish Assistants.
  
• WELS Emerging Churches.
• Kathie Wendland's Women's Ministry Conference.
• WELS worship conferences, where women teach men.
• Martin Luther College, where men are taught to be subordinate to women in the church - accept female leadership in church or walk the plank.
  

The ELS and WELS doctrinal boards can have all the coffee breaks in the world, hem and haw, delay, procrastinate, and obfuscate. They will not accomplish anything until they address the causes, which stem from rejection of the efficacious Word.

Meanwhile, the brain-washed followers equate criticism of their apostate leaders with blasphemy, a term used only when God is attacked. And I quote:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Your Amnesty International Spokeswoman":

Blasphemy! This blog practices blasphemy. WELS pastors and leaders do not suffer from mental disorders. You do.

Jeepers - Pieper's WELS Sermon - On a Poker Website

Then We Will Show
December 31st, 2009 by admin Leave a reply »

I can’t believe what the kids are watching today! I mean, I should be happy. By watching these shows they are learning about statistics, judgment and risk assessment. Is it some hip educational program? Nope. NASCAR? Nope. Poker! You can almost always turn to some station, ESPN2 or the likes, and watch a Poker tournament. If this is sports, then I am physically fit! Golf, which some compare to watching paint dry, looks absolutely riotous compared with Poker. Yet, you have to admit there is some drama (not too much, because the audience gets to see what everybody has in their hands) there as the tension builds when the players have to show their cards.


I’m not saying we should truck on down to Benny’s joint for a weekly poker game or TiVo the next championship poker broadcast so we don’t miss it, but as Christians, I think it is time for us to show our cards. Jesus prayed for the day and I think it has come.


Then We Will Show.


1.Oneness (20-23).


2.Glory (24)


3.Love (25-26).


The words of our text for today are part of Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer.” He prayed for his disciples. Then he prayed for all who would believe in him. He prayed these words on the Thursday before his death, just hours before Judas betrayed him.


“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (20-23).”


Did you notice the two times Jesus mentioned the world in these words? “So that the world may believe…to let the world know.” Well, how is the world ever going to believe in Jesus if we don’t show them our cards? How is the world ever going to know Jesus is the Savior if we don’t let this wicked, old world know?


You see, that’s where the battle starts. The church has often been portrayed as a little fortress on a rock, battered by the winds and waves. Church architecture promotes this with its sanctuary and fortress-like walls. The world is out there, to be avoided! Long before security gated neighborhoods became popular, the church was the security gated community. German, Swedish and Norwegian Lutherans had their own churches. The Irish, Polish, German and Italian Catholics had their own churches. And they didn’t get along. I’m not talking about the Lutherans and the Catholics—I’m talking about the Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Italians, Poles and Irish! We could just as well bring the divisions up to date with the Mexicans and the Chinese, the Korean and the Philippinos. You expect people to be at each other’s throats. You expect people to segregate themselves and show bias, if not outright hostility, towards others.


You’d expect that, because that’s the sinful human nature at work. Where you find God at work, you see just the opposite and that is different. That is unusual. That is noteworthy enough that even the world will sit up and take notice.


It was that way in the early Christian church. Paul brags, “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free (1 Corinthians 12.13).” It didn’t matter whether you knew the Bible or not. The preaching of Jesus Christ converted both the Jew who had memorized God’s Word and the Gentile who didn’t really know what he was supposed to worship. The Holy Spirit through Baptism claimed for God those freemen who belonged to themselves and the slave who belonged to other. It didn’t matter. There were no divisions. No distinctions. And here’s another reason there were no divisions. The Holy Spirit moved them to care for one another. Almost every one of Paul’s letters to the Christian congregations contain something like this—“Ever since I heard about your faith and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you (Ephesians 1.15).” But this unity was not automatic. It was something the early Christians had to always strive for. “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought (1 Corinthians 1.10).”


This shouldn’t be hard for anyone who has been in a family to understand. There are lots of strains and pulls in a relationship. You’ve got to work on being close to brother and sister.


It’s like a marriage, and let’s take that as an example. Two people. Got their own ideas, their own likes and dislikes, their own hormonal systems just to add a little spice, like putting cornstarch in somebody’s contact lens solution. How does that big stallion and little filly get along? Will he be gone every night, just like he was before he got hitched? Playing cards, drinking, hooting and hollering with his buds over the din of their off-road vehicles? Will she be hitting the clubs with the girls, because it’s free drinks for them after 2 pm, don’t you know, and whining to him for pretty things like she did to her daddy when she was in junior high? I think we’ve just summarized the plot of most day-time and prime-time soap operas! Or will he be thinking about her, trying to tickle her fancy, working to spend time with her, getting her interested in some of the stuff he just can’t put down? Will she be holding him up in esteem, working to understand his way of thinking, trying to house-break, if not civilize, him a little bit and expand his horizons?


The Christian couple who does this, their friends are going to start wondering about them. “Why don’t we ever see Billie and Bonnie fight? Why don’t they ever disagree in public? Did they get a frontal lobotomy when they went to those pre-marital classes at that Lutheran Church?” But the more they watch this Christian couple, the more they get to know them, they’ll realize, “They have a great marriage because they are Christians—we don’t go to church. Maybe that’s why our marriage stinks.”


