GJ - Good summaries:
Av Tattenai has left a new comment on your post "Guess Who Is Working with the New Jeske-Patterson ...":
It should be astonishing that an allegedly Lutheran congregation should approvingly link to a website which teaches, "We believe in the ordinances of believer’s water baptism by immersion as a testimony to Christ and identification with Him, and the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of Christ’s death and shed blood." In view of their apparent toleration of such contradictions of the Small Catechism, how does the WELS imagine they are any different from the ELCA?
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bored has left a new comment on your post "Guess Who Is Working with the New Jeske-Patterson ...":
Check out these WELS Women's services:
http://www.welswomen.net/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=180006193&sec_id=180002756
I don't suppose you or your readers will enjoy reading these 'Church Services for women', but it is probably important to be aware of what is available on the official WELS site.
I read through a few of these "services" and was not surprised to see the expected Christmas hymns and various barely-liturgical orders of service. The sermons, or rather, narrative expositions, are similar to the saccharine fluff you might find in Reader's Digest, many times offering secular moral of "Christmas is more than just gifts and materialism...there is something else!!" The messages of these "services" are very nearly just as applicable to Hottentots and Hindoos as they are to Lutherans.
When these "Womans' Services" do mention The Christ, they do it like this:
" Narrator: Great bargains are exciting and good news from beloved family and friends can be a delight. But as good as the sales are this week, next week Kohl’s will announce the biggest sale of the season. As perfect as the perfect gift is, it will likely be lost, broken or worn out soon; and nothing can compare to the perfect gift of a Savior. ' (excerpt from Advent by Candlelight, written by Naomi Schmidt)
Is anyone else insulted? If you're not, you ought to be. I'm insulted firstly because they insult Jesus Christ by comparing him to a bargain (but a better bargain!!). By describing Jesus as the superlative of the capitalist shopper's notion of "a good deal" they trod on his glory and his sacrifice. I'm secondly insulted because the writers' condescension is blatant. Do they suppose that the average WELS woman is so ignorant and petty that she needs to be reminded that Christ's Universal Atonement and individual Justification by Faith is better than the Aaron Rodger's Jersey she bought for her husband? Naomi, thanks so much for the reminder. I'm going to write that down so I don't forget. Naomi has a special perspicuity that will go down in song, I'm sure.
I'm sorry if I get a little snide when angry, but this stuff borders on the ludicrous.
The term "worship service" or "The Divine Service" actually has meaning beyond an arbitrary selection of words. The etymology of the word 'service' from M-W.com: "Middle English, from Anglo-French servise, from Latin servitium condition of a slave, body of slaves, from servus slave. "
So if we talk about a worship service, it's proper to ask who is acting as a slave? Who is serving whom? Ask around and you'll get different answers, but the truth is that in The Divine Service, God is acting as servant, serving grace to the Elect through Word and Sacrament. It is so humbling beyond words that the Omnipotent God would serve his creations that perhaps the content and form of our Worship Services should reflect that juxtaposition. In any event, I think it's safe to say that it's flippant and foolish to craft a worship service devoid of Word and Sacrament. God has chosen The Means of Grace for a reason. It's hubris and unChristian to hold a service with those Means.
I, for one, will write the Synodical leaders concerning these so-called Services, asking them to edit them to include the Means of Grace. I encourage everyone to pull out their keyboards and do the same.
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John has left a new comment on your post "Guess Who Is Working with the New Jeske-Patterson ...":
I couldn't decide whether to reach for a tissue or a barf bag when reading what this supposedly Lutheran pastor and congregation recommend to readers of their site.
Their recommendation of churches that deny the efficacy of the Means of Grace is, in fact a statement of this pastor and congregation regarding the efficacy of the Means of Grace.
Accordingly, wouldn't anyone partnering with this pastor and congregation also be denying the efficacy of the Means of Grace?
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Click on me  to download powerpoint viewer software |
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GJ - Mequon grads can left-click on the icons above and be whisked to such WELS idols as Mars Hill Church, where Ski, Glende, and Bishop Katie also communed.
Pilgrim, WELS, Minneapolis.Ask the Pastor
Do you have a question about doctrine, values, denominations, world religions, church practices, the Bible, what brand of coffee we use at our coffee hours...
Well this is your chance to have our pastorRev. Peter Leyrer
give you a well thought out, informative, theologically astute and plain English answer to that question thathas been just nagging at you.
Pastor Pete will be answering your questions
during the sermon time of both services, on the first Sunday of each month.
Just click on Pastor Petes (sic) nose to submit your question 
If you have a question of a more personal nature or would like to make an appointment to talk with Pastor Pete please click here
