Hello
I am a student at Martin Luther College and I recently stumbled upon your blog and I just have a few questions for you, if you don't mind my asking. What exactly is your religion and which set of doctrines do you follow? I sense that you have a strong dislike for the WELS - is this true? If so, why is that? How much truth is in your posts? I don't know how I feel about the majority of your posts, but I seem to disagree with you on most things. I would just like to know where you're coming from. Thanks for your time.
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GJ - The paragraph above was a signed email, a Hotmail account rather than a BLC account.
I suppose it would be too much trouble to read the profile posted, which has been read thousands of times.
Enough is posted about doctrine to indicate what I believe.
Any morsel of truth about WELS is turned into ad hominem. When they send the remains of MLC to WLC/Watertown and close New Ulm, that will be my fault. But the call lists tell me they are closing WELS parochial schools all over the US. Even the prosperous ones in affluent suburbs are hurting. Therefore, MLC is filling a need that no longer exists, at at cost few can afford.
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Send Me Someone Who Reads - No Wonder MLC Is Closi...":
"Even the prosperous ones in affluent suburbs are hurting."
I have witnessed this firsthand. In one of the lily white suburbs of Milwaukee, a WELS congregation closed their school down several years ago. All of the demographics indicated that this school should have maintained their enrollment, if not increased it by leaps and bounds. There were strip malls and subdivisions of McMansions going up all around it. All of this came down before the economy went sour.
When asked why such a thing should happen, you get the standard answer that the congregation "has problems". There was no further explanation since so many in the WELS are sworn to secrecy. The 8 and 18 switch is poised above them like the Sword of Damocles should anyone dare speak the truth.
When members transferred to a nearby WELS congregation with an LES, everyone was assured that there was no sheep stealing going on. That congregation used the slight surge in membership to justify an expansion. Now, that congregation is already got their hand out asking for more.
It reminds me of the NWC/DMLC amalgamation. It was supposed to save money. It was barely done before MLC was asking for another million dollars to install the computer network. This financial black hole pattern keeps repeating itself in the WELS.
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GJ - Jim Aderman's parochial school was closed in one fell swoop, and he was fired as the pastor. A few moments later he was back in the same parish, which lost 50% of its members during his tenure. Aderman was a founder of Church and Change and still serves as a feature writer for FICKLE.
A recent description of SP Schroeder: "Ineffective." He should try the Word of God, not just in the vague sentimentalities of the Pietists, but as it is:
KJV Hebrews 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 12 For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
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Christian Schulz has left a new comment on your post "Send Me Someone Who Reads - No Wonder MLC Is Closi...":
Most kids at MLC are blinded at what's going on around the WELS. Once they stumble upon this blog they are taken aback that "Oh no, someone is saying there is false doctrine in Holy Mother WELS?"(among a plethora of other things) and they get defensive. I suggest they take a look at what GJ has to say for themselves. In fact do some personal research. Draw your own conclusions. You'll find out that GJ raises pretty good points that fail to be addressed by the WELS.
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GJ - Most of the content comes from WELS members and pastors, not from me. I add colorful commentary.
The WELSian response to the truth, which I do not take as personal, since they do this to everyone is:
- It is a lie. WELS officials lie routinely and hate to have the evidence there for people to read.
- Angry. The best approach to false doctrine, murder, adultery, and child molestation is - calm.
- Bitter. Has anyone met a happy Shrinker? Their response to the truth is acrid, sour, blasphemous, crude, and slanderous. One official wrote to me about a comment he did not like, "What's wrong with him?" The author was someone they abused, as I pointed out to the clueless official.
- Disgruntled. WELS likes their robots comatose.
- Doesn't have a friend in the world. I spent three days answering birthday greetings from various synods among my 1270 FB friends, so I know they don't mean that about me.
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Christian Schulz has left a new comment on your post "Send Me Someone Who Reads - No Wonder MLC Is Closi...":
Yep. I've dealt with the defensive sour attitude of a high WELS leader. One innocent question about a known program in the WELS turned a conversation sour within seconds. He basically told me in so many words, "You're too young to be asking questions about your own synod." My rhetorical question to any readers: why would he get defensive and spiteful about my question if there wasn't something going on that he knows deep down is wrong. I rest my case.
11 comments:
"Even the prosperous ones in affluent suburbs are hurting."
