Mark Jeske and the IF Women's Gathering and Blogs and Stuff Like That. More GA Deception, But CT Tells the Truth

From Mark-and-Avoid Jeske:

Introducing a new blogger!

I am excited to introduce you to Diana Kerr. She will be writing weekly blogs from a perspective that we love to hear from—the perspective of the younger generation. Diana’s very real and transparent writing style is refreshing and faith-filled and reveals her love for her Savior.

Diana is a speaker and writer and also serves as an IF:Local Leader, hosting women's events and prayer gatherings coordinated by the IF:Gathering, a global nonprofit comprised of Christian female authors and speakers. Diana and her husband, Kyle, live in Milwaukee, and I am delighted to welcome her to the blogging team.  

Be sure to check back next week to see Diana’s first post. In the meantime, here’s a little hello from her:

I am honored to join the blogging team of such an amazing global ministry! I never dreamed that God would bring me to Time of Grace through an opportunity to write. I would call it a total “God thing,” which has kind of become my life’s theme. My battle with rheumatoid arthritis since my teens has continually turned my plans and intentions for my life upside down, causing both pain and growth as I’ve watched God orchestrate my life according to his perfect purpose.

I can’t wait to share triumphs and joys with you through this blogging adventure. I’m especially passionate about topics related to health, personal growth, and wrestling with what it means to live as a Christian in today’s world. Just like on my personal blog, you can expect me to strive to bring value to your lives through transparency and honest conversations. I’m excited to get to know all of you readers, so please reach out to me via social media!  

https://twitter.com/DianaDKerr
http://instagram.com/dianadkerr
http://www.pinterest.com/dianakerr/
https://www.facebook.com/dianadenisekerr

The IF Gathering is linked and demi-semi-explained here.

---

What Guru Jeske didn't say!

If a Brand-New Christian Women's Conference Goes Viral, Then What?

---

FEB 112014

The story behind the success of the IF: Gathering.

Kate Shellnutt

READ AS MULTIPLE PAGES

Ask author and Bible teacher Jennie Allen how she came to create the most popular interdenominational Christian women's event in years, and she'll stumble to answer.

Ask how she gathered tens of thousands of Christian women—live in Austin, Texas, and online across the globe—around the idea of pursuing spiritual calling, and she won't have the words.

Like the people who witnessed miraculous outcomes in the Bible, all Allen can do to explain the success of last weekend's IF: Gathering is point to the work of the Holy Spirit. "The whole thing has been completely unexpected to me," she said. "It felt like fish and loaves."

The first-time event had a vague premise—If God is real, then what?—and no speaker lineup when announced this fall, but sold out in 42 minutes, forcing organizers to coordinate local watch parties across the U.S. and 22 other countries to accommodate interest.

During the simulcast over the weekend, 40,000-plus locations streamed the women's conference, while 1,200 people attended the event at the Austin Music Hall—pumped with worship songs and decorated with crafty, Pinterest-inspired details: farm tables, mason jars, and strings of twinkling antique lights. #IFGathering trended on Twitter throughout the weekend, ranking among the top hashtags used around the world.

The two-day event featured discussions of calling by women across workplace and ministry settings, plus biblical teachings from women like Christine Caine, international speaker from Hillsong Church; Jen Hatmaker, Christian blogger and author of 7; Ann Voskamp, author of A Thousand Gifts; and Shelley Giglio, a leader alongside her husband Louie Giglio at Passion City Church.

IF: Gathering combined a unique scriptural message with viral marketing through online networks. Several months before the event, Allen brought together 60-some influential bloggers and leaders from across churches, denominations, and theological positions, convinced that God was calling her to rally for unity among the splintering factions of the church. Those women, including Hatmaker (a friend of Allen's and fellow Austinite), generated interest among their readers, enough to fuel the event's popularity throughout Christian blogs and social media.

How Long Have the Scandals Been Covered Up?

No GA anymore? Here is the new pope - Paul Krueger.
He was MLC student body president, meaning he is a hard drinker.
The secret hazing ritual has a new name.

Lilliam Armstrong, author of the Shattered Pulpit blog, wrote me that WELS people were being very nasty to her about telling the truth. During the day another woman told me of a pastor's closely guarded computer, because it was loaded with adult and child pornography.

Let's look at the foundation - GA - now has a new name - Herzliche Bruderschaft - even though hardly any Mequon student can pronounce or grasp German.



WELS is so used to lying that they deceive people about the most basic things that all the clergy know to be truth. This is consistent with cult behavior - and why the abusive sect has kept its secrets fairly well until now.

