Wisconsin Sect - Studying Everything Except One Thing Needful

 

Groups addressing same old same old

Any number of groups have been carrying out their assignments to address various issues that are important to our called workers, congregations, accountants, and members. Here is an update on those groups and their assignments.

The Ministry Recruitment task force - already described exhaustively in a previous issue of Together - is set to have even fewer ministers
Chaired by Rev. Paul Prange, this task force was formed as a result of a resolution passed by the 2023 synod convention due to the significant shortage of pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. Its assignment is to look at all factors that impact the recruitment of called workers and bring recommendations for a synodwide effort to recruit and train more called workers. It will bring its recommendations to the 2025 synod convention.

Task force on critical theories about going with the flow
Chaired by Rev. Snowden Sims, this task force was assigned to evaluate the topic of critical theories and provide guidance to WELS called workers and members on how to understand and address these philosophies in light of Scripture. The task force will submit its recommendations to the Conference of Presidents, which will then produce and distribute a pastoral brief on the subject.

Theology curriculum task force celebrating the worst ever NIV
The theology curriculum task force is currently in an 18-month development of the components necessary for future content writers to create new instructional materials for WELS schools to use for the instruction of God’s Word. The task force wants the new curriculum to hold fast to our purposes of sharing God’s Word in its truth and purity with the next generation and meet the needs of increasingly diverse classrooms. One of its goals is to provide a curriculum that is primarily digital in format, which will make it possible to update the curriculum on an ongoing basis. The task force chairman is Mr. Jim Rademan. Mrs. Melanie Giddings is the curriculum coordinator.

Long-range committee Peter Drucker (tm) strategic planning task force
Chaired by Rev. Jonathan Hein, this task force is developing a new synod long-range strategic plan that will guide all areas of synodical mission and ministry. The six-year plan, entitled “Christ through us” (the theme of the 2025 synod convention), will be presented to the synod convention in 2025.

175th anniversary planning committee for the 200th, if we make it.
Chaired by Prof. Joel Otto, the committee has already begun to make plans for the celebration of the synod’s 175th anniversary in 2025. The theme for that celebration will be the same as the theme for the 2025 convention (“Christ through us”). Plans include a book that provides a pictorial history of the synod, video vignettes, an interactive online history of WELS, and a synodwide celebration Sunday in the fall of 2025.

Gender, sexuality, identity
A standing committee (not a perpetual task force), chaired by Rev. Greg Lyon, is developing resources for pastors, congregations, parents, and young people to help them deal with transgender and same-sex attraction issues that are becoming more common in our society and culture. We are trying to cut back on the gay activities and fun in prep school, GA, and college events. If pastors cross-dress with their elders at a church picnic, we will honor the pastor for his flexibility, wardrobe choices, and makeup.

Man/woman roles
The Conference of Presidents is continuing its work to develop its 15th pastoral brief on man/woman roles. The brief will be distributed as soon as it is completed.

Please remember these groups as they work to address important issues Mequonly, biblically, and evangelically.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder

Chick Peas? Chick Peas! What Are You Going To Do with Chick Peas!?

 

Don't let's tell everyone - Ducreux!

The Walmart pharm tech asked about my grocery chart and said, "Chick Peas? Chick Peas! What are you going to do with Chick Peas!?

Healthline Summary of Chick Peas aka Cicero Beans

Chickpeas also provide a variety of vitamins and minerals, as well as a decent amount of fiber and protein. A 1-cup (164-gram) serving of cooked chickpeas offers (1Trusted Source):

• Calories: 269
• Protein: 14.5 grams
• Fat: 4 grams
• Carbs: 45 grams
• Fiber: 12.5 grams
• Manganese: 74% of the Daily Value (DV)
• Folate (vitamin B9): 71% of the DV
• Copper: 64% of the DV
• Iron: 26% of the DV
• Zinc: 23% of the DV
• Phosphorus: 22% of the DV
• Magnesium: 19% of the DV
• Thiamine: 16% of the DV
• Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
• Selenium: 11% of the DV
• Potassium: 10% of the DV

I have not looked over all the beans and lentils, but I found this bean (WM generic) was relatively low in salt and loaded with nutrition, protein, and fiber - very satisfying.

