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*

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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 

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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.


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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!"


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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.

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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.

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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