Fun with Funding - Pure Speculation

Pastor Chris Christianson left his call at St. Peter, Freedom, after only seven months, not enough time to unpack the Lenski.

Pastor Ski is running out of funds for his Popcorn Cathedral of Rock. Pastor Tim is his buddy all the way back to football days at Michigan Lutheran Seminary.

Could they have created an atmosphere making Pastor Christianson eager to take another call? That left St. Peter with a vacancy, allowing them to call Ski when his Tweets, tweeters, and sub-woofers at the cinema are all gone.

According to a published blog, there were no problems acknowledged at St. Peter. That is what Pastor Tim and the council said. DP Doug sat in the back and chatted with Ski.

St. Peter called a pastor:

Shevey, Rev Wayne A       - St Peter - Appleton WI             - 12/14/2009 -
         Associate Pastor

Just wondering: Is this a neat arrangement, where no one will take the call, except Ski, who will soon be out of funds?

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This was posted on Light from Light:


St. Peter church in Appleton/Freedom, WI has scheduled a meeting for December 14, 2009 to discuss calling a new pastor. However, our congregation still has not been informed as to why Pastor Christenson left after only seven months.

On December 1, 2009, I met with Pastor Christenson for over two hours. According to Pastor Christenson, not one member of our church council approached him to inquire as to why he was leaving. Pastor Christenson had approached our church president, Mr. Denny, to discuss the problems with our ministry and practices here at St. Peter. However, according to Pastor Christenson, President Denny acted as though he did not care.

Pastor Christenson had a divine call, and he took that call seriously. So should we. He had to ask for another call as a result of extremely serious problems with the ministry and practice here at St. Peter. Pastor Christenson should not be blamed for leaving, he needed to leave for his own spiritual health and the spiritual safety of his family.

However, Pastor Christenson does have a duty to speak and to tell the truth and the whole truth no matter the cost. Here are some suggested questions for our church council to ask Pastor Christenson:

1. Why did you leave St. Peter after only seven months?

2. What did your wife do after first hearing Pastor Glende preach on Maundy Thursday?

3. How do you evaluate the preaching of justification at St. Peter?

According to Pastor Christenson, his definition of contemporary worship is not the same as Pastor Skorzewski’s and Pastor Glende’s definition of contemporary worship. Pastor Christenson is a believer in contemporary forms of worship, and would often play the guitar. However, he also believes that it is important to have good practices, and to preach Christ crucified and the true Law and Gospel.

The preaching of Christ crucified through the true Law and Gospel has been sorely lacking here at St. Peter.

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Call Meeting, Light from Light



At St. Peter’s December 14, 2009 call meeting, our Church Council President announced that the council had amended Pastor Glende’s job description to read “lead pastor,” and that we would be calling an “associate pastor.”

I moved to table the call because I believed that our congregation did not have enough information to ratify Pastor Glende as lead pastor, and call an associate. I believed that the council needed to better communicate with Pastor Christenson to better understand why he left after only seven months. Also, without going into any specifics, I cited a long letter that I had sent to the council and my pastors back at the beginning of November which raised important issues. I did not mention any of the specifics of my letter because I believed that that would be beyond the bounds of a call meeting.

Another layman asked whether there were additional actions or steps that needed to be taken before we issued a new call, and Pastor Glende replied, “If we had to do things, if there was anything that needed to take place before we could call again, then District President Engelbrecht wouldn’t allow us to issue a call.” District President Engelbrecht did provide our congregation with a call list of five candidates that he believed were suitable to be an associate pastor.

The argument against the motion was that neither Pastor Glende, nor our church council, nor District President Engelbrecht believed that any additional steps needed to be taken. District President Engelbrecht did attend and participate in our call meeting. When he was not speaking, he sat in the back, and chatted with Pastor Skorzewski.

The motion to table the call failed. However, it did receive a smattering of timid “ayes.” After the meeting, another layman estimated that the motion to table received about a third of the votes present. (I thought it probably received less than that, but there was no official count). St. Peter congregation did call Pastor Wayne Shevey to be our associate pastor with a unanimous vote. This is a divine call, and it is our prayer that God will bless St. Peter through this call.

On Thursday, December 17, 2009, I met with Pastor Glende, and he provided me with the church council’s official response to my letter. The council’s response was a letter that summarily and unanimously rejected every one of the concerns I had raised as being either false or without merit.

May the Lord be with his Church, his Bride, his Chosen People “to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” (Revelation 22:21).

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On the extreme Left: Ski, Glende.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fun with Funding - Pure Speculation":

I doubt if Ski wants to be the 2nd "associate" pastor at St. Peter. There are still two traditional services that are not his 'style".

There were other mission fields in WI that were scouted for a CORE-like mission. Appleton happened to come through at the right time.

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GJ - I am sure there is another $500,000 lying around for a new experiment. Actually, I am thinking that Mark Jeske wishes he had that money back.

Pastor Tim could have built a Soul Cafe with that money, too.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fun with Funding - Pure Speculation":

Hmmm...Mark Jeske paid the $500K? Could you please explain?

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GJ - This was a Church and Change operation from the beginning. Jeske has had three staffers (Ski included) on the Chicanery board. Ski and Katie were at St. Marcus when this miraculous gift came up. The issue was where to spend it.

It is thought that Jeske was anxious to replace Ski with someone else. Hence, Ski left with a funded call to anywhere - a bit unusual, eh?

Ron Ash (Church and Change board chairman) was involved from the beginning. Ski was tagged recently for Jeske's fake synodical youth rally, advertised to look synod-wide but just another Jeske project.

Time of Grace began with $750,000 from Chicanery fat cats. It seems reasonable that the original gift came from this circle of givers.

If the money came from St. Peter, Freedom, the original focus would not have been looking for various places to spend the loot.

I am not on the Chicanery Christmas card lists, so my conclusions are based upon what has been published already.

The donation developed much earlier. Everyone has lost tons of money through Hope and Change, so I think Jeske regrets spending so much money on getting Ski gone.


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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fun with Funding - Pure Speculation":

Glende and Ski are just kids. Engelbrecht, a poor excuse for a DP, is leading the puppet show. There was a pastor on this blog, who stated that his letters to Engelbrecht received no reply. The said pastor is a conservative pastor, not a shrinker, yet Engelbrecht has plenty a time to meet the "replies"(and everything pertaining) of Ski and Glende.

By his own actions, Engelbrecht is neither conservative nor confessional. This is a disgrace to the office of district president. More situations like those of Pastor Christenson's will be repeated in the future. Mark my word! SP Schroeder is very aware of all the mis-guided leadership and apostasy. Look what he did to Kelm.

Look, I find it horrible that I have to talk about a WELS DP in such a manner. Laymen and pastors have echoed the same cries. Not to sound like a broken record, but did I mention that Ski, Glende, and pals go to outside fellowship conferences?(OH! sorry, you heard that already) One more thing, Willow Creek, look into it!

In Christ,
from WELS church lady