Fake, Timid Blogger Comes Out for UOJ, Cuts Off Responses. Color Me Surprised

UOJ at work.

New comments have been disabled for this post by a blog administrator.

Or - about justification by faith.
No wonder Paul Kuske won't commune with WELS anymore.

---

Hello sir!

I was leaving a comment on the UOJ thread that was going on when he decided to shut the comments down.  I cannot understand why one would create and build the oven, put it in the kitchen, turn it on, and then complain because the heat coming off of it is too much to take.  I admit my eyebrows were raised several times during this "open discussion".  I was heartened at first that it was taking place but then it just turned nasty.  Anyway, I thought I would share what I was submitting right as the comments closed:

I find it relatively interesting that after going back to the top of the comment list and back down to here that the only actual Scripture I've seen quoted has come from Mr. Meyer and Pr. Rydecki.  One of the only things actually quoted in rebuttal has been the lyrics to a "Weird Al" Yankovic song.  That is rather telling.

I know I am appreciative of the discussion that was going on.  I am heartened to know that there are those Christians who definitely care about where their church body is going in relation to doctrine.

I know I corrected my words and apologized for the confusion they may have caused.  I obviously wasn't clear and it led into an entire limited atonement tangent that was unintentional.  I didn't know that would be the lone nugget taken out of the main point about Law and Gospel that I was trying to make.

As one who has read Mr. Meyer's posts on several blogs and sites over the years, I have never suspected a hint of Calvinism.  But once again, I think it becomes easier to pigeonhole someone when you label them.  "You're a Calvinist!  Now I know what you are and now I'll have that tack to take because Lutherans know that Calvinists are wrong, so you're wrong!  I don't have to read any further!"

I guess another concern is that if one is prepared to leave the synod and have even typed up a draft to do so, but reneges on it just because of comments on a blog topic they started fully knowing about the hornet nest they were knocking over, I would wonder if you're going whichever way the wind blows at the moment.  I don't know how much confidence I'd have in a pastor that would be that wishy-washy in their doctrinal stance and ministry. 

I don't mean to be confrontational by saying that either.  I agree that the time of day and the lack of sleep can lead to irresponsible posts.  However, I would be taking a good long prayerful look at what you are doing and what exactly you believe.  Go forward from then, but only if you are secure in your position and can defend it with Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. 

I think I find it disheartening that if this bait and switch is the blogger's motivation.  But going back, it makes sense.  Start off with topics that everyone can get behind and cannot truly defend such as GA or hazing or the CORE and then pull a bait and switch like that.  I've read and watched the debate go back and forth on Ichabod and Intrepid and the like for a while now.  At the very least you, Brett Meyer, and Pr. Rydecki can back up statements with actual Scripture and quotations from the Book of Concord.  That seems to be sorely lacking from the other side, where anonymous name-calling seems to be the order of the day.

Hope you and yours are well and again thank you for your efforts!

In the risen Christ,

Ben Wink

***

GJ - I agree with all you write, Ben. Vernon K. wrote many fine posts too. 

To fake an open discussion about justification and become another Buchholz, axe in hand, carpenters building the gallows, is just too GA for me - the old fake a persona bit from their secret homoerotic ritual.

I had an experience with a Mequonite once. He wanted to interview me in New Ulm. He showed up with a tape recorder - something he never mentioned, for some reason. I did not care because I tell the same story. When he got to his question about Valleskey and Bivens going to Fuller, which they both denied and affirmed, he got very hostile and the mask came out, the slaver dripping on the kitchen table. He came smiling but left looking full of Pietistic wrath.

I have stories from others about the same kind of behavior.

Laymen Make the Message Clear

 Gregory Jackson said...

Flack (slang for public relations) has been playing the GA game all along. He is a UOJ fanatic who played "undecided" or "questioning" so he could pivot at the end. This is just another puerile WELS game. Vernon and Brett have been patient with GA crowd, which includes the anonymous Joel Lillo.

July 24, 2014 at 8:17 AM

 

 Vernon Knepprath said...

Matthias,

You are a pastor. What is your job? Am I too simple minded, or is your job to use the Means of Grace to bring people to faith. Not child care, not contemporary worship, not Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University or self help seminars, but the Means of Grace. Does the work of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit matter or doesn't it? Should we get rid of the third article of the Apostles Creed? Should we reduce the three solas to the two solas by eliminating "Faith Alone"? Do we have a Triune God with one of the person's of the Trinity missing in action? Do we ignore the work of the Holy Spirit because someone might have a crisis of faith? Do we then throw the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, out the window? It seems to me that this is exactly what I see happening in so many churches, and now in the WELS. Fewer and fewer churches using the Sacraments, or ashamed to use the Sacraments because it will scare off visitors, thereby turning their back on the Means of Grace. I've heard this rejection of the Sacraments said first hand by pastors and church leaders. The Word is being twisted and distorted and neglected. You've seen it yourself, and raised the concern in your other posts. Does the gift of the Holy Spirit matter or doesn't it?

