Exponential Conference: Orlando, FL. Will Team Don Patterson Attend Again?

Exponential Conference: Orlando, FL:

Bishop Katie and Ski went to Granger,
where they met former members of Mark Jeske's church.

Mark Beeson - Back in the 80s, adrenaline junkie and visionary Mark Beeson, and his wife Sheila, moved against all advice and counsel to Granger, Indiana with their young children. They didn’t have extended family or friends waiting for them, just a vision to start a church for people who didn’t go to church. They started in their living room with 10 people and, after 25 years, Granger has thousands of people meeting across two campuses and several online experiences. After all that, things aren’t slowing down and Mark’s focus hasn’t changed: people matter to God, even if they don’t know it yet. Well-known for his empowering leadership and gifted communication skills, Mark is motivated to encourage church planters and leaders with new vision and purpose in fulfilling the Great Commission.  He holds a B.S. from Ball State University, a Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, and a Doctorate of Ministry (D.Min.) in leadership development from United Theological Seminary in Ohio. He blogs at MarkBeeson.com.

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I thought Ski and Glende were transforming the world,
starting with various celebrity tarts.

Alan Hirsch - Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of shapevine.com, a ministry of Christianity Today International and an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas.  Currently he shares in leading an innovative learning program called Future Travelers helping numerous mega-churches become missional movements.  He has also been part of the leadership team of Christian Associates, a missional church-planting agency with focus on Western Europe.  Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His popular book The Shaping of Things to Come (with Michael Frost) is widely considered to be a seminal text on mission. Alan's recent book The Forgotten Ways, has quickly become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to missional movements. His book ReJesus is a radical restatement about the role that Jesus plays in defining Christian movements.  Untamed, (with his wife Debra) is about missional discipleship for a missional church, On the Verge (a process for missional movement for mega churches with Dave Ferguson), Right Here, Right Now (Everyday mission for anyone), The Faith of Leap (on the theology of risk).  His latest book, The Permanent Revolution is about apostolic ministry and the significance of Eph 4 for the church in the 21st Century. His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement, among the marginalized, developing training systems for innovative missional leadership, as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Alan is and adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary, George Fox Evangelical Seminary, and Wheaton, among others, and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S.

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WELS and LCMS leaders trained at Willow Creek and Trinity, Deerfield.
Hybels trained at Trinity.
Common thread? - Pietism and doctrinal indifference.

Bill Hybels - Bill is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., and chairman of the board for the Willow Creek Association.

The best-selling author of more than twenty books, including The Power of a Whisper. Axiom, Holy Discontent, Just Walk Across the Room, The Volunteer Revolution, Courageous Leadership, and classics such as Too Busy Not to Pray and Becoming a Contagious Christian, Hybels is known worldwide as an expert in equipping and training Christian leaders to transform individuals and their communities through the local church.

Hybels received a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College in Deerfield, Ill. He and his wife, Lynne, have two children and two grandsons.

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Warren denied being influenced by Robert Schuller the Bankrupt.
But the epochal moment is preserved in history.
Lesson learned - "All Shrinkers lie."

Rick Warren - Rick is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, a Christian community that he and his wife began in their home in 1980, with just one other family. Today Saddleback is one of the most prominent churches in America with more than 20,000 members attending four campuses each week, reaching out through some 200 ministries. Rick is author of the wildly popular book, The Purpose Driven Life.


'via Blog this'

Drive Conference is taking a year off. | Drive Blog

Craig, "How long can we make this scam last?"
Andy, "As long as the grants last."

Drive Conference is taking a year off. | Drive Blog:

Andy Stanley, Babtist guru of Tim Glende, Ski, and various WELS pastors - Parlow, Buske, et al - you will be missed.

'via Blog this'

This is an obvious Photoshop.
Groeschel  would never pose with Ski.

Write-up of the Drive 08 Experience.

This is the photo of Stanley and Ski, posted in his blog,
which is still there on the Net.
Ski will take the blog down at the end of the 30 year plan
to make WELS a Lutheran sect.

Anti-Intellectualism Is American and Pietistic

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Hazing in WELS Affects Enrollment":

With UOJ, even academic sins are forgiven, it appears.

***

GJ - America's religion is Pietism. All the Lutheran groups began in Pietism, from the colonial Muhlenberg (Halle Unversity graduate) to the LCMS (Bishop Stephan - Halle student) to the Wisconsin Synod (Hoenecke - Halle graduate).

Pietists are allergic to sound doctrine, so they are also opponents of academic achievement. They still like to parade around with fake doctorates - the drive-by Doctor of Ministry, from various schools that will sell an easy degree to the gullible.

One sure sign of a Pietist is his claim to "heart religion versus head religion." They always say that with a smirk, as if their ignorance makes them more pure in their Christian faith. Although the Pentecostals love to use this phrase, WELS clergy also use it. Unionists teach one another the rhetorical tricks to prop up their pan-Protestant religion.

This policy allows the semi-educated to achieve positions that would otherwise be denied them if they had to qualify. Therefore, MDivs posture as if they are Doctors of the Church when they are not done learning (if anyone could be).

To be important in Lutherdom today, one only needs to parrot the themes of Holy Mamma Synod.

To face exile, simply question the infallible degrees of the Home Office. Or kick Thrivent its tender but greedy shins.

More Glende Plagiarism

Used in April, 2009 -
much funnier with my caption.

Tim Glende and his illiterate pals are creative only when they are copying somebody. If course, the poor boy has to copy this blog's name. He even has tried his hand at Photoshop. But the hand that rocks the kegger rocketh not the graphics department.

I have posted my graphic, above, from almost three years ago. The fake blog is trying the same thing, without wit, without effect, years later.

What can anyone expect from Groeschel's plagiarist, who copies everything from the Methodist screamer and denies it? The motto on the wall at The CORE sheep-stealer campus was directly from Groeschel. "We will do anything short of sin to introduce people to God."

Plagiarism is a sin. So is lying about it.

Hazing in WELS Affects Enrollment

One of their Church Growth stars told me
his brother never went to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary - because of hazing.

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Good Description of WELS Hazing":

I've never heard even a rumor of any hazing at either Concordia seminary. I know that some students who wanted to escape hazing at Mequon graduated from Northwestern College and attended Bethany Lutheran Seminary in Mankato. Others skipped hazing altogether and attended Bethany college and seminary. Still others attended Bethany college to skip Northwestern hazing and then attended at Mequon for seminary. It's confusing, I know, but you can thank hazing for complicating the path to the ministry.

