St. Peter in Freedom, WELS - Distributing Pink Sheets on Their Fabulous Progress. I Intercepted One

Many are reading this factual post about St. Peter staffers - led by Time Glende - suing the sexual harassment victim's husband.

ELCA Budget To Decrease Three Years in a Row.ELCA Membership and Congregational Losses for 2012 - Exposing the ELCA

ELCA Membership and Congregational Losses for 2012 - Exposing the ELCA:

ELCA Membership and Congregational Losses for 2012

08/20/2013

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The numbers are in and they are not good for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Yet they do show that a faithful remnant have placed God's Word over their affinity for the ELCA. 

The 2012 numbers show that there are now 9,533 ELCA congregations. (this includes “155 congregations under development”) In 2011, the ELCA had 9,638 congregations.  That means there has been a loss of 105 ELCA congregations (happening for a variety of reasons) in one year.

The total number of baptized members in the ELCA as of 2012 is 3,950,924. This is significant in that the ELCA is no longer a denomination of 4 million members. 

In 2011, the membership total was 4,059,785. That equals a loss of 108,861 members or -2.68% in one year. 

Only 2,515,205 ELCA members are classified as “Active Participants.”

The total ELCA church attendance at worship each week for 2012 is 1,092,279, compared to 2011 which was 1,123,071. That is a year's loss of 30,792.

Analyzing this further, when we look at the years 2009 (the year of the ELCA's homosexuality decisions) through 2012, the ELCA has lost 682,963 members (14.7%) and 863 congregations.

Consider also that when the ELCA was formed in 1987 they had: 5,288,048 members and 11,133 congregations.

The figures show that the ELCA is a dying denomination. Here are some more figures:

“The statistics below are through the end of 2012 and reflect disaffiliations since the Churchwide Assembly in 2009. 

• 947 congregations have taken a total of 1026 first votes to disaffiliate 

• 713 first votes passed 

• 313 first votes failed (33 percent) 

• 689 second votes have been taken 

• 654 second votes passed 

• 35 second votes failed (5 percent) 

• 643 congregations have been officially removed from the roster of congregations in the ELCA” 

“The settings of disaffiliating congregations also vary widely. More than 67 percent are in rural settings or communities of less than 10,000. At the same time, the ELCA has lost 21 percent of its congregations worshipping 800 or more.”

Sources for the information and quotes in this blog originate from 

http://www.elca.org/~/media/Files/CWA13/02c_Report_of_the_Secretary_20130806e.pdf

and 

http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Resources/Stats.aspx

It should also be noted that the ELCA budget continues to reflect the exodus of Bible-believing Christians from the denomination: 

“Voting members of the 2013 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)...

Approved the ELCA churchwide organization budget for fiscal years 2014-2016. The budget includes current fund spending of $70,541,740 for 2014, $68,552,280 for 2015, and $67,920,675 for 2016.” (see here) 

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Confessional Lutheran Memes on Facebook Land another Knockout BlowAgainst Emergent WELS-LCMS Churcheshttps://www.facebook.com/ConfessionalLutheranMemes

https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionalLutheranMemes

Happy birthday to the Formula of Concord! Signed today in 1577.

These graphics seemed to be fashioned by younger Lutherans, proving that original thought can survive years of parochial Lutheran education.

Classic Ichabod - The Lactating Mary Is Featured by CPH's Paul McCain - Again!

Someone generously volunteered to add
Paul McCain to the original painting
of Mary breast-feeding Bernard from a safe distance.

Mary breast-feeding Bernard is back on Paul McCain's blog. Once again, he has a cropped and Photoshopped version, so the Romanizing, sinuflecting Lutherans know what he is doing but the rest do not. One difference is a little more honesty about getting most of the information from the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia. However, he did not link the article, which is a typical convenience for discerning readers who want to compare.

I have brought this up to Bruce Kintz, the bookkeeper/publisher of Concordia Publishing House, who was hired to replace McCain after the botched editing job on the Book of Concord. Kintz has unfriended me twice for bringing up the plagiarism he overlooks and their gigantic salaries.