July 24, 2014 at 8:17 AM

How We Deal with Inevitable Rot

The article about downtown Milwaukee sinking is a fascinating read for anyone who has lived in the area. To create large structures, wooden pilings were driven into the marshland, to provide a base. Borers are eating away at the wood, so buildings are tilting and sinking. "Change and decay in all around I see...."

Charles Darwin was fascinated with the earthworm's ability to bury structures by creating soil, but he never grasped the divinely ordered purpose of the earthworm in improving soil. Four decades of study left him clueless about the design of the creature. If earthworms were not so common, we would have lecture series on them.

Rot is inevitable, so the real issue is how we deal with it. The Chinese recognized that they needed to return plant waste to the garden. This became Sir Albert Howard's contribution to agriculture in India, where the climate used up the soil rapidly. How can they grow tea without good soil?

I think of yard waste in terms of using it again. The bushes have their trimmings used for mulch or in the compost. The crepe myrtle will yield a lot of leafy scrap with relatively soft branches. That will be good for air pockets in the compost and new ingredients before the autumn leaves are added.

Agent Orange devastates tender plants.

The backyard gardens need plenty of shade to turn the grass into compost for planting in the spring. I tried to compromise in the corn patch and get some vegetables growing late, but Agent Orange feasted on the seedlings instead. I can use leaves and mulch to cover where I will plant in the spring. Downed branches from the latest storm will hold the leaves in place.

Some people plant green manure. They start beans or another nitrogen fixing plant. Before winter, they get out their 12 horsepower rototillers and osterize their soil. Instead, they should just let the frost kill the plants,allowing the roots to rot into the soil with their nodules of fixed nitrogen. The soil creatures are designed for this, not for being eviscerated and tossed around like grain in a threshing machine.

Here are some deep roots for rotting into the soil -

• Dandelions - fleshy roots rot into channels for rain and transport.
• Sunflowers - their stalks also serve as perches for birds during their hunt for food in the snow.
• Corn - this heavy feeder has extensive roots, so they can give back a lot of the soil ingredients they tied up while creating sweet corn.

Big leafy plants are going to have a good root system, which we loathe when weeding. If the weed is not obnoxious, let it rot into the soil by cutting the plant just above the surface.

White Goosefoot, called Lambs Quarters and Wild Spinach.
This robust weed is really a nutritious plant, loaded with vitamins and calcium.

I had plenty of Goosefoot growing in Midland, and I ate it whenever I was gardening. If I went around spraying everything with pesticide and herbicide, the plant would be less enticing. A patch of Wild Spinach is good for eating and for composting. In the back of the yard, it can serve as a screen and a place where ground-nesting birds can feel safe. I recall killdeer nesting in my weedy-herbal patch in Midland. The mother was offended that I lived nearby.

A pile of branches can harbor the wrong animal and even be a fire hazard, but in the short run, branches on the ground are a bird haven. They love to have some elevation when searching for food in the grass. They also perch there after bathing on or under the bird spa along the fence. Branches give up insect larvae and harbor insects, so a bunch of branches can be a good source of bird food as well.

I took tossed out Christmas trees and put them in the backyard for bird shelters in the Midland winter. The dry skeletons became part of the compost in the spring. Once I bought garbage bags of leftover popcorn after a public event. Soon after, we had a record snow. I went out daily and tossed handfuls of popcorn in the snow. Soon I had resident birds cooing the moment I walked toward the garage, where their food was stored.

Likewise, a large tree overlooked the Midland yard, which served as the choir loft for birds observing me dig in the garden. I definitely felt watched. When I overturned the soil with my shovel, the prelude began. Happy hunting followed when I went inside.

Preying Mantis.

My favorite pesticide was Little Ichabod. He took to blocks of wood and got rid of asparagus beetles for me. He came inside with green fingers from crushed beetles. Then we went modern and got some preying mantis eggs.

WELS Playing Little Boy Games

One WELS pastor started another anonymous blog, Polluted WELS, where he can dither and dodge anonymousely. After begging people not to use name-calling, like "Calvinist," he engaged in it himself. That is easy for a nameless person with a partial, defective education.

