Synodical Kittens - When Their Eyes Open - They Read the Book of Concord

Page Reads in a Day

Snowbird, Membership Initiative, Joy Radio Show,
Change or Die! Conferences, 2011 and 2012.

Google Blogger starts the new day at 6 PM Central.
By midnight there are often 500 new page-reads.
By morning the total is 1000 page-reads.
Mid-afternoon will total 1500 page-reads.
Closing will have around 2000 page-reads.

If something new comes up, I publish it, sometimes through "Blog This!" One layman in the East looks for late night posts, which Joe Krohn calls Icha-peeks. Joe's wife is an Icha-widow, but my wife claims to be the very first Icha-widow.

New Change or Die! Gathering for 2012. Working with ELCA Pastors Again. Abortion in Their Health Plan? No Problemo!

Didn't WELS and the LCMS throw Gausewitz under the bus a long time ago?

http://tentalentsforchrist.com/#/change-or-die-conference

Change or Die 2012

Stories from Lutheran Ministries that Are Growing

Thursday, February 23

The Harley Davidson Museum Conference Facility

Agenda

1:00 p.m.               Registration

1:30                       Welcome, Introductions, Thanks, Instructions                       ….Rev. Mark Jeske

1:45                       The Story of St. Andrew’s, Middleton and Waunakee    ….Rev. Randy Hunter

2:15                       Discussion

3:30                       The Story of Hephatha, Milwaukee                  ..…..Rev. Mary Martha Kannass

3:00                       Discussion

3:15                       Break

3:30                       The Story of Faith, Milwaukee   …Revs. Richard Peterson and Richard Suerro

4:00                       Discussion

4:15                       The Story of Risen Savior, Milwaukee                                     .…Rev. Ken Fisher

4:45                       Discussion

5:00                       Roundtable Reflections (Cocktails)

5:30                       Dinner

6:30                       The Story of LINC Twin Cities                                                …..Mrs. Sue Hewitt

7:00                       Discussion

7:15                       The Story of Shepherd of the Hills, Pewaukee                       …..Rev. Tom Wink

7:45                       Discussion                                                                                   

8:00                       Wrap-Up

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GJ - Hephatha, Milwaukee is ELCA. Here is one link from their ELCA partner.

Here is an ELCA news story mentioning Hephatha.

Randy Hunter is well known in WELS for the Latte Church - with the woman pastor "administering the Means of Grace."

Ken Fisher is the WELS expert on getting grant money, not that Jeske is slack on using Other People's Money.

LINC seems to be a front for ABCD, whatever that is or does.

Shepherd of the Hills is a Missouri Synod cell group congregation.

Faith, Milwaukee is another ELCA parish:

"Richard Suero student at Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and member of our Mission partner congregation, Faith/Santa Fe Lutheran Church in Milwaukee  (The pastor at Faith/Santa Fe is a “son of Augustana,*” Richard Peterson) the Grow-Hanson family ELCA missionaries in Senegal."

*Augustana is a Reconciled in Christ congregation.
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Febreeze has left a new comment on your post "New Change or Die! Gathering for 2012":

I wonder if any of these are growing liturgical churches.

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GJ - I remember when WELS had a gathering of mission congregations. One pastor was truly confessional and put up a cartoon about someone saying on a couch, "I can't stop going to Church Growth conferences." He got a severe dressing down soon after. His congregation was growing from LCMS defections. He said to me, "I hope my members all die before they find out how WELS is lying to them."

I am guessing the latest Jeske extravaganza is Thrivent-funded. It has that aroma: WELS, LCMS, ELCA.

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David Becker has left a new comment on your post "New Change or Die! Gathering for 2012":

When I first saw this, I thought it was a parody or something that was made up, but I checked the link and it is indeed an actual event. Intrepid Lutherans reported it too.

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GJ - David, you laugh out loud when you read Ichabod? All I need to do is report the WELS and Missouri news for LOLs and ROTFLs. They denounce ELCA for abortion and homosexual pastors while working with ELCA congregations. And I am the bad guy. LOL.

PS - This conference is connected with Ten Talents for Christ. Intrepid research and spelling:


The address of "Ten Talents for Christ" listed on their website is:

2323 N. Mayfair Rd., Suite 104

Coincidentally, that's right down the road from the synod office, and it's in the very same building as WELS Kingdom Workers:

2323 N. Mayfair Rd., Suite 400.


The Registered Agent with the State of Wisconsin of Ten Talents for Christ Inc is one -

Danae S Oldenberg, who it appears is an agent for Thrivent and who's (sic) office appears to be 2323 N Mayfair Road Suite 104.

Ten Talents for Christ Inc has not filed paper work with the state of Wisconsin to be recognized as a Charitable 501(c)3 Organization yet, but is a NonStock, Non-Profit Corporation.

Was not able to find out Board of Directors.

The above is all from Public Records available in Wisconsin.

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GJ - I tolja it smelled like Thrivent. Big grant for the schwaermerpalooza, I promise.

Emmaus Conference, 2012

Brett Meyer:


"I have 50 copies of Justification by Faith, 40 copies of Jesus Priceless Treasure, 20 copies of Jesus Lord of Creation (attempting to offset CPH's promotion of evolution), 50 UOJ vs. BOC and Scripture printouts, 50 Catechism comparison printouts."


