Money Management in WELS - Cornerstone Stewardship "Ministries"

Church and Change promotes R-rated sermons, where children are warned not to attend,
and Cornerstone Wild Hare Fund-Raising.


rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Speak Up":

From my own experience, all of the above observations fit quite well. In the situation that I referred to, it was strictly a budget problem. The teacher was told after the last day of the semester. I am sure that there was much more to it all. It was the tip of the iceberg. The congregation just had a multi-million dollar expansion. They had engaged in full fledged masonry evangelism. They were borrowing against the pledges for the expansion to meet their operating costs. In a rare moment of conscience, they realized that this was wrong. My beloved wife had pointed out the total of 10 full time called workers on the payroll, including the full time child care director. My response was "that is a lot of salary and benefits". The expansion was sold to the voters with the assumption of a growth in both members and amount per giving unit. That never materialized. After three capital appeals, they are still coming up short. The third capital appeal caused my departure because they had contracted with Cornerstone Stewardship Ministries. (continued)

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Speak Up":

Working backwards from the comments:
Grumpy, I have been a part of the scenario which you have described. I was an elder when we had a pastor who was well known for his rather intimidating cold stare. Did they teach him this at the Sausage factory? I plead guilty for not speaking up when I should have. This is just another indication that the WELS can really be an abusive cult. When my wife and I were discussing the termination of the teacher's call, she reminded me of the history of the grumbling members who always talked, but never acted. When I was an elder, the Council President did stand up to the pastor. The pastor's knees buckled. Schoolyard bullies can get rather timid when you stand up to them. Members would complain that the same lapdogs would always be elected. In all honesty, who would want to serve under those conditions? (continued)

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Speak Up":

Mr. Meyer,
I agree about the WELS is cloudy (by design) concerning the doctrine of the public ministry. Furthermore, they co-mingle it with the doctrine of vocation. I have heard it said that everyone is a minister. But wait, not a public minister. So, then what they say they mean by everyone being a minister is that everyone has a calling. By that, they meant to say that they are talking about the doctrine of the vocation. Why did they not say so from the start? If it sounds confusing, it is. I'll bet that they use this convoluted argumentation to justify Bishop Katie being a "Worship Minister". I have also seen this used in a round about way to shame members into serving on one of the many useless committees. In other words, you are not really serving the Lord unless you are doing busy work in the congregation. (continued)

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Speak Up":

The name calling is usually engaged in by those who have no legitimate argument against you. It is similar to that schoolyard bully who does that in front of his minions to look tough. An abusive sect can be an equal opportunity offender. I have witnessed several faithful teachers get treated rather harshly. When members expressed outrage about it, they were called troublemakers. Mr. Jungen, thank you for pointing out that the congregation bears the responsibility for supporting the called workers. As we have been made aware of here on Ichabod, there are many faithful and knowledgeable laity. They need to be reminded to pray for and support their called workers.

Removing a Church Worker Properly

Scott E. Jungen has left a new comment on your post "Bueller, Bueller. Anyone? Anyone?":

Brett,
I believe teaching of false doctrine,not being apt to teach, scandalous life are some the reasons for removal from the ministry. Those are the ones off the top of my head.
Nowhere of which I know does Scripture say anything about church budgets. Hmmmmm.

Scott E. Jungen

PS- Another reason is health. But I saw that misused to remove a coworker the principal didn't like. Soooooo.

SEJ

Bueller, Bueller. Anyone? Anyone?

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Speak Up":

This discussion brings up the nature of the (W)ELS doctrine concerning the Public Ministry of the Word (PMW). Clearly those in the office within the (W)ELS agree with the doctrine as it's taught and enforced (enforced is a strong word in the (W)ELS concerning doctrine, maybe encouraged or suggested would be better - have you read the essays in the (W)ELS Essay files?!).

(W)ELS teaches that they have the God given right to change what Christ instituted and restrict parts of the overall PMW responsibilities to one individual (male or female) and still call it a divine office instituted by Christ. They still insist that it's a divine office into which Christ Himself calls these people to serve. This is why they can so easily remove someone from the position. They have taken Christ's place. Certainly (W)ELS President Moldstad set a solid precedent when he wickedly schemed to have Pastor Preus removed from his active call. Less than a handful of churches protested so the churches that remain in fellowship with the (W)ELS agree that his Antichristian behavior was acceptable. I say, so far (W)ELS is getting less then what they have asked for. Why are you upset at the termination of this pastor? Or any pastor.

What are the reasons Scripture gives that allow the removal of the man that Christ calls to serve a congregation?

Bueller, Bueller....anyone?

***

GJ - Many times they hate someone out of the call, and they wonder why the children of church workers are not signing up for their $100,000 college degrees. Ha.

WELS is dead, and the Amen! Corner is sure to follow.

Missouri loves to work with ELCA, too. That will make Missouri even more like ELCA, and not make ELCA more like Missouri.

They all agree on universal absolution - without the Word. Doctrinal agreement and fellowship always work together.

M. Loy on Doctrine

M. Loy translated hymns in The Lutheran Hymnal and wrote at least one there.
His Delaware, Ohio congregation is now ELCA.

Matthias Loy, Lutheran Standard, May 15, 1886, p. 84  (as cited by C. George Fry in The Springfielder, October 1974, Volume 38, Number 4,  Matthias Loy: Theologian of American Lutheran Orthodoxy)

"What was once settled as fundamental orthodoxy has, in various  particulars,  become  strangely disturbed.  The  old  ways of  thinking  no  longer  fit  and  satisfy  and  command  the  stern and  unfaltering  consent,  as  they  once did  . . . Notice  the  contradictions,  the  inconsistencies,  the  vacillations  of  theological opinion,  in  all  statements  of   our time,--how  vague  the language  chosen,  how  uncertain  the  note  struck,  how  many  the loopholes of  evasion!  . . . . Try if you  can get a definite declaration of theological  faith from your intelligent friends of  any denomination. Question  the  professed  teachers  of  religion,  and notice  how  slowly,  how  guardedly,  how  vaguely  they  answer direct inquiries....There has been an almost universal loosing of old moorings, a breaking away from the firm fastenings of other days, a drifting no one can tell whither."