I have witnessed this firsthand. In one of the lily white suburbs of Milwaukee, a WELS congregation closed their school down several years ago. All of the demographics indicated that this school should have maintained their enrollment, if not increased it by leaps and bounds. There were strip malls and subdivisions of McMansions going up all around it. All of this came down before the economy went sour.
When asked why such a thing should happen, you get the standard answer that the congregation "has problems". There was no further explanation since so many in the WELS are sworn to secrecy. The 8 and 18 switch is poised above them like the Sword of Damocles should anyone dare speak the truth.
When members transferred to a nearby WELS congregation with an LES, everyone was assured that there was no sheep stealing going on. That congregation used the slight surge in membership to justify an expansion. Now, that congregation is already got their hand out asking for more.
It reminds me of the NWC/DMLC amalgamation. It was supposed to save money. It was barely done before MLC was asking for another million dollars to install the computer network. This financial black hole pattern keeps repeating itself in the WELS.
Most kids at MLC are blinded at what's going on around the WELS. Once they stumble upon this blog they are taken aback that "Oh no, someone is saying there is false doctrine in Holy Mother WELS?"(among a plethora of other things) and they get defensive. I suggest they take a look at what GJ has to say for themselves. In fact do some personal research. Draw your own conclusions. You'll find out that GJ raises pretty good points that fail to be addressed by the WELS.
Yep. I've dealt with the defensive sour attitude of a high up WELS leader. One innocent question about a known program in the WELS turned a conversation sour within seconds. He basically told me in so many words, "You're too young to be asking questions about your own synod." My rhetorical question to any readers: why would he get defensive and spiteful about my question if there wasn't something going on that he knows deep down is wrong. I rest my case.
Here I think you mean "LGS" for Lutheran Grade School:
"When members transferred to a nearby WELS congregation with an LES"
About the WELS church in a lily-white suburb of Milwaukee with McMansions closing it's grade school, and then its members transferred to a nearby WELS church with a grade school.
I would bet that the church which closed its grade school is following the Church Growth model. Any excuse is good enough for CG pastors to close a school, e.g., the cost, it take up too much of the pastor's time which could be plowed into evangelism, doesn't inspire confidence, graduates rarely attend church, etc.
I know one church where the CG pastor had the parochial school closed, and the money saved was given to the pastor, since in the CG model he's supposed to be paid a lot (prosperity gospel?) and have a big operating budget for conferences and "professional expenses." The church didn't grow but the more Lutheran members transferred out, and the CG services with lots of LAPPY songs only attracted evangelical Christians from the community. As the church shrank more, the pastor wanted to get a state-sponsored four year old kindergarten in the old parochial school building, or else sell off that building.
When that CG pastor left and we got a more WELS-ish pastor who chose hymns from the WELS hardcover hymnal, and within weeks all the Evangelical Christians scattered to the winds, leaving behind the Lutheran faithful who had survived the CG experiment. Now the congregation is rebuilding Lutheran-style and is using less expensive evangelical methods like handing out flyers.
The lesson? CG is a plague that will halve a church, close parochial school, and leave members poorer.
Make sure you have your facts straight. The truth is that Pastor Aderman chose on his own to resign. He was NOT fired. The school was closed under the decision of the congregation for many valid reasons. After his resignation, the congregation requested that Aderman reconsider his resignation and offered their support. He was reinstated to his position as pastor in their congregation.
RaeMarie, the main issue is false doctrine. Aderman has been in the forefront of promoting false doctrine and is still writing for FICKLE. That says all I need to know about the administration and the magazine. The facts you dispute were told to me by someone who knows the scene. Maybe they are worthy of debate, but the main issue is false doctrine.
Who is this source, exactly?
You say that some issues are "worthy of debate". That sounds like you are questioning the validity of the information you are receiving, yet you present everything as fact. This calls into question the validity of everything else on your site. Perhaps you should start receiving your information from primary sources rather than gossip.
It's funny how I get these nasty comments from people who do not sign their names and do not even have a permanent id. If someone clicks on the nasty ones, the "link is broken" right away. That sounds like cut and run to me. Typical Fox Valley, typical Glende.
Everyone has a different story about a pastor resigning. False doctrine is easily determined, and WELS is always on the side of false doctrine.
"The truth is that Pastor Aderman chose on his own to resign. He was NOT fired."
Just like Ovid? Roman soldiers bash down his door and 'politely ask' him to leave Italy? Or other Roman misfits, who are 'politely asked' by a legionnaire to kill themselves?
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