Now that so many are reading about WELS pastors Tim Glende and Ski suing the husband of their sexual harassment victim, it is useful to recall that McCain posted on Glende's fake blog, using his own name. Dishonest UOJ bullies stick together, like rotting carrion.

Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: McCain Denounces Luther's Doctrine on Steadfast.Look at What He Promotes on His Plagiarism Blog:

Thursday, August 23, 2012

McCain Denounces Luther's Doctrine on Steadfast.
Look at What He Promotes on His Plagiarism Blog

Paul McCain used this painting for his plagiarized article on St. Bernard.
He isolated Bernard and erased the breastmilk, or used a sanitized graphic.

http://cyberbrethren.com/2012/08/19/commemoration-of-bernard-of-clairvoux-hymnwriter-and-theologian/#more-7920

Most of the article comes from here:

http://www.nndb.com/people/681/000094399/

The URL is hidden, giving the false impression of McCain writing another detailed post.

McCain, the editor, did omit the information about when Bernard was canonized as a saint. Perhaps that was too obviously from another source.

Notice the bad cropping from McCain's graphic.
The stream of breastmilk is only partially removed.
The background was darkened to mask the alterations.
I copied this graphic from Cyberbrethren as is -
no changes were made by me.

I did a reverse-Photoshop on McCain's graphic, to see what he attempted.
I can see that he (or someone else) darkened it quite a bit. I changed that.
The breast milk was somewhat erased, but not very well, just by darkening the photo.
The crop did not cut out the red of the altar, so I would call the McCain graphic
a sloppy, amateurish edit - like that Book of Concord that he botched, the one they had to recall.

I am trying to figure out why Paul McCain presents himself as the guardian of Lutheran orthodoxy while constantly faking his blog posts and promoting Roman Catholic falsehoods.

I cannot imagine anything more ridiculous and mawkish as the Virgin Mary breast-feeding a theologian, even from a distance. Below, Bernard gets his eye treatment, which cured his eye problem.

Here is more about Bernard and the Lactation of Mary.

Maybe CPH will publish The Glories of Mary.

McCain could figure out in advance how the real painting would look, so he used a doctored version. This gives the impression of a coded message - My circle knows what I am really doing.

Romanism is a major drive at both seminaries, Ft. Wayne and St. Louis. Marian devotion is a way of turning people from Christ and drawing them into other Roman falsehoods.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "McCain Denounces Luther's Doctrine on Steadfast.Lo...":

Ichabod -

Now, I can understand why McCain can have time to continually post comments on Steadfast Lutherans. Apparently, when copy and paste from the computer is available to him; his time is freed up. But, how in the world does he have all that time to comment while "earning" that six figure CPH salary? Perhaps, he has the leisure of sucking on his small finger while mini me McCains do all this work?

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LCMS Pastor Richard Futrell, who also favors infant communion:

Wow, I was shown this gem from the Lutheran Magdeburg Book of 1613. The Responsory below is for the second day of Christmas from Matins after the reading from Isaiah 40:9.

My how Lutheranism changed (and not for the better!).

Beata Dei genitrix Maria, cuijus viscera intacta permanent. Hodie genuit Salvatorem seculi.
Beata et venerabilis virgo, quae sine tactu pudoris inventa es mater Salvatoris. Hodie genuit Salvatorem seculi.

Blessed Mother of God, whose virginity remains unsullied, today has given birth to the Savior of the world.
Blessed and venerable Virgin, who without damage to her virginity, became the Mother of the Savior, today has given birth to the Savior of the world.

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There is a new comment on the post "I Did Not Know That".
http://www.geneveith.com/2012/08/24/i-did-not-know-that/

Author: Paul T. McCain
Comment:
I learned a year or so ago that Highway Exit numbers were also mile numbers on the highway. So, if you know you have to get off at Exit 29 and you are at exit 19, you have ten miles to go.

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