norcal763 has left a new comment on your post "About Joe and Lisa Krohn Being Kicked Out by WELS ...":
Dear California:
Thank you for your sacrifice all those years ago. I, too, left WELS recently, but I took the "admonish, mark, and avoid route." My beef was with the Synod, and I didn't want my Pastor or congregation caught in the middle, so they didn't have an opportunity to excommunicate me. I was spared the stress of Joe Krohn and yourself.
I've learned that when you choose the hill you want to die on, very few people will bury you with honors, even when they agree with you. I do it for me. And people don't generally change. Think how hard it is to keep a New Year's Resolution, some of which involve changes that could save your life (smoking, etc.),and how easily they are broken. And you WANT to change. It's easy to see how much harder it is to change those who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.
I wrote a letter to the congregation saying we were marking and avoiding the Synod, but had nothing against THEM, and I sent a more detailed report to those who had, in the past, been sympathetic to my grievances. One was ongoing involvement with Thrivent, and I understand that was actually brought up and discussed at a board meeting. I was amazed, but nobody followed me out and it's back to business as usual.
Alot of people miss us, and the Pastor's family even invited us to their son's graduation reception at the church, and we went. His wife and daughter stop by our home occasionally when they are out for walks. We still do things with a couple who we were good friends with, and they keep "putting the heat on" for us to come back.
So it's amicable, but we miss our church family. Because communion in WELS is a confession of doctrinal unity, I can't "commune" with the likes of 'Ski' and Glende because they are false teachers. And even if we just went back from time to time without communing, I won't worship from the feminist hymnal because I consider it blasphemous that they changed the Creed. Anyway, that's my story, for what it's worth.
Conform and the world conforms with you; stand and you stand alone.
Jim Becker
The supernatural glow is Enthusiasm.