The details about Bethany students are a bit hazy for me. The "Bethany Bombers" referred to those who attended Bethany Lutheran College for ministerial courses, and then attended at Mequon for seminary, I think. Bethany Bomber does not refer to the reverse situation, i.e., to students who attended Northwestern College/MLC and then attended seminary at Mankato.

Also, I think it was rumored that Bethany Lutheran Seminary closed in the 1990s and sent all its ELS students to Mequon, but then word got around after a few years that Bethany seminary never closed. Also, another rumor was that Bethany seminary restarted after being dissatisfied with the seminary at Mequon. Maybe the truth was there was discussions about closing Mankato seminary, but nothing ever came of it. This page of Bethany alumni suggests that seminary never closed:

http://www.blts.edu/about/students/blts-alumni/ 

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GJ - The Bethany Program students were still at Mequon when I was there in 1987. They were the ones who understood the problems with Church Growth. WELS ended the program shortly after. I thought, "Too many Lutherans getting to the ministerium."

Robert Preus was the first person to graduate from Bethany Seminary. His brother Jack was slower in moving over to the ELS. Later, they joined the LCMS.

Oswald Hoffman and Al Barry were both at Bethany.

Pope John the Malefactor (Moldstad, the ELS president) became a New Testament professor at Bethany without having a college degree. That caused a dust-up, so he hurried up and finished the college degree. No wonder they are impressed with an MDiv.

In most denominations, a certificate minister--who never finished his education--can never hope to leave the boonies for a good call. A faculty position? Ha! In the ELS, it is a fast-track to the presidency, as long as UOJ is embraced with fervor.

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Hazing in WELS Affects Enrollment":

Dr. Jackson set me straight on this on. The Bethany program in question that produced the Bethany Bombers was a two-year program for second career students to teach them Greek and Hebrew and other religion courses at Bethany Lutheran College before sending them on to the WELS seminary. They had the same program at Northwestern College running at the same time.

I don't know if they still have a shortened second-career program now at MLC, if they ever did after the college merger. These programs were started to fill pastor shortages, but there hasn't been a shortage for a long time, yet at least in the LCMS the SMP programs keeps going full speed ahead:

Steadfast Lutherans » SMP Program is “Mega-Death” for Lutheran Congregations, Jan 25, 2012:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/01/steadfast-lutherans-smp-program-is-mega.html

Good Description of WELS Hazing

This was at a private school:
"I think about it sometimes and I think about what it would have been like to be on the other side of that door. Obviously, this was not among the more sensational cases of kids hazing other kids. Some kids are killed in hazing rituals. Some kids are sexually abused in hazing rituals. There are worse instances of hazing in the world than what we did to Big Fun. And yet, all of it is hurtful and destructive."


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GJ - The WELS hazing system is the culture of the Wisconsin Synod. The idea is to train a bully without a conscience. Sometimes the most picked on become the thugs later, since it is more fun to be on the giving end of the swagger stick.


In WELS, they called one student Moon-Job because he was overweight. 


The WELS clergry were horrified and furious when someone spread the story that I published their precious GA songs in Christian News.


They claim their secret hazing ritual - GA - has been shut down. (Like Church and Change? Hahahaha.) They had a GA initiation of six students this year.


One WELS pastor wrote this to me, "Every seminary has a hazing ritual."


Please, if you graduated from a Concordia or the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie, tell us all about your hazing ritual.

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Good Description of WELS Hazing":

I've never heard even a rumor of any hazing at either Concordia seminary. I know that some students who wanted to escape hazing at Mequon graduated from Northwestern College and attended Bethany Lutheran Seminary in Mankato. Others skipped hazing altogether and attended Bethany college and seminary. Still others attended Bethany college to skip Northwestern hazing and then attended at Mequon for seminary. It's confusing, I know, but you can thank hazing for complicating the path to the ministry.

The details about Bethany students are a bit hazy for me. The "Bethany Bombers" referred to those who attended Bethany Lutheran College for ministerial courses, and then attended at Mequon for seminary, I think. Bethany Bomber does not refer to the reverse situation, i.e., to students who attended Northwestern College/MLC and then attended seminary at Mankato.

Also, I think it was rumored that Bethany Lutheran Seminary closed in the 1990s and sent all its ELS students to Mequon, but then word got around after a few years that Bethany seminary never closed. Also, another rumor was that Bethany seminary restarted after being dissatisfied with the seminary at Mequon. Maybe the truth was there was discussions about closing Mankato seminary, but nothing ever came of it. This page of Bethany alumni suggests that seminary never closed:

http://www.blts.edu/about/students/blts-alumni/ 

UOJ Is Not Consistent or Biblical

Woods was a super-star young Calvinist when he translated Knapp from German,
and Knapp was already a long-established professor at Halle University.
However, we are expected to believe that double-justification is
both Lutheran and orthodox!
Biblical and Corcord-ish!

Reply to Steven Goodrich, from Lito Cruz, PhD:


Steven,

My points...

A.)
You said Therefore, Lito is incorrect when he construes Preus's phrase "a righteousness which already exists objectively" as "Jesus was already righteous before he came to earth and his sacrifice would have availed nothing to God if he were not righteous in the first place

Preus makes use of terminologies like Jesus' essential righteousness and the like. I did not use those terms. When I said the statement above, I was alluding to the concept taught in the Bible that Jesus was the second Adam.

Adam was born innocent, he lost it at the fall when he disobeyed the command of God regarding eating of the tree. Adam then lost his innocence and became guilty.

Likewise so teaches Scripture, that when Jesus came, he was also the Second Adam, innocent. But unlike the First Adam, Jesus retained his righteousness for though being tempted by the devil to violate the will of God, he did not fail, unlike the First Adam. He retained his righteousness.

This retention of his righteousness present in his life, in the end, he offered to God as payment for the sins of the whole world.

You may correct me in my language above and I appreciate that,but the correction is moot to my point.

The point is that in Footnote #75, Preus at the very minimum, did not mean, a righteousness that has already been declared to the sinner before he believed, ala LC-MS Brief Statement (of Faith) Article 17a. In fact it contradicts or cannot lend support for it.

That is my point. Correct me as you will, the correction is besides the point, Preus did not mean a declaration of righteousness the sinner has, before he was born or before he has faith.In fact you agreed with me when you said Preus is talking about Christ's righteousness. Therefore Preus is not talking about the LC-MS UOJ doctrine in Footnote #75.

B.)
Then you said this Declaring is not the same as imputing righteousness; it is the acquisition of righteousness. In Theses on Justification, clarifying document put out by the CTCR of LCMS, we read,"God has acquired the forgiveness of sins for all people by declaring that the world for Christ's sake has been forgiven".