Speak Up

This movie poster seemed to fit.


rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Church on the Synods Dividing and Conquering...":

Likewise, the laity should sound off before they depart from a CG congregation. At my former WELS congregation, a veteran teacher recently had his call terminated after the first semester. Usually, those calls are terminated at the end of the school year. Many of the members are up in arms because this faithful servant was given the heave-ho rather abruptly. My beloved wife commented that most of them will complain but get over it. Unfortunately, she is correct. My response was what they needed to do was to let some leaders know just exactly what they think, then walk away and never come back. The Wisconsin Sect has whipped so many into silence that only a few will have that much needed Luther moment and stand firm.

---

Daniel Baker has left a new comment on your post "Speak Up":

Right, Scott. and I'm just a brainwashed, maligning grandstander.

In all seriousness, the case rlschultz describes is currently happening to a teacher I had back in gradeschool (this is his third call since then). He is the principal, but from what I gather that congregation most likely terminates positions based on seniority.

The most disconcerting thing, however, is not that they terminated him, but rather that they notified him right before Christmas. This is the third position at a WELS church in the last decade that has failed him, and they have the gall to notify him over the holidays? They were so eager to let him go that they couldn't wait until after New Years to do the dirty dead? Merry Christmas!

Party Outreach - The CORE Did This First

"Son - fat, drunk, and stupid is the way we attract members and keep them."

http://apprising.org/2011/01/16/seattle-seahawks-have-more-than-a-prayer-on-sunday/


Seahawks have more than a prayer on Sunday

Two churches in the Seattle region are hosting tailgate parties to celebrate God — and the Seahawks.

By Sonia Krishnan

Seattle Times staff reporter

Related

Ryan Meeks wants to explore a question: Why shouldn't Christians be considered world-class partyers?

The 32-year-old will be talking about this on Sunday at Eastlake Community Church in Bothell.

Where he is the pastor.

Where 4,000 congregants will be tailgating during his sermon.

Where, as the Seahawks try to fight their way through another round of the NFL playoffs, there will be no mention of sin or guilt or immorality for indulging in that ultimate American pastime — rooting for one's hometown team.

Trust that it will all be done with plenty of pulled pork, beer, big-screen TVs and trucks, Meeks said. He's even bringing in his old Volkswagen bus. Kids are also welcome to run free in the church's big warehouse space.

"The church is the last place in the world where you'd expect to find people happy or excited or partying," Meeks said. "But why do we have to be so separate from what's happening in our culture? You should celebrate when cool things happen in your community."

And Meeks' church just happens to be where quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and a few other Seahawks attend Sunday services.

For North Sound Church in Edmonds, tailgating also seemed the perfect solution to bring God and his football followers together.

Kickoff is at 10 a.m. That posed a conflict.

So earlier this week, Pastor Barry Crane and the church's worship pastor started kicking around ideas about what to do.

Their solution? Have one service at 8:30 a.m. instead of three throughout the morning, and throw a party/sermon/killer breakfast at the conference center across the street. Prepare enough food for 300 people. Open it to everyone. And voilà: A tailgate church service was born.

advertising

Attendees, by the way, are urged to wear Seahawks colors.

So do Meeks and Crane think God will have a hand in the game's outcome?

"I would love to see the Bears get thrashed," Meeks said, laughing. "But to thank God if we beat another team? That might be a stretch of theology."

Crane got straight to the point.

"I don't think this is something God is too concerned about," he said.

Then he added quickly: "We're pulling for the Seahawks, of course."

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com

Library Liquidation Sale - The Spanish Armada

Boxed volume - new condition - lovingly read.
$40 plus shipping, including a second book on the Armada.

Garrett Mattingly's Defeat of the Spanish Armada

'I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too ...' Elizabeth I to her troops at Tilbury, during the Armada crisis

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 marked a defining moment in British history. A small, Protestant nation, ruled by a Virgin Queen, faced, and faced down, the overwhelming power of the Spain of Philip II, the self-appointed champion of the Roman Church. The image of Sir Francis Drake, calmly finishing a game of bowls before sailing out to confront the largest seaborne invasion in England's history, stamped itself for ever on the national psyche.

***

GJ - Folio Books are often reprints of great classics. This book explains the details of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a force so great that England should have been reduced and made a Roman Catholic vassal state again. Mattingly had the gift of burrowing through the archives and making the historical facts interesting and fun.

Folio sells a book for a time, then stops. This seems to be out of print at Folio.

How many students raise their hands and say barrel staves defeated the great Armada?

I have included a second book on the Armada, a slender volume called The Great Enterprise, published by Folio. This volume reprints documents and illustrations from that conflict.

Contact me at gregjackson1948@qwest.net

Make a Bird Swing

By Norma Boeckler

Birds love to perch near their food and water, to have a safe place for watching the surroundings.

The closer the birds are, the more interesting they are to watch.

A bird swing is easy to make and fun to watch in action. I am the least likely to make anything except a new book, but I did come up with the recipe for this.

At a hardware store:
1. Buy a metal rod of suitable length, such as 12 to 24 inches. The circumference should be narrow. A wooden dowel will also work for this, but a threaded metal rod will stick in the chains better.
2. Buy two lengths of chain where the links allow the rod to pass through. If the clerk asks what this is for, make something up. People think bird swings are weird. I suggest, "This is a lightning rod for my hamster cage." Believe it or not, that will be more acceptable than "a bird swing."
3. Buy two hooks that will screw into the window frame on top.
4. The chains hang from the hooks and the metal rod goes through the chain links.

Soon the birds will land on the swing and have a merry time on it. Smaller birds will favor it, because they can maneuver a landing. Two or three will swing on it at once, depending on the room allowed.

Doubtless a perch could be fashioned easily too, but I like seeing the birds swing back and forth, and they seem to enjoy the movement. A bird will land on a narrow branch of the bush near the feeder and swing back and forth. The vertical sprout will only hold one small bird, so he knows he will not look down and find a cat crawling up to catch him.

Snowed In, With the Birds

By Norma Boeckler

Yesterday, Sassy Sue and I filled the Duncraft bird feeder with black oil sunflower seeds and added new corn to the squirrel feeder. We also scattered seeds in the front of the house, in the rocky area sheltered from snow and rain.

I heard about a storm coming, but our little corner of Arkansas usually misses the worst storms, which go north into Missouri or south toward Little Rock and Fort Smith. Nevertheless, we had about 3 inches of snow on the ground this morning and another 3 on the way, the Bella Vista equivalent of a blizzard. We cannot leave the house today, but I imagine salt and sun will do the job Friday and Saturday.