They can say there is no GA, because it is now HB - notice a change in each letter. So clever. No wonder the Germans lost two world wars. "Dah G becomes an H and dah A becomes a B. Let's make up a new German name no one can remember."

Is HB any different from GA? No. And it starts next week. If you want the Mequon graduates to be somewhere near normal, end GA-HB. Better yet - end the deceptive practices.

I promised a summary of WELS scandals. I will get to that in the morning. There is an important WELS conference to promote.

Another Hissy from a WELS Minder - On Polluted WELS

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5245975699731845112&postID=2485985714902805985

[GJ note - So many post anonymousely that the others have to respond to the Anonymous handle plus the time stamp. Hence this one is Anonymous at 12:41PM, Anonymous 12:41.]

Anonymous said...

Just so all the readers of this blog know the real reason “Mathias” is anonymous is because he is not a real pastor. He is a fraud. He is not a WELS pastor so he pretends and remains anonymous.
He has also been deleting these comments so if you read this you are one of the fortunate few. He has become like li’l Greg and his icky blog deleting anyone who disagrees with him.
To Spencer, Baker, Vernon, Lidtke et. al. If you continue to post and respond here please do not be surprised when people do not take you seriously elsewhere. It shows a lack of common sense to take up whatever issues you may have with the WELS with someone who is a fraud and deletes comments so only one side is known. If I am ever personally at a Synod or District Convention with you I will personally see to it that as many pastors and lay people know that you are the ones who post on blogs with someone who fakes being a pastor and who deletes any comments from the other side. You will have no one to blame but yourselves for your own poor reputation. (Being OK with someone impersonating a pastor will not be received well by anyone.) Show common sense and “mark and avoid.”
To “Mathias,” I pray that whatever sick thing is going on in your head you will repent of your sin of impersonating a pastor. It is a sin, no matter what you say, to impersonate a pastor. I pray you listen to me before you listen to God in judgment.
I have a feeling however that instead of applying God’s Law to your own heart you will just delete my post.

August 26, 2014 at 12:41 PM

 Matthias Flach said...

The comment above was caught by the spam filter, but I let it through so that everyone can see how the WELS company men fight. Very dirty. Very personal. Very threatening.

I'm also very curious why this individual is so certain that I'm not a pastor. Why would someone anonymously pretend to be a pastor? I'm not sure how to prove that I really am a WELS pastor, but I am.

August 26, 2014 at 1:30 PM

 Matthias Flach said...

One other thing. I've never deleted posts by people from the other side of the argument. In fact, as anyone who has actually read this blog would know, I am eager to respond, sometimes line-by-line, to the arguments of other. I have also repeatedly asked for people on the other side of issues to make a case for their position.

There has only been one time that I've deleted comments. There were some off-topic personal attacks against someone else on one thread that I got rid of. That's it though.

August 26, 2014 at 1:34 PM

 Pastor Paul Lidtke said...

My goodness. One observation about LCMS call practices and an interesting happening in the early years of my ministry surely deserved that anonymous threat, don't ya think? Anonymous at 12:41, you've given the WELS ministerium more of a black eye than anyone else who has posted on this blog!

August 26, 2014 at 2:23 PM

tlcsvaz@orthodoxlutheran.info said...

Matthias - Here's how to prove you're a WELS Pastor: Who won the World Series in 1939? Oh, wait that would only prove you're not a Japanese spy. OK, how about - what was J.P Meyer's nickname, or Carl Lawrence's, or which side was J.P. Koehler on; no, I know, I know, where do you put the apostrophe in Protestant, like the Conference of former WELS guys? Better yet, who once wrote that "forgiveness is found at the foot of the cross?" You other guys could ask him what his "Bonecruncher" name was or something like that.

August 26, 2014 at 3:01 PM

Daniel Baker said...

LOL i think i've only posted here once or twice too, Pr. Lidtke. Couldn't be lumped with better company, though.

August 26, 2014 at 4:19 PM

Matthias Flach said...

Maybe this helps people to understand better why I've been publishing anonymously. If your name is attached (even superficially, apparently) to anything that dares to criticize the infallible WELS, your name will be remembered, you will be threatened, and it will be used against you whenever possible.

August 26, 2014 at 4:38 PM

Vernon Knepprath said...

To anonymous @ 12:41, if Matthias posts anonymously because he's a fraud, why do you?

Vernon

August 26, 2014 at 4:52 PM

Dr. Joseph Jewell said...

