I remember when Pastor X thought Gurgle was the candidate to save WELS from itself. Yes, that brave warrior would halt the elimination of Northwestern College (RIP).
Gurgle reversed himself as soon as he was elected SP. After wasting the Milcraft estate as DP, he wasted the Schwan gifts as SP. Now he is working with Kudu Don Patterson, one of the stealth leaders of Church and Change. Yes, he closed NWC as soon as he could arrange a crooked vote.
Mark Schroeder and Jon Buchholz were going to rescue WELS from itself, too. They have supported and funded such Church and Changers as Tim Glende, Jeff Gunn, and Rick Johnson. Not only that, WELS has an insert bragging about such funding.
The process of supporting incompetent, wasteful apostates while undercutting faithful pastors is all the rage these days. ELCA, Missouri, WELS, and the ELS all work the same way.
If a faithful pastor teaches something that annoys a congregational liberal, such as being pro-life or daring to mention closed communion, the liberal layman phones the CP or DP and starts making trouble. There are a zillion ways to undercut a pastor.
If an apostate pastor wants to start a rock-band playing Pentecostal ditties, the CP or DP or mission board will defend that minister to the death. Maybe not that far, but that is the impression they give. They have a thousand excuses for apostate pastors just as they have a thousand tricks to get rid of a pastor.
The clergy deserve blame for this, but so do the laity. Where the Word of God is loved, the person who brings it is also loved.
Where the Word of God is despised, the person who tries to teach it is also despised, with all of his faults--real or imagined--picked apart daily. Synods know how to hate a person out of their little group. One layman wondered where his regular mailing for the district evangelism committee was. The DP said, "Oh, you resigned from that committee." If the layman objects loudly, he is a malcontent.
The Word of God conveys Christ, and He said, "Those who receive you, receive Me. Those who reject you, do not reject you, but the One who sent you." [New International Jackson Paraphrase]
Luther pointed out that people who despise the Word will pick apart the pastor or members of his family. That may be the reason why the pastoral epistles emphasize faithfulness rather than popularity. To remain a believer in the midst of apostasy is good.
Many clergy serve their careers first. They achieve those temporary honors and benefits that the flesh desires. If their children are atheists, that is not simply hidden from the donors. No, anyone who dares to mention the fact is a terrible sinner.
The clergy-belly servers often find themselves betrayed by their Father Below. Just when they think they have gotten away with it all, they do one more thing to come crashing down. Many finish their lives bemoaning their errors - but are too lost to find their way back. Pope Pius XII ended his life in despair, realizing he had betrayed Christ by becoming bed-partners with the Communists.
Paul Tillich, the pantheist theologian, who was as promiscuous as a Church Growth evangelist, was terrified of death. He was on the cover of Time magazine. Match that, humble parish pastors laboring in Wachooka Flats or Steam Corners.
When Tillich died, he was one more heap of flesh. Now he is largely forgotten.
There are many faithful pastors who preach their own sermons, teach their own classes, and visit their own members and prospects. The honest ones bear the cross. They sow the seed of the Word carelessly. If they have a faithful family of believers under their leaky parsonage roofs, that is quite an accomplishment by itself. After all, two people have multiplied the Gospel reach through the Word and Sacrament. Who can measure where that will lead in the future? And any minister who teaches the Word and administers the Sacraments will have results, which belong to God alone to judge.
The vast majority of synodicats are businessmen, incompetent businessmen at that. They are as innocent as serpents and as wise as doves. Their philosophy is exactly the opposite of a faithful pastor. They are the cross to bear in these last days of an insane old world.
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Disrespect for the Word = Disrespect for Pastors. ...":
Thanks for this post Pastor Jackson. The world was recently treated to a spectacle that they do not deserve: they witnessed a church defending Christ’s doctrine and in true Christian unity defend their faithful pastor and leave the (W)ELS which is waging war against Christ in these last days.
I was reading the Christian Book of Concord while contemplating responding to Pastor Jack Cascione’s attack against the Triune God on LutherQuest. Throughout is Scriptures clear teaching of the Gospel of Christ which is perverted by the false teachers of UOJ. Here is one:
1] In the Twelfth Article they approve of the first part, in which we set forth that such as have fallen after baptism may obtain remission of sins at whatever time, and as often as they are converted. They condemn the second part, in which we say that the parts of repentance are contrition and faith [a penitent, contrite heart, and faith, namely, that I receive the forgiveness of sins through Christ]. [Hear, now, what it is that the adversaries deny.] They [without shame] deny that faith is the second part 2] of repentance. What are we to do here, O Charles, thou most invincible Emperor? The very voice of the Gospel is this, that by faith we obtain the remission of sins. [This word is not our word, but the voice and word of Jesus Christ, our Savior.] This voice of the Gospel these writers of the Confutation condemn. We, therefore, can in no way assent to the Confutation. We cannot condemn the voice of the Gospel, so salutary and abounding in consolation. What else is the denial that by faith we obtain remission of sins than to treat the blood and death of Christ with scorn?
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_10_repentance.php
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| Webber and his catechumen, Jon Buchholz, quot half this paragraph, not the whole paragraph. |
