John Seifert Urged Me To File Charges against DP Mueller, But He Would Not. Will Engelbrecht Defend Driscoll on the Plagiarism Charges?Crude Sexual Remarks Made to Wives

DP Engelbrecht defended plagiarism in an absurd essay,
and he supported Glende and Ski in excommunicating Rick Techlin,
who proved the plagiarism.

Twenty-One Former Mars Hill Church Pastors Bring Formal Charges Against Mark Driscoll

August 21, 2014 by Warren Throckmorton 39 Comments

On the heels of what was arguably the worst week in the history of Mars Hill Church, twenty-one former Mars Hill Church pastors brought charges late last week against lead pastor Mark Driscoll. Accompanied by a cover letter, briefs on workplace bullyingand a summary of the powers of Mars Hill elders, the charges are being leveled by well-respected former pastors and are in the possession of the Mars Hill leadership. These documents greatly expand on charges brought by former pastor Dave Kraft. Those charges were dismissed by the Board of Advisors and Accountability. The cover letter states:

We have submitted to the Mars Hill board of advisors and accountability the attached formal charges of Mark’s disqualification from the pastoral office. We have signed these charges and intend to stand as witnesses. There are additional witnesses whose names have been withheld for their protection, but who also intend to testify in an investigation of these charges...

On the last charge above, I obtained invoices which demonstrates knowledge of Result Source in October, and I have seen an email which indicated Driscoll’s awareness as early as July, 2011. The letter asks Mars Hill leadership questions which contain further concerns and the pastors believe, if investigated, will prove disqualifying. For example:

Is Pastor Mark guilty of plagiarism? If so, what is an appropriate consequence for him?

Is Pastor Mark guilty of sexual harassment in the form of sexual immorality in speech (Eph. 5:3)? We are aware of a number of credible reports of inappropriate sexually-oriented comments that Pastor Mark has made to and about other men’s wives, particularly in casual social settings. 

No one has removed a WELS DP
because no one will stand up to them.
Yet Driscoll is clearly a model
for abusive WELS pastors trained by him.

Variations in Roses

Mr. Lincoln is heavily scented.
All my recipients inhale the aroma of their roses.

Roses vary in color and fragrance, based on their environment. Their fragrance varies according to the individual's perception.

There is not just one rose fragrance (the kind we associate with commercial rose scents). Some roses are more lemony. One grower had an Intrigue rose growing and insisted it was lemon-scented. I told her, "Yes, that is what the catalogs say." Her husband said that was impossible, but he was an engineer.

No rose seems to have every single trait people want. Rosarians look at the buds, fragrance, color, resistance to disease, frequency of bloom, foliage, size of the bloom, and the staying power of the bloom when cut and displayed. Peace has most of those but slight in fragrance and some tendency to black spot.
Tropicana is the champion as a long-lasting cut rose. Mr. Lincoln, Double Delight, and Fragrant Cloud are famous for fragrance.

Likewise, Paul lists various gifts people have as different in each person, each one contributing to the body of Christ. He noticed then, too, that jealousy kept members at odds with one another. That would be absurd in the human body, if one organ refused to work with the others and despised the work of others.

Mr. Lincoln rose garden.

Roses in the Classroom

Peace is the Secretariat of roses.
Many variations on this classic have been marketed
to include the name and DNA of Peace.
The remarkable history of this rose.

I cut some roses and took them to English class yesterday. One student pronounced them "Fake" and I responded, "You lived in the Hood too long." Everyone laughed and he said, "You are right. We don't see many roses there."

At lunch we bemoaned the lack of rose growing in American parks. Canada and Europe have large rose parks where people can enjoy and examine all their favorites.

Chicago Peace seems to illustrate pink winning out over yellow.

The English composition lesson used roses to show the parallel between rose growing and the True Vine passage in John 15. Parallels are easy to find. Roses and grape vines need:

• Tending.
• Pruning of deadwood.
• Pruning of fruitful branches so they fruit again.
• Gathering of cuttings to be removed from the plants.
• Connection to be fruitful. "Apart from Me, ye can do nothing."