The birds were already accustomed to our feeding areas, which include two spots for suet. This morning the birds were up before the sun, getting their morning Jo from the sunflower seeds and suet. Cardinals flock together in early spring because they have not chosen a mate and established their homesteads yet. We have 3 or 4 males cardinals happily eating from the same feeder.

The seed cost is about $1 per week. The suet cost is pennies per week. I can buy a basket/suet combination for $2, and that lasts for months. Refills are about $1, with interesting variations aimed at the buyer.

I will consider roasted mealy worms in the future. That is a blue bird favorite. They enjoy them live most of all, but that is not on the agenda.

Gardeners should start planning natural settings for promoting a bird-filled yard. Seedy flowers to consider planting are:
1. Sunflowers.
2. Cosmos.
3. Zinnias.
4. Safflower.

Birds love trashy, leafy, branch-littered areas for nesting and feeding. Trashy does not mean bags of garbage, but dead leaves, long grass, weeds and herbs. Leaves at the base of bushes will help feed the bushes via the earthworms, and the dead organic material will attract creatures for the birds to eat.

Blue jays and cardinals love bushes, and evergreens are popular with most species. Birds want a safe place to watch the feeder and to eat. A bird swing is easy to make and hang. I will put up a separate post on that project.

---

Brian G. Heyer has left a new comment on your post "Snowed In, With the Birds":

I'd also suggest purple coneflower (echinacea). The goldfinches flock to them for weeks to pick apart the seed heads. Don't plant near a path, as the seed heads are annoyingly stiff and prickly, but created perfectly for nervous finches.

Bruce Church on the Synods Dividing and Conquering - Themselves

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "What Does BC Know? Or Is He Just Bluffing?":

As long as we are talking about what BC knows or doesn't know, how about let's talk about what BC is speculating:

Over the last three decades God has noticed the non-support of the seminaries and seminarians in the LCMS, WELS and ELS, and that the quick fix the synodical tightwads who live in big houses in nice neighborhoods came up is to continually increase their compensation and not to fund the seminaries better, while creating alternative tracks in which Hebrew is not taught, nor classical languages or German. So God said, fine, since they are showing their contempt for my Word, what they are doing is creating the very situation where I'll divide each synod in half so half the DPs won't have their jobs anymore, and the other half of the DPs and president can't afford to live in fine houses in nice neighborhoods anymore. For when the synod divides, there won't be a need for thirty-some districts and DPs, and pay will be cut.

When God sends the aforesaid synods a theological disagreement over election or UOJ or a re-repristination of Lutheran theology, which feat God knows how to do well, the DPs and others who milk the system for all it's worth will naturally toe the Walther-Hoenecke party line. All the DELTO and SMP and WELS second career persons know their certificates are only worth something in the LCMS or WELS, so they will toe the Walther/Hoenecke party line no matter what. Around the DPs and alternative track will gather many Div pastors, enough to form a true schism instead of just a few dozen churches pealing off and forming another micro-synod. So the synods have already sown the seeds of their own demise. Of course, this is all speculation.

***

GJ - I agree in general. The revolt began many years ago, with people just melting away. Another sign of this in the LCMS is the refusal to turn in statistical reports. That was happening in previous years, so the numbers are meaningless, especially when people exaggerate on the positive side.

I was going to change pealing off (sounding their bells, above) to peeling off (separating), but I like the idea of congregations sounding off before leaving.

The synod officials have used the schools to keep their own cash flow going, but they are all dead and dying anyway.

My hesitation about BC's optimism comes from my experience with the ELCA merger. All the facts were known, available, and published in 1987. Hardly anyone did much. The pastors in the historical Delaware, Ohio congregation objected a bit, then surrendered to the merger concept. The retired ELCA bishops starting their synod were at the peak of their careers at that point. ELCA had to rub their noses in apostasy for 23 years before some of them started to wake up.

SPs Harrison, Schroeder, and Moldstad fit the description of investment company CEOs. "They do not manage the business, but the public perception of the business."

The turmoil in ELCA comes from people studying doctrine and seeing Holy Mother Synod in action, without their sentimental blinders on.

---

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Church on the Synods Dividing and Conquering...":

The doctrinal dispute would probably need to involve a repristination of Lutheran doctrine for Lutherans to get excited about it--enough to leave and form a new synod. During Walther and Pieper's time, repristination was the rage, and all Walther did was put Reformed doctrine into Luther's mouth--yeah, some repristination. Althaus' book on Luther's theology could be a springboard into a true repristination.

It occurred to me I had typed pealing instead of peeling a half hour after I made the comment. Oh well.


---

What Does BC Know? Or Is He Just Bluffing?

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Church Is Optimistic":

LPC, Yes, it will take time, but probably not as long as you think. Some critical* scholarship must be done first, and then result will come quickly. When God's Word is untangled from the mess they made of it, it will work even more wonders than it already has.

*By critical, I mean crucial or necessary, not the historical critical method.

Bruce Church Is Optimistic

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "This Is Your Hero - Mark Jeske - WELS and LCMS":


If you look at the history of the Synodical Conference, one can discern that the Pietist-Calvinist doctrinal overlay of the BoC that Walther pushed was not what most Lutherans in America believed, much less in Germany where no one believes in UOJ anymore. Walther's view on slavery was Calvinist, too, since one ought not mess with the status quo since that would contradict God's will concerning what station people hold in this life and the next.

Since UOJ was an overlay against the will of the people, Waltherian logic and the authority of the pastor had to push aside the beliefs of the unlearned masses, who were immigrants to American and thus vulnerable to this type of manipulation. Hence, to this day no one is allowed to criticize the pastor except in very limited contexts. The rule book on this came out of Alice and Wonderland.

If the pastor were really one with the people in doctrine, this all wouldn't be necessary. Of course, pastors will say that people swore they believed what the WELS taught, but here this is another manipulation since no one went over with them the pros and cons of what Walther taught, or even said it was controversial. It's similar to how evolution is taught in public school as fact without letting on that real scientists doubt it or disbelieve it. But no matter. I'm sure that eventually, with the help of the internet, the Calvinists will be exposed and tossed out on their cans.

Library Liquidation Sale - First Set - Alison Weir on Henry VIII, Wives, Children, Court

I am going to list sections of my library for sale, because most people will not want to order boxes of books at a time. If the link is still up, the books are still available. I will keep the links on the upper left hand corner of the blog page.