Steven, please note we are not being nasty when we are charging UOJers of sophistry. Here you succumb to that. Note that here you have produced two contradictory statements and are modifying the usual meaning of Justification in the Biblical context. In the Epistle to the Romans, Justification is the declaration of righteousness and happens only upon faith in person and work of Christ at the Cross Romans 3:21-25.

For God to declare the sins of anyone forgiven is for God to justify the person, declared righteous. That is the same in the Confessions.

If God declared the sinner righteous already, then what God declares is true. If God declared the whole world righteous already according to LC-MS before they could believe, then what is the need of any righteousness to be imputed, since the declaration has been made already? None, it is superfluous.

You have detached the Biblical understanding of Justification from the imputation of Christ's righteousness to faith.

The reason why God declares a believer righteous is because the believer is hanging on to the righteousness of Christ - Phil 2:9.

The criticism leveled against you by anti-UOJers who have come before me are correct-- UOJers indeed believe in 2 justifications, one at the cross or at the resurrection of Jesus depending on who you are talking to, and the other when the sinner believes the first justification.

I will quote Walter Maier II, your LC-MS exegete...
Yet Scripture teaches only one justification; namely, the one by faith in Christ, Romans 3:28. (Walter A. Maier II, A Summary Exposition of The Doctrine of Justification By Grace
Through Faith)


C.)
The Papists believe that the Justification Lutherans believed in is "legal fiction", i.e. not real. Preus' book was an argument against that. I suggest he also wrote the book to give the Lutherans a positive understanding of Justification. This is the reason why he took pains in showing the objectivity of the Lutheran belief of Justification. He wanted to counter the criticism of "legal fiction". That book, if he wanted to set forth UOJ was the perfect vehicle, yet he did not do that. In fact he did not even use the term Objective Justification.

According to Jack Cascione, Preus said this Nor is objective justification "merely" a "Lutheran term" to denote that justification is available to all as a recent "Lutheran Witness" article puts it – although it is certainly true that forgiveness is available to all. Nor is objective justification a Missouri Synod construct, a "theologoumenon" (a theological peculiarity), devised cleverly to ward off synergism (that man cooperates in his conversion) and Calvinistic double predestination, as Dr. Robert Schultz puts it in "Missouri in Perspective" (February 23, 1981, p. 5) – although the doctrine does indeed serve to stave off these two aberrations. No, objective justification is a clear teaching of Scripture, it is an article of faith which no Lutheran has any right to deny or pervert any more than the article of the Trinity or of the vicarious atonement.

Preus at the very least, then contradicted himself in JaR book, I will go for that assertion at a minimum.

For if he truly believed that OJ is not just a term but the very teaching of Scripture, an article of faith as he said, he should have done it in JaR and used it to prevent Lutherans from sliding to Romanism. He did not do it.

For the Papists are not only synergists of all sorts, they are Pelagians too. JaR is the most appropriate tool for laying out the sedes doctrinae. If he wanted to teach me, a would be reader, about UOJ he did not do it or at the very least managed to confuse me about it based on what I know now about UOJ.

D.) Lastly, UOJ is not established by anything any person says or is shot down by anything any person says, it can only be proven in Scripture first and foremost and then by the Confession (at least this is what I know about Team JBFA). For me, the Preus argument is only a side argument, it is not the strongest argument to Team JBFA's contention that UOJ is an un-biblical concept. Team JBFA's criticism stems from Scripture witness first and foremost seconded by the Confessions.

I perfectly understand what you are trying to do, you are LC-MS after all, so good luck to your efforts,

LPC

Two of Walther's chosen seminary professors joined the Church of Rome.
Edward (aka Eduard) Preus wrote the Stormtroopers' favorite UOJ book.

Rescue Dogs - A Good Investment in Love

Photoshop by Norma Boeckler

***

GJ - I am not sure whether Sassy is more German Shepherd or more heeler in personality. Both breeds are very smart. I missed Sacket so much, after she died of cancer, that we got Sassy. Sacky was  all-heeler and typically a shy, one-person dog. She slowly accepted Chris and was very loving toward her, but she did not welcome any stranger approaching her.

Heelers are super-smart, interactive, and independent. They are top dog, no matter what breed is around. Sassy yields to bigger dogs, even to her little Sheltie fur-sisters. However, she does rule the bed and barks when T-Girl gets an invitation to jump up.

German Shepherds look solemn but they are gentle, loving, and protective.

Here are some Sassy characteristics, which make her the star of the dog park:

She loves everybody and just wiggles with delight when people want to pet her.
She catches her ball in spectacular fashion, grabbing balls out of the air when a a man with a baseball glove would have trouble.
She saunters back with the ball when a crowd is gasping and applauding.
She can roll the ball to a stop at my feet or place it in my hands, depending.
If she likes someone, that person gets to throw her ball.
She asks to meet all the dogs in the next fenced-in area, so we often switch so she can make more friends.
She manages me so much that children look at me and say, "That is a bossy dog."

At home:
Sassy always has a front or back leg over Chris during jewelry time on the bed.
Sassy asks for hugs many times during the day.
One trick is to stop my writing by holding down my right arm.
She may knock the mouse away.
Switching to my left arm, away from her, does not work, because she reaches over for that one too.
When I laugh about her persistence, Sassy laughs and rolls over for a tummy rub.
Coming back from the dog park, Sassy listens to the latest stories about her.
She helps me with all my chores, supervising whatever I do.
As a heeler, she follows me and bumps me every few seconds, to make sure I know my place.

The Mormons (Latter Day Saints) Remind Me Of the Olde Synodical Conference

When I read in Christian News about a Mormon facing the facts about her religion's actual history and claims, I thought of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Synod, and the Little Sect on the Prairie. The micro-minis are far worse examples of the same tendencies.


Each group has faithful ministers and pastors, but everyone is kept in ignorance about the group's actual doctrine and history.


Like Mormons, they go into shock when they learn the truth. Like Mormons, the ones who know the facts are forced to submit or they are driven away.


Both religions love-bomb people into the group and hate-bomb them out.


They keep going with secrecy and corruption. When I mentioned the WELS missionaries who went Pentecostal, possibly in Taiwan, I was told, "Never speak about that."


Most Lutherans realize that Mormons are not Christians. But the singular tenet of the Synodical Conference is not Christian either. Do Lutherans really believe they are born forgiven? Do they imagine that all the head-hunters, Buddhists, atheists, and Mormons are already saved? The WELS evangelism banner said that, "You are saved, just like me."


