LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Church Defends Hypocrisy in the Missouri Syn...":
I prefer the pensive photo earlier in the post than the photoshop...it is more contrived...
bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Seminary Fraud: Students Are Bankrupting ...":
Grumpy, I can make an educated guess as to what's happening. If a MLC graduate doesn't make the cut for a call right out of college, he or she can prove his or her dedication to the WELS by taking an overseas call, but that might be (often is) just teaching ESL for a year. At least that maintains a person's spot in the call pool. If he or she didn't do that, or find another teaching job, their position in the call pool would erode, and eventually they'd be out of the pool altogether. Then they'd have to take a few classes as refresher to get back in the pool, I suspect.
I know in the Missouri synod seminary students can't opt to take off a year or two after graduation and expect to come back and receive a call. A person can only receive CRM status after being in the ministry for a while--how long I don't know. Maybe it at the discretion of the DP. They even do that for sem students too--no breaks in seminary schooling or can't get back into the system. Unfortunately, they encourage a student to come to seminary even though he might want to put it off a year or two or three until he's really ready. THEN, once he's in they tell him he can't leave and expect to get back in! It's insane. If he knew that going in, he would have chosen to wait to start until his situation was optimal and he built up his motivation.
About the CRM status. To keep on it one must preach now and then or he drops off the clergy roster altogether. Ironically, Dr. Jackson gets on Paul McCain's case for wearing a collar and calling himself Rev. However, I think that pastors who work as professors, execs, speakers, editors or writers at Synod HQ, CPH or the LLL (Lutheran Laymen League) or LHF (Lutheran Heritage Foundation, e.g., Good News Journal), or Issues Etc, and such, must preach and administer sacraments now and then at a church or churches or else they lose their CRM or clergy status and the Rev. title to boot. So McCain isn't doing anything out of the ordinary, and he's doing what's expected of him.
McCain, Paul, Rev.
Position: Synod Executive Staff
http://www.lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=1081
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GJ - Bruce, thanks for mentioning one of Lutherdom's most obnoxious promoters of Universalism, in the name of UOJ - Paul McCain, MDiv. I find it amusing that McCain's theological support comes from Jack Kilcrease, who was born in a WELS parsonage, went to Luther (ELCA) Seminary, and teaches at a Roman Catholic school. That roughly parallels McCain's diverse and polychrome doctrinal opinions.
Missouri claims that the congregation is the only form of the church, so church executives pretend to be parish pastors. Seminary professors pretend to take parish calls. McCain has served a parish for only three (3) years, and that was a platform so he could campaign for Al Barry becoming Synod President.
McCain could wear papal robes if he taught justification by faith properly, but he does not.
