Roughly 100 People Attended Today's Funeral for David W. Preus. Thirty Are Clergy

 

This made a good graphic; I saw the extra s on Preus.
Someone fixed it before the service. The speakers and singers wore masks until they spoke or sang. Then they remasked. 

ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton spoke - a homiletics 101 ditty - no substance. She referred to 2009 but did not identify the significance. 

Preus was for justice, but not for the Scriptures and the Book of Concord, if I am parsing the many speeches and sermons. He was a good guy. He encouraged people. He shaped the 20th century Lutheran Church. I am glad someone was willing to blame him. 

The leaders of the service - speakers and singers - were mostly women.

 Someone sang this song, which apparently relieved the preachers of speaking about Jesus. Justice and joy are delightfully vague replacements.

Pastor Peter Nycklemoe, the senior pastor at Central, gave an icky sweet giggly address. His theological ineptitude focused on Jesus not saying heaven was a place, only that we would be with Him. That reminded me of the many ways LCA/ALC leaders put their rationalistic dogmatic stamp on the Scriptures.

Nycklemoe graduated from Luther Seminary, which has melted down faster than the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz.

As someone who escaped ELCA even before the merger, I find their jolly affirmation of justice galling. Now the radical Left owns the endowments, properties, and pension plans, everything but the Gospel.

Broken Steeple - An Act of God

 

 ALC President David W. Preus - what does his crooked smile suggest? 
His funeral is  2 PM today at Central Lutheran, Minneapolis.

Central is where the ELCA met to begin its final meltdown phase.
David W. Preus' ALC sponsorship of the movement laid the foundation for this vote.

There was one dissenting voice immediately after The Vote in 2009: a tornado struck suddenly and did this to the steeple. Insurance calls this "An Act of God."

 ELCA ordinations are much more interesting now.

In San Francisco, ELCA's HerChurch, similar to Central Lutheran in Minneapolis, began as a Scandinavian parish.

Reactions - Mine and Theirs - To David W. Preus

 

ALC President David W. Preus in his later years.

The ALPBers are explicating the Preus saga for everyone. One issue is - "Would David Preus have been better than Herb Chilstrom as the first ELCA bishop."

For them, everything is a matter of management, politics, and where someone was born. No one there wants to say that two national synods (plus Seminex) merged into one crippled, radical cage of birds.

The answers are really theological. Business mergers do not ask about church affiliation, so church mergers should not be obsessed with business theories. The LCA was modeled after General Motors.

The three candidates for ELCA Bishop were ALC Bishop Preus, LCA Bishop Crumley, and Minnesota Bishop Herb Chilstrom, who won in 1987.

• I met Preus at a convention and heard him speak, 
• had dinner at Ad Fontes with Crumley, where he asked me about WELS, and 
• had dinner with Chilstrom at a Michigan pastors' event. He asked about my dissertation, since A. D. Mattson was his Augustana Seminary professor. "With Lowell O. Erdahl, he is the author of Sexual Fulfillment: For Single and Married, Straight and Gay, Young and Old." Wiki.

Chilstrom died last year, about age 90. Crumley died in 2015, also at the age of 90.

I wrote to David Preus about his enthusiasm for Reformed-Lutheran communion. He was all for it and mocked the Real Presence (which Calvinists deny) in his letter back to me. He quoted the previous ALC President, which he must have imagined authoritative.

Preus' ALC was also the church body that endorsed Lutherans Concerned. Irony alert - the other Lutheran in the Yale Biblical program (STM, PhD) was Stan Olson, who became a professor at Luther Seminary (ALC), got gendered out of the seminary to pastor in New Ulm, then became bishop of the SW Minnesota Synod, then onto NYC to hold one of the top positions at headquarters, then short interim stays at Cap Seminary (Trinity, Columbus) and Luther Seminary, Decorah. Obviously the grand merger of ELCA was falling apart - largely due to the ELCA leaders flaunting and repudiating Biblical norms.

The ELCA merger was a strengthening of union with the Calvinists (LCMS-WELS, too, via Thrivent), Roman Catholics, and dying sects like the United Church of Christ, which really had no doctrine except to work with everyone. Various leaders of the ALC and LCA figured that success meant following the pressure groups with the biggest clout and the most to gain.

Faithless people are not going to enjoy the fruits of the Spirit, and church bodies led by those who hate Biblical doctrine will never prosper.

