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.

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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.