Narrow-Minded Asks Impertinent Questions

Keith Free to the bean-counters:
"This is no good - it looks like a church, not like a bar."

narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church Milford, Iow...":

Translation: "Since we are not offering praise band/light show services with foo-foo coffee and popcorn in a converted bar a few blocks from an established parish, WELS has decided to spend its money on more appropriate venues."

According to the WELS Church Locator, the nearest parishes are over forty miles from Milford. One has to wonder how many elderly people will be unable to travel this distance to receive Word and Sacrament in foul weather, which is probably close to one-third of the year there. How much has WELS blown on corporate offices?

Hideous! No room for a latte machine!

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Joel has left a new comment on your post "Narrow-Minded Asks Impertinent Questions":

The congregation was given assistance for 13 years. That is a long time for a mission congregation to be given help from the home mission board. From the pictures, it looks like it is a beautiful building and I'm sure it's going to be a hardship for the members. Sometimes, though, there have to be hard decisions like this. It's unfortunate but true. My prayers are with the pastor and members at Milford.

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GJ - Some might question the $500,000 plus spent on a stinky, empty bar for The CORE, especially since the people involved knew about all the un-pastoral activities there.

Speaking of financial stewardship - since when does a congregation (St. Peter, Freedom) with a huge budget ($1.4 million per year) need a bail-out to buy a bar, not to mention a loan to fix it up?

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church Milford, Iow...":

It is 58 miles to Fairmont, which the WELS Locator says is the nearest WELS church to Milford, Iowa:

http://goo.gl/maps/cvSQl

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Wow! The BHM only fully funded the pastor at Milford, Iowa, for one year! Before that he was a tent minister, evidently meaning he had a day job. So the BHM gave the pastor only got one year to put some more people in the pews, and when that didn't happen, they yanked the funding and the congregation decided to close:

http://www.wels.net/missions/what039s-new-archive-united-states-home-missions-news

• Shepherd of the Lakes, Fairmont, Minn. Funding will help the congregation fully support Rev. Timothy Wahl, who had been serving as a tent minister since 2010 at a mission start in Milford, Iowa.

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GJ - Yes, a bar would have been missional, cutting edge, and froth with extra benefits, since they kept the wine and beer license. I never had a church building with a liquor license, but I was not born WELS - thank heavens.

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Adolph Hoenecke has left a new comment on your post "Narrow-Minded Asks Impertinent Questions":

Don't forget that a bar is also "real and relevant".....

WELS/LCMS Partner in Ministry - 2013 ELCA Churchwide Assembly meets Aug. 12-17 in Pittsburgh - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

They violated their own rules to make Erwin a pastor,
then voted him in as a bishop to make a statement.

2013 ELCA Churchwide Assembly meets Aug. 12-17 in Pittsburgh - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

News Releases

ELCA NEWS SERVICE July 22, 2013 2013 ELCA Churchwide Assembly meets Aug. 12-17 in Pittsburgh 13-52-CHB/MRC      CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will gather Aug. 12-17, 2013, in assembly at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. The 4-million-member ELCA is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year under the theme “Always being made new,” which serves as the theme for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly -- the highest legislative authority of this church.      Underscoring the ELCA’s commitment “to care for creation” all assembly materials will be available electronically to the 952 voting members. Nearly all voting members will be using iPads equipped with an ELCA Guidebook application that contains materials to conduct business, saving an estimated 500,000 pages of paper. ELCA members and others not attending the assembly can access live video of plenary sessions athttp://www.ELCA.org/assembly. An assembly schedule, the Pre-Assembly Report and other resources are also available at this site.      Two key action items at the assembly include the elections for an ELCA presiding bishop and ELCA secretary. Prior to the election, members are asked to consider the document “A Conversation Regarding the Election of Churchwide Officers” which encourages conversation and discernment relating to the election of the two six-year term positions.      Voting members will also consider: + “The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries” -- a proposed social statement on criminal justice with supporting implementing resolutions. Social statements are teaching documents that assist members in their discernment about social issues, set policy for this church and guide its advocacy and work in the public arena. + A proposal for the ELCA’s first major fundraising campaign. If approved the five-year campaign, to begin in 2014, is designed to increase this church’s capacity to renew and start new congregations, educate and develop its leaders, bolster its global mission efforts and expand the impact of its relief and development work. + Proposals (known as memorials) from the ELCA’s 65 synods include topics such as gender identity discrimination, the Uniting American Families Act, community violence, ministering to same-gender couples and their families, immigration reform, hydraulic fracturing, and the Middle East. + Budget proposals for 2014 to 2016 +The Book of Faith initiative as a continuing emphasis and priority in this church. The assembly will also consider other action items.      During plenary sessions, voting members will receive: + A new ELCA message on mental illness. The ELCA Church Council adopted “The Body of Christ and Mental Illness” in November 2012. + A report and recommendations of the ELCA Addressing Social Concerns Review Task Force commissioned by the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to review ways in which ELCA members address social concerns. + A report on the implementation of the ELCA social statement “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust” adopted by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. + Greetings from Christian, Jewish, Sikh leaders and others.      The 2013 assembly will also receive an update on the ELCA Malaria Campaign; learn more about the observance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation; participate in a series of hearings about mission planning, healthcare reform, world hunger, women and justice and more.      Along with voting members, hundreds more people will participate in the assembly as ELCA congregational observers, special ecumenical guests and global leaders, presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries and 26 college and universities, advisory and resource members, staff and others. The ELCA's 65 synods elect voting members to serve at churchwide assemblies.      The ELCA’s newsroom will be located at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Room 328. A news conference will be held Aug. 14 at 6:30pm ET in Room 329 and will be available through live video streaming. Reporters are welcome to participate in person or through teleconference. To register as press and for other news and media information, contact Melissa Ramirez Cooper at Melissa.RamirezCooper@ELCA.org or Candice Hill Buchbinder atCandice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org.

