Martin Luther College Plumbs the Depth of Banality

Tingting Zhang married Dan Schwartz at Martin Luther College's frozen food cathedral. WELS high church - where pastors take photos of the kiss - from the altar.

WELS - Muskego - The Cancer Spreads with the Blessing the Synod Leaders:Jeske and His Assisant, Mark Schroeder

Published on Aug 2, 2014

Join us for the last summer session of Awake and Alive 2014 Sunday evening 6pm - 10pm August 10th - on the grounds of St. Paul's Lutheran in Muskego - www.awakeandalive2014.com for more information!

Gourds - Warts and All

Warty gourd flowers invite bees, who transfer the pollen.

Soon the female flowers are heavy with child.

Lacking supervision, warty gourds will take over the yard - until the first hard frost.

Watering for the Birds

I have 200 feet of soaker hose rigged to the backyard faucet, which has a splitter. One subnet goes to the fence garden, the other to the vegetable garden. I turn on the water and go back inside to write about gardening.

I always have birds bathing near the faucet (two baths to catch the spray), under the soaker hose suspended on the fence, and on the soaker hose. Six or more shallow pans catch the dripping water for baths.

Birds are attracted to the sound of dripping water, and they want shallow baths to use, not deep pools. They are my primary defense against destructive insects, so I seldom worry about insect damage.

Warty Gourds and Pumpkins Are Fun

Several green gourds are hanging from the fence now. I promised our grandson a real display on his next visit to the yard.

Mrs. I was startled by the growth on the fence. Our helper asked how that happened - "Did you plant all those?" Watering and pruning tree branches created an ideal place for supporting plants and exposing them to more sunshine.

Once the pole beans got established, like the gourds, they began climbing and twisting around for more supports. Some went the wrong direction, so I snagged their little leaves on the wire. That reminded me of the poem, Or help help a fainting robin unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain." Some tunes are earworms, but that poem is in my head forever. Poor little, lost pole bean.

I have not grown birdhouse gourds - so far - but I may next year.

Polluted WELS Examines the Ambiguous, Twisted Smile of Mark Jeske, Guru of ELCA, WELS, LCMS, ELS, et. al.Michigander Answers with Luther

Photoanalysts consider the half-smile a sign of ambiguity,
the down-turned part representing suppressed sadness.

Mark the Guru is smiling here, isn't he?
Nope - the left side is down-turned again.

In this group photo of the Markan disciples,
Jeske has a pronounced half-smile.

This is the entire group from which I cut out and enlarged Mark's half-smile.
He is the only one NOT smiling.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2014

A Travesty Examined, Part Five

Now that we've covered the keynote speakers, let's talk about some of the other presentations that will take place at the 2015 Christian Leadership Experience.

(By the way, what exactly is an "experience"? It sounds like a rock concert or something. Well, actually, I'm sure the worship services will be rock concerts.)

Here's a presentation that sounds good:

“Facing Facts and Changing the Course of your Ministry”

Acknowledging that your ministry is not working effectively is a difficult action to take. Effective leaders must use self reflection, data, and analysis to determine potential obstacles and opportunities to enhance ministry effectiveness. In this interactive session, a crucial conversation will he held on how leaders must define reality and develop plans that change your situation from “where it is” to “where one would like it to be.”

Here's a translation of what this presentation is about:

Pastors, it's all your fault. If your congregation isn't growing numerically, your ministry is a failure and you're a failure. You can't base your ministry on the power of the Spirit working through Word and Sacrament. That just doesn't work. The only way you can determine whether your ministry is a success is by looking at the numbers. Your faithfulness to the Word is an obstacle. Using church growth methods and contemporary worship is the opportunity you need to get the right numbers. You need to change your situation by abandoning the Confessions and running to Joel Osteen.

"I'm a big shot handling tons of money at Thrivent, funding my ELCA pals.
Why am I only pretending to smile?"

 Anonymous said...

