This building on the university campus in Urbana, was not good enough for the newly ordained Tim Glende, of WELS fame. Where was the coffee bar? He ordered the synod to redevelop the congregation, sell the building, and go looking for something suitable for a Brug nephew and a Mark Jeske alumnus.
WELS sold the paid-for building to the Eastern Orthodox for a song. The Eastern Orthodox named it St. Nicholas, perhaps because the Lutherans gave them a gift ideal for campus ministry. The EO minister invited me to join their denomination instead of the WELS practice of extending the Left Foot of Fellowship and offering the stink-eye.
The attractive interior had room for an icon wall. How un-trendy and old fashioned.
But the Boy Wonder was not done yet. He had another church building to abandon.
Glende left town - not for the last time - and dug a hole by the cornfields. He and his wife needed a building as large as his ego. He cajoled the diminishing congregation into a pile of debt, but lo - Team Glende escaped to Appleton before it was built. The remaining members could not keep up, so the synod sold the building to Cornerstone Baptist and pocketed the equity for themselves.
Remember that, synod members. You can pay on a building for 20 years and have the synod grab the equity for themselves as they continue to say, "Lord, Lord, have we not done many miracles in Thy Name?"
 |
| Cornerstone rejoiced in their bargain building and enlarged it. |
 |
| Glende should star in a synodical movie, "Honey, I Shrunk the Congregation." |
 |
| Ever wandering, the Booze Brothers bought a failed bar with a synod grant and loan, after renting a movie theater and a former WELS church building. Ski and Glende are living allegories. |
 |
| Cornerstone baptized a new member and inscribed this verse on the cake. Is this in the Bible - I mean Murdoch's New NIV? The fake blog from Fox Valley specifically condemned justification by faith. Maybe WELS should return to Gausewitz instead of disgracing a Gausewitz congregation with a Ski sermon. |
