This Bus Don't Carry No Luth'runs, This Bus

All aboard!

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "This Bus Don't Carry No Luth'runs, This Bus":

Jackson, Diet, BM, DK, Church Lady,

Regardless of how you spin it, slice it, or dice it you will not have any effect on the ministries you attack.

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GJ - No effect? The Word has no effect? I almost forgot - the Reformed WELS Chicaneries think that way. And yet they fill the world with their own words, albeit copied from various sources without attribution. Why, Kelm would have flunked himself for plagiarism, according to his syllabus.

One effect of the Word is to harden the hearts of people who obstinately refuse to hear it. I see that when JWs come to the door and I teach them the Gospel. That enrages them, just as it infuriates the Mormons.

I have Church and Money Changers reading this blog every day. They take the time to make comments. They start and stop blogs to attack this one - anonymously. I call that an effect.

Moving with glacial speed, WELS is rejecting the cancer transplant they obtained from the Schwaermer of Full and Willow Creek.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "This Bus Don't Carry No Luth'runs, This Bus":

The Shrinkers are WELS without water.

2 Peter 2:17, "These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever."

Button up buttercup, your judgment lingereth not.

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GJ - I watch Google Analytics and Feedjit for information about readers. Hostile comments routinely come in from Austin, Texas and Fox Valley - predictable ones at that. I see New Ulm light up and smart-aleck college comments get sent. Those are the three hotspots.

The map is lit up from all over the world, but there are "no readers." The cowardly Shrinkers have even vowed to shut down this bog, just before discovering that they love me after all.

'Tis funny.

I have given them all kinds of new material on the Moline Memories blog, but they still come up with the Eighth Commandment. With a limited education, limited intelligence, and limited reading skills, echoing the howls of their Father Below is all they can manage.

Poster in the Chicanery headquarters lounge.

WELS versus Missouri View of the Ministry

Old Lutherans drink good coffee.

Joseph Schmidt asked me about the Missouri view of the ministry versus the WELS view.

Supposedly there was a great gap between the two, but the Little Sect on the Prairie had those on both sides and traditionally was closer to the LCMS. WELS took over as Big Brother, after the Synodical Conference broke up.

Pastors like to go over the histories and cases, because they can avoid the current issues. At best they hint at the current issues, to avoid career-ending positions.

LCMS

The classic view of Missouri held that the congregation was only divinely instituted form of the church. The classic view, like UOJ, does not go back very far. That was promoted and heavily defended in the early 20th century. The extremely hilariously view of this, held by Jack Cascione, is that the Voters' Assembly is supreme and validates the call, the Means of Grace, and the Oscars.

Walther did not practice this form of Waltherianism. He simply sent certain men to congregations. That was their call. If anyone is familiar with the Prussian view of democracy, that is as close as they get to it.

Walther let the voters argue about everything non-essential, but he was in charge of the spiritual matters in the congregation. By today's standards (in some quarters), he was a softie. He argued for taking in Masonic Lodge members but counseling them out of the Lodge. Walther excommunicated only three people at his church, over many years. In contrast, one CLC (sic) pastor excommunicated over 100 member of one congregation. One of his relatives excommunicated most of the members as an LCR pastor.

Missouri's congregational position has been good and bad. A conservative man is left alone if he is established in his congregation. The officials have trouble getting at him. However, an apostate is just as secure.

Missouri creates some peculiar applications. For instance, the seminary professors have to have a call to a congregation, even though that means very little. The seminaries also have a local congregation sponsor a communion service, even though everyone knows it is a seminary communion service, not St. Walther's by the Brewery.

Missouri DPs often wear neckties to show they are not in divine calls but are serving as executives. Is that good? Bishop is a better title, but when American Lutherans get or grab that title, they go funny in the head. It would be good to have DPs who really are pastoral and doctrinal bishops, and bishops who are also the same.