You get the point. Let’s look at the other thing we will show—glory!


“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world (23).”


Jesus is talking here about heaven. We are going to see Jesus in his heavenly glory. It will be indescribable. The Bible always portrays that vision of God as one of the highest joys of heaven. The joy of seeing fireworks (especially after that 51s slaughter we went to). Or better yet, the joy of a mother seeing her children again, the joy of parents seeing son or daughter on the stage, getting that high school diploma, the joy of a young bride seeing her husband get off the plane from his tour in Iraq. Maybe those things are as close as we can get to the joy we will one day feel in heaven when we see Jesus.


But how in the world is that going to show to unbelievers here and now? Go back to Jesus’ first words. “I have given them the glory that you gave me (22).” We aren’t exactly glowing like Jesus did on the Mount of Transfiguration, shining like lightning, our clothes whiter than any Laundromat could make them—that’s only the actors on those Crest whitening strips commercials! Most of us, if the truth be told, are showing the wear and tear. That’s not the glory Jesus is talking about, the outward glory of those naturally ageless celebrities like Kenny Rogers and Michael Jackson. Here’s the glory Jesus is talking about, that heavenly glory we already have here that unbelievers can spot. “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4.17).” Grace under pressure. Hope in the midst of heartache. Joy in Christ through the tears. That’s the glory Jesus was talking about. One more word from Paul on this, “We all reflect the Lord’s glory and are transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3.18).”


It’s the glory of a Christian life. It’s the glory of the Christian hope. That’s why even unbelievers want a Christian funeral. Maybe they think they’ll sneak in under the wire. Big, suave, cosmopolitan Ernest Hemmingway put a gun to his head when he found out he had cancer. Little stay-at-home Evelyne Zensen prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Do you think people notice? Yup.


They will also notice our love.


“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (26).”


We’ve talked a lot about love this Easter season, that we love one another. I don’t think a group of Christians can hear that message enough. Back up a step, though. Our love for one another is impossible without the love of God for us. His love comes first and moves us, creates in us, that love for him and love for others. Jesus is talking about how God’s love for us will show in us.


Ever notice how children who are loved well by their parents just beam? The time, the attention, the respect the parents give their children make those kids confident, at ease with others, willing to take some risks and look foolish if it doesn’t turn out, because they know they have someone who always loves them. I think teachers can tell at a glance which kids are loved well, whether they make the honor roll or just escape being declared ineligible because of English class.


Are you well-loved by God? Am I always in my God’s mind? Looking at the Bible, we’d have to say “yeah.” “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3.16).” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49.15-16).” Your junior high son or daughter ever come home with something written on their arm or the back of their hand that was so important, they couldn’t risk forgetting it before they found some paper? That’s our God! We are always in his mind. There is nothing he wouldn’t do for us, even to the point of Jesus giving up his life for us on the cross. No wonder we sing, “God loves me dearly, grants me salvation, God loves me dearly, loves even me. Therefore I’ll say again, God loves me dearly, God loves me dearly, loves even me.”


Do we show we are loved by God? Again, we’d have to say, “yeah.” Look what we think of him! Good Shepherd. Lord. Savior. Deliverer. Friend of sinners. That’s a whole different picture than the Hindus have of their gods, some of whom are the Destroyer and the Avenger. What do we think of what God has done for us? We don’t say, “Well, I hope I’ve been good enough for God to let me into heaven.” Most Americans say just that, which is why it doesn’t surprise me at all when we find out most Americans don’t go to church to regularly hear that Word of God. Not us. We would say, “I am certain I am going to heaven, because Jesus died for my sins.” That confidence in our Savior’s love for us will show. How about deliverance in earthly crisis? The world expresses doubt in God’s love. “Watch out what you pray for, you just might get it.” We express certainty in God’s power to deliver. “Take it to the Lord in prayer.” Or a preschooler tells her mother after the bank robber took his gun away from her mother’s head and ran out of the bank, “See, Mommy, Jesus protected us.”


People will notice. They really will. “How did you keep it together when your father died?” “Why didn’t you divorce him when he lost his job and you had to let the house go?” God gives strength to his people. It is so natural to us that we don’t think about it all that much, which isn’t a bad thing. I always get into trouble right after I’ve stopped to count all my virtues! But the times will come, as they have already come, and, as before, when that day comes, again


Then We Will Show.


1.Oneness (20-23).


2.Glory (24)


3.Love (25-26).


Kids certainly watch some goofy stuff. Because that’s what people were made for—watching. These eyes can notice the difference between a ripe peach and a peach that needs to be on the tree a few more days. We can notice a healthy color or a face that’s starting to show jaundice. People, including unbelievers, will notice, because they are watching you. Give them a chance to know who Jesus is as we display his grace in our lives.

