Teaching and Writing: Adult Education Around the World

These montages are being shared around the Net.
I find this one especially funny.

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I have a lot of trouble figuring out how pathetic and insignificant I am, according to "conservative" Lutherans who do their best to silence and shun me. Glende pops off with the same post every so often, making people think he has a macro button set up by one of his children.

McCain has denounced me, hilariously, on his CyberBully blog, LaughQuest, Steadfast Enthusiasts, and the WELS discussion forum. How many employees have that much time to monitor the Net?

Meanwhile I am teaching at two universities online and applying to the local community college (online). I am especially happy about a number of publishing projects, already started, and some future possibilities.

I am really small potatoes, so I wonder why my blog posts fill synodocrats with such horror and loathing. The main problem for them is that their claims can be matched against clear evidence to the contrary. Before, people had to mail material back and forth to prove a case. Now it is already there.

My advantage is Every Day Low Costs (EDLC). Because no one works for $100,000 plus benefits, the overhead is almost zero. Those who are working on publishing projects are doing so for the love of Lutheran doctrine. I never imagined I would be creating books that could be read for free over the Net with a click of the button, illustrations and text.

The Church and Changers, and their Missouri equivalents, are busy doling out huge grants for one another, each wolf gobbling up more than his share and recommending other wolves for the feast.

Meanwhile, many ordinary pastors are on the brink, debating whether to buy medicine or food when the check is late. They live frugally and do not enjoy deluxe vacations paid by Schwan and Thrivent. They see offering money "for missions" skimmed off for free vicars, so Don Patterson can gallop around the country acting important.

Perhaps Matt Harrison and SP Schroeder should extend the Left Foot of Fellowship to their overpaid false teachers.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Teaching and Writing: Adult Education Around the W...":

For the sake of the argument, I will create a category of ne'er-do-wells who have an exaggerated sense of self worth. Lumped into this group are the hot air merchants (Ichaslang) such as life coaches, motivational speakers and many others who have made minimal contributions. You could also include those who follow the premise that it is all about who you know and not what you know. They follow the networking concept to its logical conclusion. I will leave it to the Ichabodians to name names from their own powers of observation.

These individuals look askance at those who soil their hands with honest labor. Their ad hominem attacks are a cover for the envy that they have against those who actually accomplish something. They would rather schmooze and suck up as they climb the ladder and kick the rungs out under them. I have seen this a lot in the corporate world. Since so many churches have adopted the corporate model, it is not surprising to see it there also.

Not Impressed with the LCMS/WELS Public Relations Blitz. They Still Work with ELCA through LWR and Thrivent

My Facebook post: "LCMS members and pastors - if you dislike the Obama agenda, why continue to work with ELCA? Testimony before Congress is meaningless when actions speak louder than words. ELCA, WELS, and Missouri are so inter-twined that they are really one church body. Don't blame Obama for that."


A string of denials followed, including this from David Peters, from Union Grove (Issues in WELS).

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Rev. David G. Peters Sorry, Greg. Your hyperbole goes too far this time. WELS is in no way one body with the LCMS - much less the ELCA. If you're going to stipuate (sic) such things in this semi-public forum, you can only preserve your credibility by setting forth the evidence here as well. I doubt that many of your Facebook friends believe that this is the forum for such a tasteless task, so let's demonstrate Christian charity here, okay? - Your friend in Christ, David G. David Peters

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GJ - I followed with a number of links to show how WELS and Missouri have been working with ELCA for decades.

LCMS shock came as a surprise to me, because the same convention that voted in Matt Harrison also voted overwhelmingly to continue working with ELCA.

Five minutes with Google will show that Thrivent is the Umbrella Lutheran Church that unites all the synods by giving them money to market their products. SP Harrison admitted last year, at Emmaus, to receiving some $50 million a year from Thrivent.

All the money goes into one pot, Thrivent's, and the insurance company doles out liberally to ELCA. When there are joint ministry projects with WELS, LCMS, and ELCA, it is always on ELCA's terms.