The WELS pastors are so afraid of using their own names that they claim I am hosting the blog and attacking myself for credibility. One of the bizarre traits of WELS clergy is their illegal use of other identities, which was fairly common in the Fox Valley eructations.

One reader pointed out something I noticed - WELS clergy never grow up. They are still adolescents in the dorms, playing hateful pranks, avoiding their studies, vowing they will never grow up in Never-Never-Land.

In fact, Mark Jeske and Richard Starr and another WELS pastor had a pact. The last one to get married would get a refrigerator. Starr lasted the longest and got his prize fridge. Why would a minister want to avoid getting married? That means growing up and giving up the narcissism of youth. Playing Peter Pan is so much more fun. Thus the Mequon Mattress Room.

Those who do not use their names, not even an anonymous identity, can grill others, name-call, and act silly with their dog notes. (Dog Notes are the yellowed dogmatics notes that make up the backbone of WELS false doctrine. The original author was J. P. Meyer, author of three Kokomo Statements. The new editor is Tim Glende's uncle, so we know they are infallible.)

If the blog ever became serious, WELS would shut it down, but this is useful for the leaders, who will find out the author and contributors. The Intrepids used their names and soon the clergy were gone, including the Founder.

When enough idiots say the same thing about justification, the drivel turns into dogma, and the dogma into practice. Jack Cascione and Paul McCain quoted Ed Preuss with approval.

Robert Preus used this abomination in his worst essay ever, when his lobby was driving WAM out of the Ft. Wayne presidency. He found it difficult to back away from the assassination. Like LBJ and another assassination, he repented before he died and recorded his confession.

Whenever the Gospel begins to take root, Satan and his minions rise up to destroy it. They scatter, but do not destroy. Some doubters return to their folly. Others see how horrible UOJ dogma is. Still others search the Scriptures and rely on the plain teaching of the Holy Spirit rather than the philosophical acrobatics of the poorly trained clergy.

That Sinking Feeling - In Milwaukee

"Pay no attention to St. Marcus leaning."

The sinking city: Dozens of buildings in Milwaukee…sinking! There’s a problem and it’s deep underground

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — If you ever look up in Milwaukee, even just a little bit, you can’t help but notice we have some amazing architecture here — buildings that were built to last. But some of them may not last much longer. There’s a problem…and it’s deep underground.

On Milwaukee food tours, hungry walkers can feast their eyes on a strange phenomenon.

“As we’re walking through the Third Ward — how the bricks are starting to crumble a little bit, and the buildings are beginning to lean,” Theresa Nemetz said.

You can even feel the problem under your feet.

“You see the sidewalk is beginning to settle. The city has actually come through and shaved down the sidewalk,” Nemetz said.

So what’s happening here?

Dennis Barthenheier has dug a giant hole in his basement to find out.

“I noticed this large crack that`s along the wall line here. It’s coming apart…and I know why,” Barthenheier said.

Much of Milwaukee was built on a marsh. Around the turn of the century, for stability under foundations, contractors used steam-powered pile drivers to sink into the soggy land below thousands of wood pilings — tree trunks stripped of their branches and bark.

A concrete gap — basically the building foundation, was placed on top.

Milwaukee landmarks were made this way. Among them: Milwaukee’s City Hall, the Mitchell Building. the Button Block, the Pabst, and the Riverfront Building that houses the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

“A couple years ago we started seeing cracks, basically — in the walls,”  Chad Bauman, Managing Director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater said.

Floors are no longer level. There are growing gaps under the doors — and a tell-tale sign of the source: wharf borer beetles.

“This wall has come down almost two-and-a-half inches,” Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Chief Building Engineer Mark Uhrman said.

Signs of the building sinking are everywhere. Wood wedges temporarily support the floor above.

The technique of setting foundations on wood pilings was nothing new. It had been done in Europe for centuries.

However…

“The pilings need to be kept wet. This sounds counter-intuitive, but things that are wet permanently rot slower,” UW-Milwaukee Professor of Geosciences Doug Cherkauer said.

In parts of Milwaukee, the water table has fluctuated — and pilings have been exposed to air.

“They’re starting to rot,” Cherkauer said.

How long they’ve been rotting, nobody knows. And why the water table has gone down is disputed. Cherkauer, a hydro-geologist says he isn’t even sure it has.

“As far as I know, there are no monitoring wells anywhere in the downtown area, so we don`t know what the groundwater conditions in Milwaukee actually are,” Cherkauer said.

