But Everyone Loves a Circus!Does the Church Offer Eternal-Life-Doctrine, Or Life-Coaching?

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "So California - When Will WELS Try This?":

Luther said that doctrine is Heaven and life is earth. What passes as Christianity today is some wind bag that comes along with an allegedly new idea.

Life coaching is the latest craze, taken from the secular realm and retrofitted to the church. In years past, our parents would have recognized these types as snake oil salesmen. I can barely remember when Dr. Benjamin Spock was popular in the '60s. My parents had neither the time, the inkling, or the money to buy his books. A generation later, Spock admitted that he was wrong. Ideas have consequences. Sometimes, this life is just going to be difficult. We will never see perfection this side of Heaven. This must be part of what you get when you ignore Justification by Faith Alone. The emphasis is placed upon Sanctification, with that not really being properly defined.

The publishing of the hymns here on Ichabod is a good start for those who need comfort from the Gospel. Our focus is placed upon Christ and not on ourselves. This Life Coaching is just another act that the Circus Church engages in to keep the undiscerning under the big tent of apostasy.

---

Disgrace in Action - Another Node in the Metastatic Cancer Growth of Church and Change

Endorsed by WELS SP Mark Schroeder and DP Buchholz, 
Who Only Discipline Those Who Write for Ichabod

CrossTrain Ministries provides coaching services to identified Christian leaders with the stated goal of improving spiritual leadership skills amongst lay leaders, ministry professionals, and general volunteers. In conjunction with this spiritual coaching, CrossTrain also provides topical seminars on subjects with the goal of improving the quality of ministry leadership, both professional and volunteer, and ultimately providing the skills which will promote leadership of a higher capacity and excellence to involve all in ministry.