The real testimony is what WELS and Missouri do with ELCA, not what they claim in a cameo appearance in DC.

All three have worked with Lutheran World Relieve for decades.

The Synod Presidents are only too happy to shun someone who tells the truth about their fellowship with ELCA, but they will never shun ELCA.

"Greg's telling the truth.
Call us anything you want,
but meet us at the next Thrivent gathering.
And support LWR with your prayers and offerings."

Bad Vestments: GIANT DEAD SPIDER. Kalamazoo, Michigan Episcopal Cathedral

Bad Vestments: GIANT DEAD SPIDER:

I guess you could call this the ultimate bad vestment.  But it seems that the former cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan (AKA Far And Away The Ugliest Church Building In The Entire History Of Christianity From The Ascension Of Christ Into Heaven Until The Present Day) has been memorialized in a book.

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GJ - Mrs. Ichabod and I were inside this church for an LCA installation. The interior is not ghastly, but the outside is a nightmare. This photo makes it look better than it appears live.

The diocese got so low in funds that they sold this to some sect.

'via Blog this'

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Bad Vestments: GIANT DEAD SPIDER. Kalamazoo, Michi...":

I could never have guessed church architecture got this bad. This puts that WELS church eyesore in Columbus, Ohio, to shame--the one that got torn down in order to build a gas station/convenience store. Dr. Jackson knows the one I mean.

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GJ - Shepherd of Peace? That was the work of Norm Berg and Company. But no one dared make fun of it - badly built, badly designed, badly conceived, and overpriced. I am told the wrecking crane took one poke at it and the building went down faster than a UOJ argument.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - PHILADELPHIA: Bishop Bennison Lays Down Law to Clergy on Same-Sex Marriages

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - PHILADELPHIA: Bishop Bennison Lays Down Law to Clergy on Same-Sex Marriages:


The disgraced, revisionist Bishop of Pennsylvania Charles E. Bennison has written to his diocesan priests saying that he anticipates General Convention will approve same sex blessings at its upcoming General Convention in Indianapolis this summer, and any priest in his diocese who fails to perform them on demand could face disciplinary proceedings.

"At least he is consistent in his pansexual gnosticism and his bullying manner until he gets his way," said one of perhaps 15 remaining orthodox priests in the diocese who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. "Charles is throwing yet another temper tantrum as he makes statements contrary to the canons of the Church let alone Scripture and tradition. He cannot make same sex blessings mandatory for his clergy. He possesses neither the authority nor the power. The lamentable captain of the Titanic stood in higher regard with his passengers and crew than Bennison is with God, the wider Church and the clergy of the Diocese."

It is a clear warning that Bennison, who was on the verge of being tossed out of the diocese for conduct unbecoming a bishop but slipped through the cracks because of the Statute of Limitations, is now firmly back in control with his trademark signature bullying and coercing the few faithful priests into strict conformity with his revisionist views.

In a note to the clergy on The Commemoration of Absalom Jones, Bennison wrote to "clergy colleagues" saying, "I am very concerned that to date only 43 of us have registered for the Conference on Rites for Blessing Same - Gender Relationships on February 21- a week from tomorrow. This means that a large number of us may not be adequately prepared to respond pastorally, either to people's reactions to this summer's General Convention vote on rites proposed by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music in response to Resolution C-056 at the 2009 General Convention, or to same gender couples who may ask us to use the rites for the blessing of their relationships if, as seems likely, Convention adopts them.

Bishop Robinson a Hero in New Hollywood Treatment

Bishop and Mrs. Robinson.

'via Blog this'

Another Eructation from the Bronzed One

Bronzer is is so Snookie.

From Glende's anonymous blog:
What a joke. Jackson is posting the lulu.com coupon because he undoubtedly joined the lulu.com affiliate program.

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GJ - Glende's publishing background is limited to copying and pasting from Craig Groeschel and lying about it. His own member, an attorney, talked to him about it, so Tim excommunicated him. In the Anything Goes District of WELS, that is a demi-semi-excommunication. Nevertheless, Tim had to get even with his own member for telling the truth.