But we do know the buildings are sinking — dozens of them.

In the basement of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, they’re getting ready to remove the rotten wood and replace it with a new foundation.

That brings us back to Dennis Barthenheier — and the large hole he’s dug in his own basement. Fixing sinking buildings is his specialty. The repair at the Repertory Theater will be one of his big projects this year. In his basement, he’s just discovering the depth of the problem.

“That wood that you see should be all the way up and into the bottom of that concrete — but it is gone. It’s rotted away,” Barthenheier said.

So here’s how Barthenheier stops the sinking. He digs down, and each rotted piling is cut off below the water level. One by one, steel jacks are installed. Then, a new concrete form is filled to close the gap between the old cap and the new piling top below.

“All we`re doing is extending the concrete down further to make sure the wood is submerged in water,” Barthenheier said.

But with potentially thousands of pilings rotting under buildings in Milwaukee, it’s a big job.

“We have water in our basement and we WANT water in our basement,” Milwaukee Repertory Theater Chief Building Engineer Mark Uhrman said.

You might be wondering: What if the water table goes down? Won’t the pilings rot again?

As part of the repair, they’re often installing reverse sump pumps. In your basement, the sump pump kicks in when the water gets high. Here, it kicks in when the water gets low, and pumps water in from the city system to keep the pilings wet.

Brett Meyer - On Polluted WELS

Polluted WELS Blog

 Anonymous said...

I was listening to Pastor Frey's sermon. Around 33:30 he stated "You can walk up to anyone and say "your sins are forgiven."
Isn't this a diminishing of the Law? So long as a person remains outside of Christ he remains under God's Wrath and is doomed to hell.
Another way to put it is why would a person think they need to believe in Jesus their savior unless they first realize they need saving? This can only be brought about by an application of the Law. To ignore that step seems dangerous and foolish.
He states " You can say your sins are forgiven and that's a fact."
Would it not be better and more Scripturally accurate to say "Your sins have been paid for"?
Just wondering
-Jon

July 23, 2014 at 2:06 PM

 Anonymous said...

Mr. Amendall,

You said this: [i]"WELS is confused on their definition of the Office of the Ministry."[/i]

What do you mean by that exactly?

- Mr. Abbott

July 23, 2014 at 2:12 PM

 Gregory Jackson said...

Anonymous - it worked great for Ski, for the various felons, including DP Ed Werner, who went to state prison, as did Vicar Scott Zerbe. It is the perfect message for the Me Generation. Do what you want. WELS's Meditations, March-May 2014, for Monday, 17 March 2014. The howler is in the second column reads: "No matter what you did yesterday -- or failed to do -- and no matter what you will do tomorrow, God has forgiven you."

July 23, 2014 at 2:32 PM

 

I have heard stories - good ones.

 Brett Meyer said...

I was once told that Synod officials hated me for my approach to the defense of Christ’s Chief Article – one Justification solely by the gracious gift of faith in Christ alone. It is my experience that what they hate is the doctrine itself as I’ve been called an Antichrist, heretic and even a disciple of Pastor Gregory Jackson by the clergy and laity of the WELS, ELS and LCMS for using Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions to teach, promote and defend Christ’s doctrine of Justification while exposing the false gospel of Objective Justification. The discussions available on the internet are many. But most recently there was a revealing discussion of UOJ on this blog which exposes what the WELS teaches and rejects concerning the doctrine of Justification – Objective Justification is completely contrary to Scripture.
http://pollutedwels.blogspot.com/2014/07/so-what-now.html

"However, if anything is undertaken against the Word, faith, and the honor of God, we are in no wise to preserve silence, are to bear it far less patiently. Then we should offer stubborn resistance."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1308. Sermon, 1523.
Martin Luther to George Major:

"Therefore, do not speak to me of love or friendship when anything is to be detracted from the Word or the faith; for we are told that not love but the Word brings eternal life, God's grace, and all heavenly treasures." 19 " In matters concerning faith we must be invincible, unbending, and very stubborn; indeed, if possible, harder than adamant. But in matters concerning love we should be softer and more pliant than any reed and leaf and should gladly accommodate ourselves to everything." 20 "Doctrine is our only light. It alone enlightens and directs us and shows us the way to heaven. If it is shaken in one quarter (in una parte), it will necessarily be shaken in its entirety (in totum). Where that happens, love cannot help us at all." 21 " But this tender mercy is to be exercised only toward Christians and among Christians, for toward those who reject and persecute the Gospel we must act differently; here I am not permitted to let my love be merciful so as to tolerate and endure false doctrine. When faith and doctrine are concerned and endangered, neither love nor patience are in order. Then it is my duty to contend in earnest and not to yield a hairbreadth." What Luther Says, II, 637f.