 ELCA published both photos, so I was happy to show how Olson looked when he was called up to do his political duties at an ELCA convention. Mark Hanson was the ELCA Bishop at that time.

Former ALC President David W. Preus, Age 99, Died August 1. Minneapolis Star Tribune Obituary

 

 David W. Preus, 1922-2021

Minneapolis Star Tribune obituary

Review of Pastor and President, a book written by David Preus.

Preus family history - a small sample.

Preus, David Walter David Walter Preus, loving husband and father, Lutheran bishop and pastor, civic leader and World War II veteran, passed away peacefully on Friday, July 23, 2021, due to complications from heart failure. Three of David's major themes in life were "Jesus, Justice and Joy." He came from a long family line of church leaders. 

He was born May 28, 1922, in Madison, Wisconsin. He spent most of his boyhood in Decorah, Iowa, where his father was a pastor and president of Luther College, and his mother was an accomplished musician and created a joyful and welcoming home. He studied and played basketball at Luther College where his Coach Hamlet (Pete) Peterson called him his "bread and butter man." 

David graduated from Luther College in 1943. He and his four brothers enlisted in the U.S. armed services. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence until 1946 where he learned the Japanese language with overseas duty in the Philippines and Japan. 

Following World War II, he went to a year of Law School at the University of Minnesota and completed Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul; he was ordained in 1950. David took post-graduate studies at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) in 1951-52. 

As a pastor and President/Presiding Bishop of the American Lutheran Church (ALC), servant leadership infused his life's work. He served as a parish pastor for 23 years in Brookings, SD, Vermilion, SD and Minneapolis, MN. During his 15 years as Presiding Bishop of the ALC he also served as Vice President of the Lutheran World Federation and as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. 

In 1988, he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at Luther Seminary and Director of its Global Mission Institute. During his later retirement he continued to engage in preaching, writing, and other forms of service. Long an advocate of participation by church members in civic and community affairs, David was a member and chair of the Minneapolis School Board, the Minneapolis City Planning Commission, and other civic organizations in the Twin Cities. He actively supported equal opportunities in housing, civil rights and civil rights legislation at city, state and national levels. 

One of his special attributes was his ability to actively seek out people from all faiths and backgrounds to work together toward a common good. He was at home speaking with and working with local leaders, church leaders from all faiths, four presidents of the United States of America, and leaders from other countries. For example, he met with John Paul II about ecumenical opportunities, worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to address social justice topics at a Lutheran youth event, and joined Vice President Mondale on work trips abroad. 

The Minneapolis Star Tribune named him one of the 100 most influential Minnesotans of the 20th century. Over the years David received recognition from a wide variety of sources, including many honorary doctorate degrees, the Commander's Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, the Torch of Liberty award from the Anti-Defamation League, the St. Thomas Aquinas award from the College of St. Thomas, and the Pax Christi award from St. John's University. Friends established an annual David W. Preus Servant Leadership Award. Friends and neighbors remember his love of nature, stewardship and joyful spirit. 

With a cabin in northern Minnesota, David enjoyed tending to the land. Every summer one heard his chainsaw humming and saw his newly planted pine seedlings growing. At his home in Minneapolis he planted colorful tulips each fall, with hope for beauty in the spring. He literally whistled and sang while working outdoors. He loved a good game of golf. 

David cherished time with his family. He enjoyed playing various outdoor and indoor games, doing crosswords, and making blueberry pancakes for his grandchildren. He is survived by his beloved wife, Ann Margaret Overgaard Madsen Preus, whom he met and married 70 years ago in Brookings, SD, and five children, Martha, David A. (Carmenza), Stephen (Martha), Louise, and Laura (Michael), nine grandchildren, Natalie (David John), Christian (Robekkah), Katharine, Andrew, Daniel, Brita, Johan, Nathan, and Annabel, two great-grandchildren, Raegan, Ryder, and many nieces, nephews, relatives and friends. 

A service and inurnment will be held at 2:00 pm at Trinity Lutheran Church in Laporte, MN, on Sunday, August 1. A Celebration of Life service will be held at Central Lutheran Church at 333 S. 12th Street, Minneapolis, 2:00 pm, on Thursday, August 5. There will be a visitation at 1 pm, and fellowship and refreshments after the service. Livestreaming of the 2:00 pm service on August 5 will be available at: centralmpls.org Memorial Donations may be made to Luther College or donor's preferred designation. Washburn-McReavy.com Hillside Chapel 612-781-1999

Published on August 1, 2021