Pastor Jeff Samelson said... How has this "Change or Die" conference been advertised? I hadn't heard anything about it, but that doesn't surprise me, as I'm on the East Coast.
Is this the kind of thing that only a select group would have been invited to, or something that was widely advertised among Wisconsin or Midwestern Lutherans?
I'm curious both as to the impact of the advertising/influence of this event in the church at large and, I guess, how IL were made aware of it.
- February 16, 2011 11:36 AM
- Rev. Paul A. Rydecki said...
- The conference is advertised for the world to see at the Siebert Foundation website. I don't know how they actively advertise it, but apparently it's not the first such conference, since it says this on their registration form: "This event is intended for church pastors and their leadership. Due to the overwhelming response to last year’s event and limited seating, we are restricting reservations to church pastors (we will accept more than one pastor from a single church) and one member of their leadership team. Seating is limited to 270 people. Registration is on a first-come basis." The influence on the "church at large" of such a conference should be obvious. 270 pastors and church leaders take "Lutheran" ministry ideas into their congregations and implement them there. Assuming an average of two participants per congregation, and using Pastor Ski's average Sunday attendance of 300, that's roughly 40,000 churchgoers who are directly influenced by this conference. From there, the ideas (and corresponding theology) that are implemented in one place are heralded in neighboring congregations and throughout a synod as "effective," and the influence rapidly spreads. Pastor Ski and Pastor Jeske, for example, have been the keynote speakers and/or presenters at numerous WELS (and LCMS) events in the recent past and are scheduled to be keynote speakers and/or presenters at several WELS (and/or LCMS) events in the near future. Add to that the Time of Grace viewership and listening audience, and the impact is even greater. And let's not pretend that there isn't a rather popular blog out there called Ichabod that spreads the news about events like this. You can't advertise something on the internet and pretend it's "our little secret."
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GJ - I was not the first to discover this conference, but I was only too happy to provide the link and the actual brochure for everyone to see. Some things have a way of disappearing in the midst of a chorus of denials.
One of many researchers for Ichabod said, "If I give it to my pastor, one person knows. If I give it to Ichabod, everyone knows."
The moment something is posted via a Google tool, it is part of the Google search results. Some activities published another way may take a little longer to register. Certain areas are rich in target opportunities, and some names are easy to associate with apostasy. Nothing is really private on the Net.
On another topic, a researcher noted the power of blogs:
bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Burkee Book Review in Christian News Latest Issue":
The three Midwest Lutheran synods are going through the same democratization phase as the Arab world is now. Before the Arab world had govts and carefully controlled opposition groups. That's similar to our synods and the opposition led by Otten. But now anyone can blog about the synod and connect with like-minded Lutherans, similar to Mideast denizens using Facebook to topple tyrants. It should lead to a more informed synod so that the pastors and congregants get the reforms they want, and what the synods need. For instance, I think that the LCMS should follow the LCC's lead in how they keep seminary education affordable. First, they cover 25% of their seminaries' expenses. Second, due to the recession, the LCC is going to merge its two seminaries into one seminary with two campuses. There will only be one administration and the faculties will each be cut by 50%, and they'll have to do more online distance teaching. The LCMS could do the same, and reduce tuition by half down to LCC levels. Then require that all pastors get an M Div before they receive their fist call, end the SMP program, and require all SMPs to get an M Div by some set date:
Latest News:
http://www.brocku.ca/concordiaseminary/
