Holy Word Should Read the Appointed Gospel for Jubilate Sunday

From: Pastor Gurgel

SPREAD the WORD Holy Word Ministry Expansion Project April 23, 2010 There is nothing more exciting and rewarding than Spreading the Word of Christ's love and grace! It is with this thought that this first of many communications is being sent to you regarding Holy Word's ministry expansion project: SPREAD the WORD! The origin of the SPREAD the WORD project is rooted in several past Holy Word initiatives and much prayer and meditation seeking Christ's guidance for the future of our church family. Given the tremendous effort and history associated with this project, the focus of this letter is to provide background information that led to initiating the project and to provide the project vision and mission statements that have helped to guide the project thus far. Future communications will dive into more current details about the project and strive to answer questions Holy Word members may have about this exciting ministry expansion project. So what is the foundation for SPREAD the WORD? First and foremost SPREAD the WORD is based on Christ's Great Commission as stated in Mark 16:15. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." Through God's grace Holy Word has been priviledged (sic!)to start several mission churches over the past 15 years. Blessed fruits from these outreach projects include the following Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) churches: Cross and Crown in Georgetown (97 souls), Risen Saviour (sic!) in South Austin (123 souls), Living Waters in Marble Falls (20 souls), Trinity in Temple (81 souls), Abiding Saviour in Killeen (102 souls) and Christ the Rock in Round Rock (110 souls). During these years, God provided Holy Word with unique opportunities to minister to our Apache brothers and sisters in White River, Arizona, and our spanish (sic!) speaking neighbors. In 2003 Holy Word engaged with Forward with Lutheran Schools (FWLS), a consulting ministry that existed to help WELS congregations advance the gospel of Jesus by starting and strengthening early childhood ministries. FWLS, in coordination with Holy Word's staff and Church Council, held several member focus group meetings to gather feedback and gain insight into future directions for Holy Word's school ministry. Project leaders also conducted research to learn more about the surrounding area demographics and growth patterns. The resulting report recommended that Holy Word look to relocate the school to the Pflugerville/Round Rock area. In 2009, Holy Word's Church Council and staff developed a long term strategic plan for the church and school. During this planning process, serious consideration was given to the past fruit-filled outreach projects that God gave Holy Word the opportunity to lead. The FWLS report for strengthening our early childhood ministries was also a significant input to this process. At the conclusion of this planning project, the Church Council presented to the congregation Holy Word's 10 Year Plan that included a vision statement declaring that.... HOLY WORD, IN THIS DECADE, desires to SPREAD the WORD to others by establishing a SECOND SITE for EDUCATION AND WORSHIP. The following three mission statements were developed to help guide future progress on this project. God willing, and with the approval of the Voters of Holy Word, we will... SPREAD THE WORD by September 2010, HOLY WORD will hold worship services at a temporary SITE SPREAD THE WORD by September 2011, HOLY WORD will purchase a second SITE SPREAD THE WORD by September 2012/2013, HOLY WORD will operate a second SITE for worship & education Finally, in April of 2009 Holy Word extended a call for me to come and continue the planning process, lead additional outreach efforts and develop tactical plans to move the SPREAD the WORD project forward I accepted the call and began working on this project in September of 2009. Praise God for the leadership and vision of Holy Word's Church Council, staff and congregation! God willing, and with the approval of the Voters of Holy Word, we will begin holding worship services at a temporary site in the Pflugerville area by September 2010! At this time we would ask each of you to personally pray, asking for God's guidance and gracious support as we strive to Spread the Word. Subsequent project letters will begin to address potential questions that members may have about this project and will provide invitations and opportunties (sic!) for members to put their talents and gifts to work supporting SPREAD the WORD! In HIM, Pastor Gurgel Christ's Great Commission He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." ~ Mark 16:15 Questions If you have questions you would like addressed in future SPREAD the WORD communications, please email them to spreadtheword@holyword.net or place your questions in church mailbox S12.

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GJ - The ex-SP shows that he used the same spelling textbook as the other pastors in his synod. The only one who laughs about this is the Church Lady.

If Gurgle does for Holy Word what he did for WELS and his district, the banks should call in all their loans.

Bragging about Round Rock? That black hole for subsidies is nothing more than a channel for copied Schwaermer sermons and programs.