Rev. Don Pieper is a minister in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He has devoted his life to

sharing the Gospel of Christ to all of Gods people. For more information about the Green Valley

Evangelical Lutheran Church visit us at
www.gvelc.com or call

702-454-8979 .

Ask for Pastor Don or Pastor Matt.

Your Amnesty International Spokeswoman

Ski posed with Lucinda Williams,
spokeswoman for Amnesty International.

The CORE seems to be an appendage of St. Peter's, Freedom.

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bill has left a new comment on your post "Your Amnesty International Spokeswoman":

I.J. Reilly

so your son needs a picture of Ski with T.I. (whoever that is) to make up for your inability to properly train your child in the way he should go?

That's too bad, but I suppose it's good you can admit it.

For everyone else here's a little snippet of lyric from "T.I." who Ski apparently got his photo taken with.

This is the musician who I.J. Reilly let's his son listen to.

>>>Hey would ya, stay?
Could ya play wit it with your tongue just a little?
You're such a sexy individual, physical and mental
And if you sentimental
Shouldn't the rules bend a little
Let me start at the top, stop in the middle
Use a popsicle make shiver, giggle when it tickle
I can talk to you dirty if you like that
I finish once, hit a blunt, start right back
I know you told me you a good girl
But shawty you a grown woman not a little girl
You can blame it on the Patrãn or the champagne
But sometimes being bad can be a good thing, ya now<<<

What a good Christian father Reilly is! He allows his kid to listen to vile music and justifies a "pastor" who does the same.

WELS Mentor Under Water

We stopped at Saddleback Church in August and

listened to the Porpoise-Driven Prophet speak.

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren speaks at the Islamic Society of North America 46th annual convention in Washington, Saturday July 4, 2009.  (AP Photo/Luis Magana)

• Stories
• Rick Warren On Coping In Tough Times

(AP)  Evangelical pastor Rick Warren is begging parishioners at his Southern California megachurch to cough up $900,000 before Jan. 1 to keep the parish out of the red.

In an urgent letter posted on the Saddleback Church Web site on Wednesday, Warren says expenses are up because parishioners are out of work and "the bottom dropped out" when year-end donations dropped dramatically.

He asks parishioners to donate before the new year to keep the Orange County church out of debt, The Orange County Register reports.

A spokeswoman for Warren said the church does not release financial details, so it's difficult to put the $900,000 shortfall in context.

Warren delivered the invocation at the inauguration of President Barack Obama and is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life."

Keep Studying Women's Ordination Until WELS Realizes the Synod Already Has a Bevy of Women Pastors

Word of Paula White’s new post seeped out Sunday when Randy White preached his last sermon as senior pastor at the church and resigned. White, 51, said he was stepping aside because of health concerns. He declined to elaborate on his condition, although he said he had been ill and in and out of the hospital for much of the last seven months.
 “I have some serious health issues right now,” White said in an interview Friday. “I’ve had six different doctors say that I had to take the stress, the pressure out of my life. So I’ve resigned, and Paula’s taking over.”
 Although she had made periodic visits, Paula White, 43, has been away from full-time pastoring at Without Walls for more than two years. She left Tampa following a 2007 divorce from her husband. Since then, she said, she has ministered mostly in New York, Texas and abroad.
 About two months ago, White said, she received a call from her ex-husband. He told her about his health situation and asked her to consider returning to lead the congregation, once one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation. White said she prayed, fasted and sought counsel from religious leaders including Bishop T.D. Jakes, the Texas pastor she calls her “spiritual father.”
 “This is not a casual decision,” she said. “This has been something that has been well thought through and prayed (about) and saturated. I am looking forward to leading people to the best of my ability.”
 Once a powerhouse couple in charismatic Christian circles, the Whites started the ministry that would become Without Walls in a South Tampa storefront. Its present sanctuary seats 4,000, Randy White said. The ministry was hit hard in recent years by the couple’s divorce, the death of  White’s daughter from brain cancer and the hint of scandals, including a federal inquiry into the church’s finances by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
 Last year, Randy White said the church was rebounding, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
White said that despite his mixed emotions about resigning, he believes his ex-wife is the perfect fit for the congregation.
 “I can hold my head high,” he said. “For 18 years, I served the people and served this community and we weathered a lot of storms through that process. I’m very pleased with how God used me.”
Meanwhile, Paula White says she is in the discovery and development stage as she prepares to again lead the church.
 She plans to live in Tampa and will continue to base her television efforts, Paula White Ministries, out of the city. A highly sought-after evangelist, White says she will curtail her travel and focus on the local church.
 “Many people watch the media ministry, and they’ll have a place where they can say Pastor Paula is planted,” she said. “It really is my joy and privilege to serve in this capacity.”
Sherri Day can be reached at sday@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2440.

