Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: 07/25/11

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Watertown WELS Convention Is a Short Drive from the Mother Church

The church was featured in the Northwestern Lutheran. Remember that name?

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Great Audience at Historic St. John Lutheran Churc...":

It was a wonderful recital. We sat toward the front, on the pulpit side. Pastor Hastings spent a considerable amount of time talking with those who were curious about the history of St. John's. I found out that he has been there 25 years now. All of us had the opportunity to see how well kept this beautiful church is. They certainly are not made like this anymore. The acoustics were very good. The altar is still in very good condition. We spoke with some members after the recital. They were grateful that we had attended and we were invited to the regular 10 AM Sunday worship. I am looking forward to returning.

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GJ - Hundreds of WELS members and pastors are near the Mother Church of WELS - Historic St. John Lutheran in downtown Milwaukee. They should take a trip to their mother church - St. John.

St. John is the congregation of Bading and Brenner, certainly two of the patriarchs of WELS. Another patriarch - Gausewitz - was at Grace, Milwaukee, but he is deliberately forgotten in the synod and not even on Huebner's website (as far as I could tell). Too bad Gausewitz did not go to Fuller or Gordon Conwell Babtist Seminary.

St. John should be used throughout the year by WELS. All the seminarians should be trained in its history. As I have learned from growing up in Moline, Illinois, home of John Deere, our history shapes us far more than we realize. Learning my own history has given me a new appreciation for that river town.

Many large group events could take place at St. John. I doubt that the DP will ever swallow his pride, repent, and apologize to the congregation. This is true of evil, devious men - they work overtime at justifying their sins, turning their wrongs into virtues, or making their victims out to be horrible monsters.

As Randall Schulz has explained - Pastor Kevin Hastings and the congregation have patiently taken care of that tremendous building and pipe organ. The federal government and Milwaukee have recognized it as a gem of history. Why not get to know it and appreciate it?

I suggest that friends of St. John Lutheran Church help in the upkeep and repair of the organ. Send regular donations to the church to show your support.

George Erdner, Who Left ELCA, Offers Some Insights

George Erdner

ALPB Contribution Leader
Posts: 7910

Re: The thread for info on churches voting to leave the ELCA & all follow-up.

« Reply #7714 on: Today at 09:52:36 PM »

Quote from: PTMcCain on Today at 08:46:05 PM

I think dollars are leaving the ELCA faster than people, at this point, from what I've read and been told by informed sources.

There are no truly informed sources when it comes to people leaving ELCA churches. When people simply stop attending an ELCA and instead start worshipping at a church of a different denomination and/or faith tradition, chances are that their ELCA congregation won't remove them from their official reports to their local synod office for several years. And, if a family leaves but still visits once or twice a year for old times sake (which happens more often than you might think), they can remain on the official rolls for years.

On the other hand, anyone who tells you that dollars are leaving at an alarming rate is correct. He might only be guessing, but his guess is accurate. But comparing the rate of dollars leaving with the rate of people leaving with any degree of accuracy is simply impossible. Anyone who claims to have accurate membership data is not making an accurate statement.

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GJ - George is a good example of how the Internet works. I have found his statistical summaries useful, because he tracks how many congregations have left the ELCA. He was an ELCA pastor himself and left.

He uses the ALPB Online Forum as a convenient platform for reporting the facts and providing some insights. I appreciate his comments, which make the ELCA pod-pastors' heads explode.

We became FB friends. I posted his recent gum commercial on FB and his "Bye Bye ELCA" song from YouTube. Soon everyone was copying the song on FB, although it was already rather popular.

Meanwhile, the LutherQueasies are trying to sell UOJ by revealing their lack of comprehension about Intuitu Fidei and the Gospel itself.

Brett Meyer got me listening to the Wendland graduation sermon. I waited several minutes to get past the "hooray for us" sales pitch. Since there was no Gospel or even a reference to a text, I gave up.

The Doctrinal Pussycats Maneuver Calls Over the Net.
WELS Has the Convention Blogged by Pod-Members.
Wendland Is Confused

Garrett has left a new comment on your post "The Pod People at the Sausage Factory Are Not Happ...":

Goodness gracious. When will WELS understand that the Internet is no longer a mere "toy"?

You are a grand example of this, Pastor, with Ichabod & Bethany. (Not to mention online university courses).

Even the CORE knows how effective an Internet footprint can be. St. Matthew was a dinner host for Christ, and "behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples". How are we being a better host for Christ's saving work when we pooh-pooh a brilliant global tool?

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GJ - I took computer science training (web design, Photoshop, Unix, Cisco) to enhance publishing. I was able to get ahead of LI in web design and graphics, but he lapped me about 25 times in network engineering.

Wendland reminds me of the heresiarch Benke (LCMS DP, Yankee Stadium) who constantly publishes on the ALPB Online Forum. He told the writers not to spend so much time on their computers. Benke has over 3,600 posts on that forum.

