To Follow the LCMS Convention

Is this going too far?


To follow the LCMS convention:

http://2010convention.com/

and

http://crossfocusedleadership.org/

They are also linked on the left.

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John has left a new comment on your post "To Follow the LCMS Convention":

Time of Grace has an exhibit at the LC-MS convention.

Does Time of Grace have an exhibit at the WELS, and ELS conventions?

He's driving the bus to Kieschnick's Missouri, which is closing up shop.
Jerry K. is going down,
so rats do swim toward a sinking ship, from time to time.

The Fox Valley Circuit Cartoons

revfrsds has left a new comment on your post "Lutherans Would Never Fall for This, Would They?":

Hi Greg!

For some reason that picture of Mr. Magoo reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon shows as a kid - "Beany & Cecil."

Let's see, there was, of course, Beany, a little boy with one of those brimless caps with a propeller on top. I do believe he could actually fly with it, though how it was connected to his head I don't remember. He was always going off on some adventure and inevitably getting into trouble. This, naturally, is Ski, who's ecclesiastical flights of fancy get him into hot water.



Then there was Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, a large green sea snake. He was always rescuing Beany from trouble, but he wasn't too bright. I seem to remember that he could change himself into "Super-Cecil" when needed to get Beany out of particularly difficult situations. Cecil would be Glende and Super-Cecil, VP Gass. They defend Ski no matter how foolish he is.



There was also a ship captain named Huffenpuff, I believe. You never saw much of him. He was afraid of everything and hid in his cabin most of the time. This just has to be DP Doug.




My favorite character was Dishonest John. He was always plotting to catch Cecil - I don't remember why - and just generally get into Beany's way or get him into trouble. One thing I remember well was his calling card which read "Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Special rates for Sundays and holidays." This became the title for a rock song in the 70's, I think by the group AC/DC. This has simply GOT to be Mr. Ichabod! He works for free, and seeks to foil Beany and Cecil at every turn. Go get 'em DJ!



I'm not making light of the lack of doctrinal discipline in the NWD, just marveling at how life continues to imitate art - or in this case, cartoons!

You could do an entire new blog, using cartoon characters to represent various C&Cers and their ilk. Let's see, there's Heckle and Jeckle, the Three Pigs, Dudley Do-right, my goodness, the possibilities are endless.

Spence

Lutherans Would Never Fall for This, Would They?

Crying Wind will make you laugh until you cry.

Compare - WELS pastors who copy and paste their sermons and show up at Mary Lou College to lecture the kiddies on doing mission work. Ski comes to mind.

WELS pastors copy and paste sermons and get rewarded for it - Parlow, Kelm.

WELS pastors copy and paste emails, sobbing along with Hybels, and pass it off as their own - Hybels and Limmer. Limmer speaks to the kiddies too.

Confidential to Fox Valley - college kids already know how to copy and paste. That is how they write their essays.

Harrison To Win LCMS Presidency by a Whisker

Warning - Polemics Ahead

Marva Dawn (above) and Herman Otten's sister (Marie Meyer)
are feminist theologians of the LCMS.
In WELS, Kathie Wendland
is filling the same role.

Necessary Roughness

Pray for a Synod United with the Word

Jul 6th, 2010

by Dan.

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will hold its triennial convention July 10-17. It will take up initiatives that would, without exaggeration, significantly alter the ways that the LCMS conducts business and reflect a theology of how our churches work that is different than what the LCMS has confessed in the past. Consolidated power, proportional representation for larger congregations, less lay representation, and hiding debt through board restructuring are all in play.

Such things will be decided by people smarter than I am. Pray for them.

The current Synodical President, who is seeking reelection, asks in his June 2010 (PDF) issue of “President’s Leadership News” that the delegates in Houston meet with Ephesians 4:1-6 in mind, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (verse 3). This is a good goal.

We must acknowledge that any such unity of the church and with the church must be maintained by submitting our reason and judgments to the Word of God, and in our case, the Lutheran Confessions. A group of people can be united in confession yet confess something other than what the Holy Spirit has intended for us to know. The ELCA becomes more and more united as those who protest the actions last August in Minneapolis leave. Unity is no virtue unless it is united with the Word of God.

Polemics versus Pietism

Spener taught Lutherans to be angry with polemical writings,
but Pietism is the ultimate polemic against sound doctrine.

I enjoy reading the hissy-fits aimed at me, but one thing really makes me sad. Many well-intentioned people have been trained to bristle when reading polemical works.

Another name for polemical works would be - Confessional. Yes, all the Lutheran pastors want to call themselves Confessional. They are anything but. The Book of Concord, following a long history of credal writings, is full of negative statements, explicitly condemning false doctrine. Do pastors know the Book of Concord? No, but they study the books of Fuller with glee.

Spener is the ultimate polemicist, because he taught Lutherans to oppose doctrinal debates. Granted, the death throes of Lutheran orthodoxy were noted for their opaque philosophical distinctions and their lack of Biblical exegesis, but that could have been solved without Spener's influence.

Notice the Pietistic influence today: love versus sound doctrine. Those who argue for sound doctrine are unloving and unbrotherly, just the opposite of what Luther and the Concordists taught.

Another aspect of the Pietistic influence is borrowing from other denominations, because the others are inherently superior. Spener got his cell groups from Labadie, who borrowed them from the Roman Catholics.

The rot happening in the LCMS, WELS, and the Little Sect can be traced to Pietism, which is another name for unionism and anti-Confessionalism. Where do these leaders meet and train? - Fuller, Willow Creek, Trinity in Deerfield. Their unity comes from a common loathing of sound doctrine. Even the moribund CLC (sic) has its unionistic faction, which will bite and tear at anyone in the name of love. The CLC (sic) adores Valleskey's Pietism.

One example of Pietism's assault is B. Teigen's scholarly analysis of false doctrine in the Synodical Conference. He showed correctly that the ELS, WELS, and Missouri adopted a false position on Consecration, a denial of the efficacy of the Word.

Was the ELS grateful for his work? No, Teigen rocked the boat. They treated their only scholar as if he were a bum. But they sang Amen! to Valleskey's Spoiling the Egyptians. WELS worked that issue hard, heaping contempt on Teigen and hauling out their all-purpose Pietist (Sig Becker) to cloud the issue.

Sig Becker endorsed the Pietistic Kokomo Statements, too, which were copied (three out of four) from J. P. Meyers' Ministers of Christ.

Pietism will not be defeated until it is identified and repudiated. Does anyone see that happening in WELS, the ELS, the LCMS? I do not. I see people content to have another Methodist leader like Al Barry. Remember good ol' Al? He was considered a conservative but he never stood up against the apostates, never got anyone upset. He and McCain paved the way for the Kieschnick Terror.

Here is a short history of what Pietism does. Anyone can trace this in Methodism or ELCA:

Stage One - There are all kinds of rules about what cannot be done, such as card playing, drinking, dancing, going to the theater. Deeds not creeds - remember that.

Stage Two - The rules are loosened up and the strict observers leave in a huff, the liberals happily waving goodbye.

Stage Three - Political activism and cross-denominational cooperation are called Gospel Outreach. Apostates are protected as valuable assets for the denomination.

Stage Four - The leaders are all Unitarians, gay activists, and ecumaniacs. These leaders are far more censorious than their own Pietistic founders. They savage anyone who questions their love, silence all dissent, and drive out anyone who dares question them. They make every Leftist fad an absolute requirement. The ELS, WELS, and Missouri are already participating in this stage.