It's Time for a Change in Leadership: Kieschnick Followed the Gurgle Model - Preach Growth, Abandon Lutheran Doctrine, Go Broke

Desire for Change Apparent in the Convention and May Sweep all the Way to the Presidential Elections, by Pr. Rossow

By Pastor Tim Rossow
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The 2010 LCMS convention apparently wants change. Some less substantial changes to the structure proposals passed by significant margins. The largest change, 8-08, the resolution to eliminate the numerous boards elected by the convention that report to their boards and replacing them with two commissions that report to the president of the synod, was passed by a slim 4% margin. This is a dramatic switch that marginalizes the congregations from the setting of direction for the synod.

The fact that the convention has decided that the synod has been failing for the last decade to the point that we need a total makeover of the synod suggests that they would also want to make a change at the top. The current president has been in office for nine years and has led the synod to this position of near financial ruin and disunity.

Tomorrows (sic) vote for president is getting interesting-er and interesting-er. Stay tuned for more news and commentary. We will try by mid-afternoon to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the voting results so far today.

Church and Change Pastor Jeske in front of a picture of...Jeske, at the LCMS convention.
Time of Grace is a Missouri Synod Media Ministry
according the the LCMS website, which was revised.
Jeske never had time for the ELS convention.

LCMS Votes for Kieschnick Plan

Lutheran Synod delegates votes to change denomination's governance

By Tim Townsend> Post-Dispatch Religion Writer> | Posted: Monday, July 12, 2010 2:46 pm |

HOUSTON - Delegates at the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod voted Monday to radically alter the structure and governance of their 2.5-million-member, St. Louis-based denomination.

After three days of debate, 2,000 delegates gathered at the 163-year-old church's triennial convention here voted 52 percent to 48 percent to streamline its operations by dismantling its several boards and commissions in favor of just two boards.

The seven old boards were governed by independent directors in consultation with the denomination's president. The functions of those boards will be folded into one national and one international board. The church's annual budget is about $85 million, and the new structure will save it about $1.4 million per year, according to its vice president for finance, Thomas Kuchta.

The change will mean an elimination of about 40 administrative jobs in the church's St. Louis headquarters, according to the Rev. Larry Stoterau, president of the church's pacific southwest district and chair of the committee in charge of the structure debate.

Critics of the change, and of the Kieschnick administration, have suggested in the months leading up to the convention, and in debates throughout the weekend that the massive structural changes amount to a centralization of power in the office of the president. The LCMS has a congregational structure where authority comes from a congregation, in contrast with church bodies with an episcopal structure where a hierarchy wields authority.

In an interview, Stoterau said the worries about centralization of power in the new structure are unfounded, and the real purpose is to eliminate redundancies in board responsibilities that waste church resources.

"This gives no more power to president than our constitution. gives him," he said. "This is a centralization of coordination. We're coordinating these ministries together to work cooperatively rather than in isolation."

Earlier Monday, the delegates rejected a proposal to increase the time between its regional district conventions and national convention from three years to four, which would have saved congregations - which pay for the conventions - an average of about $500,000 per year.

DP Jackson on Worship - Doing the Work the DPs Won't Do

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "DP Jackson on Worship - Doing the Work the DPs Won...":

The picture of Choppa! ties in with the lawn mowing bit. I get it.

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Dear Pastors,

We are going to change Sunday worship a bit. To avoid fraud and deception, we will have "Lutheran" on all our church signs. Those who object are free to join a church body with a vague confession or none at all. Several come to mind.

The services in God's House are never aimed at entertainment, and we do not try to enlist new members at them. Therefore, all Seeker Services, Emerging Church models, and similar blasphemies will end immediately. See paragraph one if this displeases you.

The Lutheran worship service is the most Christ-centered and grace-filled of all denominations, for good reason. We believe, teach, and confess the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace.

The historic liturgy is the best way, the only way to express the Means of Grace. Before you start chanting "satis est," I agree that the liturgy can be expressed in various ways. However, anti-liturgy is always expressed in one way. I trust you know the difference.

Voluntary, inexpensive workshops will be held to demonstrate the historic liturgy.

By the way, men, I dress better to mow the lawn than some of you do on Sunday. I suggest that you either dress respectfully on Sunday or get a job that matches your Sunday uniform - mowing lawns.

We are cheating our children and grandchildren if we deprive them of Lutheran hymns. Our services should feature our hymns and help people appreciate the beauty and power of such authors as Gerhardt, Luther, Nicolai, Decius, Selnecker, Jacobs, and many others.

Do you know any non-Lutheran communion hymns? Non-Lutheran hymns for Holy Baptism? Hymns convey our confession of faith, which is why I am alarmed at the silly ditties and CCM garbage being tossed at congregations.

Hymn training needs to continue throughout the year. To support that I encourage you to sell your Fuller training manuals and use the money to buy music for your organist. Give him or her a raise. Recognize all church musicians each year during a service. Jubilate is a good Sunday for that.

In previous years, pastors have been promoted and given new calls for being caught in an affair with a church member. Instead of following that tradition, our jurisdiction is going to help prosecute those fellows.

We will promote and support pastors who are faithful to the Word and the Confessions, diligent in providing a Lutheran service with Lutheran sermons and Lutheran hymns. But, given God's abundant grace in the Means of Grace, it is likely that those who follow the new guidelines will want to enjoy their blessings in one location. This blog may inspire you.

Some of you will need to do some soul-searching, to determine if you are a Lutheran at all. If the answer is no, then it is unwise and dangerous for you to continue to pretend.

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raklatt (http://raklatt.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "DP Jackson on Worship - Doing the Work the DPs Won...":

This post is a great opportunity for the copy-and-pasters among the DP's.

Where you guys now?

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RINO from Soros or Soros RINO?

Republican in Name Only - RINO John McCain.

Some people say that Senator McCain is a RINO funded by Soros, but Eric Comstock pointed out that made him a Soros-RINO.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56177

McCain favored open borders during his presidential race and also promoted the fraudulent man-made global warming scheme.

In Phoenix he could not get a decent group together for a campaign stop. That says a lot GOP support in his home state.