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Women's Ministry Committee Members

Pastoral Advisors
Pastor Dave Kehl [GJ - Church and Change]
Professor Rich Gurgel [GJ - Church and Change]

Executive Team:
Marilyn Miller*
Kathie Wendland
Linda Buxa
Carolyn Sachs
Naomi Schmidt

Publications Team:
Linda Buxa*
Amanda Maresh
Lisa Bluhm
Melissa Bock
Franceska Wendland

Congregational Ministry Team:
Sally Valleskey*
Su Hanson
Edie Hintz
Jane Eddinger

National Conference Team:
Amanda Bourman*
Val Johnson
Laurie Starr
Vera-Ellen Cook
Sarah Owens
Mary Clemons

Web page Team:
Naomi Schmidt*

---

Nat'l WELS Women's Leadership Conference
 

National WELS Women's
Leadership Conference
Leading with a Christ-like attitude
July 16-18, 2010
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, WI

 

Keynote Address:
Leading with a Christ-like Attitude: Kathie Wendland

Developing Personal Bible Study and Devotion Habits: Prof. Richard Gurgel

Group Presentations

Serving Where God Puts You: Valerie Johnson

What is the Women’s Ministry Committee?: Women’s Ministry Committee
Committing our lives to the Lord - Mary Clemons

Breakout Sessions (you may attend 3):

Emerging Leaders of Tomorrow: Cynthia Whaley

Reaching Women in the Church – Organizing Women’s Ministries: Sally Vallesky

Christian Leadership in the Secular World: Marilyn Sievert

Value of Prayer: Vera Ellen Cook

Defining Your Leadership Style: Dr. Stacy Hoehl

Working Together to Address Conflict*: Marilyn Miller

Evaluating the Quality of a Bible Study*: Pres. Paul Wendland

Sharing Jesus with a Servant’s Heart*: Sarah Owens

Healthcare and Christian Leadership*: Connie Sauer and Linda Golembiewski

*offered on Saturday (only)

 

Music:

Koiné the Church Band

United Voices of Praise

 

Click here for the complete conference schedule!
 

Email us to get on our mailing list!

See highlights from the July 7, 2007
National Women's Leadership Conference 

---



Our History and the Original Brainstorm

The WELS Women's Ministry Committee was spawned from an event that took place in June, 2002. The event, a brainstorming retreat, was a pilot project of the WELS Board for Parish Services. The "think tank" objectives were:

1) to review and reaffirm the Biblical principles of the universal priesthood of all believers and of the role of men and women in the Church,

2) to brainstorm, clarify, and prioritize ideas regarding vehicles and approaches which will foster, encourage, and enhance the personal and corporate ministry of WELS women and,

3) to craft the outline for a document that will present our recommendations to the WELS Board for Parish Services for appropriate action.

Ten WELS women from various walks of life participated in the June task force. Some of these women had full-time ministry positions or had had them at one time. Several women were working professionals, several were retired volunteers. Six WELS pastors representing the Board for Parish Services, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, and Martin Luther College also participated. The Friday, Saturday, and Sunday retreat generated a set of "Action Plans". One of the programs that resulted as a key idea from the brainstorming retreat was a Commission or Committee on Women's Ministry in the WELS.

It took a year to get the committee going; nevertheless, the think tank weekend essentially generated the committee.  Initially, four women who attended the think tank were appointed to this committee. There were three men on the committee who represented the Board for Parish Services and the seminary. 

In October 2008, the committee expanded and now includes an Executive Committee, formed with the initial committee plus two new members, and several Sub Committees totaling 23 gifted women from across the nation and the two pastoral advisors.

Why is this ministry needed?
At the retreat the need to enhance the ministry of WELS women was expressed. All who attended felt—and also represented many other WELS brothers and sisters who feel—that there are some barriers that we in our church body must overcome in order to enhance this ministry of and to women. The task force participants felt that women in the WELS passionately seek to serve God in the Church in ways that please God and do not violate His Word. The committee's task is to fulfill the need to foster, encourage, and enhance the personal and corporate ministry of WELS women.

What types of opportunities for service and/or fellowship do are we considering?
The following are the key ideas that came out of the task force weekend in 2002:

▪ Hold a women's conference.
▪ Initiate a commission or committee on Women's Ministry (already referred to above, formed in 2003)
▪ Foster respect for WELS Christian women (to counter the real and perceived lack thereof)
▪ Identify, validate, celebrate women's (and men's) ministry
▪ Create a women's magazine.
▪ Create an environment that fosters heightened ministry among WELS women
▪ Pray
▪ Ask the Conference of Presidents and Synodical Council to make women's issues an agenda item
▪ Offer all called workers enhanced leadership training
▪ Enhance the understanding of the Scripture's principles of the roles of men and women
▪ Enhance the understanding of the Scripture's principles of the priesthood of all believers
▪ Encourage WELS women to learn as much as possible about the Scriptures
▪ Identify and teach spiritual gifts in appropriate ways, starting young.

As you can see, the suggested action plans are ambitious! There is much to be done. But we on the committee are fully aware that women's ministry in the WELS is not dependent on our committee, by any means. There are many, many opportunities for Christian service for WELS women, and we have invited women in our synod to e-mail our committee with encouragements and successes regarding women helping and serving in their congregations so we can be a clearinghouse for these ideas. Our committee is moving fairly slowly; we want to "get it right," before initiating any major conferences or programs. By this I mean we are studying Scripture together at all of our meetings regarding men and women in ministry-service in the Kingdom. In the meantime there are lots of other programs, Bible studies, retreats, and seminars that are enhancing the ministry of WELS women throughout the United States and beyond!