The English class answered the question about the plants being fruitful. There is no fruit apart from the plant itself. "So how do we become fruitful as believers?"

The class answered - Through the Word, through the Spirit. Both are correct, since the Holy Spirit works through the Word.

Pruning and Rain
Our crepe myrtle bush is already showing the positive effects of Lyle Lovett pruning, mulch, and rain. Two pink flowers have sprouted on the crepe myrtle, and vertical growth has resumed. The plant looks healthy, if a bit spindly in the legs. At night, faerie lights decorate the top foliage.

Many include Pink Peace as one of the great roses
of all time. The web page lists it as very fragrant.

Sassy's Communications

Sassy snagged her ball from the air again yesterday,
then headed inside, away from the heat and humidity.

Sassy has the most hilarious ways of signaling what she wants.

When she shares medallions of cinnamon toast with me, the pieces that are off spec (too much crust) are left in the bedding.

I taught her to lick her lips when she wanted a snack. She does more than that - she looks at me, smiles broadly, and licks them. Last night I gave her two pieces and stopped. She repeated her signal and I shook my head no. She gave me an even bigger smile and kept beaming the love at me. I gave in, went to the kitchen, and got her one more.

On our walks - To go in a different direction, she plants her feet and does not follow me across the street. She acts deaf but turns toward her goal and looks at me smiling. "Do you want to go down there?" She says yes by heading that way - and I catch up.

The neighborhood children are intrigued by Sassy stopping to look into my face until I give her permission to cross the street. "Do you want to see your friends?" Her answer is to bolt across the cul-de-sac to greet all the children.

Sassy has a tendency to treat the street as a broader version of the sidewalk. The other day I had to remind her to listen to me. A couple of stern words had her making up to me at once. The drivers are especially careful of her, and it is seldom an issue, but I still do not want her Inner Puppy in charge.

I have to tell Mrs. Ichabod the latest Sassy stories when we come back from the walk. We are now a bunny hunt team. Rabbits have their favorite hang-outs, one every few yards. Some yards have broad expanses of grass and bushes for hiding. If a rabbit is motionless upon hearing our approach, I point and Sassy makes her run. She will never catch a rabbit, but she enjoys the brief chase.

At the garage sale on our block, Sassy checked in several times a day and visited each family member. She has baby Sophia on her radar now and always gives her a kiss. Sassy is family to them.

She is looking at me now, so I need to give her some time and some cinnamon medallions.

Sassy found Ronald McDonald a bit stiff on our trip,
so she refused to sit on his lap. Instead, she posed with her staff
when a local resident offered to take the photo.

Where Were the Leaders? Answer - Praying to Marvin Schwan and Thrivent

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Where Were the Leaders?

http://shatteredpulpit.blogspot.com/2014/08/where-were-leaders.html

Place eyes everywhere. And lock up rooms that are not in use. Abuse happens when a church is not watchful. An open door to an unoccupied room is an invitation and opportunity for a perpetrator. A church that is diligent in its efforts to prevent abuse will frustrate those with evil intentions. My church assigned deacons to walk the halls, walk the parking lot, and look into the various rooms of the church during our worship services and other activities. We realized that the more eyes we have watching our facilities, the safer our church became. - Making Church a Safe Place, by Charles Burkeen

I wish I could find the perfect words to express how extremely important that paragraph is. If my church had been even half that vigilant, it would have been a thousand times more difficult for this to happen. However, since he was the "popular pastor", everyone seemed oblivious to what was happening under their noses because no one thought it could happen "in their church". 

And I mean... literally under their nose because the longer it went on, the bolder he got and the more risks he took. It was extremely stressful when it happened within close proximity of congregational leaders’… sometimes just a few doors away. I could hear them discussing church business while I was behind a locked door with the Pastor in a dark closet. Yet no one knew because all the red flags were missed. Why would NO one question a pastor coming out of a closet with someone..with anyone? Should that not be the biggest red flag of all?
 