WELS

The WELS position is rather papal, but papal-babtist. The DPs have the power to do more, they claim, but they do not exercise that in promoting sound doctrine and whacking apostates. Instead, they whack conservatives and protect apostates. Pastors who want the protection of their DP should murder their wives or fall for some far-out doctrinal weirdo, such as Leonard Sweet.

Wisconsin used to say they believed in prayer fellowship. One WELS pastor made a point of leaving the dinner table when his evil LCMS brother said a prayer. But the same WELS pastor had no problem with Fuller Seminary or Reformed doctrine. Foreign languages - that was his problem. Bad news in the mission field.

Wisconsin said they had a unit concept of fellowship. No one says that anymore. They have levels, degrees, and dimensions of fellowship. A WELS pastor can be in fellowship with any denomination (Methodist, Babtist, Roman Catholic) or any entity (United Nations, Trinity Deerfield, Willow Creek, Fuller Seminary) as long as he is not in fellowship with Ichabod.

Missouri and WELS have morphed into the Fuller view of the ministry, spending the years since 1977 promoting that view.

Feucht in Missouri sold his guys on Everyone a Minister, which he got from Fuller. WELS adopted the same motto and promoted it in their motto.

WELS had no trouble with a non-WELS, ex-LCMS pastor, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, posing as a pastor as head of Lutheran Parish Resources. They lied for him, told his fabulous stories, and endorsed him for a pastoral position in Columbus. They lied about recommending him, too.

If a man is sued for wrecking the marriage of a Lutheran couple, WELS wants him for a Church Growth consultant and youth leader.

As long as Missouri, WELS, and the ELS promote Enthusiasm in various ways, they will have no coherent view of the ministry.

Foundational is the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. Anyone who takes a different route is anti-Biblical, an Enthusiast. To return to a Lutheran view of the ministry, these practical manifestations of false doctrine would have to be banished:

1. Fellowship with ELCA in any form. Missouri has joint ELCA-LCMS parishes. WELS has had memberships in the Willow Creek denomination. St. Mark Depere is out but have they changed?
2. Cell groups - they are the essence of Pietism and Enthusiasm.
3. Women usurping authority and teaching men. 
4. Training at CG and Emergent Church beehives.
5. Roman Catholics teaching Lutherans! Why is that debatable?
6. Etc.
   

Henry Ward Beecher Advocated Love and Appealing to Popular Culture

Beecher went on trial for his ministry to lonely women.
He beat the rap.
He could have been a Church Growth leader in Columbus.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Church and Money Changers Fail To Convert Kat...":

The main problem I see with these posers is that instead of repudiating the sinfulness of our popular culture they give the appearance that they accept, condone, and promote the lyrics, antics, and lifestyles of these celebrity icons.

I hope that privately these pastors are instructing youth on the soul-damning implications of lyrics such as Perry's "I kissed a girl and I liked it, I hope that my boyfriend don't mind it." I hope that they are providing Biblical references demonstrating the grave sin of the porn-star they are embracing. However, the public impression that these images create dash all of my hopes.

Yes, the porn-star and Perry are sinful and in need of salvation just like you and me, but there has got to be a better way of getting your point across without these lame and misleading gimmicks.

Good and evil are like oil and water: they just don't mix.

In case some of you are interested, the following link will supply you with the ability to refute the new film Avatar. I better get this out there quickly before Skewer-your-soul-ski and company try posing with and endorsing the Christ-hating likes of James Cameron:

http://www.goodfight.org/a_v_avatar_one_world_religion.html

-TM

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GJ - Yesterday I did some reading about Henry Ward Beecher. The Lyman Beecher lectures at Yale are named after his father. Harriet Beecher Stowe was his sister, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the best-selling book in the world at the time. Lyman was president of Lane Seminary, which helped start opposition to slavery among the Northern churches. Radicals left Lane to start Oberlin College, an Ohio school known for its Lefti-ness long before the other schools caught up.