Our Communication Tools:
Some communicating is taking place via the WELS website. In addition to a website for women, we envision a WELS women’s' magazine, regional and/or national conferences, and presentations. All of the women on the committee have done and continue to do retreats and presentations to spiritually serve WELS women. These events can also serve to be opportunities to share the work of the Committee and the work of other WELS women's groups throughout the synod.


***


GJ - Which women were consecrating Holy Communion? WELS/ELS will never tell. That would be informative and edifying. The outlines given above show this is another outgrowth of Church and Change.

Featured Comments on Recent Posts

I appreciate the research being done by various readers. Waking up to dozens of comments is fun, for me. Apparently it is agony for those trying to slip all this past the unwary. A layman from St. Peter, Freedom, is unhappy that they are famous on Google for pictures of their pastors and stories about their work. Who posed with the floozies? Who published the photos to Facebook and kept them there?

Learn from Kudu Don Patterson, the next DP in South Central Texas. When his publicly displayed pictures were posted, he locked down his account pronto.

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WELS Pastor Tim Glende featured this photo with Katy Perry

("Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl")

on his main Facebook page. Try finding it now!

The winsome lass was once a Gospel singer.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Seattle's Mark Driscoll":

Imagine you googled WELS and St Peter and up pops Ichabod.

Can you understand what someone must think when they start reading and seeing pictures of their pastors plastered all over the screen?

Anger, frustration, denial, defensivness...(sic)

Give them a break-- encourage them to critque (sic) the sermons (give them tools to test a good sermon), gently explain the problems.

Love your fellow believer/brother/christian and pray for them.

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Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Just As I Warned - WELS Has Women's Ordination Wit...":

Doing a little more browsing in the Resources section of Staff Ministry website, I see two linked resources listed under the "Worship" heading. One of the links is to a "Worship Planning" service: http://www.planningcenteronline.com/

It's got everything a Lutheran Church needs for the arduous task of planning the Divine Service each week. Who needs a hymnal when you've got all these groovy features:

Integrated Stage Layouts
Tracking of Volunteer Availability
Transposition of Chord Charts
Visual Media of various kinds, including integration with Worship House Media
CCM Usage Tracking for CCLI Reporting

And who do you suppose is using this service? Emblazoned on the front page is the full endorsement of North Point Ministries, Granger Community Church, and Saddleback Church. These guys are all reading from the same notebook.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Compare These Ancient Quotations with What Is Happ...":

If the C&C thespians are anything like the LCMS thespians performing skits and dramas, let me tell you it is like that old advertisement, "I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats"! LOL

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Finkelstein on the Notorious WELS Document Support...":

The whole lay ministry program comes across as a new mandate from synod. Have churches been asking for such a program? Will churches be expected to shell out for a lay ministry program whether they want it or not? Is this more mischief from synod personnel who have nothing better to do? I am afraid this is another poorly, thought-through initiative that will get sold with a lot of hype and misleading remarks, including reference to a passage or two. Synod is good at making excuses after having made up their minds.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Finkelstein on the Notorious WELS Document Support...":

http://cumsanctospiritu.blogspot.com/2009/12/mlcs-charlie-chaplain.html 

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Finkelstein on the Notorious WELS Document Support...":

From the WELS Women's Ministry Website:

Our History and the Original Brainstorm
The WELS Women's Ministry Committee was spawned from an event that took place in June, 2002. The event, a brainstorming retreat, was a pilot project of the WELS Board for Parish Services. The "think tank" objectives were:

1) to review and reaffirm the Biblical principles of the universal priesthood of all believers and of the role of men and women in the Church,

2) to brainstorm, clarify, and prioritize ideas regarding vehicles and approaches which will foster, encourage, and enhance the personal and corporate ministry of WELS women and,

3) to craft the outline for a document that will present our recommendations to the WELS Board for Parish Services for appropriate action.

Ten WELS women from various walks of life participated in the June task force. Some of these women had full-time ministry positions or had had them at one time. Several women were working professionals, several were retired volunteers. Six WELS pastors representing the Board for Parish Services, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, and Martin Luther College also participated. The Friday, Saturday, and Sunday retreat generated a set of "Action Plans". One of the programs that resulted as a key idea from the brainstorming retreat was a Commission or Committee on Women's Ministry in the WELS.

It took a year to get the committee going; nevertheless, the think tank weekend essentially generated the committee. Initially, four women who attended the think tank were appointed to this committee. There were three men on the committee who represented the Board for Parish Services and the seminary.

In October 2008, the committee expanded and now includes an Executive Committee, formed with the initial committee plus two new members, and several Sub Committees totaling 23 gifted women from across the nation and the two pastoral advisors.

http://www.welswomen.net/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=180006131&sec_id=180002756&nc=1262231422796

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Finkelstein on the Notorious WELS Document Support...":

WELS Directory of Staff Ministers.

http://staffministry.net/directory.php 

[GJ - The list linked for Staph Ministry is useless because it includes ordained pastors with MDiv degrees - Bruce Becker - and is outdated. Another grant is needed. Doubtless the WELS directory has an actual list. The linked list seem to be - "Everyone who supports us, one way or another."]


