"Not that Word and Sacrament are ineffective in incorporating new souls into our fellowship. Not at all! But according to some serious Church Growth studies, as many as one-third of the people gained for protestant church membership today do not feel they really belong."
David N. Rutschow, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Winter, 1985, p. 3. WELS DP for Southwest Wisconsin, perhaps the most loosey-goosey district of all, maybe even worse than Englebrecht's Anything Goes District.WELS has just told Star of Bethlehem in Savoy, Illinois to drop dead. The mission board will seize the title to the property, sell it for cash, and pocket the profits.
DP Rutschow started the congregation in the 1970s. Tim Glende turned it into a debt-ridden, tiny congregation. There were several options to build up the congregation, which was paying on the loan which Glende encumbered for them. The WELS Mission Board refused to consider anything except liquidation of the congregation and siphoning the cash from selling the land. They already had their appraiser line up the numbers, the slaver dripping from their lupine jaws.
WELS does not care about the members, except for its fear they will join the LCMS - gasp! Remember that when WELS beats the drums for its "missions," which are really a corrupt system to reward and punish while grabbing the equity built up by faithful worshipers over the decades.
WELS had over $500,000 cash to buy a bankrupt bar in Appleton, so Glende's corpulent buddy with self-control problems could have his own pretend parish. And WELS loaned St. Peter in Freedom a hefty sum to spruce up the stinky bar and fumigate its gepuked restrooms.
Ski came from St. Marcus in Milwaukee, serving on Jeske's Church and Change board, fresh from his court appearance - where he had to pay for an appearance bond. Ski and Glende portrayed The CORE as a separate mission congregation - it was not. They also promoted it as "coffee house ministry" when it was really a bar ministry, as the local alcoholics soon found out.
Got this in e-mail today:
Sirs, we understand your church services the University of Illinois campus. How far are you from campus and what numbers of students do you estimate attend weekly service? Do you have a thriving campus ministry? We are LCMS members but our son attends a WELS HS, St. Croix Lutheran in Minnesota. We are researching schools.
Thank you,
WT
Not a week goes by that I don't get at least 1 e-mail related to U of I or one of the other schools we serve (Millikin University in Decatur, and Eastern Illinois in Charleston), but this week, I honestly am not even motivated to answer it after a week of dismal answers and lack of concern from the Western WI mission board, DP, and even President Schroeder. Their answer is "go to another WELS church." Well, there isn't one within a distance that allows regular attendance.
So, back to the e-mail... should I answer honestly? The truth is that the WELS congregation that serves all these schools will probably be closed by the start of the next school year.
Sirs, we understand your church services the University of Illinois campus. How far are you from campus and what numbers of students do you estimate attend weekly service? Do you have a thriving campus ministry? We are LCMS members but our son attends a WELS HS, St. Croix Lutheran in Minnesota. We are researching schools.
Thank you,
WT
Not a week goes by that I don't get at least 1 e-mail related to U of I or one of the other schools we serve (Millikin University in Decatur, and Eastern Illinois in Charleston), but this week, I honestly am not even motivated to answer it after a week of dismal answers and lack of concern from the Western WI mission board, DP, and even President Schroeder. Their answer is "go to another WELS church." Well, there isn't one within a distance that allows regular attendance.
So, back to the e-mail... should I answer honestly? The truth is that the WELS congregation that serves all these schools will probably be closed by the start of the next school year.