Joseph Smith and Bring'em Young were pathological, lying polygamists. Bishop Martin Stephan was, too, and the Saxon leaders knew it, too. Smith denied the truth, and so did Stephan, but the leaders knew the sordid truth in both cases. The public records and histories of the LCMS have extensive evidence of the colony's knowledge of Stephan's adultery before the trip to Perry County and prior to the Walther-organized mob. Court records. Testimony from Mrs. Stephan. House arrest of Stephan. Obvious meeting with young ladies. Groupies in Europe in America.


Walther has this tidbit about the bishop he pledged to obey - Mrs. Stephan was the cause of their problems. And that was passed on, as a private explanation, in Suelflow's hagiography. Cults slander the innocent, but many readers know that already.


The turning point for the Stephanites was the spread of syphilis among the young women in the cult. The dramatic confession story--launching the mob scene-- was a lie, as acknowledged in their defense of Walther against the charge of violating the confessional. Everybody knew about the adultery - 'twar no secret. Stephan brought his main mistress over, but left his sick wife and syphilitic children behind.


Mormons and Lutheran intermarriage in the early days made telling the truth about origins...awkward. Every secret was a family secret. Ludwig Fuerbringer's mother was also married to CFW Walther's brother - and she knew about the kidnapping and mob that no one ever discussed.


The Lutheran and Mormon leaders are all obsessed with money and use their religion to feather their own nests in the Name of the Lord.


Mormons and Lutherans would rather look at shadows of puppets on the wall (Plato's Cave Analogy) than be dragged to the entrance of the cave and forced to face the sunlight.

http://humanitiesartlit.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/platos-cave/

Mega-church downsizes, cuts non-essential members - LarkNews.com - A Good Source for Christian News

"Wolves are those people who resist our claws and fangs.
They are a danger to the Kingdom, we swear by our Father Below."

Mega-church downsizes, cuts non-essential members - LarkNews.com - A Good Source for Christian News:


WINSTON-SALEM — Julie and Bob Clark were stunned to receive a letter from their church in July asking them to “participate in the life of the church” — or worship elsewhere.

“They basically called us freeloaders,” says Julie.

“We were freeloaders,” says Bob.

In a trend that may signal rough times for wallflower Christians, bellwether mega-church Faith Community of Winston-Salem has asked “non-participating members” to stop attending.

“No more Mr. Nice Church,” says the executive pastor, newly hired from Cingular Wireless. “Bigger is not always better. Providing free services indefinitely to complacent Christians is not our mission.”

“Freeloading” Christians were straining the church’s nursery and facility resources and harming the church’s ability to reach the lost, says the pastor.

“When your bottom line is saving souls, you get impatient with people who interfere with that goal,” he says.

Faith Community sent polite but firm letters to families who attend church services and “freebie events” but never volunteer, never tithe and do not belong to a small group or other ministry. The church estimates that of its 8,000 regular attendees, only half have volunteered in the past 3 years, and a third have never given to the church.

“Before now, we made people feel comfortable and welcome, and tried to coax them to give a little something in return,” says a staff member. “That’s changed. We’re done being the community nanny.”

Surprisingly, the move to dis-invite people has drawn positive response from men in the community who like the idea of an in-your-face church.

“I thought, ‘A church that doesn’t allow wussies — that rocks,’” says Bob Clark, who admires the church more since they told him to get lost.

He and Julie are now tithing and volunteering. “We’ve taken our place in church life,” he says. •


'via Blog this'

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Mega-church downsizes, cuts non-essential members ...":

Behold the true face of the Theology of Glory. It is in your face, complete with lots of Law pounding. The mega-churches began to feel the crunch a couple of years ago when the economy went sour. Their business model is fickle and transient. Now, they are trimming the fat. So much for the care of widows and orphans. Does the recent transplant from Cingular Wireless make house calls?


***

GJ - Yes, Schuller, the founder of Church Church, lost his church building to the Roman Catholics, and he wants members to bring food so the limo can take it out to the palatial Schuller mansion.

Lutherans do not need to look too far to find the same attitude.

Long Before the Concordia St. Louis Student Paper, Ichabod Had the Scoop on the Tuition Scandal

Irrelevant but funny.

The Concordia Seminary, St. Louis student journal picked up on the statistics and commentary from this blog. In short, students are being robbed instead of robed, while the administrators build bigger palaces for themselves to adore.

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Walther Became a Pastor After a Four-Year Rational...":

Here are some of the more memorable LCMS seminary cost posts, which sketch excludes many minor posts and comics:

Fake Pastoral Shortage in the LCMS, Friday, August 8, 2008
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2008/08/fake-pastoral-shortage-in-lcms.html

Maybe Because Bruce Church Told the Truth about Sky-High Tuition and the 600 Empty Parish Lie, 9 Sep  2010:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/09/maybe-because-bruce-church-told-truth.html

The Seminary Question, 14 Sep 2010
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/09/seminary-question.html

The Boomers Got Their Cheap Seminary Education, Only To Stick the Next Generations with Harvard Costs and Mudville Quality, Saturday, October 2, 2010:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/10/boomers-got-their-cheap-seminary.html

LCMS Seminary Costs, 28 Dec 2010
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/12/bruce-church-httpsbruce-church.html

Lutheran Seminary Fraud: Students Are Bankrupting Themselves To Provide an Easy Living for the Profs. "No Call for You" Threat Stifles Dissent, 16 May 2011

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/05/lutheran-seminary-fraud-students-are.html

LCMS Seminary Cost Scandal: Fabulous Costs To Support Posh Professor Salaries, September 17, 2011

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/09/lcms-seminary-cost-scandal-fabulous.html

LCMS Seminaries - Where the Money Is. Ultra High Tuition and Salaries, December 8, 2011

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/12/lcms-seminaries-where-money-is-ultra.html

Walther Became a Pastor After a Four-Year Rationalistic Degree from Leipzig and Cell Group Revelations. Now It Takes Eight Years, Feb 13, 2012:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/02/walther-became-pastor-after-four-year.html 

Missouri needs another Walther,
a leader who will steal to solve the financial crisis.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - ELM GROVE, WI: Anglican Parish Retaken by Episcopal Diocese Lays (sic) Empty

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - ELM GROVE, WI: Anglican Parish Retaken by Episcopal Diocese Lays Empty:


For 65 years, four generations of priests have faithfully preached the gospel to 3,400 Episcopalians at St. Edmund's Episcopal Church. It has been no small achievement. Elm Grove is not one of the highest density populations in America, but its bucolic setting in Waukesha County has a population of some 6,500, most of them Christians of one denominational stripe or another.

