WELS Documented - DP Jon Buchholz Caves Again to the Jeske Mob - So Does the Coven of Presidents. But He Was Like Granite on UOJ

We trust that Koine will get their usual $3,000 fee to show up,
plus the chance to sell their dubious musical monstrosities.

Friday, December 5, 2014

DP Buchholz Responds to Christian Leadership Experience

District President Jon Buchholz responds to his involvement with the 2015 Christian Leadership Experience.

Arizona - California District WELS Report of the District President 
October  2014

2015  Christian  Leadership  Experience.
A  number  of  parasynodical  organizations  are  sponsoring  a  Christian  Leadership Experience  (CLE)  in  Scottsdale,  Arizona,  to  be  held  January  9-11,  2015.  I  was  asked  to  do  the  opening  worship  service  for  the conference,  and  initially  I  agreed  to  do  so.  When  the  web  site  was  published,  however,  and  some  of  the  initial  promotional material  for  the  conference  was  brought  to  my  attention  by  pastors  in  our  district,  I  asked  the  conference  organizers  to  be  permitted  to  withdraw  from  participation.  My  concerns  stemmed  primarily  from  the  teaching  roles  that  women  were  being placed  into,  in  which  it  appeared  that  they  would  be  teaching  scriptural  truths  to  men;  the  use  of  outside,  non-WELS speakers  to  address  the  assembled  church  on  leadership;  and  some  egregious  language  from  the  church  growth  movement.  

Since  withdrawing  from  participation  in  the  conference,  I  have  meet  with  representatives  of  the  conference  organizers  both by  phone  and  face to face  to  discuss  these  concerns,  and  two  conference  representatives  met  with  the  entire  COP.  Several  of the  promotional  abstracts  on  the  conference  website  have  been  rewritten.  I  am  completely  confident  that  the  conference  organizers  have  good  intentions  and  want  to  make  the  CLE  a  positive experience  to  help  with  leadership  development  in  the WELS.  I  was  asked  by  a  member  of  my  own  congregation  if  there  were  any  barriers  to  promoting  the  event  in  the congregations  of  the  Phoenix  Valley,  and  I  am  aware  of  none.  More  information  about  the  event  is  available  at ChristLead.org.

District Report: http://azcadistrict.com/sites/default/files/reports/2014-10%20AZ-CA%20District%20President%27s%20Report.pdf

--end of report--

2015 Christian Leadership Experience: Grow. Lead. Impact.
http://www.christlead.com/about.php

A Christian leadership event focused on: Organizational Leadership, Global Health Ministry and Mission Volunteerism.

ABOUT THE 2015 CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE:

Christian Leadership Experience

The 2015 Christian Leadership Experience is a gathering of Christ focused service organizations to exchange ideas on a variety of leadership topics. This joint effort of Grace In Action, Kingdom Workers, The Lutheran Home Association, Time of Grace and Truth in Love Ministry together with the Antioch Foundation will have something to offer everyone. The goal is to provide tangible, real world leadership tools which attendees could implement in their home congregations and communities immediately.

We are working with world class speakers, presenters and facilitators. This diverse group has extensive experience in cross-cultural ministry, using technology to spread the Gospel, health ministry, and much more. There will be workshops on transformational leadership of churches, public health initiatives and funding campaigns for building projects.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
    Heretics, Church and Changers. Women Ordination Advocates

    ELCA wannabees

    Unionists, Peculators,
    Young professionals, business & ministry leaders and aspiring leaders
    Health workers of all disciplines
    All interested in participation in mission work
    Congregation Presidents and leaders
    Those interested in cutting edge evangelism techniques
    Everyday Christians who want to learn about letting your light shine in a secural world
    Anyone working in a cross-cultural setting

    Anyone who will pay the fee

    Anyone who can fog a mirror - seriously

---

DP Buchholz sold his soul in 2005 when he gave his blasphemous conference paper on Justification to the WELS called workers and clergy attending the Convention.  In that paper he went to war with Christ and His chief article of one Justification solely by the gracious gift of faith in Christ alone.  He also presented the most blatantly contradictory statements promoting justification, the forgiveness of sins, without faith and then confirming Scripture doesn't teach what he was peddling.  Unsuccessful at completely dislodging faith in Christ from within his district he executed a flanking move on God's only Son by excommunicating faithful and Confessional Pastor Paul Rydecki from the WELS in 2012 - splitting his congregation in the process.  Buchholz has shown himself to be a hireling and goat herder.  No surprise that he continues to be the lick-spittle of the apostate crowd in the so-called Lutheran denominations and WELS in particular.