I lost track of how many McCain had. He was suspended, booted, or given a time out several times, so he had to start over. McCain makes my points for me about the toxic effects of UOJ, so I am glad to have him going Medieval on me.

One ELCA pastor reads this blog carefully each day, to find fault with things. Several blogs were established to thwart me in some way, once again giving away the UOJ modus operandi.

The funniest thing about Wendland's remarks is this - he was trying to say, "Do not read critical blogs. Just drink the Kool-Aid and read our stuff."

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LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "The Pod People at the Sausage Factory Are Not Happ...":

WWW = Gutenberg Press

Ineptitude - The Opposite of "Apt To Teach" -
WELS Will Shut Down Without Learning This Point

KJV 2 Timothy 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient,

The July 18th issue of Christian News has an article about translations by WELS Pastor Mark Bartling.

He made an interesting point that will be ignored by all the Lutherans.

Bartling:

"William Tyndale (1490-1536) translated the New Testament into English from Greek. He also used Luther's German translation. In fact, Tyndale personally consulted Luther and enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in order to spend an academic year learning from Luther and his colleague Melanchthon. The first edition of Tyndale's English New Testament was published in 1526. Because it could not be pbulished in England, it was printed in Worms, Germany, a situation made possible because of Tyndale's close relationship with Luther.

In 1535 he published parts of the Old Testament translated from Hebrew. In 1536 Tyndale was captured and burned at the stake."

He noted that experts estimate that the King James Version of the Bible is 80% Tyndale.

Previously, all Lutheran hymnals in America used the KJV. Now every single sect uses a different translation.

Did Beck study under Luther? The Otten-promoted Beck Bible has already been through two major revisions. An adulterous LCMS pastor got tons of money from Schwan to produce the God's Word to the Nations Bible Society version. And that was again revised. And forgotten.

Did anyone from the NIV or NNIV study under Luther? Mequon loves that one.

The ESV is the version McCain is trying to sell. Blended? Or a hybrid, or perhaps a farrago?

"Lord, open the King of England's eyes." (Henry VIII killed Tyndale.)
Henry's descendant, King James I, authorized the revision of the Tyndale.

The Pod People at the Sausage Factory Are Not Happy

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Part Deux

Wendland, the Sausage Factory president, said in his sermon that people should spend less time in the "Cyber World" and more time with flesh and blood people in their own districts.

As one listener said, "The remarks were clearly pointed."

As I recall, from published accounts, getting a meeting with flesh and blood leaders in two districts is harder than picking up a bar of soap in a shower.

Deputy Doug Englebrecht in the Thrivent District (Everyone knows - Anything Goes) plays hide and seek.

VP Kudu Don Patterson tells people to be the best little sheep they can be. Ewe got to be kidding, Don. If someone cares about sound doctrine in Stalag 13, aka Holy Word Church and Christian Academy, he is excommunicated at once. Matthew 18 is for weaklings, I suppose.

President Wendland, Your Holiness, page reads on Ichabod zoomed as soon as the convention started.

WELS Leaders Know This To Be True

These truths are self-evident, whether leaders acknowledge or deny them. Verification will come when they heatedly denounce this item as false, misleading, slanderous, violating the Eighth Commandment, and "what do you expect from Ichabod?" and "ba-zingo!":

There are virtually no calls because the vacancy rate is below 5%;
There is almost zero movement among Pastors, and nowhere for guys to go who get into trouble or whose churches close;
Still, pastors are burning out at an increasing rate ;
More and more small congregations are consolidating or closing; parish schools too;
Few, if any true missions will be opened at all anymore; those that do will be spin-offs of prosperous churches, and/or in rich areas
Neither prep school is safe; both will be closed within the next decade;
MLC should also close;
Recruiting should stop altogether; soon WELS won’t be able to find places for half of the grads, even from small classes ;
WLC can be and eventually will be the feeder school for the seminary.

In other words, the synod is downsizing, and whether Schroeder or anyone else knows it or wants it to happen, it's going to come about.

Many – and I do mean many – Pastors will very soon find themselves as surplus, and no longer needed or wanted, especially relatively expensive old goats. Young ones who don’t or won’t play ball will be out on their ears faster than ever.

The WELS reminds me more and more of the old Ottoman Empire, and as it was dying some people were picking it clean, but many others were getting put up against walls and shot. WELS is the “sick old man of American Lutheranism.”

The ELS is already dead, like the old Austria/Hungary Empire; just that nobody has bothered to pull the plug yet.

ELCA is the old Soviet Empire, unraveling as we speak.

LCMS is the decadent west, including USA; financially broke, morally bankrupt, and theologically dead.

Nota bene - The opinion expressed above reflects what I have published before, but it also comes from others in WELS who are in the know.