Left-click the picture for enlightenment.
Church and Change did the same in Love's Park, Illinois.
bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Holy Word WELS, Austin, Going Multi-Site":
I bet the multi-site is attractive to the CGers because then all those people who don't want communion but once a year, or never, could watch the service on-screen (like they watch TV in a sports bar), and no one around them takes communion. If they are in the main church, though, they'd feel uncomfortable if they stayed in the pews while others file up and down the rows.
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maahes (http://maahes.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Spread the False Doctrine! Holy Word WELS, Austin,...":
Here's another example of the WELS numbers game. Gurgel says Pflugerville has grown 200% to 300% in the last ten years in the target area, and "That's a lot of opportunities to SPREAD the WORD!"
That means getting out and talking to people about Christ – not starting another church and waiting for people to invite themselves. Look at Christ’s examples for ideas instead relying upon the puny, selfish interests of “trained pastors.”
If they really cared, they would leave their citadels of false doctrine, and make contact with the lost.
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GJ - There are several good reasons for locating in Round Rock.
1. It is closer to Patterson's posh home.
2. Gurgle cannot spell Pflugerville.
3. They already have a group of WELS members worshiping in Round Rock.
Borrowin' some sheep,
We'll go on safari,
Borrowin' some sheep.
5 comments:
Ever do deceitful. That is one way to increase head count with little effort.
Mashes rails against "trained pastors" who don't leave their citadels to reach out to the lost. In the Round Rock case we're talking about the propriety of an exploratory CG mission being located within 3 miles of a CG church. Is the CG church in Round Rock not doing outreach?
Austin is a large city with only 3 WELS churches, according to the WELS locator. Judging from the locator map, the NW and SE are not covered at all. Why not locate an exploratory mission/mission startup there, or at least on the south or SE side of Pflugerville?
http://welslocator.locatorsearch.com/
The CGers, like Maahes, justify their wasteful use of scarce synodical resources (by locating an exploratory mission 2 miles away from another WELS mission) by saying that they are not like the "trained pastors" who don't really care and thus don't contact the lost.
People have noticed that as soon as any community starts defending itself against criticism (and self-criticism) by blaming others, everything in that community goes to purgatory in a hand-basket rather quickly. The civil rights movement in the US blamed everything on whitey, and that's when drug selling and use swept through the black community overnight because no one would take responsibility, and self-criticism was shouted down. Once imperialism and colonialism in Africa ceased is when the real killing started because no one would take responsibility and self-criticism was shut off. That seems to be the case in the CG community. They say they are going to do whatever they want no matter what because at least they aren't like the citadel pastors.
Did Christ hold up in a citadel waiting for the lost to pay him a visit? I don't think so. So what are you railing about Bruce?
Hi Wildcard, Let's analyze your accusatory question. You're implying that CGers follow the example of Christ while non-CGers don't, and somehow that makes CGers impervious to criticism. They can locate a church anywhere they want, and steal as many sheep as they want, even from other CG congregations, and no one is supposed to saying anything?!
Well, you tried the scissors. I suppose your next throw will be paper or a rock.
CGer disregard what are known as "parish boundaries." This was a major complaint against the Methodists and other revivalists (CG heroes) of the past--that they'd set up shop right on the doorstep of the traditional churches from which they wanted to, and would, draw members. In other words, Methodism didn't grow so fast legitimately, and any net gain of Methodists meant a net gain of zero Christians for Christendom. CG is a zero sum game at best.
CGers influenced by synodicalism still put church growth way ahead of the idea of serving a wider area of the US just so current WELS members wouldn't have to travel as far to church. Nor are they above competing with, or duplicating the efforts of a like-minded church in its own parish.
Synodicalism for CGers means not putting a church right across the street from a church of the same synod, while synodicalism for everyone else means serving the next town over.
A CGer who is slightly synodical will merge two churches into one (Kokomo), a CGer who is a bit more synodical will put his venue a block away (Appleton), while a CGer who wants to continue using the synod as an ATM will put a church 2 to 3 miles away (Austin), and a CGer who is about as synodical as they get will put a CG church a whole 5 miles away from other synod churches, provide it's smack dab between two WELS parishes on major roads (Rockford).
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