Can I get my name on the list, too? I am happy to be counted in the company of such men as Mr. Baker, who stood tall at the last Synod Convention and spoke truth to power against the NIV2011, and Pastor Lidtke, who has provided continuing pastoral care and advocated for laymen (and women) callously and abusively treated by their shepherds in his district.

How exactly, Anon 12:41, are you so sure "Matthias" is not a pastor? Nothing I've read here seems very unlikely to me.

August 26, 2014 at 5:20 PM

Anonymous said...

The anonymous poster at 12:41 was out of line and his contributions are not helpful here. But let's be careful not to make assumptions about the entire WELS ministerium based on his one post. There is a reasonable middle (which I believe is a majority), and we will continue to gather there.

August 26, 2014 at 7:41 PM

Randall Schultz said...

Please put my name on this list also. I still remember my confirmation vow from 45 years ago. I also remember the warnings from my father about windbags like these WELS company men. They sound like we need to mark and avoid them.
Randall Schultz

***

GJ  - Anonymous at 12:41 has been drinking the bong water again. One strange accusation involves the Polluted WELS blog and my blog deleting comments. I made a point of copying comments into the main article so they could not be deleted. People like Jack Kilcrease deleted their own comments (and blogs!) so often that "kilcrease" became a verb meaning - to delete a series of comments previously made. I have followed the Polluted WELS fairly closely and I have never seen one deleted by the blog host.

Sometimes legitimate writers delete because they recognize their typos too late.

The Yawning Pit of "Consenting Adults"

From Norma Boeckler

About 40 years ago, a chaplain at a hospital said this, "A minister better not take advantage of nurses and patients who are vulnerable because of the the crisis they are facing."

Someone came up with a new excuse, which proved useful for the Lavender Mafia. They were "consenting adults," so there must not be any laws enforced against those caught in the park. This escape hatch was quickly adopted for many different opportunities and escapades. Defense lawyers jumped at the phrase, bawling to the judge, "They were consenting adults, but now she is bitter and trying to make money off this human tragedy."

Although this is fading away from public discourse, the former idea was this -  an authority figure dare not use his position to force his way on women, children, or colleagues. Someone in an inferior position of power or in a vulnerable position (age, finances, subordinate) cannot "consent."

The Olde Synodical Conference embraces the Five Freedoms, the fifth being The Freedom To Romp in the Parish. Their notorious founder--Bishop Martin Stephan--practiced this freedom with the approval, or feigned blindness, of his disciples in the CFW Walther circle.

• No clergy noticed that Stephan did not want to leave Europe until he was arrested for his promiscuity with young women and his financial shenanigans in the parish. 
• No clergy noticed that Stephan installed a young woman at the parsonage, a woman who was kicked out by his wife, and put back in the parsonage by Stephan as the "lord of the house."
• No clergy noticed that Stephan took his female groupies along to America, but left his STD-laced family behind (except for his healthy son).
• No clergy noticed that St. Louis residents were deeply disturbed by their married bishop being surrounded by young women, which is why Stephan bought junk land in Perryville instead of prime property for less in the city.
• Nor did the brother-in-law attorneys who defended Stephan in court in Germany notice something wrong with the cult until they were in America.

Although various clergy pundits will cheerfully say, "Tell the officials about this," or "Write a letter," the synodical response will be vindictive, deceitful, and volcanic. No one knows, remembers, or believes anything. The very mention of such scandals "hurts the face of the church," an odd notion used by the current president of the mini-seminary at Mankato. Doubtless the Corinthians could have tossed that at St. Paul: "You are hurting the face of the church."

The Little Sect on the Prairie taught their seminarians, "Two strikes and you are out." That really means the ELS pastors are given a Get Out of Jail Free Card at ordination. They can have one adulterous affair in the parish and get a new call. But beware, that only works once. As one ex-Lutheran said of his tribe, "Yes, the synod officials read the Bible carefully - and do the opposite."

All the members are paying for this. They are paying more for congregational insurance to cover the court cases. They are paying more when money is siphoned off to pay victims out of court - even though it is not a line in the budget. When a married WELS vicar had an affair with a minor girl in Michigan, the legal system sent him to the Big House, but the district kept it a secret. No doubt, it would have "hurt the face of the church."

Otten refused to print the story, doubtless because it would have "hurt the face of the church."

We have such sensitive clergy now, so subtle and clever in their handling of the Scriptures. If the Roman Catholic clergy do this, they are condemned on the front page. If ELCA is caught, they are proof of the superiority of  the Olde Synodical Conference. If the Olde Synodical Conference clergy (our guys) do this, the stories are spiked and the leakers are shunned as evil-doers.

Make sure you know the ground rules before you start any crusades.