Martin Luther commenting on:
1 Cor. 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

"[Paul] calls his office "service or ministry of Christ," and himself "minister of Christ," because he was ordained of God to the office of preaching. Thus all apostles and bishops are ministers of Christ; that is preachers, messengers, officers of Christ, sent to the people with His message. the meaning of the verse, then, is: Let every individual take heed not to institute another leader, to set up another Lord, to constitute another Christ. Rather be unanimously loyal to the one and only Christ. We apostles are not your lords or your masters; we do not preach our own interests, nor teach our own doctrines. We do not seek to have you obey us, or give us allegiance and accept our doctrine. We are messengers of Him Who is your Master, your Lord and Leader. We preach His Word, enlist men to follow His commandments and led only to His obedience.

"He who so receives us, receives not us, but Christ, Whom we alone preach. But he who does not regard us, does us injustice, discards Christ, the one true Leader, sets up another in His stead and makes gods of us. Where more authority is assumed than GOd's command grants, idolatry results and the leader assumes a new character. The Church has no other doctrine than that of Christ, no other obedience than to obey Him."

--from Rev. John Sander's 'Devotional Readings from Luther's Works', Augustana Book Concern, 1915, p. 272

Respectfully,
The Michi-Gander

When Lutherans prostitute themselves to a business, bad things will happen.
No one acknowledges that ELCA-WELS-LCMS-ELS
leaders promote sales seminars for mediocre Thrivent products,
many of which are inappropriate for that particular household.

Pigweed Slandered - Apology Issued. Another Miracle Plant

Pigweed - Go Hogs, Go. Sooie.

I recently slandered pigweed, as if the tall, fleshy weed had no value, except as mulch or compost material.

Working on my plant/weed identification skills, I learned that the plant belongs to the amaranth family. Long ago, when I was buying every Rodale book in print, I read about the prophet's dedication to amaranth. He advocated grain amaranth as a solution for world hunger and bad nutrition. Amaranth is a big family, including Gregg's Amaranth - amaranthus greggii.

The seeds of pigweed can be harvested and roasted. The leaves are substitutes for spinach during the hot summer, when spinach bolts and becomes bitter.

I have a beautiful specimen near my back fence. The plant seems to have grown to four feet in height almost overnight. I walk to the back and clear out unwanted plants from time to time, so I know this happened quickly.

As you can see from the photo above, the leaves are somewhat like goosefoot, but they lack the tinge of white near the stem and have red in the stem and roots. Recent research on the Net shows that pigweed can grow on poor soil but grows riotously on good soil. This plant is a few feet from the compost, headquarters of my red wigglers, where they meet, date, and circulate into the our backyards.

Goosefoot is much more goosefooty than redroot pigweed. This plant is also called lamb's quarters.
According to Joan Richardson’s Wild Edible Plants of New England, lambsquarters “even outclasses spinach as a storehouse of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin C, and great amounts of vitamin A, not to mention all the minerals pulled out of the earth by its strong taproot.”

Heat and Cold

Some are wondering, "Why pick on spinach? Everyone wants to substitute for spinach."

Gardeners do not always consider the growing characteristics of their favorite plants. Many are stunned than green plants can survive, thrive, and even improve in the cold.

Spinach and peas love the cold. The cabbage family loves the cold and improves after a frost (Brussels sprouts). Green kale can be dug out of the snow and eaten - not fresh frozen and rotting, but cold and loving it.

I heard gardeners say they will plant peas on Good Friday, because that is the traditional day. I tell them, "No plant them as soon as you can. It may even snow on them."

"Snow on peas? Isn't that bad?"

"Not on snow peas." I try to explain how some plants have their own anti-freeze, enjoying the looks of astonishment. I spent an entire Minnesota winter telling one nurse (on various visits) that my spinach starts, buried in snow and ice, would emerge in the spring and be the best in the area. "No, not this winter. No they are dead. Wait until spring." And in the spring, the spinach emerged from snow and ice to thrive in the damp cold rain and produce before the insects thought of attacking it.

Spinach is best when packed with moisture and crunchy, so that is the way to have the salad at its best and ruin the idea of grocery store spinach forever.

Spinach rows - thin by eating.