Steve Spencer Offers Great Advice - Kelmed from Ichabod

Circuit Pastor Paul Rydecki
and Pastor Steven Spencer -
at the first and final Intrepid Lutherans Conference.

 tlcsvaz@orthodoxlutheran.info said...

Anonymous, et al - We cannot blame the DPs entirely. (And, b-t-w, District Conventions are also little more than gab-fests, and vacation time for old school chums from NWC, DMLC, and their descendants.) The "marching orders," whether actual or perceived, are to preserve, protect, and grow the church body - and this in turn is seen as following God's will in the Great Commission. 

The reasoning, again whether spoken or not, is, that since the WELS is the last bastion of Biblical truth and the pure Gospel, it is absolutely necessary and essential that it not only survive, but thrive. Otherwise, how is the Message going to get out? It is our duty to make the world WELS, if at all possible, or die trying. Remembering that all analogies limp, it is almost like America"making the world safe for democracy," or bringing "barbarians into the Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere," or doing people the "favor" of letting them be part of the Third Reich, or uniting the "workers of the world." And the thing is, the laypeople get caught up in all this, and seem to want it as well, so the DPs are only doing what the folks desire. Even a very fine and confessional synod president comes to see the "need" for WELS to continue to exist, and so without maybe realizing it keeps feeding this "beast." 

I once said on the floor of our district convention, only partly tongue in cheek, that "there is a monster in Milwaukee," and we must stop feeding it. The current SP was standing right behind me when I said it. If the laypeople and the rank in file pastors want to correct the system, there is one sure-fire way to do so, even beyond recalling DPs and other leaders, and that is to stop sending in their offerings. Cut off the blood supply to the hydra and even it will eventually stop growing heads and die. Of course, this too takes courage and faith and trust in the LORD. So, Matthias, and anonymous and everyone else reading this, the fault lies not just in the DPs, but in ourselves!

Spencer is kelming my Photoshops - hydra!

***

GJ - The synods get a ton of money from Thrivent, endowments, and foundations, but the mission offerings (salaries for bums) are the core of the system.

I once had a "free" meal paid by the bishop's assistant with his synod credit card. I looked around and calculated all the money sent in for a year so he could use our money to give us a meal at no cost. That is how synods work.

Thrivent does the same - giving back a nickel for thousands of dollars worth of solid leads. "Oh yes, we send checks to your congregation all the time."

PS - If you want to read Spencer's best advice, read Ichabod first.