The whole matter of The CORE has been a deception. It is played up as a separate congregation, but it is just an operation to skim members from other WELS congregations, to pretend to be the only "Emergent Church" when it is a copy of several others in the area.


I wonder if The CORE is scarfing up Thrivent funds, too, since the insurance company loves pan-religious and Leftist operations.


I figured there would be another violent torpedo of lies from Glende when I exposed the scam at Parlow's congregation.


Glende's link came as a shock to me. I am busy writing and publishing books, so I do not bother with side ventures. I thought about ads from Google, but I did not want to follow the example of WELS and Missouri in prostituting myself for a few bucks.


So I undoubtedly joined the affiliate program? I was not aware of it, so I did not and would not. Glende has tangled himself in another lie. And he does not have the guts to sign his name to his lies.


People are buying books now, unlike last year, so I provide the banners to let people buy at the best prices for them. One reader worried that she was cutting into my tiny revenue. But Lulu.com provides them, as I wrote before. I discount a lot of books anyway, and also give them away free, the complete copy, as a PDF.


I appreciate Glende's cowardly approach. He and Paul McCain are good for readership.

This Fox Valley location is handy for
picking up feeds from the televangelists,
so the WELS pastors can have sermons to give on Sunday.

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Febreze has left a new comment on your post "Another Eructation from the Bronzed One":

I commented on their recent post with the following (paraphrased):

If Jackson is so wrong then follow Luther's logic:

"I am convinced that nothing more irksome and harmful could possibly be done to Mohammed or the Turks (more than with all weapons) than the publication among Christians of their Koran. By reading it Christians may see what an utterly accursed, shameful, wretched book it is -- full of lies, fables, and all abominations....Therefore my kind and Christian petition to you, my gracious and dear sirs, is: Be pleased to allow this book freely to circulate, without hindrance, for the glory of Christ, for the good of Christians, for the harm of the Turks, and to the disgust of the devil. (W-Br 10, 162)

We'll see if it gets published.

John Maxwell - Calvinist Hot Air Merchant

Mike Geiger, John Calvin Maxwell Disciple

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Leverage Your Income By Joining the Don PattersonC...":

In case you skimmed over the reference, Mike Geiger "has been certified with the world-renowned leadership personality, John (CALVIN) Maxwell, as a speaker, trainer and coach."

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "Leverage Your Income By Joining the Don PattersonC...":

From the John Maxwell Team web site in the top bar:

"It is not only important what you learn but who you learn it from..."

http://johnmaxwellteam.com/

Who is John Maxwell? Read here:

John Calvin Maxwell (born 1947) is an evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor who has written more than 60 books, primarily focusing on leadership.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Maxwell

Combine Calvinism with Lutheranism and what do you get? Calvinism!

John Maxwell

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GJ -

I heard Maxwell speak--live!--at a business meeting. As LI observed, these motivational speakers have a certain number of things to say, and they all repeat the same maxims. They are such golden drops of wisdom as, "Leaders have to lead!" and "Set your goals. If you have no goals, you have no future!"

At the business meeting, people were writing these things down. I was groaning audibly. My friends probably thought I was having revelations direct from the Master Hisself, but I was in pain.

Thrivent's only goal is to make more money, which is perfectly fine. But when churches create an agenda to be as Thrivent-friendly as possible, they are no longer Christian. They are just using their congregations and titles to make more money for themselves.

The Church and Change network is the most obvious skimming operation I have ever seen. They have all their little businesses within their group, which they started with offering funds.

Team Geiger sells their coaching business within WELS, recommended by other Church and Changers.

Cornerstone, a joint WELS-LCMS business, charges enormous amounts of money to "hep you with stewardship." (Hep is Texan for help.) Mostly they hep themselves. Cornerstone is Church and Change. Patterson is Church and Change. If you question Cornerstone's fees and approaches, Patterson extends the Left Foot of Fellowship.