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Holy Word Should Read the Appointed Gospel for Tom...":

Gurgel's spelling leaves me speachless. :)

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GJ - I got it, Bruce. I spotted one right away, and it was such a howler that I looked for more, as any good editor would. I wondered about the British spelling of Savior, permissible - but in Texas? That was another error. It took me a few seconds to verify it was Savior rather than Saviour.

Anyone can produce a typo, but this went out to a whole list and no one caught the errors. Perhaps no one tried.

Team Patterson - where spelling don't count.

Buggy Trashy Splashy Noisy Birdy

All finches love Nyjer seed, which will last long in a "sock" feeder.

One reader wondered about his suet feeder not getting any action so far, so I created the headline to illustrate how to have a lively bird experience.

Buggy
The bug eaters love suet, so I would hang suet where the feeding can be enjoyed by everyone. Birds are wary, so it takes several weeks to get them eager to feed. The process speeds up with the other methods employed below. Bug eaters include starlings, all woodpeckers, and bluebirds.

Trashy
A trashy yard does not have to look like Dogpatch. The term is used for areas left wild, such as an isolated area with long grass and weeds or berries. Piles of brush are loved by birds for resting and also by insects for breeding. Compost is alive with food for birds, so a compost area will be a permanent bird feeder. Plantings can be designed for being bird and insect friendly: sunflowers, butterfly bush, trumpet vine, raspberries, blackberries, and gooseberries. Mud and manure are good for birds and butterflies, believe it or not.

Splashy
Birds have to clean themselves and drink water, so they gather around water sources. The more sources, the better. They like shallow water and splashy sounds, which can be created with simple devices such as a leaky vessel suspended above a pan of water. I borrowed my dog watering device for the birds, since the dogs were raiding the shallow pan. The ceramic pan will now be a backup for dogs and birds alike.

Noisy
Birds cannot help themselves when they are having a good time. If they are cleaning and feeding, they will make happy noises, and that will attract even more birds - numbers and species. Throwing seed down by the suet will attract the ground feeders, who will make the suet feeders less wary.

Birds count on a scout to check an area first. If the scout is calm, more will settle around and wait their turn. If the scout flies away, they all leave at once. Only God knows how they figure this out.

Birdy
If I want to watch birds through our picture windows facing the ravine, I place myself where I can sit motionless in comfort. Birds stop seeing a motionless figure.

I have watched birds from a few inches away simply by continuing the feeding and showing up to look at them through the window. They become used to a non-threatening figure. Close-up views are especially fun.

I created a bird swing with two chains and a metal rod. I suspended that from two hooks outside a picture window when we lived in New Ulm. The birds rested on the swing before and after feeding. The total cost of the swing was a few dollars.

A bird-friendly yard will be endlessly entertaining and educational. People often despise the common birds, like sparrows and starlings, but those birds do more than their share in eating weed seeds and pests.

Birds are smart enough to train humans. Once the birds realize that I am the keeper of the food, they let me know they are around. Jays shriek or make their bell-like sounds. Robins perch on a nearby limb. Hummingbirds fly inches away, looking for another fine shower from the garden hose.

The Gospel Is Not for the Rich, Powerful, and Wise

The nuthatch was designed by the Creator to eat bugs and larvae
lodged in the bark of trees and hidden in bushes.

"Early in the morning it rises, sits upon a twig and sings a song it has learned, while it knows not where to obtain its food, and yet it is not worried as to where to get its breakfast. Later, when it is hungry, it flies away and seeks a grain of corn, where God stored one away for it, of which it never thought while singing, when it had cause enough to be anxious about its food. Ay, shame on you now, that the little birds are more pious and believing than you; they are happy and sing with joy and know not whether they have anything to eat." Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 114. Trinity 15 Matthew 6:24-34

God is celebrating Creation Day by sending a gully-washer of a rain to Northwest Arkansas. I have noticed a relationship between weather and bird feeding. When a big storm is on the way, feeding accelerates. If the birds come out in the rain in numbers, they sense the storm will be long.

The best time to feed birds is right after a sleet storm. God's bird-feeders are trees and bushes, especially in winter. The only time they are really famished comes after the ice covers over their meaty, fatty foods - bugs served on bark and lodged in bushes.

