Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "When Kelm Taught Reformed Theology at Wisconsin Lu...":
An English District for WELS? I noticed an article on John Berg on Bailing Water. I looked up the website for his church in Fremont, CA. I notice that his church is a member of the English District, LCMS.
The LCMS has this non-geographical district into which to send all its oddballs, liberal and conservative. Maybe it's time for WELS to add a non-geographical "English District." WLC could be its women minister training school, MLC is worker training school, Jeske its chaplain, Kelm is missionary at large, Patterson its president, etc. We could call it the Willow Creek District or the Fuller District.
WELS could re-open Northwestern College as its worker training college.
The only question is which would be larger, the Twelve Districts of WELS or the Willow Creek District.
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GJ - I have met the Berg brothers. Their father, Norm Berg, promoted Church Growth through his position as head of Home Missions in a WEF. Norm would dictate the number of toilets in a WELS, veto an AC unit in a sub-tropical area like Columbus, Ohio, and ban a free fireplace because "it violated mission code." The only thing he did not micro-manage was doctrine.
I liked Norm as a person but thought he was ill-suited to be in charge of missions. His ideology was right for the Love Shack. That mattered most of all.
No one should be surprised that growing up Fuller would make the Berg brothers high church. I am not sure whether DP Janke or DP Marcus Nitz got rid of John Berg. WELS managed to lose a church at the same time.
WELS California was always a safe place for the Shrinkers like Valleskey, Kelm (Valleskey vicar), Bivens, Rick Johnson, and many more of the same.
