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| The LCMS websty featured this ad, with the lopsided, ambivalent smile. Don't blame Ski and Glende - they were trained by Jeske. |
It does not surprise me that a WELS facebook friend would unfriend you after the Jeske post. Jeske is held in high regard by the WELS and is going nowhere. I get why you posted it. First, the presentation is awful, even from a business point of view. The church point of view is non-existent.
Then, these same people who attended try to bring these new words and ideas back to their churches where the common folk get overwhelmed. I know this, as being in WELS for over 31 years, these are the same type of presentations made at conferences, church help programs, and seminars. I personally got tired of it and quit going, which helped lead my critics in our church to push me out.
In the WELS, I see too much cronyism, too much name recognition reward, too much taking the Word of God out of context to prove their new program (the church planning program by WELS put me over the top in taking things out of context), too much of ignoring those who do work hard in the trenches and do not take off evenings, weekends, and have conferences in hot spots. We spend thousands and thousands on summer conferences like leadership and worship, while our own churches suffer to pay bills. Ranks apply to the called workers, and when one goes down, little help can be found unless you have a name and good synodical friends.
One thinks that this can be changed by speaking truthfully, studying scripture and making corrections on the out of context use in books, conferences and sermons, and in church operations, but the truth builds enemies who can attack in the ways of the enemies of Christ. "What is truth" was a question I often asked myself. In spite of my WELS background from birth, through WELS elementary school, through WELS Lutheran High Schools, through Dr. Martin Luther College, through years of teaching, principalship, conferences, summer schooling, school counseling, and the like, I had to resign after battling serious depression and anxiety for over 20 years, and then general frustration.
My law-oriented WELS background (now so obviously pietistic in nature) made be fearful of going against my WELS background out of fear of going to hell. It is amazing to find many more in my profession who feel the same way, but out of fear of many things, refuse to quit or speak out publicly.
I really don't need to see the negatives about the WELS, as I new many of them,
as was affected by some of them as were my children.
I am sure you are a man of faith who has experienced many crosses in your
life. I actually appreciate your humor and your effort to show people what is
really going on. Those who find out are either shocked or don't care and brush
over it, as long as they continue to get paid or do not lose their comforts in
their church homes.
I find your deep love for your God and the truth in your writings about
nature. If people would really read your articles, and not just turn you away
because of what they hear or what somehow has told them, or because of threats,
they would find you a truly loving man of God.
God's richest blessings to you!
Keep up the good work for as long as you can!
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GJ - WELS tried the group attack on this blog for years. When the kids from three colleges (Martin Luther College, Bethany College, Wisconsin Lutheran College) began posting at once, the main effect was to alert three student bodies about Ichabod. The faculty began warning them not to read it and discussed how to do things without the news getting published. Next MLC faculty denied ever talking about keeping things from Ichabod. So funny, that came from the same faculty who were discussing that tactic in front of others.
Although people can email their comments, the hostile ones hardly appear appear, except with some lame attempts to disguise the identity of one Joel Lillo, scorned on four different blogs for his abusive and toxic remarks.
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| This is where the Booze brothers, Ski and Glende, worshiped in Atlanta - the new WELS model, Andy Stanley's, gay Babtist advocate. |