The retail value of the books given away is $2,000, made possible by gifts from members. I get bulk orders at wholesale and various people get free copies when they ask about doctrinal issues.


Luther versus the UOJ Pietists, Justification by Faith contains all the favored quotations in support of UOJ. However, the UOJ Stormtroopers pretend that there are no possible arguments against their precious theory.


All three book covers are by Norma Boeckler, who donates all her time for this work.


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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Emmaus Conference, 2012":

Final distribution tally is 19 Justification books, 15 Jesus Priceless Treasure and 5 Jesus, Lord of Creation books distributed at the conference.

Overall it looked like attendance was down from last year. I recognized all but 8-10 people from last year's Emmaus Conference. I had many great conversations with people interested in the Justification book. Most laymen and a few clergy had never heard of the Lutheran Synod's teachings concerning Universal Justification. One Pastor was stunned to see what was being taught. The Synod clergy quotes caused them to ask more questions and the removal of Huber over his UOJ teaching from Wittenburg University caused them to ask even more questions. Overall an excellent level of interest from laity and less from the clergy.

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GJ - Brett reports that attendance was not impressive, which was no surprise with the theme being so uninteresting.

Don't Take My Word for It

The most frequent rant posted--one hoary with age--is against my extensive quotations. In fact, the most popular post of all times is a list of quotations - no commentary.

I began databasing quotations for my writing projects and increased the number when VP Wayne Mueller claimed there was "no Church Growth in WELS."

Unlike the MDiv popes, I do not want you to take my word for it. If you do not have clarity through the Word and the Confessions, you will not get it through me. If I can get people studying the Word itself and the Book of Concord, I am happy.

The UOJ Thought Police are eager to have everyone get out their authorities and pledge allegiance to this person or that one. They enjoy tying people in knots about what someone really thought or said. They are like the mama birds that struggle on the ground with a broken wing, to lead danger away from the nest of eggs. We had a plover in the church parking lot who did that dance perfectly. We would take children out, show them the next hidden in the rocks, and gently interrupt the mom. Off she would go, wing cocked as if broken, away from the nest.

The nest is the revealed Word of God. The Holy Spirit at work in the Word is our professor.

WAM.2's Justification Paper in the WELS Holy of Holies

"Target acquired. Target lock.
Fire for effect."

WELS commentary on the essay itself:
In this paper Maier opposes the Synodical Conference view of objective justification. Many of Prof. Siegbert Becker's papers on objective justification were in part directed against Maier's views.  Similar views were held by some members of the WELS congregation in Kokomo, Indiana, who objected to WELS position on this doctrine.  The LCMS rejected Maier's position in their statement on justification, though they do not mention his name.


Dropbox link to the free PDF file.


I did not read every word of the Maier essay, but I read a lot of it, especially as it relates to the UOJ Stormtrooper dogma and the exegesis, plus the 17th century quotations that relate to Huber's error.


Maier writes along the same lines as Pless, which is also what Robert Preus wrote in Justification and Rome.


Stormtrooper dogma is clear, and this is sold as Gospel in Missouri, WELS, the Little Sect on the Prairie, and the scattered fragments of the Olde Synodical Conference. If you thought Bishop Stephan's syphilis was contagious, that disease was nothing compared to the UOJ he caught at Halle University.


Stormtrooper dogma: 
Every single person on earth has been declared forgiven. In fact, they are born forgiven. That includes cannibals, polytheists, and atheists, but not those who oppose this wonderful if invisible decree from heaven.


Maier, Pless; Robert Preus in Justification and Rome:
Christ has died for the sins of the world and earned forgiveness. However, there is a difference between forgiveness acquired and forgiveness received. This forgiveness is received only through faith and is not declared before faith.

I fault all three (Maier, Pless, Preus) for not being more pointed in their rejection of UOJ. Maier has plenty of choice comments about Pieper's errors and about bad exegesis, but one should not need a commentary on the commentary to figure that out.


I also fault those three for not being more pointed about the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. Once that Biblical concept is grasped, the UOJ castle falls down faster than a house of cards. It doesn't take a tornado - only a sneeze.


I get the impression that LCMS leaders never start with the heart of Luther's doctrine, the basis for all Biblical wisdom. All three men got touched on this issue but not enough to clarify things for the next generation or two. Rolf Preus (son of Bob) and Andrew (son of Rolf) are two examples of this neglect.


I believe Knapp's original statement in his dogmatics book, as translated by the Calvinist Woods, was more vague that what the Olde Synodical Conference communicates today. Walther promoted the Easter absolution of the entire world and installed minions who would repeat his and Stephan's error. WELS has enhanced the expansion of the error with Sig Becker's blessing of J. P. Meyer's hyperbole (Ministers of Christ, now reprinted on Bible paper by WELS).


Comic relief: When UOJ Canon Lawyers are raving against justification by faith, they are repeating the criticism of Calvinists against the Arminians. The Arminians taught faith as a decision or virtue. Thus the UOJ Squadrons are role-playing Calvinists while pretending justification by faith is Calvinism. Ignorance and bigotry arise when the Means of Grace are lost.