WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "A Threat from the DP?":
Hi Pastor GJ. I went to Shepherd of Peace's website. The congregation has Darren Knoll listed as their vacancy pastor. The latest message under the pastor's page was written by Jenswold. The daycare center? It is actually a 3-5 year-old preschool. There is nothing wrong with having a preschool as long as stewardship principles are not being violated. Also any teachings out side confessional Lutheranism(non-denominational doctrines?) are unacceptable.
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
---
Catechesis has left a new comment on your post "A Threat from the DP?":
"Only 5 of the 50 pre-school students are members of the congregation. There are no higher grades....The daycare center provides income for various people while draining the budget dry."
That is Pre-school "ministry" in a nutshell. And that is where WELS is staking its future at MLC.
---
norcal763 has left a new comment on your post "A Threat from the DP?":
Having a day care center is adiaphoric; however, we need to look at the culture we are supporting. These 'day orphanages', as Dr. Laura calls them, enable the mother to abdicate her role of 'first teacher' and the father to lighten up on his commitment as sole provider. Working parents often support a materialistic mindset too prevalent in our churches today that sees children as something to warehouse someplace, part of the mindset that discourages large families, a hindrance to traditional growth of the church. Paradoxically, we hope for church growth by using these abandoned children as little evangelists, hoping that their exhausted, frenetic parents will come to all the pageants and somehow, by osmosis, be absorbed into the membership rolls of the church.
But what about single moms? Ann Coulter calls single moms the new victim class. No-fault divorce, a feminist invention, has made it easier than ever to walk away from marriage for frivolous reasons, and most of today's divorces are initiated by women. There was a time when a woman with a legitimate reason for divorce could provide the child with an extended family structure by going home to her parents. This is stunted today by the balkanization of the family, a process passively encouraged by the churches as they have stood idly by.
Many Lutheran pastors will marry cohabitating couples without asking them to move apart during their engagement, showing tacit approval. Oh, yeah, it's easy to blame the gays for undermining marriage. But we heterosexual Christians and our wimpy pastors have done a fine job by ourselves.
Jim Becker
***
GJ - The Antinomian WELS calls the Ten Commandments legalism, Mr. Becker. They apply legalism to anything they do not like.
Over 20 years ago, WELS was selling the parochial school as a profit center. Just get so many students to pay so much money and that will support a staff. Since the pastor controls the staff, he can employ his wife and their friends.
The original idea was to provide a confessional Lutheran education for children of that congregation or circuit. Teachers were paid little, but they were respected. The entire structure of the synod supported low-cost education while avoiding government meddling, control, and funds. The golden rule is - "Whoever has the gold makes the rules."
SoP has a typical profit-center, except it is losing money. The purpose is not to provide a confessional education, because it stops at Kindergarten. I think it is probably marketed as a "Christian school," to avoid annoying non-Lutherans. The Confessions are another example of legalism, according to WELS.
The entire congregation is subsidizing day-care for non-members. The 90% who are not members will bolt if their tuition is raised to meet the actual costs. Lots of other day-care centers are around the area, so the competition for little bodies is intense.
Why just pre-school? This is so Mommy can hold down a full-time job and make some loot to pay for the Lexis. Once Dick, Jane, and Sally are in first grade, the congregational baby-sitting service is no longer needed.
WELS is so dishonest that they cover up this boondoggle by calling it "evangelism." The non-confessional pre-school is a witness to Lutheran doctrine and worship? With leaders like Larry Olson, John Lawrenz, Paul Calvin Kelm, and Jim Huebner, that sounds reasonable, sellable, and appealing.
Several WELS pastors have sent email saying the entire system should be shut down or allowed to fall apart. However, the people who would put it back together are products of the system, from the anti-Confessional forgetfulness about Gausewitz to the hazing and shunning.
---
Catechesis has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran School, Christian School, or Profit Center?...":
"Once Dick, Jane, and Sally are in first grade, the congregational baby-sitting service is no longer needed.... WELS...calling it 'evangelism.'"
Once again, you hit the nail on the head.
***
GJ - The language of the communications reveal what is happening. "Lutheran" is being stripped off of everything, but the efforts are always "outreach."
The WELS/LCMS/ELS experts are trained at Fuller Seminary (or worse), so their solution is always along the lines of generic entertainment, Pietistic piffle about transforming lives, which will take a lot of money. Tons of money.
A congregation that drains its budget to subsidize day-care for the upper middle class has already lost its way. The day-care staff works to maintain their own upper middle class lifestyle, so the parents and staff and pastor are in cahoots. (Remember Monkey Business? I will try to link that up. More like Money Business.)
Here is the joker, readers with nothing else to do on Monday - The mother who stays at home to raise her children will enjoy a much better marriage and family. The household will prosper in long run for many different reasons. The double-income couple usually just spends the extra money on:
- Day-care and supplemental baby-sitters.
- Eating out, which is expensive and fattening.
- Her impulse spending, because wifey has her own cash.
- His impulse spending, because wifey has her own cash.
- An extra car, so there is always another car needing gas, repairs, maintenance.
- Taxes, since the second job pushes up the income tax bracket.
The net income increase from the wife working is often slight, due to all those costs. The extra work builds up guilt for the mother, who may make up for it by lavishing extra gifts on her kids or by dropping the idea of discipline.
The congregation that goes into business with the government as a partner will find itself with a worse deal than getting into bed with the Mafia. The Mafia will negotiate; the government simply commands.
