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| HAL, a tribute to IBM, knew the future of synods. |
I signed onto my class - toward an online teaching degree (MA, Adult Education) and read this greeting from one of the instructors. "You are my favorite demographic." She read too many statistics, and that sounded ominous.
Decades ago, the LCA was projecting the future using statistics. They said, "It used to be that half the babies baptized would be in confirmation. Now there are very few to stay in the same church where they were baptized." I looked up the figures of my first call. Earlier, half the baptized members were there for confirmation. Later, very few. America was mobile and having fewer children. Christina and I attended a big LCA conference where one staffer predicted everything from statistics.
The LCMS, WELS, and others did the same thing. AAL/Lutheran Brotherhood naturally used statistics to gain from the synodical trends, just as they did with mortality. Large numbers do not lie. The synodicals were afraid, so they latched onto the worst possible influencers - Robert Schuller (covert), Fuller Seminary (Paradise on earth), Trinity Divinity (a WELS fave), and others. The executive managers (no real leaders spotted) were eager to pretend future prosperity when they should have known they were thieves and robbers claiming to lay up treasures in heaven. They were quite willing to keep the farce growing while they poured out millions to give themselves a better future.
When I plant roses, I use all the best organic ingredients to provide rich soil without the poisons from the chemical business. Anyone can dose the plants, often fatally, but the successes come from God's Creation and all the things done to grow beautiful roses. Moreover, the Creation combinations bring even more good to the garden. John 15 is strikingly like this parallel.
KJV John 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
The synods bet on fakey gimmicks fermented in the limited minds of useful idiots (Evangelism committees, mandates, programs, posters, films, and slide shows). They never thought about faith in Jesus Christ because they were there for the loot, the bonus for being close with the most obnoxious managers (district and synod presidents). Those are the charlatans who built brand new gyms for the ELS and WELS, knowing their student bodies would shrink as fast as the synod waistbands expand.
WELS famously spent $30 million on merging Dr. Martin Luther College with Northwestern College. Add their gym and other luxuries - where does one start?
The ELS is finishing a gym worth $15 million - or is it $17 million - for a demographic that will demand more shuffle board room for the last few players.