Rick Loewen (pictured above with beautiful grandaughter Rae) was a police officer for 20 years prior to serving in public ministry. As a police officer he served as a patrol officer, narcotics detective, vice detective, and homicide detective. He taught police officers in the areas of interviews and interrogation, undercover operations, and crime scene investigation. While serving as a police officer and enrolled in the staff ministry program at DMLC, he received a divine call to start the first youth and family ministry program on the White Mountain Apache Reservation AZ. He was then called by WLCFS to develop and implement family ministry programs Synod wide. He served as the director of ministries at WLCFS and oversaw their ministry support services program, family life education program, and counseling division. Rick is currently called by Crosswalk Lutheran Church. At Crosswalk, he serves for a subsidiary ministry called CrossTrain Ministries. CrossTrain Ministries is a self-supporting ministry in partnership with Wisconsin Lutheran College and Grace in Action Ministries. CrossTrain Ministries Coaching Network Conference May 14-17, 2012 Walker, MN Effective Strategies for Developing Leaders in Your Ministry (Pastor Don Patterson) Positive communications explaining what you do and why you do it Enlist their services to enjoy opportunities to handle the Word Give them opportunities to see the Word work. Develop strong relationships that allow you to know individual's strengths and weaknesses and apply God's Word to both Integrate the Word as part of every interaction with them. Value the relationship with your leaders by being grace filled and forgiving Live your expectations of others by being a servant Live in the shadow of the cross instead of our success and failures Preaching (Pastor Don Patterson) Make sure you preach exactly what the Holy Spirit was preaching in that text Preach to the street and not the professor Use illustrations appropriately Prepare your people to hear the text How to prioritize the main message over the pet message The use of syntax versus morphology How to avoid pulpit tone, irritating habits, redundant styles, and behaviors The use of natural and unnatural inflections The triangle of the sermon BIO Don grew up in Garland Texas, one of six kids. He learned leadership skills from a national youth organization early in life. He earned a degree from East Texas State University in Commerce Texas in 1985.  Married and has 4 boys. He graduated from our seminary in 1992 and has been the pastor of Holy Word since then. He was elected to his district presidium at age 34. He has spoken on marriage, leadership, and at men's, women's and missionary conferences here and in Europe. He is the speaker on a radio broadcast "A Reason For Hope" airing in Austin, Texas and Minneapolis Minnesota. It is supported by a website of that same name.  He currently serves as the first vice president of the South Central District of the WELS. His passion is mission work and church leadership. His hobbies are exercise and anything that happens outdoors. Small Group Leadership (Pastor Jeff Gunn) The means of grace are the key to people growing in their faith. One way to deliver the means of grace to the people of our congregation is via a groups system. "Growth groups" are gatherings of 12-15 people in homes of the congregation for the purpose of sharing the word of God with one another, praying and worshipping with one another, enjoying fellowship, serving in the congregation and community, and reaching out with the gospel. In this portion of our coaching network we will discuss the groups system: why it is beneficial, how it operates, how to set a groups system up and get it rolling, what the challenges to running a groups system are, how to deal with problems with groups, and how to continue to expand groups to meet the various needs and character of the congregation. BIO Jeff Gunn is pastor of Crosswalk Lutheran Ministries in Phoenix, Arizona.  A teenage convert to Christ, Jeff was brought into the WELS fellowship through a neighboring family, an experience that God used to develop a life-long passion for outreach with the gospel. He graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 1982 and subsequently served for 14 years in the Central Africa country of Zambia.  Six of those years were spent living in the bush, pastoring multiple village congregations. In the next eight years, Jeff continued to serve congregations as a pastor, but also served as WELS field coordinator for the Zambia Mission, and as a professor at the Lutheran Bible Institute and Seminary in Lusaka.  Jeff's 14 years serving in Zambia have given him a unique perspective on the management of the ministry of the gospel.  Since returning to the U.S. in 1996, Jeff has served as religion instructor and assistant principal at Arizona Lutheran Academy for five years. In 2001, he became Director of Native American Missions for the WELS. Finally, in 2004, Jeff received the call to launch CrossWalk Church on the campus of Arizona Lutheran Academy.  Starting with about 30 people in 2004, God has blessed this ministry so that today there are two services and 500 people worshipping each Sunday at CrossWalk. CrossWalk uses a contextualized approach to worship, weekly growth groups, and ministry teams as key components to its approach to gospel ministry in a church that describes itself as a "church for unchurched people." Spiritual Resiliency (Mr. Rick Loewen) Participants will identify stressors that we all deal with along with some that are more common to those who are in leadership and ministry work. The approach will start with recognition that God has designed us like a three legged stool. We have a spiritual, emotional, and physical leg. When any one of these is out of balance we become out of balance and are more prone to suffer from the effects of stress. Each participant will be given information to form a personal action plan to address each one of these issues. This action plan will be a part of the accountability and support through the monthly individual coaching sessions. BIO Rick Loewen was a police officer for 20 years prior to serving in public ministry. As a police officer he served as a patrol officer, narcotics detective, vice detective, and homicide detective. He taught police officers in the areas of interviews and interrogation, undercover operations, and crime scene investigation. While serving as a police officer and enrolled in the staff ministry program at DMLC, he received a divine call to start the first youth and family ministry program on the White Mountain Apache Reservation AZ. He was then called by WLCFS to develop and implement family ministry programs Synod wide. He served as the director of ministries at WLCFS and oversaw their ministry support services program, family life education program, and counseling division. Rick is currently called by Crosswalk Lutheran Church. At Crosswalk, he serves for a subsidiary ministry called CrossTrain Ministries. CrossTrain Ministries is a self-supporting ministry in partnership with Wisconsin Lutheran College and Grace in ActionMinistries. AGENDA Monday, May 14 7 pm - 9 pm          Introductions, Top 3 Challenges,                              Most Passionate in Ministry About,                              My Goals for this Seminar and Next Year of                              Coaching Are... Tuesday, May 15 8:30-8:45 am         Opening Devotion 9:00-10:00 am       Spiritual Resiliency - New Participants                               (Rick Loewen)                               Vision/Traction Organizer Roundtable Discussion                               (Jeff Gunn and Scott Gostchock) 10:00-10:15 am     Break 10:15-11:45 am     Spiritual Resiliency - New Particpants                               (Rick Loewen)                               Vision/Traction Organizer Roundtable Discussion                               (Jeff Gunn and Scott Gostchock) 11:45-1:00 pm       Lunch 1:00-2:30 pm         Spiritual Resiliency (Rick Loewen) 1:30-2:30 pm         Personal Action Plan (Rick Loewen) 2:30-5:00 pm         Exercise Demonstrations and Fitness Time 5:00-6:30 pm         Dinner 7:00-8:00 pm         Preaching and Evening Devotion (Don Patterson) 8:00-? pm              Social Gathering Wednesday, May 16 8:30-8:45 am         Opening Devotion 8:45-10:15 am       Small Groups (Jeff Gunn)        10:15-10:30 am     Break 10:30-11:45 am     Leadership The Next Steps                               (Mark Wrightsman) 11:45-1:00 pm       Working Lunch with Mark Wrightsman 1:00-2:30 pm         Developing Core Leaders (Don Paterson,                               Jeff Gunn,and Scott Gostchock) 2:30-2:45 pm         Break 2:45-4:00 pm         Professional Growth Plans 4:00-4:30 pm         Wrap-Up Exercises (Rick Loewen) 4:30-6:00 pm         Exercise 6:00-7:30 pm         Dinner 7:30-8:30 pm         Closing Devotion and Round Table Conference                               Feedback 8:30-? pm              Social Gathering Thursday May 17 8:00 am                 Breakfast 9:00 am                 Departure, Shuttle to Airport, etc. Your Costs? Commitment to receive 12 months of services - including a monthly webinar and personal time with your coach 3 days of your life for personal and professional training at a conference center* Personal time for completing homework including self-assessments, personal inventories, specialized readings, and much more  Willingness to exchange ministry strategies, Bible studies, and sermons Willing to coach fellow participants $1300.00 for the twelve months of services *Services and costs for the 3 day conference subject to vary This ministry business is being partially funded by Grace in Action (GIA).

***
GJ

You can see how "Lutheran" CrossWalk is by their website.