The first set is one of my favorites, but it looks brand new. I am a fanatic for proper care of books. So all my new books are still new and only a few are beaten up by previous owners.

Leather books by Easton are well crafted and built to last forever. This Alison Weir set is one of their most attractive, bound in black, red, and gold on the covers and gold-leafed on the edges, with a silk marker in each one.

Volume I - The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Our Lutheran history is related to Ann Bolyn's influence on Henry, and the flight of Protestants to America stems from the Protestant/Catholic division in his own household.

Volume II - The Children of Henry VIII. The birth and death of Henry's children changed the empire. Edward rules as a Protestant and died very young. Bloody Mary ruled as a persecuting Roman Catholic, and also died rather young.

Volume III - The Life of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth ruled forever as a moderate Protestant, shaped by the execution of her mother and her first lover. The pope defended her, saying "She only rules one island and only part of that, yet all of Europe is afraid of her." She could ream out a foreign ambassador in perfect Latin. She supported the real Shakespeare, the Earl of Oxford, and defeated the Spanish Armada.

Volume IV - Henry VIII, The King and His Court. Henry changed during his rule, from being a foolish, spendthrift, athletic and handsome young man to being a disgusting, bloated, but successful king.

A lot of historians are boring, unable to give up a single note-card or trivial fact. Weir has combined fascinating details with a dramatic narrative in each book. Anyone interested in royalty, English history, or the influence of the Tudor Monarchs will love this readable set.

Price - $50 plus shipping.

Contact - gregjackson1948@qwest.net

Note - this set has been requested. The link will be removed once the sale is final. Look for more listings soon.

He Forgot the Sic

God Speaks Clearly

Spock influenced Ken Berry to get involved in Hollywood.
Berry grew up in Moline and said Mayberry RFD reminded him of home.
What's the connection with this post? None.


LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Grace Does Not Equal Forgiveness":

"Terms must be distinguished unless they are synonyms. The Holy Spirit chose to communicate the Gospel in the most precise and flexible language on earth - Greek."

That is a statement that should resonate with clergy and laymen alike. There is no excuse for a bad translation or interpretation. God's word means what it says and says what it means. If the Bible doesn't speak in a certain way, then why should we?

***

GJ - Joe Krohn and Brett Meyer brought up the issue of how to speak about religious terms.

God speaks with the greatest clarity, but man muddles things up by shading meaning and changing meaning, too.

For example, the term infallible was always used for the Scriptures until the apostates began redefining the word as "infallible in doctrine, but not in history or geography." After infallible was watered down, conservatives began to use inerrant. The apostates (like David Preus, former ALC President) gloated that inerrant was a new word, and they were troubled (wink, wink) about a new word for the Bible. In fact, the Latin words for inerrant and infallible are both used in the Book of Concord - by Luther!

The apostates also do not like using anything post-Luther. That is their excuse for ignoring the Formula of Concord. But relax folks - the entire Syn Conference ignores the Formula of Concord, too. For most the of the leadership, the Book of Concord is a closed book, as interesting as an old edition of the Physician's Desk Reference.

The Bible speaks clearly about all issues. To say the Bible is confusing and contradictory is to attack the Word of God itself. I have noticed the current false leaders returning to Roman Catholic argumentation to sustain their errors. According to the Lutheran clergy, only they--the priesthood--can interpret the Word. For example, Jenswold and Glende (both Fox Valley) have both laid claim to their infallibility because they have studied Greek! Oh my! Our groundskeeper knows Greek too, a bit more than Jenswold and Glende put together. God speaks clearly in His Word, so any layman with a faithful translation can debate Christian doctrine.

In fact, I find the laity much more astute than the clergy about doctrine, because no one has taught them repeat-after-me talking points.

WELS/LCMS/ELS Talking Points from the Church of Rome

• The Word of God is not clear to you dopes, so the clergy must explain it to you.
• Holy Mother Synod is the ultimate authority on the Word, even though convention actions are the result of political lobbying and subject to reversal and change.
• No one should dare to offend the great and terrible Oz by questioning his clerical authority.
• This is a g-r-e-y area of Scripture.

Faithful Lutherans are faced with the problem of discussing Christian doctrine with a vocabulary and mindset corrupted by the clergy. The answer is to rely on faithful translations (KJV, Concordia Triglotta) and faithful books.

No Excuse for Everyone Being Asleep on This, Eh?

When Franklin C. Fry was head of the ULCA, then the LCA, seminary tuition was almost zero for everyone.


bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Mercy! - The LCMS Budget Is Corrupt Beyond Belief":

In the last few years two Preus sons opted for the LCC seminary at St. Catherines in Canada because it's much cheaper than Ft. Wayne, and they are still there. Students (and their wives) can stay in Canada or commute from the US which is only 15 miles away.

Here's what Daniel Preus of the Luther Academy had to say about his son who left Ft. Wayne sometime in 2008 or before. That son did not complete all four years there and didn't go into the ministry:

At the Texas Confessional Lutheran Free Conference XIX in Texas, on Sep 5, 2008, Rev. Daniel Preus told the audience at 1 hr, 3 min, and 44 seconds into the presentation (it's on MP3):

I will say this: we need more pastors...I'm a little bit sensitive to this because my son went to the seminary and couldn't afford to continue. He left. You have seminarians who are now graduating with debts of fifty to seventy thousand dollars. And I think the problem that we need to look at, which is not how many men are graduating, the problem is the church is not providing, our Missouri Synod is not providing for the education of ministerial candidates. Have I said that clearly enough? We are not taking care of the education of our ministerial candidates. And I think if one wants to give credibility to this Ablaze! movement, you would make it the first priority to cover entirely all the tuition of seminary students. And you would not make it the obligation of the seminaries to come up with the money, but that the church would do it.

Rev Daniel Preus, Luther Academy
http://www.lutheracademy.com/about-us/officers2/daniel-preus.html

Google Map

***

GJ -

In Ontario, even the German Lutherans end many sentences with "Eh?" Everyone drinks Molson beer there, eh?

I wonder if Missouri will end up with a group of pastors affecting the Ontario accent. The Canadians are wonderful people and their soldiers are great warriors. Too bad they are stuck with so much socialism and government control. Most of our bad American ideas are imported from Canada and Britain.