Cont...

July 23, 2014 at 2:47 PM

 Brett Meyer said...

Cont...


"It is by your silence and cloaking that you cast suspicion upon yourself. If you believe as you declare in my presence, then speak so also to the church, in public lectures, in sermons, and in private conversations, and strengthen your brethren, and lead the erring back to the right path, and contradict the contumacious spirits; otherwise your confession is sham pure and simple, and worth nothing. Whoever really regards his doctrine, faith, and confession as true, right, and certain cannot remain in the same stall with such as teach, or adhere to, false doctrine; nor can he keep on giving friendly words to Satan and his minions. A teacher who remains silent when errors are taught, and nevertheless pretends to be a true teacher, is worse than an open fanatic and by his hypocrisy does greater damage than a heretic. Nor can he be trusted. He is a wolf and a fox, a hireling and a servant of his belly, and ready to despise and to sacrifice doctrine, Word, faith, Sacrament, churches, and schools. He is either a secret bedfellow of the enemies or a skeptic and a weathervane, waiting to see whether Christ or the devil will prove victorious; or he has no convictions of his own whatever, and is not worthy to be called a pupil, let alone a teacher; nor does he want to offend anybody, or say a word in favor of Christ, or hurt the devil and the world."
Martin Luther, quoted in Bente's Historical Introduction, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 94.

"Therefore nothing but a satanic, seductive, and sinister strategy is involved when we are called upon to yield a bit and to connive at an error for the sake of unity. In this way the devil is trying cunningly to lead us away from the Word. For if we adopt this course and get together in this matter, he has already gained ground; and if we were to yield him a fingerbreadth, he would soon have an ell."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1411f. Ephesians 6:10-17.

July 23, 2014 at 2:48 PM

 Ben Wink said...

Isn't this all a symptom of a larger problem that comes with Church Growth attitudes? When you reduce the work of the church to a numbers game, you want to increase those member numbers, correct?

What is the easiest way to do that? By having a watered down message that appeals to everyone, regardless of Scripture truths and accurate doctrine. If this means telling everyone that Jesus loves them and that everyone is absolutely amazing in the eyes of God the Father, then so be it. You achieved your results and more people have shown up because of the weak tea version of Christianity you just served.

All I ever hear, consistantly pounded over and over again is "God's love" and "the Gospel message". Yet where is the Law? Is not the Law equally important? What meaning does the Gospel have, when you minimize the Law or eliminate it altogether? You then just want to get rear ends in your pews or your theater seating or whatever.

It is getting to the point that the supposed crackpots with the placards that say "Repent for the End is NEAR!" signs are actually getting more closer to the point of Scripture than certain sermons by trained pastors I've been privy to have cross my ears.

The Bible is quite clear in having both Law and Gospel be equally important. Without the Gospel, you end up in desperation and the cul-de-sac of works righteousness. Without the Law, you end up with a lovey dovey message that sounds great here on earth, but won't sound so great for an eternity.

But as people don't by nature like to hear that they are sinners and that's a negative and won't help our numbers, so intead we will lead with the Gospel instead and mention the Law in passing, if at all. And I don't think that I'm exaggerating this phenomenon. Look at some of the websites for these churches and just see the gooey messages of love oozing everywhere. This smarmy nonsense isn't true love.

True love means telling someone that they are a sinner, that God hates sin, and that they are condemned to an eternal hell.

True love then tells someone that God sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for those that believe in Christ as their Savior, through the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit.

Maybe when churches focus on the totality of the Word and present and teach the entire Scripture, not just the parts that get pews filled, then some balance will come. But I'm not holding my breath.

Shockaroo - TLH Hymns Sung Beatifully by a Quartet - CLC

Here is the site for TLH hymns on a CD.

And an entire website for free recorded music.

Guilty As Charged

Polluted WELS Blog

OCP said...

I'd love to believe that myself, but it's quite hard with how I have seen WELS handle anyone who brings it up.

I have brought it up. In personal and public conversations (not just websites that will be copied and pasted onto someone else's blog, used to advance their personal agenda. Hence my "pathetic" anonymity.) And I have had very civil discussions, without ever being called a heretic, nor calling anyone else in the discussion a heretic. And I still have my call. I have even been elected or appointed to several conference, district, and Synod positions. So I don't think I haven been "handled" by WELS.