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Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church Milford, Iowa » WELS. To Close Its Doors.

Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church Milford, Iowa » Important Update:

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Shepherd of the Lakes has long existed on the prayers and generosity of our brothers and sisters from other congregations across the district, but two years ago, the congregation decided that it was time to put ourselves in God's hands and grab the opportunity to truly test this mission field with a full-time pastor. We knew at that time that we were, in a sense, taking a chance, but we wanted to seize the opportunity while it was available so that we could confidently say that we'd tried. Shepherd of the Lakes has also received a great amount of assistance in our ministry from WELS from the synod itself. The past two years the synod's Board for Home Missions has given some assistance to our congregation, but this year the BHM decided not to grant any funding to Milford. After thoroughly exploring our financial situation and the options before us, the congregation has decided to close its doors. In light of that decision, the congregation is moving forward with efforts to sell the building and they have made me eligible for a call to serve as pastor elsewhere. We have not set a date for a final service, but are tentatively looking at the weekend of September 29th. The congregation is so thankful for God's blessings over the last 13 years, especially the prayers, offerings, and encouragement from our brothers and sisters in the Minnesota District, but in light of the lack of growth, the congregation prays that the remaining resources of the congregation might better serve to support another ministry.

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Wikipedia on Milford -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford,_Iowa

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church Milford, Iow...":

It is 58 miles to Fairmont, which the WELS Locator says is the nearest WELS church to Milford, Iowa:

http://goo.gl/maps/cvSQl
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Wow! The BHM only fully funded the pastor at Milford, Iowa, for one year! Before that he was a tent minister, evidently meaning he had a day job. So the BHM gave the pastor only got one year to put some more people in the pews, and when that didn't happen, they yanked the funding and the congregation decided to close:

http://www.wels.net/missions/what039s-new-archive-united-states-home-missions-news

• Shepherd of the Lakes, Fairmont, Minn. Funding will help the congregation fully support Rev. Timothy Wahl, who had been serving as a tent minister since 2010 at a mission start in Milford, Iowa.

It's a Prince - Predicted by Mrs. Ichabod

Mrs. Ichabod predicted today that Princess Kate would have a boy.

Cardinals Fans - Catholic Church Fighting Proposed Sex Abuse Bill In California

These cardinals would pay up, no?

Catholic Church Fighting Proposed Sex Abuse Bill In California:

LOS ANGELES -- Tony Quarry suppressed his memories of being abused by a Roman Catholic priest for nearly 30 years and decided to sue only after finding out that his five brothers were molested by the same man – just to discover that it was too late.

The state's high court ultimately tossed out the brothers' lawsuit because they missed a special legal window that allowed victims to sue over abuse claims decades after the fact. Their plight, however, has inspired new sex abuse legislation in California a decade after a similar bill cost the church hundreds of millions in civil settlements.

"I still believed in the tooth fairy when these things happened to me," Quarry, 51, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. "It's a good thing for these other people to have the opportunity to step forward."

Like the previous law, Senate Bill 131 would permit many victims who would otherwise be unable to file a civil suit due to time and age restrictions – like the Quarry brothers – to sue their abuser's employer in civil court.

The proposed law would lift the statute of limitations for one year for the group of alleged victims who were 26 and older and missed the previous deadline.

The Catholic Church did not fight the 2002 bill that opened the flood gates for hundreds of victims and led to $1.2 billion in settlements from dioceses statewide, including $660 million in Los Angeles alone. This time, however, the church is fighting hard against the proposed legislation – from the pews to lobbyists.

The 2002 law led to settlements that also forced the Los Angeles archdiocese to make public earlier this year thousands of pages of confidential files kept on priests accused or suspected of abuse.

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Kate, Duchess of Cambridge at London hospital in early stages of labor with royal baby - CBS News

Soon.

Kate, Duchess of Cambridge at London hospital in early stages of labor with royal baby - CBS News:

The Duchess of Cambridge is in the early stages of labor in a London hospital, Kensington Palace says.

Prince William was with his wife, the former Kate Middleton, when she was brought, by car, to St. Mary's Hospital, the palace says.

Kate is expected to give birth in the private Lindo Wing of the hospital, where Princess Diana gave birth to William and his younger brother, Prince Harry.

The baby will be third in line for the British throne, behind Prince Charles and William, and is anticipated eventually to become king or queen.

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