On January 31, the congregation's world came to a shattering end. The priest, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Scheibler was removed from his church buildings at 14525 West Watertown Plank Road, Elm Grove, by judicial order. It was a shattering moment for the priest who has served the church for more than 3 years.

The Episcopal Church has taken a theological and moral turn for the worst and advocates a gospel that is no gospel at all, as well as a sexual pathway that this and many Episcopal churches across the country find totally unacceptable. They have declared themselves in broken communion. Hundreds of churches have left The Episcopal Church along with tens of thousands of parishioners. It has been a journey without end.

The Rt. Rev. Steven Andrew Miller, the eleventh bishop of Milwaukee, completely bought into The Episcopal Church's liberal positions and was not prepared to negotiate for the property. Today the church stands empty.


'via Blog this'

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - ELM GROVE, WI: ...":

The bit about the church being large in a rural setting is of course dated. It was that way when the church started up 65 years ago, but now Waukesha County has 400,000 people in it: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/55/55133.html

Elm Grove, WI, is only 19 miles west of the conservative Episcopalian Nashotah House Seminary, Delafield, which is near Oconomowoc: http://g.co/maps/hqf2s

Nashotah is in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and the Elm Grove Episcopal church nearby probably is, too.

The kicked out Episcopal congregation is meanwhile worshiping at the Elm Grove Lutheran Church, an LCMS church:

http://www.stedseg.org/ournewhome.htm

http://www.egl.org/  

***

GJ - Bruce, do you get the impression that those Eastern liberals do not know much about fly-over country?

My good friend from Notre Dame taught at Nashotah House (Episcopal Seminary). Gaylin Schmeling, the president of the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie, earned an STM there.

I wanted to see how many students were there. I was shocked to see one photo labeled as studs2011.

studs2011

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - ELM GROVE, WI: ...":

Yes, Bethany Seminary only has five students at the seminary taking classes, but six vicars out in the field. They only graduate between zero and six students per year. They are one of the few seminaries in the world with a 1:1 teacher-student ratio:

http://www.blts.edu/2011/08/2011-2012-school-year-begins/

The seminary enrollment this year numbers eleven. There are six vicars, three seniors, no middlers, and two juniors.

The teaching staff for the seminary this year is as follows: Thomas Flunker, Adolph Harstad, Thomas Kuster, Michael Smith, and Gaylin Schmeling.


***

GJ - They seem to have far more students than calls. And yet the future reminds me of a quip from Bainton, when the graduating class from one liberal seminary married the graduating class from another liberal school.

Walther may get his pan-synodical seminary yet.

Emmaus Conference, 2012. No False Doctrine Was Harmed in Any Way. Matt Harrison. Mark Schroeder. John Moldstad.

• Justification without faith. Check.
• Cell group Pietism? Mmmm. Oh yeah.
• False teachers welcomed as ministry gurus. Of course.
• Kowtowing to a business in exchange for money. Naturally.
• Liturgy. An adiaphoron.
• Coffee shops. Evangelism tools.
• Emergent Church. Definitely.
• Hide the altar. Hide the font. Hide the paraments. Hide the cross. Brilliant.
• Open Communion. Demi-semi-Open Communion. No Communion. Yes.
• Women teaching men. Definitely.
• Women usurping authority over men. Sure.
• Eighth Commandment. Our best weapon against legalists, trouble-makers, and bloggers.

WELS Is Casual about Sects. AC V - On Women Pastors.

Dipping a cross in a cup of coffee is
only one step above p___Christ,
a supposed work of art.

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Father Hollywood: Girls Gone Wild, WELS Edition. S...":

There's no problem with Kristen Koepsell being the "Minister of Worship" at WELS St. Andrew, Middleton, WI because there is no Lutheran worship there. Notice that under her job description "Music is the largest part of the worship ministry at St. Andrew." What, no sacraments? No preaching to deliver the forgiveness of sins?

As Staff Minister of Worship, Kristen is responsible for planning and implementing all worship opportunities at St. Andrew. She also oversees the large corps of worship volunteers who serve in many and varied capacities each week. Music is the largest part of the worship ministry at St. Andrew, but the worship ministry also includes lay readers, dramatic and visual arts, hospitality ministries and audio/visual tech support. Kristen works with Pastor Hunter to study biblical worship principles and practices, (they're not reading the Lutheran Confessions obviously) evaluate current worship practices at St. Andrew, and define future directions for St. Andrew's worship ministry.

http://www.st-andrew-online.org/Staff.aspx#worship

Stay Tuned for Lulu.com Book Sales.The Company Takes the Hit, Not I

California thought she was cutting into my profits by waiting for Lulu.com book sales. All these banners from Lulu.com are their discounts. They do not affect me at all. I offer the 100% discount for free PDFs. And many books are listed far below the normal price.

I like free shipping especially, because I place larger orders from time to time.

It works great. Fill out the order and pick the shipping desired. Put in the code for that banner, "flightless" in this case. Press update. The discount will be taken off the total. I learned last night that some discounts kick in regardless. I thought I had to buy two at once for the previous discount, but Lulu took off a few dollars because I had the code in. Software can be so subtle.

Lately, one sale will start as soon as the other one ends. Go to the main Lulu page to be sure.

Many new projects are started, each one to be printed, but also published as an e-book as well.

No "Katie My Rib" Here.

The solution - a compromise.
Everybody happy.

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Father Hollywood: Girls Gone Wild, WELS Edition. S...":

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Watch how Ms. Wendland walks around with Bible in hand just like the TV preachers:

http://www.wels.net/streams/video/content/leading-christ-attitude

John Brug approved the ordination of women many years ago.

1st head of US Anglican ordinariate installed : News Headlines - Catholic Culture. You Read It Here First

Depitty Doug should establish an Ordinariate,
so Groeschelites and Fullerites can be WELS pastors without changing their  traditions.
Mrs. Ichabod said, "He already has."

1st head of US Anglican ordinariate installed : News Headlines - Catholic Culture:



1st head of US Anglican ordinariate installed
February 13, 2012

From Our Store: Moral Issues (eBook)
Father Jeffrey Steenson has been installed as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The ordinariate was established on January 1 to assist Anglicans in the United States who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage.