So I have to think there is a difference between my situation and that of those who have been "handled" by WELS. I don't know what that difference is, but to say that anyone who brings this up gets "handled" is not accurate. And I know that because I have lived it.

And now, having made myself the target, I think I'll back away from the keyboard for a while...

OCP

***

GJ - If you care to read the thread of 102+ comments so far, you will see this anonymous writer has plenty of snide remarks and typos to prove he really is a WELS pastor.

I can accuse OCP of this. "You read Ichabod!" That is a sin, but WELS Meditations says all sins are forgiven all people, past, present, and future.

WELS's Meditations, March-May 2014, for Monday, 17 March 2014.  The howler is in the second column reads:  "No matter what you did yesterday -- or failed to do -- and no matter what you will do tomorrow, God has forgiven you."

UOJ has consequences.
The tyrant on the left will unburden himself to the WELS teachers.

WELS Youth Fun and Games.

Your CMO funds at work, starting a rival service
a few blocks away - same toxic message.

UOJ sermon from St. Paul WELS, not far from The CORE, starting at 32.40.

All the usual Universalistic baloney is recited, without any support.

Solar Power Adds to the Compost

Atlantic Giant pumpkins are good examples of solar power used by plants. They take in water and minerals from the soil, but they also collect energy from the sun.

The heavy feeders, like corn and pumpkins, have large leaves and long growing seasons to put together the carbohydrates for the fruit or seed. Sunflower produces oil and minerals, more than just about any other plant in the garden. Other stars are potatoes, dandelions, and broccoli. The cabbage family is loaded with nutrition.

I invited my gardening neighbor to toss his green trash into my compost, and he does that. My pile is on the corner of my property and adjacent to his garden. His example led me into opening up the front and back yards for gardening. Since I am breeding red wiggler earthworms in my compost, near his garden, undocumented aliens are crossing the border into his yard.

If my giant pumpkins mature in time for Halloween, some will be used by neighbors and family - as long as they don't need a flatbed truck to haul them away. Next year - I will grow some reasonable Halloween style pumpkins. I can grow very large orange ones and some white ones. I have plenty of space in the back. It can become an obstacle course for the bunnies that use the grassy alley between lots - an unusual feature in this neighborhood. Some mow their communal alley. Others let long grass grow and toss odds and ends there.

I will have leaf and vine trash in the compost. Old pumpkins will go in as well. The seeds are great for squirrels and birds, so I can put some of the guts out on the ground for their food and amusement. The interior of pumpkins is moist and gooshy, good for the compost environment.

The despised dandelion contributes too, thanks to regular mowing. Few of my dandelions grow up and spread their leaves for a big flower. The persistent herb sends down a powerful taproot, which can be pulled out only after a heavy rain. Otherwise it breaks off and starts over.

The taproot is good for drilling into soil layers, bringing up minerals, and providing an elevator shaft for soil creatures. Some have pulled up dandelions with earthworms on the taproot. "You wrecked my elevator, for a quick trip to the soil surface." What would the earthworm find at the top? - dead leaves and insects to devour and recycle in the soil. A big rosette of dandelion leaves provides shade, too.

According to the Jackson Theory of Random Activity,

"A lot of positive work will create good results over time, even when individual actions seem inconsequential." G. Jackson

I have used this theory in higher education, in earning degrees and certifications, in reading books, and in publishing. Sometimes I had to pass a certification test on property insurance, pension plans, or networking. Those tests had no plots, no interest for me. I passed 16 certification exams, failing 3 of them early on, and they definitely led to something.

In publishing - I can never predict what will have an impact, so I sow abundantly.

One leaf is nothing in compost - an entire season of leaves
will have an impact on the soil.

Creation and the Means of Grace
The Fuller-driven church planners and planters make me laugh. They run about like chickens with their heads recently removed. They earn their pay getting laity and pastors to do the same. One theory is that getting people involved keeps them as members, so manufacture activity to hold them.

Activity is great, if the Means of Grace are central:

• More original sermons - no plagiarism.
• More Bible studies without the Cliff Notes material.
• More services of Holy Communion.
• More pastor visits where the Word of God is discussed.
• More infant baptisms during the service.

One retired WELS pastor gave up in disgust, because he said, "I never accomplished anything." He was looking at his congregation, which his fellow pastors raided after he dared to stand up to Church Growth. He did not even consider the impact of faithfully teaching the Word or communing or baptizing. He was just as brain-washed (superficially I hope) as his Fuller mentors.