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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Mentor Under Water":

Rev. Jackson,
I just finished reading all your posts for the week and just thank God for you and your work on this blog exposing these WELS pastors who are NOT Lutheran! I am especially sad about the pastor who left St. Peter. I can feel his pain. Pres. Schroeder where are you?? The DP is obviously useless.

signed,
a confessional WELS lutheran pastor's wife


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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Finkelstein on the Notorious WELS Document Support...":

Freddy would like to see the financials for the staff ministry program. I would like to see Larry "O" out -- along with the staff minister program. The WELS convention cut a lot of things that needed cutting. The staff minister program should have been on the top of the list with Parish Assistance second on the list. These are the two programs that most directly influence the WELS ministry and WELS congregations in a negative way. Now with parish assistance on the way out, WELS can now point to Larry "O" and say, "You are the weakest link!"


***


GJ - Someone would like the SP to take care of Fox Valley and the weak DP. Most of the DPs are weak, unless someone questions them. Only then is the wrath of God revealed  in all its terror. Sorry folks, the DPs are elected and re-elected.  They are key to local conditions. If Randy Hunter is rewarded with a vicar and gets a female pastor, that is only because the elected DP allowed it. If Dom Perignon Patterson gets a free vicar for his affluent church, the DP gave that congregation priority.

I see the problem as circuit/district tolerance, apathy, and ignorance. A few of us are working on the ignorance part. If people remain apathetic, the apostates will more of the same. They have been romping without restraint for 30 years and still occupy many positions of influence. Undoing their harm will take patience, courage, and the efficacious Word.

The Columbus apostates taught me the Book of Concord - not that they knew the contents of that book. They forced me into study as they tried to justify their love affair with Deformed doctrine.

The pan-Lutheran sound of shrieking comes from those who are being found out, on the Roman side and the Fuller/Willow Crick side. They are all Enthusiasts, but some prefer one brand over another.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Featured Comments on Recent Posts":

As suggested by a commenter above, I googled: WELS and St Peter. The first Ichabod result was on the 3rd page--result 22.

***

GJ - I will work on getting the rank higher. Thanks.

Finkelstein Reply to St. Peter's Freedom Member

Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Seattle's Mark Driscoll":

Dear Anonymous Member of St. Peter's,

I read with interest your letter to Dr. Jackson, and took particularly interest in two points that you made. Others picked up on these points, as well. I'll add my thoughts.

You state: No one at St. Peter or the CORE is criticizing traditional WELS worship or its practices, and our Thursday evening and early Sunday morning service are tradional (sic).

This is not true. Fundamental to a move away from any given practice is to express a need to do so. For decades, the prevailing concern was the need to be relevant to a changing society, to young people in particular, by catering to their entertainment dependencies. To express such need is to be critical of current practice, as insufficient or "ineffective" by some measure. Until only recently, this was the primary reason given for any move away from traditional practices: “We need to for the survival of the Church” or “We need to for the sake of evangelism.” Questionable even when these claims were made, today, these reasons are manifestly farcical.

Under the earnest appeals of evangelists trained in the methods of the Church Growth Movement – by far the prevailing methodology taught in American Christianity over the past generation – nearly all of pop-church Evangelicalism adopted these supposedly necessary anthropocentric changes in Worship practice. The case that was made for the necessity of anthropocentrism was theoretical. That case can no longer be made with any credibility. The last five years have seen the manifest implosion of Evangelicalism – as a direct result of CGM theories put into practice, as a result of divorcing practice from doctrine, of becoming doctrinally ambivalent, and of using practice, not as an outworking of doctrine, not as definite public Confession, but as a means of building organizations, the vacuum created by CGM finally shattered Evangelicalism. It has seen dramatically precipitous decline in the past five years. As general proof, ask yourself what happened to the Evangelical voice during the last two election seasons – especially the last season. It was entirely absent. The reason? No money, no leadership, no people. They are leaving in droves. And they are heading two directions: the liturgical church and the emergent church -- and of great surprise to everyone has been the strong representation of young people, searching for depth, among those heading to churches with strong liturgical practice. It is so bad, that last year the Southern Baptists began producing materials for the celebration of Advent and Lent, to keep from losing members to churches that celebrate these seasons of the traditional church calendar. This is notable, given that Baptists are sectarian, not catholic, striving to avoid in their doctrine and practice all elements suggestive of catholicity. They do not have a history of observing the traditional church calendar. The fact is, Barna Research – the primary clearinghouse of Church Growth related “market research” and support materials over the past generation – officially declared Church Growth a statistical failure. These practices do not produce growth as theorized, but quite the opposite, they produce shrinkage. The so-called need to be supposedly relevant to a changing society, by directly importing secular cultural elements and adopting them as church practice, while never standing on firm theoretical ground, is now a demonstrably false need. To repeat, argument can no longer be made with any credibility.

continued in next post...