Henry's bio is called The Most Famous Man in America, because he was. He manipulated huge audiences with dramatic auctions for slaves, supposedly to set them free, gathering enormous amounts of money for himself. He was doubtless quite entertaining, a real performer. He preached to "eight mistresses each Sunday" at his church. He was doubtless the role model for all Church Growth pastors.

Henry was a political leader before and after the Civil War. He believed in marrying the church to the culture of the time.

WELS Needs a Willow Creek District

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.

Teigen on Jeske

Time for Tubby-bye-bye.
Time for Tubby-bye-bye.
Time for Tubby-bye-bye.

Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "LCMS Board Minutes and Jeske":

Is it possible that you may be wrong about Pastor Jeske and that his television ministry could be considered a good thing?


Norman Teigen
ELS layman

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GJ - There is always a first time, Norman, but not with this topic.

Jeske is the force behind WELS/ELS Church and Change, a combination of Reformed doctrine, unionism, and New Age philosophies.

Listen to his program and read his odious blogs. He promotes and supports Mark Driscoll. Is it a coincidence that Ski and Katie went with Glende for a Driscoll conference in Seattle? Ski and Katie were at St. Marcus before they spread the blight to A-Town.

Jeske is dishonest about his fellowship, which is worse than his unionism. However, one cannot separate the deception from the unionism in his group. They are unionists who lie about their unionism. In fact, they even lie about being members of the Chicanery mob.

Check out the denials by Kudu Don Patterson, Mark Paustian, and others.

Before that, they lied about going to Fuller Seminary and adoring Church Growth.

Jeske belongs with Quiche-nik. May they go down the road to ruin together.

Suet and Squirrels

My suet blocks were not getting any business during our cold spell. As soon as the temperatures moved to 40 and above, the birds came back.

Suet lasts a long time, and Duncraft's blocks include seed. Birds pick seed out of the suet and drop some to the ground, where ground feeders get their share. Our dog Sassy follows me around when I have suet. She licks the bag every chance she gets.

I learned in Midland to have plenty of suet hanging from trees and bushes, because more birds can feed and tweet about food. Did you know birds invented twittering? Soon, children will say, "Birds twitter? What's a bird?"

Three suet bags were hanging on trees we could see easily from our living room, which faces the ravine. I added a fourth to a hook above the picture window. I was gazing at the bird convention on the more distant bags when I decided to move the window feeder away.  The ingrates were not using it. Just then a chickadee landed on it and began feeding.

Birds are wary and need time to adjust to watering and feeding places. Once habituated, they chirp for more when humans fail to provide as generously and regularly as the Creator.

The best part was seeing my grandchildren watch the birds on Saturday. I just happened to have one more package left in the fridge, so I sent that home with them. The directions are easy. Keep cold. Open the plastic container with a knife. Drop the blob into the net provided. Hang from a bush or tree.

My friend suggested a spinning corn-cob feeder. They cost about $24, so I decided to use the basic feeder already in place, a spike on a board. I bought some field corn and put the first one on. It took a few days to get noticed. This morning it was bare, so I put a new one on. Watching squirrels eat is great fun too. They are real acrobats, so I will get a spinner later - for the grandchildren, of course.

Squirrel corn spinner - available from Duncraft

WELS Church and Money Changers Fail To Convert Katie Perry, Who Is Living in Sin

WELS Pastor Tim Glende made this his profile photo on Facebook for weeks, open to anyone who searched his name.

 

WELS Pastor James Skorzewski - Ski - opened his Facebook photo albums to everyone for weeks, including this pose with Katy Perry and a similar one with Playboy model MariQueen.

Jim Becker WELS has left a new comment on your post "From Appleton - The Entertainment Capital of WELS ...":

KATY PERRY AND RUSSELL BRAND TO LIVE TOGETHER?

