quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran churches propose new academy | Appleton P...":
What drives this nonsense are anecdotes floating among the pastors that there are WELS schools (in Brigadoon?) charging $8000 per year in tuition (and to taxpayers) which supports the church budget and not the other way around.
Here's the Nouveau Formula:
+ Missional anxiety
+ Overpaid, bloated staff upsets "ministry balance"
+ Masses of unemployed/underemployed MLC grads
+ No fear of congregational debts
+ Pretending tuition assistance is available
+ Holding kids hostage to make sure jacked up tuition is paid
+ Blaming parents' "bad stewardship" for refusing $3000 in tuition
+ Separating budget away from Voters ("shut up and pay")
+ Universal Forgiveness / Anything Goes ™
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= Charging money to "make disciples"
Why not charge a fee to receive Communion? Really, why not? Jesus never said we *couldn't*, so it MUST be okay to do so, right?
What's next, installing coffee bars right in the narthex? Jesus wouldn't really mind His Church making a little coin right outside the sanctuary. Or hawking praise band CD sales right from the pulpit. The profits DO support His Missionified Missional Called Workers after all.
Maybe sell little commemorative certificates and charge a fee for absolution of sins too.
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran churches propose new academy | Appleton P...":
I am surprised that no one said that the school was a mission arm and thus the independent nature of it. The Titanic is sinking. It is very top heavy. Notice that the name Lutheran is not in the school title. Hope Christian Schools in Milwaukee has left the WELS. It got what it wanted with no Lutheran name in the title and ultimately became truly independent. There is severe mission creep here. The congregation no longer wishes to serve its members. It would rather loosely support an independent school that has reached out to the community. The tuition cost of Foundation was what used to be the tuition of an area Lutheran High School 15 to 20 years ago. We have come to expect nothing less from the armpit of the WELS - Appleton and the Fox Valley.
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WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran churches propose new academy | Appleton P...":
Where is the practice of good stewardship in these ventures? Was this the idea that Parlow had floated aroung a couple of years ago? Listen, my three children attend Calvary Lutheran Chruch and School in Dallas. The school is supported by three area WELS churches. The children from the three churches pay NO tuition, as the school is funded through the offering budgets. Calvary is not a venture capitalist/get-rich-quick kind of institution. We are a Chrsitian school(with Lutheran in our title). Parents, myself included, volunteer as aids, tutors, and etc. Our substitute teachers are actually retired teachers and housewives who taught before starting their families. Most of these ladies, with a few exceptions, are DMLC/MLC graduates.
In regards to community students. These tend to be families that generally live within a mile or two radius of the church/school. Time is spent talking with these families. Those that may not have adequate finances, but want their child to have a Christian eduacation, are not turned away as there is "anonymous" help that can be offered. Most families that were without a church home, have become members of Calvary. To God be the glory!
Last, we do have a preschool class at Calvary. NO INFANTS! This is for capable three year olds and four year olds. Unlike the K through 8th program, the preschool does charge a tuition for everyone. This fee is VERY reasonable(aka it's cheap bro') Basically, we all help one another when it comes to the school.(rides, home baby sitting for smaller children...YOU NAME IT!) Stewardship involves more stregnth then money.
In Christ,
Rebecca
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WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran churches propose new academy | Appleton P...":
"Hope Christian School has left WELS!" Sorry to hear that Rlschultz. There is no excuse for ruining our schools in such a manner. Jeske serves Milwaukee. Hey Pastor Mark Jeske, when are you going to shut down the Time Of Grace program. You better listen to me: I KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT HOCHMUTH AND SO DO YOU! IF PRES. SCHROEDER IS INVOLVED, PERHAPS HE IS BEING PLAYED AS A FOOL, THEN I WILL BE ASKING FOR HIS RESIGNATION. YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE. LAST TIME WAS A LOVING WARNING, BUT THIS TIME YOU SCAMMERS BLEW IT!!! BIG TIME!!! I KNOW YOU GOT THE PERSONAL EMAIL THAT I SENT.
Pastor GJ, please publish this comment.
In Christ,
Rebecca
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran churches propose new academy | Appleton P...":
Rebecca,
I used to belong to a WELS congregation which operated in the same manner as Calvary. That has long since changed. My wife and several other mothers in the congregation with younger children used to do in home child care. It was fairly common to get a phone call from the pastor asking for permission to give out our phone number to a prospective member. That has since changed as this congregation now operates a full time day care.
Gracechurch in Milwaukee has a coffee bar not in the narthex, but right around the corner from it. I also have heard Koine's CD's being hawked from the pulpit.
There is also an error in my post. Appleton is not where Foundation will be. Wrightstown and DePere are south of Green Bay. In the broad sense of the term, it is part of the Fox Valley.
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Report from X:
Our WELS church claimed they were starting a parochial school, but they only started a pre-school. They insisted on calling it a Christian Academy - not a Lutheran school.
We are in competition with other pre-schools, so the tuition is low. Most of the children are not members, so we are subsidizing day care for non-members.
It is a good deal for those who are employed by the pre-school "academy." The state mandates certain jobs, so the right ladies get paying jobs to subsidize non-member working moms.
How much does it cost us? The school will not tell us. They have their own part of the building and we are not allowed there. We are not welcome there. The pre-school costs are dragging down the whole congregation. The voters are not allowed to know the separate costs of the school. That is top secret.
We were not told the truth about keeping it as a pre-school business. We never would have started it.
We also paid a big fee to a WELS "consultant" to tell us how to do this.