The squirrels, who can be fussy about their food, and careless in their eating, lose their sloppy habits after a winter storm. They will pry each kernel of corn from the ice on their feeders. They will not let a single morsel slip away. They feed earnestly, devouring every scrap available.

The Lutherans who appreciate their doctrinal heritage are not the sons of DPs, the descendants of synodical authors, nor the children of circuit pastors. If they have not endured the cold, November drizzle of apostasy or the dark night of the soul, they simply repeat the bromides that keep their tummies full. They find g-r-e-y areas of Scripture on a regular basis. They defend the indefensible. They declare: 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry." ' (NKJ Luke 12:19).

Those who read the blogs or writings of LP Cruz, Freddy Finkelstein, and Brett Meyer will find that they have struggled with the issues of the Gospel for many years. The word scholarship is not based on the Greek word for IQ or formal education, but on the word for leisure. They have taken the time to study the Confessions to sort out the issues of the day, based upon their own experiences.

There is an immense gulf between those are who are starved for the real Gospel and those who are kept by synod subsidies, foundation grants, and gifts from adulterous men. Kept pastors are safe pastors, equivocators, wafflers, timid souls. Faith in God's Word makes men bold, but trust in material riches will always make ministers into milque-toasts of moderation.

As Chemnitz wrote so eloquently in the Book of Concord:

"We have no intention of yielding aught of the eternal, immutable truth of God for the sake of temporal peace, tranquility, and unity (which, moreover, is not in our power to do). Nor would such peace and unity, since it is devised against the truth and for its suppression, have any permanency. Still less are we inclined to adorn and conceal a corruption of the pure doctrine and manifest, condemned errors. But we entertain heartfelt pleasure and love for, and are on our part sincerely inclined and anxious to advance, that unity according to our utmost power, by which His glory remains to God uninjured, nothing of the divine truth of the Holy Gospel is surrendered, no room is given to the least error, poor sinners are brought to true, genuine repentance, raised up by faith, confirmed in new obedience, and thus justified and eternally saved alone through the sole merit of Christ." (Closing of Formula of Concord, Trigl. p. 1095) Francis Pieper, The Difference Between Orthodox And Heterodox Churches, and Supplement, Coos Bay, Oregon: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1981, p. 65. Tappert, p. 632. Heiser, p. 294.

PS - Freddy's pastor gave that Pieper essay to me, about 23 years ago.

ELCA's Time Bombs

ELCA's Stan Olson is greasing the skids of apostasy.

I wrote about all this 23 years ago and published it, quoting people and citing all the evidence. A PhD in chemistry said, "I wouldn't have believed it, but you provided all the evidence."

Very few pastors left because of the 1987 merger, but gay quotas were already instituted then and were bound to create the results of the 2009 ELCA CWA.

Here are some of the ELCA time bombs, which Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and others are trying to laugh away:

1. Over 200 parishes have already taken the first vote to leave, and they are the largest, most prosperous congregations in ELCA. The giant Community of Joy in Phoenix left with a 100% vote.

2. Almost all the income flows from the very congregations leaving ELCA, leaving the denomination with the low producers, as they say in sales.

3. Many unsuccessful votes, either on the first or second vote, are splitting the congregation, effectively turning a larger congregation into a zombie. The breakaway congregations will probably thrive.

4. No one knows exactly how many congregations will clamp down on giving, even though they are staying for the time being.

5. ELCA is being sued by ELCA, a messy kettle of fish. The publishing house pension fund went bust, so they are suing ELCA. I like it. My rejoinder in court would be, "Hey, start publishing some decent books and you won't go broke."

6. Thanks to the management skills of PB Hanson, ELCA has grown considerably light in their lavender liturgical robes. Even his liberal allies are enraged at his tactics and abandonment of theology. The former liberal leaders are downright caustic in their remarks, some approaching the polemical style of this blog, though lacking its substance.


Jerry Kieschnick's morganatic union with ELCA seems to be floundering, as people see how slick, cool, and utterly incompetent their SP is. Color him gone.

Pope John the Malefactor, capo of the Little Sect on the Prairie, is being discussed as a goner, too. He may stay because the ELS does not have the nerve to fire him by voting him out, as they should. They may fear him going back to teaching. Instead of being gone but not forgotten, he will be forgotten but not gone.