In Christ,

Brett Meyer

Maria Morgan's Children's Book - Louie's Big Day. Illustrated by Sherrie Molitor

Maria Morgan has published a great book for children -
Louie's Big Day.

Maria Morgan's smile may look familiar, because she is the daughter of Norma Boeckler, our artist-in-residence, who also publishes on Amazon.

I have always enjoyed children's literature - and that did not stop when I was all growed up. Those who enjoy reading have favorites they read again and again. Not surprisingly, famous authors often mention their favorite authors, such as Nesbit and Twain. The Wind in the Willows is the Moby Dick of children's literature, so full of insight, drama, and humor that it should be read annually.

Children's books are easier to read than to write. Anyone who accomplishes this task must be creative and yet convey ideas and images in simple, plain terms.

Maria Morgan's Louie-the-Lawnmower page.

I downloaded Louie's Big Day as a Kindle e-book. That may be a handy format for the techno-grandparent, especially one who travels. Reading books to children is the best way to give them a good start in education. The experience bonds parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren.

My mother read books to us children, and I still remember choking back tears when Lassie was struggling to come home. In grade school our teachers often read to us, although we could read the same books. The practice kept us all still and we thought about the story as we heard the words.

Reading imaginative books and biographies will fuel a child's interest, provide a large vocabulary, and establish a base for learning that will never be satisfied. Did our grade school teachers realize that three of us from the same class would earn graduate degrees at Yale, in music and theology? If not, they certainly helped us get started.

I read books and stories to our children, leading to many inside jokes that still make a 40 year old son laugh. "It rained bricks and mortar for two weeks" - Mark Twain. "Attercop" - a terrible insult to spiders in Tolkien's The Hobbit. And the great battle cry - "A mole! A mole!" - The Wind in the Willows.

Louie the Lawnmower's big day concerns his first day home as a lawnmower. The lawnmower is personified, which is great fun for children. I can picture a child looking at the book and getting involved from the start, with such beautiful and vivid illustrations by Sherrie Molitor.

Louie is nervous about his first day mowing the lawn. Would he like it? Would he be allergic?

This takes the reader to a flashback, his days at the hardware store, with a drawing of all his friends waving goodbye to him.

Naturally, Louie is nostalgic about all the pranks they played at night. What follows next is a lot of fun, especially since children love messes. Everything is cleaned up before opening time, so the secret is safe.

So Louie's first day begins with sadness about the good old days, but he gets into the job and enjoys it, doing it well. A number of pages describe his work and the satisfaction he feels. But he misses his friends.

I thought this was a good story with great illustrations at this point, great for discussions with a child. "Can you imagine all that grass being cut?"

But the story is not done. The trunk pops open, and there are his friends in the trunk, ready to create new memories.

The book ends with questions to use at home and in a Christian day school.

Parents and grandparents will love this book, and teachers will enjoy using it in school. I hope many more books like this will come out in a series.

Order Louie's Big Day here.

Hi! I'm Maria -

I guess you could say I was born with an active imagination. Combine that with a love for reading, and the possibilities are endless.

My Mom read all kinds of books to my brother and me when we were young. Some of our all-time favorites were by Dr. Seuss – Green Eggs & Ham, andSneetches on Beaches. 

Although my formal education is in Corporate Wellness and Nutrition, my real love is writing. I started out as an inspirational author and speaker for adults. Now I've widened my circle to include kids.

No matter what the age of my audience, my goal is the same:

 To share God's truths and make an eternal difference.

I live in the muggy South with my husband, two retrievers, and two Maine coon kitties – the perfect mix to fuel my creativity for years to come!

Fun Facts About Me:

 

*One of my favorite things to do as a kid was come up with adventures for our stuffed animals to act out.

 

*We couldn't have pets when I was growing up because my brother was allergic to them. I'm making up for that now!

 

*I won the Distinguished Student Science Award when I was in 9th grade.

*There are still several boxes in our basement I haven’t unpacked since moving to our house 15 years ago!

*Even though my degree is in the health field, I have the biggest sweet tooth ever!

*When I’m not writing I enjoy: reading, shopping (especially for shoes!), exercising, and baking.

 

 

(You can find my devotionals and download a free copy of my eBook, God Speaking, here.)