Mark Jeske, the secretive head of Church and Change
will dedicate your new Habitat project,
which Thrivent is funding with your insurance dollars.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "John Maxwell - Calvinist Hot Air Merchant":

I have yet to figure just what the appeal is about motivational speakers. Today at work, one of the mechanical engineers explained to me the principle behind the planetary gear drive system. If any one of these hot air hucksters would have invented something like that, they might actually have some bragging rights.

Leverage Your Income By Joining the Don PattersonChurch and Change Network. Mike Geiger's Experience

Philosoraptor is a popular theme for Internet comments.

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Youth Groups Want To Know":

About Christy Geiger of Synergy Strategies:

Christy Geiger is a business coach and trainer based out of Shakopee MN. After getting her BA in Psychology, masters in Marriage Family Child counseling and working in corporate America in HR, Christy became certified in life coaching and started her own coaching company, Synergy Strategies, in 2002. In training Christy focuses on life balance and design, time management, goal setting and strategic thinking. In all things, Christy seeks to take the best from the “personal growth and development” field, and through collaboration with her husband, Mike (pastor at WELS church, Good Shepherd Lutheran in Burnsville, MN) take the relevant skills, process and principles and apply them in a way that God-pleasing, consistent with Christian principles and biblical teaching. As a ministry, Christy hopes to share these relevant life principles to support pastors, church leaders and Christians to have more effective and contagious faith lives. Christy enjoys time with her family: Mike and their two daughters (Mikylie, age 5 and Mikenna, age 2) and doing activities like scrapbooking, gardening, volleyball, and coffee with friends. Christy will present a workshop focusing on how the Treasure supports us in our daily lives.

Info obtained from the "Got Peace" Women's Retreat 2010 Loves Park, IL. Her husband, Mike, is on the WELS Institute for Worship & Outreach.

http://www.peaceevangelical.org/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=180021884&sec_id=180003491

http://worshipandoutreach.org/person/rev-michael-geiger

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From the latest Martin Luther College (WELS) Day of Enthusiasm:

Pastor Mike Geiger currently serves as the pastor of Outreach, Adult Discipleship and Worship at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Burnsville, MN.  Prior to coming to Minnesota, he had the opportunity to begin a congregation in Cary, North Carolina.  Moving a group through the startup and development stages allowed for many leadership challenges and opportunities.  Outreach and leadership has always been at the center of his ministry both locally and synodically.  He served for 10 years as the North Atlantic District Coordinator for Church Growth and currently is a member of the WELS Commission on Evangelism.  With a love for leadership and helping others grow in this area, he has been certified with the world-renowned leadership personality, John Maxwell, as a speaker, trainer and coach.  His dedicated wife Christy is not only active in various ministries, but owns her own business coaching company, Synergy Strategies.  Together with their two girls, Mikylie and Mikenna, they love being part of growing God’s people and God’s kingdom.


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Mike has left a new comment on your post "Waves of Nausea Swept Over Me - Church and Change":

I debated whether this blog was worthy of a response, but for one who speaks so freely and with seeming "authority", you seem free to sin against those of whom you write by publishing comments that are neither accurate or substantiated. I can only speak for myself, but what happened to Matthew 18 and approaching the person before making an issue public? Before you post my pictures and assumptions about me, my vicar year, and my wife that are inaccurate at best, I would have appreciated you calling me. I invite you to do so and ask that you do the same for all the people you mention in your blog. For one who seemingly wants to promote the truth of the Word, this practice is anything but godly.(919) 465-4400 - if you wish. Mike Geiger.

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GJ - Typical WELS Church Growth - a string of vague and unsubstantiated accusations plus a command to phone. But did Mike Geiger phone me? 

At this point it is fair to assume that any speaker for Church and Chicanery is firmly in their doctrinal grip.

Mike, you should read your Book of Concord. As Luther explained in the Large Catechism, public error does not require private admonition. Church and Change has been promoting its doctrinal errors in public for some time now.