Father Steenson--who will take part in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, but will not be ordained a bishop because he is married--preached in his installation homily:

Listen to St. Anselm, the 37th Archbishop of Canterbury, perhaps the greatest theologian ever to grace England’s green and pleasant land: “This power was committed specially to Peter, that we might therefore be invited to unity. Christ therefore appointed him the head of the Apostles, that the Church might have one principal Vicar of Christ, to whom the different members of the Church should have recourse, if ever they should have dissentions among them. But if there were many heads in the Church, the bond of unity would be broken” …

Some will argue that the Catholic Church makes Christian unity a difficult thing to achieve. Look at what is being asked of those who are considering the Ordinariate! – Anglicans have not only to be received but even confirmed, and their clergy ordained in the absolute form. Is this not asking them to begin all over again? Certainly not! From Zephyrinus to Callistus to Cornelius to Stephen – these third century popes, most of whom laid down their lives as martyrs, who governed the Church at a time when it seemed as though the gates of hell really might prevail, threatening to destroy her essential unity – the Catholic Church simply asked that the bonds of charity be restored sacramentally by invoking the presence of the Holy Spirit. These are brothers and sisters, returning home.


'via Blog this'

Glorious New Buildings, Mountains of Student Debt. Boomers Scam the Students

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/02/walther-became-pastor-after-four-year.html

Martin Luther College (WELS) built an $8 million dollar Marvin Schwan Cathedral.

Marvin Schwan grinned on the cover NWL in putting his name on his library at his little college, Wisconsin Lutheran College, which like Brigagoon, appears to be WELS one moment and not the next.

Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne, just completed another project to rival the Great Pyramid.

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, after building the Chapel of the Schwan, continued to add more buildings. At one point they bought up an entire college, next-door to the Clayton campus. I believe they dumped that white elephant, probably for a loss.

The Little Sect on the Prairie has festooned their land-locked campus with buildings on the frozen tundra of Mankato, to honor the frozen food king and his hot-blooded women.

What have we learned? All the Lutheran sects have money to burn for glamorous, expensive buildings, but hardly a penny to reduce student debt.

I am sure the leaders will claim, "We had to spend the designated funds that way." But that was not a problem - when the WELS $8 million disappeared, and Gurgle was spirited out of the country in a pickle barrel.

These big grants are arranged so that the synods apply for something they already want to do. I have not even started on Thrivent pan-Lutheran, pan-denominational funds. Always people hear the cry, "But they forced us to spend the money that way. If we had not gone along with it, someone else would have grabbed the loot."

What did Adam (not a real person, according to the NNIV) say? "Not my fault. That defective woman, whom Thou forcedest upon me, she madest me eat of the apple."

This blog has provided many posts, designed by a very good researcher, on the LCMS forcing enormous tuition costs on students while forcing many of their victims out of the system before they can even get a call. They are left with crippling loans and a useless degree.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Glorious New Buildings, Mountains of Student Debt....":

More on student debt:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-student-loan-bankruptcy-20120208,0,1704059.story

Walther Became a Pastor After a Four-Year Rationalistic Degree from Leipzig and Cell Group Revelations. Now It Takes Eight Years.

Ichabod Had the Scoop on the Seminary Tuition Scandal

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Walther Became a Pastor After a Four-Year Rational...":

Here are some of the more memorable LCMS seminary cost posts, which sketch excludes many minor posts and comics:

Fake Pastoral Shortage in the LCMS, Friday, August 8, 2008
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2008/08/fake-pastoral-shortage-in-lcms.html

Maybe Because Bruce Church Told the Truth about Sky-High Tuition and the 600 Empty Parish Lie, 9 Sep 2010:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/09/maybe-because-bruce-church-told-truth.html

The Seminary Question, 14 Sep 2010
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/09/seminary-question.html

The Boomers Got Their Cheap Seminary Education, Only To Stick the Next Generations with Harvard Costs and Mudville Quality, Saturday, October 2, 2010:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/10/boomers-got-their-cheap-seminary.html

LCMS Seminary Costs, 28 Dec 2010
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/12/bruce-church-httpsbruce-church.html

Lutheran Seminary Fraud: Students Are Bankrupting Themselves To Provide an Easy Living for the Profs. "No Call for You" Threat Stifles Dissent, 16 May 2011

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/05/lutheran-seminary-fraud-students-are.html

LCMS Seminary Cost Scandal: Fabulous Costs To Support Posh Professor Salaries, September 17, 2011

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/09/lcms-seminary-cost-scandal-fabulous.html

LCMS Seminaries - Where the Money Is. Ultra High Tuition and Salaries, December 8, 2011

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/12/lcms-seminaries-where-money-is-ultra.html

Walther Became a Pastor After a Four-Year Rationalistic Degree from Leipzig and Cell Group Revelations. Now It Takes Eight Years, Feb 13, 2012:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/02/walther-became-pastor-after-four-year.html

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Walther Became a Pastor After a Four-Year Rational...":

Understanding The Costs Of Pastoral Education: Do We Pay Pastors Too Much? April 18th, 2012, by
a Lutheran Brethren Church pastor:

http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=18480

Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America (CLBA):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Lutheran_Brethren_of_America

The Church of the Lutheran Brethren has 123 congregations with about 8,860 baptized members[2] in the United States (114) and Canada (9),

MDiv program at Lutheran Brethren Seminary:
http://www.lbs.edu/programs/mdiv

Credit hour cost of $340 on page 22:
http://lbs.edu/images/media/LBS2011-12Catalog_000.pdf

Fergus Falls, pop. 13,000:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergus_Falls,_Minnesota 

Lito Cruz Exposes Another Attempt To Rescue UOJ from Robert Preus' Repudiation of the Dogma

This is a fairly good book about the Preus-Otten era.

Robert Preus became a seminary president through UOJ
and finished his life by repudiating the false doctrine in the clearest possible way.

Over at Steadfast Waltherians, Mr. Steven Goodrich took a quote from R. Preus' book and I quote Steven here...

I decided to blog about some searches I did on Preus's <i>Justification and Rome<i>.Here is the blog url http://stevengoodrich.blogspot.com/ 

Goodrich:
Since this post is getting rather long, I am only going to give the two quotes that I think disproves Jackson theory that Robert Preus did not UOJ in Justification and Rome 

From footnote 74: In their [the Catholic] view Christ merited forgiveness of sin, peace with God, and righteousness, but He did not acquire forgiveness and righteousness asobjective realities which are offered in the Gospel. Righteousness and forgiveness are possibilities which become realities only when the process of justification and sanctification has begun. Robert D. Preus (1997-06-01). Justification and Rome (Kindle Locations 2005-2007). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition. From footnote 75: Luther and the earlier post-Reformation theologians do not present quite such a neat and tidy paradigm, but would probably agree with Quenstedt that Christ procured righteousness on the cross and that the same righteousness is apprehended through faith. All the Lutherans were in agreement that through faith the sinner acquires arighteousness which already exists objectively. Robert D. Preus (1997-06-01). Justification and Rome (Kindle Locations 2008-2011). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

Now Steven asked me about this quote at Extra Nos. I presume Steven gave this to Steadfast Waltherians as a way of countering Dr. Jackson's suggestion that Preus did not teach Objective Justification in Justification and Rome. I could be mistaken and Steven can correct me, regarding his motives for posting this in his blog or at Steadfast Waltherians.