Long ago, seminary tuition was extremely low. But the schools discovered they could lay off all their costs onto student debt, using many of them as cash cows to milk while they were students, only to force them out before being able to use their degrees. I could name three men I know who fit that description, and I am not well versed in all the people run through the LCMS seminaries.

Besides that, I recall a time when people worried about having enough pastors and wanted to keep their pastor. But the "conservative" leadership, the same ones who took free educations and ran up the debts of the next generation, played games with calls and meddled in congregations. Dysfunctional members learned they could work with the DP or his hatchet-man to get rid of a pastor who offended them by preaching against adultery-or-for sound doctrine. Liars and adulterers love one another and work in perfect harmony.

Congregations and synods do not honor the pastoral office because they despise the Word. For example, the Wisconsin sect sends their graduates out consumed with righteousness through the Law. Like the Calvinists they are, the faculty members teach the men that the Word is dead on its own. The students need to make it come alive, as in real, relevant, and relational. The utter lack of action about The CORE and many clones (CrossWalk in Phoenix) proves how little SP Schroeder cares about sound doctrine when money is on the line.

For years God has been sending the ELS, WELS, and LCMS the same message, "You think money will solve your problems? I will let you have lots of money while you let your church bodies fall apart." I was not getting all anointed and becoming a prophet. Luther did that too, rephrasing passages of Scripture.

To repeat myself, half of SP Harrison's supporters voted to continue working with ELCA. Everyone knew the liberal half of Missouri would go for that, but half of the conservatives who voted to depose Kieschnick felt the same way. How can any Christian church body work with ELCA, an abortion provider and gay marriage promoter?

Any group that will work with Thrivent - that is who. Thrivent insurance is umbrella group that allows everyone to work with ELCA - and rewards them for it.

WELS is so deep into apostasy that they raise money for a heretical sect - The Salvation Army.

I went to seminary in Ontario, eh? Tuition was $150 per year and they gave scholarships to cover other costs.
And no, I was not an RCMP. This is a Photoshop.

Rebuking False Doctrine and False Teachers Is an Obligation of the Pastoral Ministry

Northwest SD Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "Co-Worker of the Notorious Iver Johnson - Worried ...":

What is interesting here is it sounds like they are even refusing to address foul and false teachings. They are doing this under the guise of the 8th Commandment. I do not know about you but I think that one should rebuke false teaching.

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GJ -

KJV 2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

KJV Titus 2:15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Stadler's congregation grew by taking in WELS members who were under discipline in other congregations. Stadler was divorced and re-married. Iver Johnson was celebrating his golden wedding anniversary and "counseling" the church secretary at the same time. And WELS would have Michael J. Albrecht admonish The Sausage Factory from the Holy of Holies, the WELS Essay Files.

The essay is worth reading - just for the experience of watching a pastor get as giddy as a schoolgirl over a bevvy of outrageous pagan false teachers.

The WELS Essay File should be audited for the number of ex-pastors, false teachers,  atheists, and scoundrels found therein. Mark and Avoid Jeske! Curtis the Atheist Peterson! Mike He's Counseling the Secretary Right Now Albrecht! Sig Guilt-Free Saints in Hell Becker! Jon Iscariot Is Forgiven Buchholz! Paul Calvin Kelm! Dan Escape to Missouri with Wife #2 Kelm! Paul Church Growth with Floyd Luther Stolzenburg Kuske - "On Dealing with Doctrinal Aberration"! Richard Iver's Tied Up Right Now Stadler! Richard Starr's Homosexual Essay, a Foretaste of My Homosexual Book.

There are 19 essays by Wayne UOJ and CG Mueller, but only 10 by Kelm. David Never Went to Fuller Valleskey has 35 essays, while Joel Never Read a Book Voss has none. James Dewey Tiefel has quite a few on worship. Marc Divorce Your Wife and Marry Another Schroeder has one essay in, even though John Seifert kicked him out of WELS (not for serial marriage).

The great thing about the WELS essay file is being able to go through the names and marvel at those careers of debauchery, false doctrine, and apostasy - a Smoking Gun mugfile for Lutherans.

Just to prove my point - I looked up Richard Jungkuntz' sole contribution in the essay files. It is on the "Ministry of Reconciliation," a district convention essay, 1954.

I have argued in the past that he was the prime mover in opening up the Wisconsin Synod to apostasy, laying the groundwork for the Church Growth Movement taking over. He taught at Northwestern College, seedbed of the Seminex Movement in the LCMS.

His essay is a halleluia chorus to UOJ. Below is one quotation:

The direct consequence of this change in the relationship between God and man was the justification of the whole world, the declaring of every sinner righteous before God. For that is the meaning in positive terms of what St. Paul here states negatively: “not imputing their trespasses unto them.” It is impossible to overemphasize this statement. For in our own time, even in our own Synodical Conference, this vital truth is being endangered, both by direct attack and by neglect. What is stated here by St. Paul means much more than merely that God has “provided and secured” salvation for all men, so that it is now possible for them to be justified through faith. Rather, it means nothing less than that already before faith, without faith, they have been justified by God, declared righteous for Christ’s sake, their sins no longer imputed to them. Henceforth it can never be sin that damns a man, any man, but only the rejection of God’s act of justification. From God’s standpoint every sinner is a reconciled sinner.

Jungkuntz was a liberal's liberal, smoked out in WELS, then by Jack Preus in the LCMS, ending his career in The ALC.

He told the NY Times he was "old school."

Jungkuntz' class was 1942.

Feel Free To Use Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant At Your Church

Cover design by Norma Boeckler

A pastor asked permission to use parts of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, which can be ordered from Lulu.com and downloaded as a PDF for free. The Leader's Guide can also be downloaded for free.

There is no need to ask permission to use the book or parts of it, because I would like people to have unlimited privileges in their teaching efforts. The copyright prevents people from reprinting it with their name on the title page, because I know how often that happens today in the Church and Change crowd. DP Englebrecht says it is fine to break the law and deceive people, because a number of WELS pastors do that. The next church worker to murder his spouse should ask for Englebrecht to serve as prosecutor or judge.

Nevertheless, I doubt whether the Shrinkers would copy Lutheran doctrine!

Co-Worker of the Notorious Iver Johnson - Worried about Slandering False Teachers

ex-WELS but still a pastor, Michael J. Albrecht.
What did he know and when did he know it?


Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Heavens to Betsy, Amy":

People should be offended that their elders, clergy, church, district and Synod are allowing such heinous statements and practices to continue. I've wondered that myself as I witness the glassy eyed stares of the laity I talk to. The answer is in the false doctrines which they are being taught. UOJ is certainly the most wretched and damaging, separating the confessor from Christ. Yet, there are others which are taught with equal vigor and have similar effects. One is the great commission where the (W)ELS perverts Matt 28:19 into a Methodist/Pentecostal call to action. Another is concerns how public sins are treated and the proper application of

I ran across this (W)ELS essay which, regardless of its ineffectiveness as a deterrent to the power of positive thinking (it really acts as a platform for the false teaching to express itself), promotes the same twisted agenda that we see time after time from the false teachers in the Lutheran Synods - "it's not what he said that matters, it's what he meant when he said, or did, XYZ that really matters."

Positive Thinking And Possibility Thinking In The Church: What Does Scripture Say?
[South Central District Pastor/Teacher/Delegate Conference
Lord of Life Evangelical Lutheran Church Friendswood, TX January 28-29, 1988]
By Pastor Michael J. Albrecht

Whenever we set out to evaluate and to criticize people with whom we find ourselves in disagreement, it behooves us to remember not only that slander is a crime, but also that no matter who they may be, they are protected by God's Eighth Commandment. Whether he be a heretic or a pagan, each and every one of my fellow human beings deserves for me to put the best construction on what he says and does. Page 1

I hope we are being fair to Dr. Peale if we now move on to a brief evaluation of his most popular book, assuming that we have sufficient background to understand his words as he intended them to be understood. Page 3

http://www.wlsessays.net/files/AlbrechtThinking.PDF

***

GJ - To quote Bishop Fulton Sheen, "I find Paul appealing but Peale appalling."

Norman Vincent Peale was an apostate, a non-Christian who plagiarized his best-seller from an occult writer. That plagiarism was proven decades ago.

Peale inspired Robert Schuller. Albrecht practically drooled on Schuller's hob-nailed boots in this essay. The humor is impossible to miss - now that Schuller's cathedral is bankrupt, just like the Church Growth Movement he spawned.

Stadler and Albrecht were known as Shrinkers before they were booted out of WELS. Stadler was buddies with Paul Calvin Kelm and Wayne Mueller. I will look up the graduation photo. Birds of a feather do flock together.

What a treasure trove in this class: Stadler (Church Growth), Forest Bivens (Fuller Seminary alumnus), Joel Gerlach as professor - bragging in a letter sent to Herman Otten that he went to Fuller at some point.

Lutheran CORE - News and Discussion: ELCA evicts African Lutherans because of opposition to new ELCA teaching and policy

"Brett, I want to welcome you into ELCA, so I can have the pleasure of booting you out."


Lutheran CORE - News and Discussion: ELCA evicts African Lutherans because of opposition to new ELCA teaching and policy

TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2011

ELCA evicts African Lutherans because of opposition to new ELCA teaching and policy

The ELCA is taking harsh actions against African immigrant Lutherans who oppose the ELCA’s new teaching and policy on marriage and same-sex sexual relationships.

Two African immigrant congregations have been expelled from local ELCA congregations where they have worshiped at the direction of ELCA officials.

“Oromo congregations in Houston, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, were asked by their mission directors and host church to leave the church premises without delay. The reason they were given was they are not in agreement with the August 2009 Churchwide Assembly resolution,” the January newsletter of the United Oromo Evangelical Churches reported.

The 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted to change ELCA teaching and practice on marriage and sexual ethics to affirm same-sex sexual relationships and to allow pastors to be in those relationships.

The 2009 assembly also asked the ELCA to respect the “bound consciences” of those who disagree with the church’s new teaching and practice. But that part has been more difficult for ELCA officials.

“One of the things mentioned to the leaders of the church in Denver: ‘Rev. Gemechis Buba has resigned from his ELCA position and we assume you have a similar stand and we have no reason to keep you in our buildings,’” the newsletter reported.

The Rev. Dr. Gemechis Buba is the former Director of African National Ministries for the ELCA. He resigned his ELCA position Dec. 8 to accept a call to serve as Missions Director for the North American Lutheran Church.

Dr. Buba was the first prominent leader from the ELCA national offices in Chicago to leave the church body since the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

Members of these congregations came to America to escape persecution because of their Christian faith in their native Ethiopia under the Communist regime that ruled Ethiopia until 1991. Some of them were imprisoned and tortured because of their commitment to Christ. They now face a different kind of persecution in their new home because of their faith.

“We ask all of our church leaders to announce fasting and prayer time for the difficulties we currently facing,” the newsletter requests.

***

GJ - ELCA knows how to administer church discipline. Every synod should do the same, so the faithful and apostate are aligned properly instead of being mixed together.

WELS says, "Ooooh. Gunn is in big trouble." Then Gunn is elected to a WELS college board of directors, joined by two others from the same congregation - his.

And WELS says, "Now Gunn is really going to get it." Then his own DP promotes a Church and Change youth rally featuring Gunn, with the promotional material almost giving sainthood to the imposter.

UOJ Is Taking Out WELS and Missouri - Not To Mention the Little Sect on the Prairie

Bad behavior? Our Martin Luther College president is a UOJ essayist!
Zarling is orthodox WELS.


bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Grace Does Not Equal Forgiveness":

GJ wrote: "I contend that UOJ is the falsehood behind the famously bad behavior of WELS clergy and the criminal cover-ups of the synod officials."

I second that motion!

They say UOJ gives assurance of salvation, but if you need THAT much assurance that everyone last person on earth is justified, I say you've got some serious repenting to do, or you need counseling or psychological help.

I contend that UOJ is why few in the LCMS or WELS have a problem being scrooges toward seminary students and the seminaries. The LCMS has a $1.1 billion budget, and yet it cannot squeeze out a couple million bucks to help make seminary affordable. So then we end up with a half-educated clergy not knowing Hebrew, German, Latin, etc. Dare I say quarter-educated?!

The situation bring 1Ki 11:11 to mind. Here's a paraphrase:

So the LORD said to the LCMS and WELS and ELS, "Since this is your attitude and have not educated your clergy properly despite your $1.1 billion budget, I will most certainly tear the Kingdom of God away from you and give it to some other denomination and people on another continent."