If we pursue work where the Holy Spirit is united with the Word, the results will be effect and God-pleasing, not necessarily man-pleasing.

A lot of Means of Grace activity will result in grace blessing members and non-members alike.

The cucumber trash in my compost is only a tiny bit of the volume. How much good can it do? But it will contribute. Its effect will be experienced over time as the recycled organic matter rejuvenates the soil. And if I did not think so, there would be no compost, no murmuration of starlings above our house, no bunny nicknamed Agent Orange.

Agent Orange is only too happy to thin my plants,
so they have more room to grow.

Culture Devours the Agenda

"Thanks to Thrivent, my tummy is so big."

Someone observed:

The WELS might be likened to Potemkin village. 

That Ski would get passed from the Northern Wisconsin to the South Central, after reflection, comes as no surprise.

It is a Goethe once remarked: "The Church has a good digestion."

In another conversation, it was expressed similarly - "Culture devours the agenda." In an established institution, whether a business or church. the corporate culture is so powerful that one can predict the outcome of trying to change it alone.

ELCA, WELS, LCMS, and ELS are
the only denominations thoroughly owned by a business,
and it follows the ELCA doctrinal agenda.

Laity Deserve Plenty of Responsibility for Apostasy

I am happy to lay a lot of responsibility at the feet of clergy, especially the paid drones of the synodical structures.

But the laity deserve plenty of blame, too. They have let all these things happen, step by step, without any real, persistent objections.

Moreover when destructive laity do their best to undermine a faithful pastor, his or her fellow members do nothing to stop the corrosive effect upon the congregation.

This is your DP.

The laity will always sob and mourn when their adulterous pastor is caught and kicked out. As one layman said about a promiscuous minister in downtown Moline, "Everyone liked him."

WELS has all their members paper-trained to spy for the synod and carry water for the false teachers. I have heard interesting stories about a relatively independent pastor whose meetings are immediately faxed to the synod officials - who "never know anything" about everything else. And what they do know, they forget five minutes later, if it proves useful for them.

Every single person is charged with maintaining fidelity to the Word of God - not veneration of the Holy Mother Sect. Many become atheists, step by step, as they pardon and excuse the indefensible, until they hate the Gospel and use their position to undermine faith.

Who Else To Lead the Teachers? If You Object, Tim Glende Will Sue You in Court, Or Start an Anonymouse Blog Against You

WELS NATIONAL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

June 15-18, 2015


"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

A conference for principals, ECM directors, teachers,
pastors, and all school leaders. 

 The WELS National School Leadership Conference, hosted by the WELS Commission on Lutheran Schools, is designed for WELS/ELS members working in the field of education at early childhood, elementary, and secondary levels to provide a large scale opportunity to come together to learn from God’s Word, from experts in education, and from each other.

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE PRESENTERS
SOUL - Tim Glende, pastor of St. Peter in Appleton WI

MIND - Todd Whitaker, author and motivational speaker 

BODY - Willow Sweeney, "Top 20 Training"
_______________________________________________

Worship with Koine'

Laugh with Fish Sticks Comedy 

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GJ - I guess Ski was too busy moving his still to have a speech copied and pasted in time.

See If This Debacle Fits Your Situation

Four years after it was built, WELS foreclosed on its new building in Savoy, Illinois.
Of course, Tim Glende, the Wonderboy, Ski-daddled out of town, to let someone else take the fall.

One grizzled veteran observed that WELS has a deliberate plan of liquidating the more traditional churches while heavily promoting latte and rock congregations that bury Lutheran worship, music, sermons, and creeds with the name Lutheran.

Another part of the plan is to establish diaper changing academies ("schools") to generate funds for the pastor's pals. These nursery to Kindergarten centers like to use Christian Academy in their names, but there is nothing particularly religious about snacks, naps, and graduating from Kindergarten.

Kindergarten was started by the clever Germans to get children ready for school. No one ever thought of calling playtime school or an academy.

Who decided to enter the competition for cheap, offering-subsidized child-care? In effect, the congregation gives the ladies a boost in income by contributing money to babysit non-members - a mission!

The LCA once used that ploy. If they were dumping money on something and no Lutheran benefited from it, the project was "pure mission." I heard that stated with the proper stained glass tremulo in the voice of the DP/bishop.

Here are two truly stupid ideas, which are doubtless found elsewhere in Lutherdom. I know the Michigan segment of the LCA routinely closed and sold parishes to balance its local budget. All the Lutheran sects are strapped for funds now. Their new-found love for each other is just part of a plan to form an effective merger and close a lot of duplicated facilities:

• Bethany Lutheran College
• Wisconsin Lutheran College
• Martin Luther College
• Concordia, Mequon.