First observe that Preus quote is found in P. 72-73 of the book (which in mine contained my own annotations). Note Preus did not use the word Objective Justification. Now we all know he knew what this phrase meant for he was a UOJer and if that was what he wanted to convey he could have used the term and could have said -- the sinner acquires a justification which already exists objectively.

However, this was not was not what Preus said.

The righteousness that exists objectively is not the same as the declaration of your righteousness that-- according to UOJers--exists objectively before you were born. Because righteousness and being declared righteous are NOT THE SAME thing. What then did Preus mean by  a righteousness which already exists objectively?

He meant the righteousness of Christ! This righteousness of Christ exists objectively. Of course it does, for Jesus was already righteous before he came to earth and his sacrifice would have availed nothing to God if he were not righteous in the first place. Preus did not mean the righteousness declared to you when Jesus was raised from the dead as taught by UOJ! What Preus meant here was the righteousness of Christ! That is the one that exists objectively.

Precisely that is what Preus meant because if one follows where that footnote was mentioned, over to p. 72, Preus quotes Quenstedt!!! And what did Quenstedt say? He said..

It is not just the same thing to say, "Christ' righteousness is imputed to us" and to say "Christ is our righteousness"...

Justification is the act of God in declaring us righteous upon faith in Christ, justification is not the same as righteousness as a category. For in the former, we are really guilty but we are being counted as righteous for the sake of  Christ the righteous One.

You can read the rest of that quote in the book.

***

GJ - How much do they hate justification by faith? Let me count the ways.

1. Seminarian Andrew Preus has posted two times (out of two) on UOJ.
2. LaughQuest raves against justification by faith at every opportunity. Like a flock of turkeys, they stick their heads into the air and start making awful noises, without any prompting or reason.
3. Steve Goodrich posts on Steadfast Enthusiasts and his own blog to prop up UOJ.
4. Jack Kilcrease posts on his blog, on SE, and everywhere he can, based on his position as a part-time teacher at a papist college, his education as a Jesuit, and his WELS-ELCA training. 
5. Pope Paul the Unlearned posts everywhere he can, never about the topic, but always in an ad hominem attempt to keep anyone from paying attention to Luther's doctrine.
6. Tim Glende posts anonymously from his fake blog in support of his Craig Groeschel reprint business, his UOJ promotion hobby.

I must be missing a few more. In fact, I skipped over another prime example - just because.

The UOJ Hive may buzz loudly and sting ever so slightly, but they constantly reveal their inability to comprehend Biblical doctrine, Luther's teaching, and the Book of Concord. Anyone can see from their writing that they have no grasp of the Means of Grace.

I do not want people to agree with me, but with the Scriptures and Lutheran Orthodoxy, based on their own studies. I do not spend my time trying to get my friends to shun, expel, and silence Cascione, McCain, Kilcrease, and the worker bees. Instead, I quote the drones at every opportunity, especially when they sink to their usual level of argumentation.

The UOJ Hive is drawing attention to an important book, Justification and Rome. I hope people read that on their own, without the help of those Talmudic scholars.

The Hive needs to explain some important lapses in the history of Holy Mommy Synod:

• Why did Walther base his UOJ on his rationalistic training at Leipzig and his cell group revelations with Stephan? Hardt wrote that Walther never changed his justification dogma.
• How did the LCMS quickly move from Walther-Pieperism to mainline unionism and Pentecostalism, right after making one particular Statement (1932) canon law?
• Why did the the president of the Olde Synodical Conference, Gausewitz, write a popular and extensively used catechism without ever mentioning UOJ?
• Why is the Olde Synodical Conference silent about the efficacy of the Word (foundational in Luther and the Bible) and the Means of Grace (Ludwig Fuerbring's fave). 
• If UOJ is pure and wholesome in WELS, as Rolf Preus boasts, then why did UOJ Enthusiast Richard Jungkuntz chair the first gay Lutheran seminary?
• Where does Robert Preus mention UOJ as a term and teach it as a concept in Justification and Rome? Page and verbatim quotation are needed.
• Who in ELCA disagrees with the notion that the entire world has been declared innocent, forgiven, saved, period, end of story, amen, alleluia? 

I agree.
Do you?

Father Hollywood: Girls Gone Wild, WELS Edition. Since Someone Asked About the WELS Latte Church Female Pastor

This young graduate of the Sausage Factory took several
sensitivity classes at Fuller Seminary. He has grown in his understanding of women.
Rumor has it that Larry Olson was behind the female celebration of Holy Communion.

From Father Hollywood, 2009:

In spite of the Wisconsin Synod's reputation for "conservative" rigor, WELS has a rather "liberal" view when it comes to women officiating at the Eucharist.

According to this Q&A from the WELS's own website, there have been at least two instances where laywomen in the WELS have said the Lord' Words of Institution over bread and wine and served it, claiming that it was the body and blood of the Lord. The practice was in no way condemned by the WELS hierarchy, but rather, the practice is current under a "moratorium" in order to "keep from offending our brothers."

This error has come about by the intersection of an error on the doctrine of the ministry combined with a legalistic view of the role of women.

First, WELS does not believe the pastoral office has been divinely established, and further teaches that "The Bible establishes all of public gospel ministry but does not establish a pastoral office as such or vest certain duties exclusive to that office" (Emphasis added).

From this starting point, WELS adds the next premise that the differences between male and female are limited to a legalistic "thou shalt not," as the article puts it:

"Since the Bible does not assign specific duties to the pastor, WELS approaches the matter of women communing women from Scripture's man and women role relationship principle. WELS doctrinal statements on the role of man and woman say that a woman may have any part in public ministry that does not assume teaching authority over a man. That, of course, would include women communing women" (emphasis added).

And this has moved beyond the theoretical into the practical:

"WELS has had only two instances of women communing women, and our Conference of Presidents has since issued an indefinite moratorium on such practice to keep from offending our brothers until the matter is mutually resolved" (emphasis added).

The "it's only happened twice" defense reminds me of the Monty Python sketch claiming that the British Navy now has cannibalism "relatively under control."