Heavens to Betsy, Amy

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "This Is Your Hero - Mark Jeske - WELS and LCMS":

Jeske is the Emergent New Age front man for the (W)ELS/LCMS common law merger. If he wasn't, he wouldn't still be there. Same with the Jeske's illegitimate offspring, Ski and Glende.

What does Jeske teach about Heaven?

"Q: What will we do there - sit on clouds and sing eternal praises?"

"Pastor Jeske: To me that's one of the most pathetic images of heavenly life, so injurious to our faith that it must haven been designed by Satan's P.R. team. Heaven will not be boring!"

When I asked Time Of Grace why Jeske would make such blasphemous statements they said his comments were taken out of context. Then proceeded to make the same remarks.

Good morning Brett,
Thank you for your email and for taking the time to contact us. I wish I could tell you that Pastor Jeske has time to respond to all questions and contact we receive at Time of Grace, but unfortunately that is not possible. The Time of Grace team, however, appreciates all contact and will respond to the best of our ability.
The quote you mention below, if taken as is, and out of context, would certainly appear to be somewhat disturbing. What could possibly be wrong with singing eternal praises to our God in heaven? However, in context, the point of Pastor Jeske's response is that Satan has done a very good job of detracting from our anticipated heavenly joy by painting heaven as boring
and anti-climactic. Honestly, who wants to sit on a cloud and sing all day?
And we've all heard the jokes about the good ole rascals down in hell having a great time living it up with their sinful ways. Sounds like a subtle scheme of Satan's to make us question the goal of our heavenly home and make us think that this world is the best it's gonna get, instead of embracing the fact that the best is yet to come. No wonder we get so attached to this world and can't bear to consider our mortality.
Through Pastor Jeske's messages I have a newfound anticipation of the currently unimaginable joys that await me in heaven. God has been silent with all the details, but as Pastor Jeske explained in the rest of his answer to that question - it won't be boring!
Thanks again for your interest, I hope this response has been helpful.
Blessings,
Amy

Amy Brinkman
Time of Grace Ministry
PO Box 301
Milwaukee, WI 53201
414-562-8463 phone
414-562-8464 fax
timeofgrace.org

Grace Does Not Equal Forgiveness

LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Why DP Buchholz Will Not Discipline Church and Cha...":

Grace does not equal forgiveness. This is another fallacy that I think some believe. By grace God makes forgiveness possible for those who believe in His promises; just like atonement does not equal universal forgiveness/justification.

JK

***

GJ - Joe Krohn is making a good point here, one which seems to have evaded many of the clergy.

Terms must be distinguished unless they are synonyms. The Holy Spirit chose to communicate the Gospel in the most precise and flexible language on earth - Greek.

The Scriptures clearly teach that God gives us grace only through Instruments, the Means of Grace, the Word and Sacraments.

Universalists reason that a gracious God would forgive all sins. Karl Barth, the official theologian of Fuller Seminary taught that opinion in his Dogmatics, written with the help of his live-in mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum. In fact, she probably wrote most of it. Barth was dishonest in his politics, theology, and marriage. When someone assumes that everyone is forgiven and saved, anything is possible and excused in the name of grace.

This photo shows Charlotte standing next to Barth,
but it does not reveal what other pictures do -
she was hawt!
Kirschbaum also helped him promote Communism.

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LPC has left a new comment on your post "Grace Does Not Equal Forgiveness":

Pr Greg.

Joe indeed makes good points. Your statement When someone assumes that everyone is forgiven and saved, anything is possible and excused in the name of grace is very true, this is what does happen. Everyone is excused in the name of grace so anything goes.

LPC

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GJ - I contend that UOJ is the falsehood behind the famously bad behavior of WELS clergy and the criminal cover-ups of the synod officials.

Cone Discovered the Very First Brief Statement

DP Buchholz agrees with Jeff Gunn about UOJ
and the need to send youth to Jeske's Church and Change meeting,
featuring Jeff Gunn!


Cone has left a new comment on your post "Why DP Buchholz Will Not Discipline Church and Cha...":

Sickening.

This made me laugh though:

"[GJ - This means that Jesus Himself issued the Brief Statement of 1932, 1900 years earlier. In other words, the Savior told the world that every single person, including Judas Iscariot, was forgiven.]"

This Is Your Hero - Mark Jeske - WELS and LCMS

No wonder the Trifecta is scheduled for May - all three Synod Presidents support the same drivel.

Kevin Hastings

WELS "Time Of Grace" broadcast, "Celebrate the Diversity of Heaven" - When did our Lord Jesus Christ replace Faith with Diversity as the entrance to heaven? Romans 1:16, "I am quite ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" as it is broadcast now.

Why DP Buchholz Will Not Discipline Church and Changer Jeff Gunn

Jeff Gunn, WELS Emerging Church Pastor:
"Second, receive Jesus’ forgiveness.  When Jesus died on the cross, the entire world was forgiven.  That means you.  The person who repents of his sin can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that all sins are forgiven already through Jesus.  Jesus will absorb your doubt and give you assurance that your sins too are fully forgiven."

***

GJ - DP Buchholz teaches the same doctrine as Gunn, the only one that matters to the Wisconsin sect - Universal Objective Justification.

Here is Buchholz on the same topic. He gave an essay at the WELS convention and no one opposed his false doctrine. Here are some samples:

• In this great transaction that took place on the cross, God removed the guilt of the world’s sin and replaced it with the righteousness of Christ. [GJ - This is universal absolution, the basic tenet of the Kokomo Statements.]
• The truth that a person must be individually justified through faith does not undermine the general, once-for-all justification accomplished on Calvary. Some have wrongly supposed that Christ’s justifying work on Calvary was incomplete, and that faith is required to make justification complete. This is not a biblical understanding of justification. It nullifies Jesus’ declaration from the cross, “It is finished,” by saying that the justification of the world really isn’t finished, or that when Jesus said, “It is finished,” he meant something other than the justification of the world. It inserts an additional cause for man’s salvation beyond the grace of God and merits of Christ and includes faith as a cause of salvation. It redefines faith as something that brings about an effect and causes forgiveness and justification to take place. [GJ - This means that Jesus Himself issued the Brief Statement of 1932, 1900 years earlier. In other words, the Savior told the world that every single person, including Judas Iscariot, was forgiven.]
• “God has declared the entire world righteous.” This statement is true, as we understand it to mean that God has rendered a verdict of “not-guilty” toward the entire world. It is also true—and must be taught—that the righteousness of Christ now stands in place of the world’s sin; this is the whole point of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. However, once again we’re wresting a term out of its usual context. In Scripture the term “righteous” usually refers to believers. [GJ - Usually? No, only to believers.]
• The forgiveness acquired by Jesus for all at the cross gives us confessional Lutherans, among all the church bodies of the world, the highest motivation to share our Savior. In contrast to the “Jesus Saves” churches, we don’t preach a salvation that is incomplete and just waiting for the sinner to do something to complete the transaction. We proclaim boldly, “Jesus Saved,” past tense, finished, certain. [GJ - And he took Becker and the JP Meyer Kokomo Statements to task for being muddled? According to DP Buchholz, the world is already saved. That is Universalism, the last belch of UOJ. He is not alone in WELS/ELS in stating that the entire world is both forgiven and saved.]