Connect with me:

Website 

Facebook 

Twitter

Pinterest  

---

What people are saying:

"Louie's Big Day! delighted me! I thought the idea was unique, the writing superb, and the illustrations professionally done. All through the book I kept thinking, 'I'd love to give this to my friends with young children.' Maria Morgan has a winner here, and I can't wait to see what she does with future Louie books." ~ SUSAN J. REINHARDT, author

"My grandkids loved the book Louie's BIG day! It is a book we will be reading often! After reading we all enjoyed the questions at the end of the book. It made for some great discussions about God making us for a special purpose and facing our fears. Also, how important friends are in our life. Five stars from our family!" ~ DARLENE KING, mom & grandmother

"Toy Story gave us the secret life of toys...now Louie's BIG day! gives us the secret life of yard tools! Small and big fry alike will get a chuckle out of Maria Morgan's charming little tale, with equally delightful illustrations by Sherrie Molitor, as Louie faces natural nerves over his first real job and the sadness of leaving his friends behind, only to revel in the joy of performing his designed calling. With a "Lesson Corner" and link to a free audiobook at the end." ~

L. M. WINBORNE, writer

The Expert Gardeners Are Just Like the Expert Theologians

"Larry used to rototill twice a year. Never again! The only time that you should rototill is when you are first starting your garden. This is the time to really work all that organic matter into the soil as deeply as you can. Then "never again". From that point on work the organic matter into the top 3 inches of soil using a broadfork (lift and "tease" the soil) as shown below and let the earthworms and soil microbes do the rest." 

I am helpless with laughter. Osterize and tease the soil? The plants grow in spite of their hard work in destroying the structure and life of the soil. Note the superficial mention of earthworms and soil microbes, all the while extolling the tiller and the broadfork.
Normally, I name names and take no prisoners, but I want to be more general this time. I scour the Net and bookstores for new insights into gardening, especially related to soil.

Confidentially, it has to start with soil - right? All plants grow in soil, unless someone wants to get into hydroponics and growing orchids.

Most well known gardening writers have decades of experience, and they produce a constant supply of articles and books, all of them supported with various studies and quotations from other experts - as they should.

 "No matter what you did yesterday -- or failed to do -- and no matter what you will do tomorrow, God has forgiven you."
WELS Meditations, March-May 2014, for Monday, 17 March 2014.
Comfort for unrepentant felons.

But this part is dismaying - and recently proven by several authors in a row. Here are the two horrors:

1. They have no clue about soil, soil creatures, and soil chemistry, or -
2. They have a vague idea about soil but ignore that for their superficial chatter about nothing.

Long ago, I concentrated on earthworms, which are key players, but they are the macro view while the foundational work takes place at the microscopic level - with fungi, nematodes, bacteria, and protozoa. The end result of all this is to
A. Make the soil full of nutrition that plant roots can use and... 
B. Keep that nutrition available in the root zone.

Someone who mentions soil creatures and then rototills compost into the soil is a bundle of contradictions. Martha Stewart has her followers scratching Epsom Salts into the soil - has she spent more than five seconds on the topic? Epsom Salts dissolve instantly in water, so why destroy the fungi to play in the soil?  Besides, Epsom Salts are only beneficial in limited circumstances.

Among all the gardening experts, almost no one harmonizes soil life with plant health. Nevertheless, their plants grow and people hail them as gardening gurus of the highest class. The resounding cheers echo through the compost piles only because Creation trumps the stupidity of gardening experts. The expert gardeners are incapable of overcoming the power of the invisible and unheralded workers of Creation.

Luther seldom quoted experts.
Instead, he explained the Scriptures, directly and plainly,
because the Holy Spirit in the Word is the ultimate expert.

Likewise, most religious writers have no concept about the relationship between the efficacious Word and the work of the Christian Church. The Lutherans are especially confused, vague, and self-contradictory.

Two generations of writers are the exception -

1. Luther and his circle during the Reformation, 
2. The Book of Concord authors and editors, their influence continuing into the new generation, with such examples as J. Gerhard.

Here and there, some Lutheran writers have read enough Luther and studied the Scriptures diligently enough to recapture Biblical theology - Henry E. Jacobs, Schmauk, Krauth. Many clergy understand these matters too, in spite of their boorish, rude, and poorly educated leaders.

The Christian faith continues from generation to generation, in spite of the bad leadership of the so-called religious experts. Historians have noted that the Christian faith remained alive because of traditional hymns or the liturgy or individual Bible study - in spite of rationalistic clergy and their wacky ideas and fads.