...continued from previous post

You go on to state: It just is so curious to me why so many who hold to the tradiotional (sic) methods of worship find the need to criticize other forms of worship.

The case heard more often these days, isn't a need, but a preference for entertainment-grade worship experiences. Again, this notion celebrates the complete divorce of doctrine from practice, and, significantly, the separation of practice from Confession. It also relies on the false notion that all practice is completely free, with no limits or requirement that any factor other than preference be involved. It is also manifestly anthropocentric – as much as any argument from the standpoint of supposed need is. Proceeding according to the idea that "practice is merely preference," those resistant to change are discredited by being labeled spiritual weaklings, and marginalized either by condescending to slowly changing or by having their concerns ignored altogether.

But when one agrees that doctrine is not separate from practice, but that practice descends from doctrine, and, in particular, when it is understood that practice is a critical element of making a common Confession, it is clear that there are many important factors involved, and that preference is, in reality, only a minor factor. The fact is, what we, as WELS Lutherans, confess in common is not generically the Bible, but something specific that we say the Bible says. We make this Confession not because it is a membership requirement that we agree to with the same unceremonious regard we have for signing, say, a non-compete agreement with our employer, but as a matter of Christian conscience. It is a specific Confession that sharply differentiates us from other confessions, such as Roman, Anglican, Reformed, Arminian, etc. Carrying with it the force of conscience, we stand on our Confession with resolute certainty, even as Luther and others, in the face of death. It is not an insignificant thing, but a weighty matter to make a Public Confession – it is tied directly to our identity as individuals, and integral to our entire Worldview.

What's more, we all make this same Confession, together. No Lutheran congregation has the freedom to indicate, either by its words or by its practice, that it confesses anything other than our own confession. To do so makes us all a participant in the false confession of the heterodox, and violates the conscience of every Christian in our Synod. This means that, for the sake of unity (for its continued strength among us, and its credibility before the world), we voluntarily and unanimously avoid practices and phrases that would blur the sharp doctrinal divisions that exist between us and the heterodox. For example, while the practice of immersion is just as efficacious as sprinkling or affusion, for the sake of Confession in the face of the false teachings of immersionists, we forcefully reject this practice as forbidden by God – as we are enjoined in the Formula of Concord, Article X. Baptism isn't the only practice impacted by Public Confession, and for the sake of doctrinal and Confessional unity, we not only have the right, but the obligation to examine one another's practices. We are not free to engage in heterodox practices, as if there is no confessional division between us and the heterodox.

Honestly, this whole issue was dealt with, in depth, over on Bailing Water last year. A good summary of that extended discussion was compiled by a layman, and published on Ichabod and on Bailing Water earlier this year, An Open Letter to WELS - From a Layman. I would recommend that you read every word and follow every link of that letter -- it will explain much regarding these questions that you have.

Freddy Finkelstein

Finkelstein on the Notorious WELS Document Supporting Women Pastors

PB K. Jefferts-Schori and the first woman bishop in Cuba.
WELS Staff Ministry

Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Just As I Warned - WELS Has Women's Ordination Wit...":

This document makes very clear to me why it is that elements of WELS leadership had been pressing for “women's ordination” and advocating a pastoral role for women, by having them commune other women. It's just too bad for them that so many WELS layman and pastors are such spiritual weaklings that, out of "brotherly concern for their weakness," a moratorium was placed on female celebrants in WELS. I frankly suspect that this has little actually to do (primarily) with a desire to change doctrine, but rather with organization building and ambivalence toward doctrine and practice. If someone wants to build an empire underneath them, and if the word “minister” can be construed as a “slippery term” (much like the terms “teacher” and “authority” have become), then why not profit from the lack of clarity? If there is anything we know, it's that now-defunct CGM theories were primarily about developing programs – buzz-phrases like “evangelism” and “kingdom blah blah whatever” sitting in secondary position, as the beneficiaries of “effective programs.” The document produced in this blog entry bears the unmistakable fingerprints of the Church Growth Movement, beginning with the pietistic foundation of "lay ministers," with whom I have sufficient experience, both within and outside WELS, to have no confidence in, whatsoever.

Frankly, I'd like to see the financials of the staff ministry program, and the results of the market research they have no-doubt conducted. How many students do they need in order to stay in the black? What is the male-to-female ratio of this program? What does their market research tell them about attracting new students? Are they at the statistical limit for attracting male students? If they need to attract more students to stay solvent, or to grow the program, is attracting female students the only realistic way to do so? Are there other reasons for needing to attract more females to this program – statutory or accreditation oriented reasons, perhaps? What would encourage more females to enter the program? The hope of a career as a Minister of the Word – with the same IRS advantages as males? If these are the considerations being made, are they relevant to the solvency of the staff ministry program only, or of MLC itself?

This whole lay ministry program stinks to high heaven. I'm suspicious.

Freddy Finkelstein

***

GJ - There is a list of all staff ministers somewhere, but I did not find it at the wels.net website.

