The St. Peter Ski/Glende debacle is an open, weeping sore in their own district of WELS. The new Change or Die! pan-Lutheran conference is just another symptom.
The holier-than-thou WELS leaders do not like having me rehearse their pathetic history in Columbus, Ohio, where this really started. Glende and Ski are proof of the adage:
History always repeats itself twice: first time as tragedy, second time as farce.- Karl Marx
The Missouri District, LCMS, District President kicked Floyd Luther Stolzenburg out of the ministry after he was caught in flagrante delicto. The DP stopped at the church on Saturday, forced a resignation, and preached instead of Floyd on Sunday.
Floyd's first wife divorced him. The aggrieved husband sued Floyd, the parish, and various LCMS entities. The lawsuit and divorce papers are in the public record.
Floyd told everyone he had a "Scriptural divorce." The WELS pastors knew better, but Floyd latched onto George Skestos donations to create a Church Growth agency for WELS. Dave Peters (Union Grove) was vicar at St. Paul, German Village, at the time and wrote an essay on it. The WELS pastors called him a liar and an idiot for telling the truth about Lutheran Parish Services.
The circuit pastor, whose church (St. Paul, German Village) did not even belong to WELS, had semi-open commmunion and Lodge members, knew the truth. Skestos was a member of his church. Skestos was also a member of Marc Schroeder's congregation. As Richard Starr said, Skestos went to St. Paul with his wife and to Prince of Peace with his mistress. Big laugh.
Marc hated his first wife out of the parsonage and married a teacher at St. Paul, a girl he knew from earlier days, but a prof's daughter, so that was A-OK.
WELS ended up with two divorced ex-ministers running their Church Growth agency - Floyd Luther Stolzenburg and Roger Zehms (Martin Luther, St. Louis). Both of them loved CG, but Zehms was more subtle about it. Both were paid by Skestos and worked out of his real estate office.
There is a lot more to this but I will stick to what is in the public record or witnessed and known by many different sources.
I spent five years uncovering all the lies and false doctrine involved with this gang. Kovaciny was at Lamb of God in Columbus. He is still Floyd's lapdog.
Floyd attracted a whole pack of lapdogs, because of Skestos money. John Shep courted him. Jay Webber, guardian of Little Sect doctrine, had no problems with Kovo preaching at Floyd's new Masonic church and bagging the money for Thoughts of Faith. Marvin Schwan's Foundation kicked in money to match Floyd's. Oh, I would love to see the forensic accountants follow that trail.
Floyd's church was investigated by the police for embezzling.
In short, these pastors and officials did nothing to stop the spread of false doctrine, the promotion and new congregation of Stolzenburg. They fed the sheep to the wolf:
- DP Robert Mueller, Michigan District.
- District VP Paul Kuske, Michigan District.
- DP John Seifert, Michigan District.
- The Michigan District Praesidium, two of whom were known adulterers.
- Circuit Pastor Keith Roehl, St. Paul, German Village.
- Roger Kovaciny, Lamb of God, then Thoughts of Faith. WELS and ELS.
- Jay Webber, Cape G., then Cape Cod, then Thoughts of Faith.
- Wayne Laitenen, Ohio Conference Chairman.
- Rich Krause, DMin, Ohio Conference Chairman.
- Circuit Pastor Keith Roehl.
- Wally Oelhafen, District Mission Board Chairman.
- Fred Adrian, District Mission Board Chairman.
- Laity on the District Mission Board.
- John Shep.
- The Ohio Conference pastors, who saw all this develop, knew the facts, and avoided dealing with anything. One of them, Keith Free, is now in charge of missions for all of WELS.
Tim's parents were always very nice. We went to many St. Paul's events. We also knew his grandfather, taking him on trips to Mequon. We stayed at his uncle John Brug's house at Mequon.
Because the WELS/ELS pastors refused to do their sworn duties as clergy, avoiding their obligations as citizens, Tim grew up in a jungle of apostasy and wink-wink adultery.
Have a few dozen flings with married women and teens as a "conservative" LCMS pastor? No problem - you can teach at St. Paul's, lie about your divorce, and pretend to be a pastor again. In fact, VP Paul Kuske and Pastor Robert Schumann will write letters of recommendation so you can get another call and really be a CG pastor again.
As for those who get in the way of clergy adultery being rewarded and false doctrine being spread, we will pound them into the ground like a tent-stake, while praising you to Heaven.
Of course, this is going to cost a lot of money. We don't sell indulgences for free. If the money flows, so will the cheap grace.
Everything happening in Appleton was started by the money-grubbing wolves in Columbus. The first was a tragedy; Appleton is the farce.