A mix of unprocessed, frozen, and fresh food will provide most of the medicine a store can provide. 

In contrast, prescription drugs address symptoms and may relieve them - a gamble. Prescription drugs can be quite dangerous. Over the counter remedies are shockingly expensive and very close to useless. Some over the counter brands are dangerous and expensive, such as promoting huge amounts of protein, loads of sugar and milk, plus ingredients to provide bogus energy.

These are super foods that outshine others in promoting health:

Cruciferous plants - the ones your mother forced on you when you wanted Coco-Puffs and chocolate milk instead -

• Kale - "beats them all."
• Broccoli - "another top contender"
• Brussels Sprouts - "baby cabbages, can be delicious"
• Cabbage - "German vitamins"
• Collards. "not just for poor people anymore."

Blueberries are the superfood of fruits, low in sugar, delicious, great for stew and old-fashioned oatmeal.

Mushrooms are anti-cancer, no calories, no fat, and a subtle addition to many foods, yea even oatmeal and stew.

The total grocery bill will collapse from the lack of dollars spent. If a single item like blueberries seems high, do not measure them in dollars but in Quarter Pound Meals. I see that QPM at $9.95 here, but I never go there anymore. One large box of blueberries - $6.00.  The QPM is comprised of grease, salt, greasy salty cheese, and greasy salty french fries, with some protein. The cola adds salt and sugar or fakey sugar. 

This is mean, but I have to do it. 

1. Add up all the fastfood meals and coffee shop drinks/desserts for one week. 
2. Keep the grocery store receipt and compare with no pizza, no soda pop, no cheese and milk products, candy, prepared desserts and processed meals. 
3. Consider - the Walton family did not grow rich on leafy greens, beans, fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

Dr. Greger's website provides essay and videos - for free - on more topics that anyone can name. 

Rain Is Coming And the Daffodils Are Finishing Their Display

 

Digger, aka Charlie Sue, loves her dog friends along the south and north fences, plus the pug near the north fence. Charlie has raced Dustmop so often that I can easily get them running along the fence as I yell, "Race, race!" She has coached the Doggie Day Care bunch to run back and forth too. She is a Patterdale Terrier, a prankster and speed demon.

This year's daffodil harvest has been splendid, even with echoes of "You don't need more flowers."

Everyone enjoys daffodils, but they are not widely planted around here. Recently I put several daffodils into tall party cups for each of the homes on our cul-de-sac. Flowers on altar also move to the neighbors. Our Laotian neighbor loved getting the daffodils, so I urged her to take home one or more of the scented hyacinths. Yesterday, cutting the last of the flowers led me into harvesting the last white hyacinth, which traveled across the street. 

The daffodils wanted to finish up, but I cut their dying flowers off to let the bulbs get more energy for next year, instead of letting the flowers go to seed.

Now I am checking rose bushes to see which ones are thriving and which died during our brief winter cycles. Snow packed winters are far more friendly to roses, but Arkansans are not looking for blankets of snow - or any snow.

Hostas are emerging from the ground - all over. When we transfer hostas from the front yard to the backyard, they leave some roots behind and start more. The front hostas are getting much more colorful, and the brightest ones do not like a lot of sun.

It is time to fill up the hummingbird feeders, this time along the Doggie Day Care fence. I added some Cinnabon bushes along the north fence last fall and hope to have a combination of Clethra (Cinnabon) and sugar water. Humming birds expect food and love to probe the tiny Clethra flowers wit their tiny beaks.

Another feature - cow squares. They are like chicken wire, heavy duty and easy to place. They are perfect tools for growing climbing plants. That started with my honeysuckle vine and will continue with such amenities as cucumbers and climbing beans.

Long ago I coveted a member's dog who dug up moles. When I got Charlie Sue I soon learned that her instincts were indeed powerful in finding small underground animals. That has given her the muscles of a wrestler and astonishing speed. She yaks all the time at her dog friends and the children playing on the trampoline. Inside, she is quiet but intent on training the staff.