Jan 20 2010. Posted by Adam

* katy perry
* russell brand

Katy Perry and Russell Brand

KATY Perry and her fiance Russell Brand have fueled speculation they’re set to move in together — after they were seen paying a visit to Bed, Bath & Beyond in Hollywood earlier this week.

The I Kissed A Girl singer and the British comedian got engaged on New Year’s Eve after a whirlwind romance.

Russell — who owns a $3 million home in Los Angeles and recently put his North London pad on the market — was pictured loading up a trolley with the kind of necessities most couples would require when they move in together.

The trolley contained items such as a Bialetti Moka Express 9-Cup Espresso Machine priced $39.99; a Cuisinart Griddler Panini and Sandwich Press, $49.99; and a Cuisinart Stainless Steel Microwave Oven, priced at $149.99.

Katy recently revealed that she and Russell are yet to set a wedding date.

“We love each other and we desperately want to be with each other, so we’re going to take it as we come,” she said.

“I think the right time will be the right time.”

Guess Ski's evangelism efforts toward Katy Perry were fruitless.

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GJ - The efforts of Ski and Glende were not entirely fruitless. They made themselves the poster boys for WELS Church and Change, the public face of private apostasy.

Both of them finally hid their infamous poses with the half-clad Perry. They cannot hide their in-your-face attitude, which manifests itself in so many ways.

People expect teen-aged boys to be awestruck and proud that they got to pose with Miss Perry, who apparently forgot to finish dressing that day. But no one expects middle-aged men with wives and families to remain emotionally frozen in the teen years, especially when the pastors offer themselves as youth leaders.

"Avoiding the appearance of evil" is for chumps, Church and Change says.

I am glad Church and Change chose this pair to show everyone what the organization could do. A lot of money was spent in Columbus, Ohio, to show what Church Growth could do. Glende knows because his big, old non-WELS congregation went along with it. Shrinker Stolzenburg did his work and the church is much smaller than it was in the past.

The question is how long members and pastors will put up with the DPs running interference for these louts.

Remember the Church and Change playbook:

1. Pretend to be doing something no one else can or will do.
2. Deny the facts, especially when supported by evidence.
3. Erase the evidence.
4. Anonymously attack anyone who doubts the supreme virtue of the apostates.

Deputy Doug, Anything Goes District

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Church and Money Changers Fail To Convert Kat...":

We have not made the world more Lutheran, but the world has made us more worldly.

That's what happens when you try to copy what the rock stars are doing.

Here's and example from the evangelical camp at large: Contemporary Christian Music. I remember 30 years ago when it was their aim to be a bridge to the lost. The lost would heard the message in music that they liked. 25 years ago Amy Grant came out with "Crossing Over" with very little if any "Gospel" message in the music. It was to be a bridge to bring people to a comfort level that would perhaps lead them to checking out the scriptures. Amy's legacy as a purely pop star is well known. Now you have "God is my girlfriend" type music that is hard to differentiate from any other secular pop.

There is no longer any message in the music. But boy does it sell!

It seems the Ski and Glende types have taken lessons from they folks described above. Now their banal and insipid attempts at being "real, relavent" has left them with a bag of nothing.
But, man are they cool.

Where's the message?

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Church and Money Changers Fail To Convert Kat...":

Thank you for your comments Mr. Jim Becker. We are all glad so see lay-leader(elder?) men taking an outspoken stance against apostasy.

Ski and Glende middle-aged? Those guys are under 40! Fifty-two is the new middle-age. My pastor was born a fuddy duddy; however, he did go through the ages of 12 and 20. Pastors are supposed to be squares, it comes with the job description. The Bible says that pastors are to be ABOVE REPROACH. I pray for the poor wives. Give it six months, a year at most, at least one wife from that circle will go ballistic.(always happens)

I remember the CCM from 30 year ago. Amy Grant went through a divorce. Sandy Patty had a little trouble with the 6th commandment. Showmanship is a far cry from just singing in the church choir.

In Christ,
from WELS church lady