In other words, the theology of male and female boils down to an oversimplified and law-based overarching principle that women are free to do anything and everything in the Lord's economy so long as she does not exercise authority over a man in doing so - when in fact, the role of women is much richer than the "anything other than..." approach of the WELS. Accepting these two premises and following them to their logical end yields the result of women saying the Words of Institution over bread and wine, and distributing the elements to each other as if they were the true body and blood.

This is roughly the equivalent of my asserting that since I'm an American citizen, I can sign my name on a bill and make it a law, or that I can authorize people to go up into the Statue of Liberty's crown, or may indeed put stars on my lapels and order military personnel about. I can do no such thing. It is a matter of authority. Pastors are ambassadors of Christ, and speak by His authority, standing in His stead and by His command. The American ambassador to Canada speaks with the authority of the government of the United States. Of course, I am free to visit the Parliament in Ottawa, but unlike the word of the ambassador, my word bears no authority. Any statements I make have no force behind them, as I have not been placed into any such office by those who have such authority to delegate.

This is quite different than the Roman Catholic assertion that at a man's ordination, a metaphysical change in his person has happened. But this is also quite different than the Protestant assertion that ordination is nothing more than a quaint ceremony. Sometimes the president of the United States is called "the most powerful man in the world." Not so. I'd be willing to wager than any middle linebacker in the NFL could take out President Obama in any kind of a strength competition or fight. What the president has is not personal "power," but rather delegated personal "authority" that he exercises "by virtue of his office." Not even someone more "powerful" than the president can make laws and issue commands to the military. If someone were to attempt to do so lacking authority, it would be a mutiny and a rebellion.

The examples in Scripture of those who assumed and usurped authority not given by the Lord do not end well. Korah's rebellion comes to mind.

And lest we become too smug in the LCMS, I think we should be on guard. We do have deaconesses who are described as "ministers," some even serving in institutional chaplaincies, providing spiritual care to both men and women. I have even seen this work described as being "pastoral" - though there is great care not to turn this adjective into a noun. At some point, the earlier understanding that deaconesses would only teach women and children has been superseded in the LCMS, as deaconesses are now permitted to teach men as well as women and children. What authority they have and do not have seems to be on a sliding scale of gray, and varies with whomever is asked.

But the problem goes well beyond the malleable role of the deaconess. I recently heard firsthand of a "laying on of hands" in the LCMS that involved not only clergy, but the congregational elders (after all, see 1 Tim 4:4...) and the female congregational president as well. I know that sometimes clergy wives are even involved in these ceremonials.

We also have an oxymoronic "office" in the LCMS called "lay minister." Male "lay ministers" have been given "license" for "Word and Sacrament ministry" by district presidents. Female "lay ministers" take the same classes and hold the same synodical designation, yet (to my knowledge) there have not been instances of female "lay ministers" either preaching or presiding over an alleged Sacrament of the Altar. But I do think this toe-to-the-line of the Wisconsonian view of the office of the ministry and the roles of the sexes leaves the possibility open.

One of the most foolish things anyone can ever say is: "It can't happen here."

We in the LCMS have a similar rather limited theology of the sexes as the WELS. We tend to focus on the narrow and myopic legalistic issue of "what women are allowed, and are not allowed, to do" (functionalism) rather than the deeper and eternal issue of what men and women were created to do (ontology). Function ought to flow from ontology rather than trying to reverse-engineer the situation in the opposite direction.

I suspect there are some in our midst who indeed would make the argument that women have the divine authority to bless bread and wine (even as they have the power to physically say the words), that they can indeed also have the churchly permission ("call") to do so as long as no men take the "sacrament" from her hand, and so long as she does not lay claim to the title of "pastor." And there are some that will, no doubt, make a couple arguments in favor of women consecrating based on:

1) The charge of "Donatism." This is the ancient heresy that the validity of the sacrament is based on the moral standing of the officiant. However, sex has nothing to do with moral fitness. It is rather an ontological distinction. For example, men are not denied the privilege of carrying a child in the womb based on a moral reason, it's rather a question of reality and vocation. Just as a good and righteous American citizen can write his name at the end of a bill passed by Congress, the fact is that his righteous signature is not effective whereas that of even a wicked president is - by virtue of authority. A person's sex has nothing at all to do with Donatism.

In fact, the Donatism charge can even go the other way. For example, a very pious and morally upright lay woman can say all the right words over bread and wine without having any authority from God, neither from Scripture nor from the Church, and yet a wicked ordained male pastor with a valid call can do the same thing - and there is no doubt whatsoever of the validity of the sacraments he officiates over.

This is because the issue is authority, not moral fitness.

In fact, there was an interesting conversation between some LCMS seminary professors over this very issue. You can read the initial article about the "validity of churchly acts of ordained [sic] women" here and the rebuttal against the charge of "Neo-Donatism" here.

2) Emergency baptism. The argument goes that if women can "confect the sacrament," so to speak, regarding an emergency baptism, then it follows that she can similarly officiate over celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. But this is a leap of logic that presumes that all sacraments are equal and that we are not bound to any authority in these matters apart from our own modern whims. The crux of the matter is that emergency baptism is just that - a life and death situation. The Church has long established this form of Holy Baptism, and has never denied the fairer sex the extraordinary authority to administer the Holy Sacrament in matters of extremity. However, the same cannot be said for other sacramental and churchly acts. For there are no emergency marriages or confirmations or communions. Our confessions cite the scenario attributed to St. Augustine in which one dying man baptizes the other, and the newly-baptized administers the Sacrament of Holy Absolution to his fellow. There is no mention of any other sacrament or church rite. Most certainly there is no precedent for emergency lay Communion.

Just as female ordination inevitably leads to the blessing of same-sex marriages, I also believe that a functional view of the ministry inexorably leads to women functioning (if not outright claiming to be) pastors. Until we in the LCMS come to grips with the idea of ontology (both of ministers and of the sexes), we will continue to follow in the train of our conservative brethren, even though the tracks have taken a radical turn to the left.

***

GJ - Someone asked if WELS really had women pastors. The Latte Church does. Wherever Church and Change got beefy grants, they installed a female assistant (highly paid) for the male android. I recall that Doebler's was pulling down $50k. Nothing is too much for Church and Change. That is why a wealthy church like Holy Word in Austin, Texas (WELS) gets free vicars each year. But the same parish is prepared to spend oodles on a new church location almost next door to Doebler's in Round Rock.

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "Father Hollywood: Girls Gone Wild, WELS Edition. S...":

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Watch how Ms. Wendland walks around with Bible in hand just like the TV preachers:

http://www.wels.net/streams/video/content/leading-christ-attitude 

SP Helpless cannot do anything about it. He is too busy silencing people who read Ichabod.