If the church leaders had been observant enough to pick up on the red flags, they would have caught it. I know they would have because it was so obvious. Especially since it wasn't only one or two leaders that had the opportunity but, over the course of time, it was the majority of them - from the Church President on down. Every single one missed every "red flag". Everyone seemed to have the mentality that "it can't happen to us" so no one paid attention. I lost faith in the congregational leaders after that because they were totally oblivious to what was happening around them.

I was crying inside (more like screaming) for someone to recognize it. I was too afraid to say anything because I didn't know who I could trust. My only option was to hope for someone to see a warning sign...but no one did. I know for a "normal" person it will probably be hard to understand why the fear of telling someone was so great, and I don't know how to put that into words. But it was the controlling factor of my life. The thought of telling anyone terrified me more than anything else in the world because I was petrified of what would happen.

It's probably wrong to feel this way, but sometimes I blame the congregational leaders more than the pastor even. He was so controlled by his physical urges that he couldn't stop himself anymore, even if he wanted to. He was that out-of-control by this time. But that wasn't true with the leaders of the congregation. They could have stopped it. Most of them had at least one opportunity to stop it, if not more... because basically every one of them saw at least one "red flag" but failed to recognize it.

The pastor caused me to lose faith in God but the leaders caused me to lose trust in the church. 

I  remember another time when I was upset and crying wanting this to stop and trying to distance myself from him. We had a pretty big disagreement and, again, a congregational leader happened to be walking past while we were disagreeing and said to me afterwards…"that sounded like you two were having a husband and wife fight". I made a flimsy excuse trying to say something without having to actually come right out and say it. But, as was the pattern, he never questioned further. Never asked for more information. Never asked why I was crying over that "fight". He just dropped it. 

Another time the church president, himself, was maybe 5 feet away on the other side of a locked door looking for the pastor because he needed to talk to him about church business. When I opened the door, there he was standing right there. I can still vividly remember the sheer terror and panic I felt when I saw him there. My heart literally stopped beating because I thought.... This is it. This is the end. But no. Nothing. The thought that something was amiss apparently seemed to be the furthest thing from his mind, because he went on like nothing was happening. 

So many people came so close to finding out the truth, but for some reason, everyone always dropped it and never questioned anything. No one ever pushed to see what was actually happening… and it was happening daily under everyone’s nose.

***

GJ - The answer is - everyone knew. Or, perhaps many congregational leaders knew but chose not to do anything about it.

Two members of the Michigan District WELS praesidium, a VP and the secretary (both pastors) were carrying on when I was in Columbus. DP Mueller admitted to all the pastors that he lied to the VP's congregation, wife, and everyone else to cover for his friend. He forgot to mention getting his pal a choice job for a happy landing, running a WELS nursing home. 

I wrote to every pastor in the Michigan District - and they re-elected Mueller and Kuske. One "friend's" remark was that I was politicking, a sin in WELS.

Mueller and Kuske were cheerleaders for various clergy adulterers, but their mercy did not "drop as the gentle rain from heaven" for anyone who challenged their inerrancy. Then it was - Off with their heads while extending the Left Foot of Fellowship. The current DP, John Seifert, knew all about it, but did nothing apart from leveraging the situation to become DP. Mueller "chose not to run" and got a free trip Russia on Schwan money. Mueller was voted out of office. Do something - Pow! Do nothing - become DP.

The pastor who exposed the adultery of Mueller's clergy pal - he felt the wrath of the district leaders.

I knew a member of the district secretary's congregation. She said, "When it was clear he was leaving the ministry, all the divorced and single women began crying their eyes out." 

The short answer is - the "conservative" WELS-ELS-LCMS leaders and clergy are quite tolerant of clergy adultery and child abuse.  They are too busy elbowing each other away from the Schwan-Thrivent-Antioch money troughs.

The current president of the ELS seminary knew all about the Columbus situation at the time. His answer was to say when I was present, "It hurts the face of the church" to address those issues. That is one reason he went from 'umble parish pastor to become seminary president - doing and saying nothing.