Compare These Ancient Quotations with What Is Happening Now at The CORE, Rock and Roll, Latte, Victory Movie Theater, Church and Chicanery

Rick Miller, thou has conquered!
Actual sign at The CORE, not a PhotoShop.

Real, Relational, Relevant
"Would you be interested in a church that offers...Practical and Relevant Messages? Contemporary Music and Drama? Friendly People Who Are Interested in You? A Non-threatening Environment Where You Can Investigate a Relationship with God? Maybe Crossroads Is For You!...Targeted for September, '92, Sunday morning 'seeker' service designed to introduce Christianity in the most practical relevant way possible!" Crossroads Community Church, Pastor Rick Miller (WELS), Crossroads Community.

"Church music doesn't have to sound 'different.' It can sound just like the music people listen to every day. At Crossroads you won't find a pipe organ, but you will find great music appealing to a variety of tastes...Who says church has to be boring? In many of our services the Crossroads Drama Team makes us laugh or cry, and take a hard look at ourselves." Crossroads Community Church, Pastor Rick Miller (WELS), Crossroads Community .

"Crossroads Community Church. Comfortable Contemporary Creative Services Sunday Evenings 6 pm South Lyon High School Pontiac Trail and Eleven Mile (313) 591-4087 Newspaper ad Crossroads, Pastor Rick Miller (WELS).

Crossroads Community "PREPARING FOR HOLY COMMUNION. BECAUSE...I am very sorry for my sins...I trust only in Jesus as my Savior from sin...I receive from the Sacrament the forgiveness and strength I need to amend my life...I believe the words of my Lord that His Body and Blood are REALLY PRESENT in Holy Communion. Therefore I announce my desire to partake of the Lord's Supper:... Crossroads Community Church, Pastor Rick Miller (WELS), Crossroads Community.

Willow Creek – Just Like St. Mark, Depere and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel.

"You may not have noticed, but Crossroads has changed its name!...Why the change [from Crossroads Christian Church]? First, we were told that the original name implied a denominational affiliation. Also, we believe that the 'community' label identifies us more closely with the philosophy of ministry at Willow Creek Community Church. We want to begin referring to ourselves more and more as a 'community' of fully devoted followers of Jesus."
Pastor Rick Miller, (WELS), Crossroads Community Church, News and Information for January, 1992.
[Willow Creek is a denomination and St. Mark Depere belongs to it.]

Doctrinal Pussycat Mueller

"Since several brothers have asked about the status of Rick Miller, I provide the following information. Rick has asked for a release from his call at Huron Valley Lutheran High School in order to serve a group of people as their pastor and to help organize them as an independent Christian congregation. The group is composed of some former members of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Plymouth, of some former members of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Livonia, and some people who have left LC-MS churches. The group has stated that it has a different philosophy and style of ministry, which includes drama, contemporary music and a thematic form of worship and liturgy, which allows for greater personal participation by its female members. The group has also stated that it would like to retain fellowship relations with our Wisconsin Synod."
District President Robert Mueller, President's Report to the Conferences, Fall, 1991 Note: the congregation has women lectors p. 2f. [GJ - Now that's new! - not.]

"As an independent group it does not plan to use the name 'Lutheran' in its title. It will be known as The Crossroads Christian Church...For the present, Rick Miller is still a pastoral member of the WELS...At that time [January 31, 1992, submission of a constitution] the fellowship question will be determined on the basis of the group's doctrinal statements and practices."
District President Robert Mueller, President's Report to the Conferences, Fall, 1991 p. 3. [GJ - Not using Lutheran? That's new - not.]


"CROSSROADS CALLS SECOND PASTOR. On January 5th, Crossroads extended a call to Kelly Voigt, currently pastor of a mission church in Tallahassee...Kelly would be responsible for heading up outreach activities and the preparation needed before Seeker Services can begin. He would be the speaker for the Seeker Services, while Pastor Rick would continue delivering the New Community messages."
Pastor Rick Miller, (WELS), Crossroads Community Church, News and Information for February, 1992, Seeker Services are endorsed by Pastor Robert Hartman, Pastor Jim Huebner, in the evangelism seminar video tape. p. 1. See Indianapolis Star story on Dan Kelm. [GJ - What ever happened to Huebner? Oh - he is First VP of WELS.]

"PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY AT CROSSROADS...Conduct seeker services... Provide small group leadership. At Crossroads, as people come to know Jesus they are encouraged to participate in groups of 8 to 10 people who meet weekly for 2 years of fellowship, holding one another accountable, discipleship training, encouragement and support. 1 Thess. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up." Pastor Rick Miller, (WELS), Crossroads Community Church, 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

"Several churches have found a creative and effective way of maintaining an active membership from year to year. Basically, they ask their members--each year--if they wish to continue as members for the coming year...Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (Irvine, CA) also has a 'Covenant of Membership' card. On their 'Covenant Sunday' Pastor Jim Hale encourages persons to come forward in the service and place their card on the altar." Win Arn, Win Arn Growth Report, copyright, 1986 709 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91101 818-449-4400 Same plan at Crossroads Community Church.