 Clethra, or sugar spice, or Cinnabon bush.
Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds love it.

Protestia - Presbyterians Consider Even More Tolerance - Echoes of United Lutheran Seminary

 

Presbyterian Denomination Considers Barring Ordination of Clergy Who Aren’t LGBTQ-Affirming+ Make it Non-Negotiable

"The scant number of remnant congregations within the PCUSA may soon dip even further after it was revealed the .... denomination is taking up the legislation this summer in Salt Lake City at its upcoming 226th General Assembly that would prohibit the ordination of clergy candidates who aren’t LGBTQ-affirming." 

ELCA's United Lutheran Seminary - Office of the President

The Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin was appointed president of United Lutheran Seminary and Ministerium of Pennsylvania Chair and Professor of Reformation Studies on August 1, 2020. Prior to this appointment, he was fourth bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Therea Latini was previously serving as a Presbyterian professor at ELCA's Luther Seminary.

From The American Conservative:

"ELCA is so “committed to unity among people of different views of sexuality” that one of its seminaries has been thrown into a spasm of angst over the fact that its president once held mainstream Christian views that she has long since repudiated. More recently, the seminary board chairman resigned over the controversy, which is spreading:

A joint letter from the Lutheran Students of Harvard Divinity School and the Union Theological Seminary noted that many Lutheran students at those two institutions finish their pre-ordination studies at United Lutheran (and previously did so at one of the two seminaries that merged). The letter said that this tradition has been “jeopardized by the past statements of President Latini and the recent, deceptive actions of the ULS board.”

So now they believe that Theresa Latini’s cooties will have retroactively infected them. Wow. Progressive Donatism in our time."

***

Sponsored by the Women's Ordination Conference

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Palm Sunday Epistle - "And during his suffering on the cross he, with divine power, gave to the murderer the promise of Paradise. Luke 23:43. And in the garden, similarly, he repelled the multitude by a word. John 18:6."

 

Epistle Sermon for Palm Sunday ->Complete Epistle Sermon Here

15. Unquestionably, then, Paul proclaims Christ true God. Had he been mere man, what would have been the occasion for saying that he became like a man and was found in the fashion of other men? and that he assumed the form of a servant though he was in form divine? Where would be the sense in my saying to you, “You are like a man, are made in the fashion of a man, and take upon yourself the form of a servant”? You would think I was mocking you, and might appropriately reply: “I am glad you regard me as a man; I was wondering if I were an ox or a wolf. Are you mad or foolish?” Would not that be the natural rejoinder to such a foolish statement? Now, Paul not being foolish, nor being guilty of foolish speech, there truly must have been something exalted and divine about Christ. For when the apostle declares that he was made like unto other men, though the fact of his being human is undisputed, he simply means that the man Christ was God, and could, even in his humanity, have borne himself as divine. But this is precisely what he did not do; he refrained: he disrobed himself of his divinity and bore himself as a mere man like others.

16. What follows concerning Christ, now that we understand the meaning or “form of God” and “form of a servant,” is surely plain. In fact, Paul himself tells us what he means by “form of a servant.” First: He makes the explanation that Christ disrobed, or divested himself; that is, appeared to lay aside his divinity in that he divested himself of its benefit and glory. Not that he did, or could, divest himself of his divine nature; but that he laid aside the form of divine majesty — did not act as the God he truly was.

Nor did he divest himself of the divine form to the extent of making it unfelt and invisible; in that case there would have been no divine form left.

He simply did not affect a divine appearance and dazzle us by its splendor; rather he served us with that divinity. He performed miracles. And during his suffering on the cross he, with divine power, gave to the murderer the promise of Paradise. Luke 23:43. And in the garden, similarly, he repelled the multitude by a word. John 18:6.

Hence Paul does not say that Christ was divested by some outside power; he says Christ “made himself” of no repute. Just so the wise man does not in a literal way lay aside wisdom and the appearance of wisdom, but discards them for the purpose of serving the simple-minded who might fittingly serve him. Such man makes himself of no reputation when he divests himself of his wisdom and the appearance of wisdom.