Another WELS Woman Targeted by a Pastor

Walther was Bishop Stephan's enforcer and enabler.
CFW and his mob conveniently robbed Stephan of his gold, land, and library.

http://shatteredpulpit.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-victims-should-not-go-to-church.html

AnonymousOctober 10, 2014 at 12:19 PM

I don't know if this is the best place to post. I was a victim of a retired WELS Pastor, who held a position working with many young women. He told me he loved me, pursued me, even as his wife was watching, knowing. I told my husband, my pastor and finally my therapist. My therapist told me what would I do if he had done to me what this spiritual leader had done. I immediately said turn you in. Then he asked why hadn't I done so in this Pastor's case. Well, it was complicated I said. I didn't want to be a trouble maker. No one would believe me. I felt sorry for him. Then my therapist ask me why would I let anyone stay in their sin - if I truly believed. That got to me. I realized he was right. But I didn't turn him in. I instead ignored him and never spoke to him again. Now it was easy for me to do this as he had moved. I learned from this experience. Pastors are sinful men. I should never let anyone come between me and my worshiping my God. Would I have done anything different now. I would hope so, but I honestly don't know. I thank God for the Christian therapist and I thank God he moved. He's dead now. I only share this with you as an example of how I dealt with a similar problem. Did I do what was right? I don't think so as I now realize it probably wasn't just me he was trying to seduce. It saddens me to think he may have done this to younger even more vulnerable girls.

I will say it has changed the way I look at Pastors. They are only human just like any of us. My advice now is report and follow through with the police. I don't want to ever let someone stay in their sin and harm others faith. Trust God is in charge and be brave for those who need our encouragement. Be faithful to God not the Pastor.

Reply

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GJ - Clergy predators have no qualms about recruiting more victims, as many court cases have shown. One was pursuing another young woman when he was on trial for his affair with a minor girl. But he was shocked and grieved that his wife divorced him.

It was the wife's fault, right? That is what Walther "privately" confided about the wife of Martin Stephan, STD, and Missouri published. Blaming the wife who died from getting her husband's syphillis - that shows how low the LCMS can sink. See Servant of the Word for proof.

Most of Stephan's children also died of syphilis, but he left them in Europe for his sick wife to care for and cry over. He took his groupies to America to help found the LCMS.

Nobody knows anything in WELS,
and if they did, they forgot.

No Soil Testing - Soil Improving as I Battle the Back Yard Bricks

The Church Growth Movement, from Fuller Seminary, has many fascinating, failed theories. Peter Wagner admitted in print that none of their CG principles work. When a founder concedes that, and the evidence backs him up, those who continue in that ideology must be idiots.

One of those Church Growth principles is Soil Testing, which the WELS Shrinkers dearly love..

Let me illustrate. I have three locations for bushes, which will screen the view of our neighbors' back yards. The problem is, I need to place the new arrivals in November, when the ground might be semi-frozen and inhospitable to gardening.

The cause is clay soil without many organic elements. The gardening books say, "Test the soil." I have never done that, because Creation Gardening relies on action rather than analysis.

I cannot dig a hole in the dry soil. I could start a brick factory if I had a kiln and compliant low-paid workers. The soil turns white and rock-hard when it dries out. My neighbors have the same problem.

After digging a small divot in the places where the Bonnie Butterfly bushes will go, I filled the depression with water. After soaking the divot for a day, I dug a much larger hole. This technique worked well in Phoenix, where the sun provided the kiln for the clay soil.

Each of the three holes received a bag of mushroom compost, a thick layer of wet newspapers on top, and some soil to hold them in place. Some call this a method of composting, and they use post-hole diggers to set up these soil creature magnets. In Midland (Wormhaven.1)  I dug a bottomless zinc garbage can into the soil and filled it with fresh compost material (with a lid on top). Eventually I pulled the can loose and beheld a new composted zone for planting.

Composting produces warmth, because the elements of decay all contribute their spark of energy. Billions of bacteria, springtails, protozoa, and nematodes are like a self-heating auditorium, where the equipment collects audience heat to keep the room warm.

The larger effect of burying a bag of mushroom compost is a zone where our favorite soil creatures meet, eat, live, love, and die. They invite themselves, like homeless people who spot a church picnic, politicians who investigate a taxing opportunity.

When the bushes arrive, the holes will be excavated, which will mix more clay with the compost, an ideal foundation for growth. The bushes will arrive dormant, but they will establish roots over the winter and spring, with mulch and Epsom Salt providing additional food and nutrition. Roots love Epsom Salt.

The elevated soaker hose will be extended to the back section of fence, and many butterfly, insect, and bird friendly plants will be added. The effect of more plants, mulch, and moisture in that zone will benefit the bushes by softening and feeding the soil.

What Should We Learn, But Seldom Apply to the Ministry?
The Parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matthew 13, Mark 4) teaches us to broadcast the Word (the seed) with abandon. The efficacious Word will take root, even though various forces war against the Gospel.

The parable is clearly the opposite of soil testing, because sowing relies on trust - that the living seed will combine with God's Creation to take root. Sowing is the opposite of soil-testing, just as the Means of Grace are the opposite of man's newly invented Church Growth principles.

Soil-testing means that materialistic ministers want to figure out where they can be successful in the eyes of the world rather than faithful to the Word of God.

Justus Liebig is justly called the Father of the Fertilizer Industry.

Here is an ironic note. Liebig invented soil-testing and adding man-made chemicals to goose the growth of his garden. Soon he realized that his methods did not work in the long run, but the inorganic chemical industry took off anyway, killing the ocean of life in the soil. That made the desperate gardeners buy more chemicals to repair the damage they just caused with their use of NPK fertilizers.

Norma Boeckler's illustration omitted the soil testing kit; 
she was following the original Parable of the Sower.