They already have plans for closing Martin Luther College. The idea is to organize death with dignity. If WELS is good at anything, it is euthanizing schools and congregations.

A little note from a now-forgotten Lutheran sociologist.

Authority is not taken, but surrendered.

Pastors and congregations have surrendered authority to the ecclesiocrats ever since the Great Depression. The earlier motivation was to save money while consolidating
. Now the power is consolidated. If the vast majority stand up to the greedy, self-centered, corrupt synod politicians, the spineless cowards will bare their fangs but back away.

Stand up for the Word and Sacraments or stifle yourself when sinful nature takes its course.

WELS stole this independent congregation and its endowment fund.
No one objected in print.
Get in line to have your congregational assets stolen.
PS - Wayne Mueller published this poison without anyone objecting.

The Seekers, Doo Wop, and Gardening

I always wonder when I see a bio that lists Bach and some heavy metal band as favorites. The two clash, unless the cacophony has destroyed their eardrums. One precludes the other.

Although I had precious little musical talent, my mother kept me in instrumental music, fencing me in and encouraging me. Band and orchestra means playing good music. Once we played the Gillette theme song in band, but we usually memorized Sousa and other classics, plus arrangements of classical music.

Flute music included quite a bit of private lessons, funded by my mother, who thought she should have had more training herself. Private lessons from a German expert meant Bach, Mozart, Telemann. The Goldfinch concerto became a favorite, even though people claim Vivaldi wrote 800 pieces that all sound alike.

When my undergraduates were talking up rock music, I did my imitation of rock, which consisted of hitting a chord and screaming. For another class I did a rap about English, unfortunately captured on a smartphone.

My counter to that undergraduate class was playing Pachebel's Canon on a Bose as they entered class. They loved it so much that they copied down the name so they could buy a copy.

Looking for some music, I found The Seekers had a lot of music posted - and a great, long career with long gaps when they were not singing as a group. They sang in harmony and their lead singer Judith Durham always hit the notes perfectly. They sang a lot of Gospel songs in their concerts.

That led to Doo Wop, which I thought was fun to hear again. There are many collections on the Net, since people suddenly realized the era was almost over. Even the healthiest singers are aging out of the picture. The performances on the embedded link are uneven, but they illustrate the norms of harmony and clearly articulated lyrics.



I played the Marcels' version of Blue Moon for our grandson. He said, "Those singers are old!"

Gardening
The principles are gardening are similar to music. And people violate gardening principles all the time - with bad results.

One distant neighbor has two crepe myrtles growing together with a dogwood, with an evergreen bush jammed up close, all trying to stay alive. Across the top is a common vine. The mass is probably heaven for insects and birds, but it looks terrible. Four untrimmed bushes together look like the old fad of stuffing a phone booth. One alone would be beautiful and eye-pleasing.

Gardening has heavy metal, too. One way to kill emergent weeds is to include arsenic in the dose of fertilizer. The arsenic will kill birds that eat the earthworms killed by arsenic.

I noticed that regular mowing does the most to eliminate crab grass, so why put arsenic on the grass.

Clearly our local rabbit has figured out Sassy's outdoor times, but an abundance of planting has meant an abundance of growth.




Chaos intervenes at times, as creatures look for food and nesting material in the mulch and newsprint. Others see the birds feeding well, so they invite themselves in for a salad of fresh greens and sprouts, plus a drink of water from 12 different dishes.

Abundance triumphs over those who take advantage, because the Creation will always assert itself in time. When we tempt the wild creatures, they are going to succumb to the pangs of hunger rather than stick with the dry, dusty food of the open fields.

One of John Wayne's early moves came when the family's five acres of black-eye peas were eaten down to the soil by rabbits, when they went away for a few days. The new biography said the parents gave up after that incident.

I had relatives who moved from Ohio to Iowa because they could not stay alive on the free plot of land in Ohio. That led to my family being Iowa-Illinois instead of Ohioan, Evangelical rather than Seventh Day Adventist. My aunt said the experience was so bitter for them that her parents did not even want to visit the old homestead. But it was home for part of her childhood, and she insisted.

Just as there is an abundance of blessings in Creation, so there is an abundance of grace through the Word and Sacraments, the Instruments of God's Grace.

They are not an opinion, not a tradition, not an option for those in the Lutheran brand, but the Means of Grace established in the Scriptures, ordained by Christ, and taught by the Holy Spirit.