Anyone in Lutherdom is free to criticize the substance of Ichabod. I noticed that the Church and Chance list-serve was quite verbose about me when Joe Krohn asked, "Are we really inviting a Baptist, Ed Stetzer, to speak at our next conference?" Apparently Krohn did not believe Stetzer's twitter, Stetzer's blog, or Stetzer's published schedule. So Church and Change answered Joe by attacking me, not addressing a pertinent question from one of their most devoted disciples. A few more exchanges like that and Joe may drop his bass guitar in favor of a Triglotta. Think of the loss, Mike! [January, 2009 - and it came true]

I think the odious Don Patterson Network has decided to fight back.


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2012 Update. 

What Have We Learned Today? 

Don Patterson, at Holy Word (WELS) in Austin, Texas, gets free vicars every year, although the parish can also afford to send him to Africa to hunt the dreaded kudu deer. That is why his email name is kududon! How about lionking? or lyin_king? Geiger is one of those free vicars. All them end up Church and Change, perhaps because they started Church and Change.

Don loves, loves, loves Time of Grace, which LCMS pastors call Time of Wrath.

Don is not a Church and Change leader, according to Don, but the same names linked to him (including his own) keep popping up. Geiger went to the "last" Church and Change confab, although that was another smokescreen.

Every year, Martin Luther College's Evangelism Day has been a Church and Change convention. The only differences in 2012 were: 1) They hid the agenda, though not carefully enough. 2) Paul Calvin Kelm was not the keynote speaker.

Church and Change started in Appleton, which is Thrivent-City. The insurance business is dedicated to sales, not Lutheran doctrine. Some of the founders of Church and Change are: 1. John Parlow.
2. Jeff Johnson.
3. Steve Witte.


Note that Parlow got the Thrivent grant, so he hired Jeff Johnson (from his own parish) and Mike Geiger, Inc to use up more Thrivent grant money. Witte is busy running the Asian porta-seminary.

Mark Freier, covered in the post below, was one of the Shrinkers promoted by WELS, turning a supposed Lutheran mission (CrossRoads, S. Lyons) into a Evangelical Covenant congregation. The non-Lutheran pastor of the non-Lutheran congregation used to thank three (3) WELS pastors for the gift, but that thank-you was erased from their history.

In keeping with all lying Shrinkers, CrossRoads claims to be non-denominational but identifies with the Evangelical Covenant Church on its own page. The only non-denominational claims I believe are from WELS and LCMS Shrinker locations. They truly have no confession of faith, no affiliation except to Mammon.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Leverage Your Income By Joining the Don PattersonC...":

When I hear the title coach, I think of a sports team. Perhaps this concept is easy for some to identify with as so many in this country are rabid about spectator sports. I am curious. What professional organization certifies life coaches? I understand that in some professions, certification is a feather in the hat as there can be a lack of consistency between degreed programs. But, one does not get a BA in Life Coaching. It seems like this whole coaching nonsense started in the corporate world and has crept into the trendy churches.

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GJ - Note my latest post, showing that people still refuse to believe how bad things are in WELS and Missouri, even though they can find out for themselves in five minutes of Google searching. I even did that for them on Facebook, and no one responded.

The life-coaches make people spend a lot of money to be certified as life-coaches under them. TV did an expose of them, so naturally the Church and Change guys adopted the scam. Kudu Don Patterson is a life coach. Kudu Don's African safari buddy is behind Grace in Action, too.

For only $1300, Don will coach you for a year.

One of the Moldstads is behind "Grace in Action," and it seems to have plenty of support from the Minnesota WELS. The usual Church and Change nogoodniks are at Grace in Action: Time of Grace, Jeff Gunn, CrossWalk, Elton Stroh.

Mike Geiger and his wife, veterans of Kudu Don Patterson's church, are life coaches selling their services, via Thrivent, to Parlow's Church Growth hive in Fox Valley.

PS
Good news - fans of the English language. I looked up the list of leaders of WELS, and they are no longer "nenbers" as they were for many months.

Someone is reading Ichabod and saying, "Fix those bloopers."

ELCA still has one of their fired executives being raised on an Iowa diary farm, and he has been gone from the Chicago executive job for months.