WELS To Proclaim To Youth at Mark Jeske Rally: "Jesus Is My Rice! And Jeff Gunn Is His Prophet."

Buchholz' Emmanuel church is advertising and participating in the Mark Jeske WELS Teen Rally. See the Emmanuel January 2011 church newsletter -

2011 WELS Teen Rally
"We will have three large group speakers -- a high school teacher, seminary
professor and a pastor in a church aggressively reaching the lost. Their presentations will be bold, use technology and will feed into small group discussion to help all bring God's message home."

Here's the link. Look down at the daily schedule. On Friday, July 27th:

Pastor Jeff Gunn is the "pastor of a church aggressively reaching the lost."
7pm Large Group Presentation -- "MOG -- Me-Our-Group" by Pastor Jeff Gunn

http://www.welsteenrally.com/Content/2011-Youth-Rally-Initial-Letter.pdf

"As of this writing there are no regional WELS rallies planned for 2011, but
the Southeastern Wisconsin and Western Wisconsin WELS Districts are
endorsing this rally. WELS teen leaders from various WELS churches are
organizing this rally that is sponsored by St. Marcus Lutheran Church in
Milwaukee."

***

GJ - The Church and Changers come and go, but they seldom go far away.

The problem is not so much with the Changers, but with the Doctrinal Pussycat enablers.

DP Buchholz' Star Chamber committee has met and decided the fate of Jeff Gunn, I am told.

Every time another big threat is mentioned, Gunn is honored by WELS.

The Boomers are the problem in WELS, according to Buchholz. Jon does not look old enough to be a Boomer.

Wouldn't It Be Great If All the Public Schools Taught Drivel Like This?

This is from the church newsletter of Reform District President Jon Buchholz.

The same newsletter announces the Kingdom Workers workshop to be led by David Kehl, one of the Church and Changers released from The Guilt Factory. Kehl is at Atonement, Milwaukee, so he did not face unemployment for more than a few seconds.

Buchholz told me that the Church Growth problem in WELS came from the Baby Boomers, grinning at me.

I was told by Someone-Who-Knows that Buchholz was against the CG crazies.

Evidence to support that claim is entirely missing.

Here Is a Good Idea To Avoid: Dancing Christmas Flashmob

They just get up and dance badly.

This could have been planned.

Rehearsed?

My Christmas would have more meaningful with this going on.

Note to My Slave Drivers Motivators

Cover design and art by Norma Boeckler

My pals in publishing have been applying the lash to my back. "Where there is a whip, there is a way," they claim.

I appreciate the motivation. I have spent an enjoyable day going over an almost-final editing of the justification book. My gruff but likable editor will have a go at it, and so will some others, I am sure. If someone needs the Word document for editing purposes, I can provide that. Otherwise, the PDF will be available later tonight.

I plan on additional improvements and enlargements, but this is it for the time being. I will focus on typos and cosmetic improvements for now. Feel free to contact me at gregjackson1948@qwest.net

Upgrades are dated, so you can tell which version is uploaded by looking at the free PDF. This one will say Epiphany edition, 2011. A later one would say Lent or Easter. I expect to have an enlarged, improved edition in print for the May, 2011 Left Coast Trifecta - ELS, WELS, LCMS.

Thy Strong Word
Meanwhile, I am accumulating editing suggestions for Thy Strong Word. People are discovering how long it takes to go over a text and list corrections. One time an entire university--in Germany--looked over every page of a new book before it was printed. They found hundreds of errors and were convinced that it was the first book ever printed with no mistakes in it. Afterward, people found hundreds that were missed.

That happened with CLP. Herman Otten and a German student went over the text and found lots to correct. When they were done, LI found even more errors that they missed. Herman was dumbfounded, "But my helper was a German!"

WELS Hitting the Skids - For the Same Reasons

Half-trained plagiarists are filling the slots.


bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Your LCMS Benevolence Dollars - Not At Work Suppor...":

Narrow-minded Lutheran, The tuition cost at the seminaries has always been prohibitive since the 1980s, I'd wager. Then because they couldn't get enough M Div students (to meet a projected demand that never materialized), they promoted the DELTO and SMP programs instead of lowering the tuition price and granting more scholarships to get more M. Divs.

This happened in the WELS, too. Both synods now have plenty of pastors who don't know any Hebrew or Latin. The WELS ministerial college (NWC and then at MLC) quickly became more expensive than the state universities, just like the LCMS.

I can't remember the acronym the WELS uses for these students (if there is an acronym), but they usually go by the title "second career students."

Due to there being so many DELTO and SMP grads, and WELS second career grads, now all available slots are taken, so the call system has been locked up for years in both synods. Several years ago already any LCMS pastor who resigned to the "candidate" status would have a hard time getting back into the ministry in the LCMS, since they had to make room for students to get calls. In the LCMS, if you don't make the cut, you're banished to one of the lower paying synods, or the ELCA, if you still want to be in the ministry. Good luck with that if you ran up a big student loan bill at LCMS schools!

Lately, a retired WELS pastor who wanted to be a vacancy pastor during retirement told me that the whole vacancy pastor field has dried up since the call system in the WELS has locked up, and calls are filled in record time. Now these pastors can only hope to fill in a mid-week or Sunday service here and there. Now they wish they hadn't retired when they did, and they rue the fact that many slots are filled by half-trained men.

More proof of the decline of WELS is available online 24/7.
Foward (sic) this to your pals.