First Midweek Advent Service, December 3, 2014. 7 PM Central. Enemies of the Word

Advent, December 3, 2014

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Mid-Week Advent, Wednesday, 7 PM Central

The Hymn # 240  Father Most Holy                   2.56
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody            Psalm   14                           p. 124
The First Lection                  
The Second Lection       
 The Sermon Hymn #61      Comfort, Comfort      2.21 

         

God's Word - An Anvil That Has Worn Out Many Hammers

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer                         p. 44

The Collect for Peace                                           p. 45

The Benediction                                                   p. 45

The Hymn # 558 All Praise to Thee                   2:9

God's Word - An Anvil That Has Worn Out Many Hammers

Today there is a big controversy about Pope Francis denying the historical reality of Adam and Eve, denying the true nature of Hell. Therefore it seemed a good time to expand upon the Christian Church abandoning God's Word.

First it is good to distinguish between faith and unbelief. If someone believes in the basics of the Apostles Creed, or the Nicene Creed, that individual is quite different from the many who use those terms but do not believe. One wit called this modern theology "faith without belief."

It is a sentimental attachment to the Bible - but without trusting the Word.

How did the visible Christian church arrive at this debacle? It is not simply Roman Catholic, or Calvinistic, or Lutheran in origin. The attitude affects all the groups. But they cannot claim to be in line with history. The entire Christian Church, including the Roman Catholics, taught the Bible as the Word of God.

Roman Catholic Errors

But during the Reformation, many errors began to surface and take root, as Satanic antidotes to the Gospel. The most dangerous source was the Church of Rome, since they lost all the debates based on their Biblical argumentation. As Chemnitz observed, they lost so many debates that they began teaching the:

• Lack of clarity of the Scriptures (see WELS, ELS, LCMS today)
• Incompleteness of the Scriptures (ditto, including Deutschlander on UOJ)
• Authority of the visible church to interpret the Bible (the New NIV and Lutheran support for it, contrasted with S. Babtist opposition to the NNIV)

Errors in the Name of Fighting Rome

The Evangelicals of today broke with Luther and the later Lutherans by treating the Sacraments as Roman errors. Some have a special hatred of infant baptism and infant faith, although almost everyone "dedicates" infants with the Word of God and pledges to raise the child in faith - baptism without water.

Starting with Zwingli, the traditional liturgy and Holy Communion were eliminated from the worship service. 

Calvin's Errors - Rationalism

Calvin followed Zwingli in Switzerland, and he wrote with the same kind of rationalism, albeit more smoothly and elegantly. Calvin placed human reason above the Scriptures, which necessarily leads to excluding more and more of the Word as "not reasonable."

No surprise - the Calvinism of Halle University (part of the Pietistic mix) turned into Unitarianism in one generation. The center of Pietism began the center of attacks on the Bible. Halle U. is where modern faith without belief was promoted with great vigor. UOJ flourished there. A UOJ pioneer, Knapp, claimed the Bible did not teach the Trinity.

Multiple Sources

Therefore, there are multiple sources for falling away from the historic position of the Christian Church. Each confession is represented, because each one has been influenced away from trusting the Word. 

People need to realize that Pope Francis, ELCA's seminaries, and the UOJ Stormtroopers have the same errors in common, and a 500 year history behind them - and this all began in the Apostolic Age.

And - whenever imposes another authority, whether a man or a church body, loyalty and trust are going to move away from the Scriptures, toward man's work and reason.

Biblical Truths

The purpose of the Bible is to teach faith, faith in Christ. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of the sin of unbelief. John 16:8ff. 

The Bible certainly teaches Law, but it is not primarily a lawbook, but a faith book.

The Bible teaches history, but that history is aimed exclusively at giving us the setting of the Incarnation, God becoming man. God patiently taught His people for centuries so the Gospel began in the public ministry of Jesus with a solid base of understanding in true Judaism and among many people. Even non-Jews looked for a Savior and sought the truths of the Old Testament.

Rationalists like to start proving the Bible really is true, accurate, infallible. The problem is not with the adjectives but with the method. As believers we use our reason subordinate to God's Word. Any other approach is going to end up with rationalistic results.

 When people sincerely and persistently study the Word of God, they see how it is the great treasure trove of God's wisdom, from the practical in Proverbs to the visions of heaven in Revelation.

And it is all in harmony. That harmony alone builds faith. I had a New Testament professor at Yale who would simply go through passages in the New Testament (and Old) and show how one interpreted and explained another. He had us write 20 page papers on one word - peace - and show what it meant and how it was associated with other terms.

The study itself built faith, and that study has been with me ever since. The Word alone convinces and convicts and builds up. The more we see that, the more we hunger and thirst for the righteousness that is revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.