Questions - Where Does This Church Come From? The Pastor Was a Favorite Student of...?

ABOUT ILLUMINE

Illumine is a new church. We started in May of 2013 and officially launched public worship services on April 13th, 2014. We exist so that Christ may shine brilliantly on us, in us, and through us. To that end, we focus on worship (Christ shining on us), education (Christ shining in us), and community service (Christ shining through us.) On a given day, you might see us volunteering, gathering in a home or conference room for a class, preparing for worship, or praying together for each other and York County. 

Illumine welcomes everyone. Everyone needs a chance to refresh - that's our Sunday morning. Everyone deserves a chance to grow and be more than they were before - that's our education goal. Everyone benefits when we serve those around us - that's why we aren't working unless we're reaching out to the community. We'd like your input in this process. We'd like your help with this process. We'd like you engaged in this process. Get in touch anytime: illuminechurch@gmail.com & (803) 810-9398.

***

GJ - The symbol - Trinitarian? I think not. We have an energy saving light to represent the fight against global warming, a flame to represent process, and an old-fashioned toilet bowl chain to flush this down.

Process means, "We will keep talking until you agree." Diaprax.

My informants say this is a WELS congregation, that the pastor (or should I say facilitator) is a favorite of James Centerline Tiefel.

Mary Thompson on the WELS Process - Diaprax

Listening to the audio of the segment of resolutions re: the Bible Translation issue was enlightening only to confirm how methodically the dialectic process management has permeated WELS since it adopted the PPBS (management by objectives system) in late 1960's.   Where have the serious pastors and laymen been for  the forty six years they have failed to recognize what has been done unto them and allowed themselves to be manipulated.  

When the agenda to get rid  of the KJV began in earnest, the scenario was first to convince laypeople that 20th Century readers were incapable of understanding the KJV.  Then came the questionnaires designed to foster agreement with that premise.  The planners and programmers having destroyed confidence in  KJV as a vehicle to reach the unchurched with the Word., the process (and it is a managed process) began to convince WELS members that any other translation would be better than KJV, so using any or all of them out there was encouraged.   Bible classes became exercises in asking, "what does your bible say?" instead of "Thus saith the Lord".  When that planned phase of obfuscation had run it's course, the process of facilitating to acceptance of one (anything but KJV) translation was necessary.   NIV was the choice of the planners and the programmers, and the pastors and laymen followed without a whole lot of  ripples.   The strongest objectors had long since been removed or departed.  That is called identifying objectors and removing same.  It's all explained in books and training  manuals for change agents to operate in  any segment or society or organization.

A couple generations have now been raised on NIV, and can only argue from the NIV platform in relation to the even worse NNIV.  Until WELS pastors and laypeople understand the Hegelian Dialectic Process, they will never grasp what has been done and continues to be done unto them.

It is a PROCESS  with identifying terminology.   I was struck by the mention of a next phase taking five to seven years.   Doesn't anyone remember  the old Soviet Union's ongoing five year plans?  Anyone who has observed or is involved with managing by objectives is very familiar with five to seven year plans as the process grinds to what  has already been decided to be accepted.  That is why it is called PROCESS.

It operates in, under and around the show of resolutions at conferences with delegates unable or unwilling to think for themselves and do some homework which would reveal what they don't want to know.  

***

GJ - The same process was used to close down Northwestern College, a move as unpopular as promoting the New NIV. Everyone got to vote, and they hated the idea. They kept pushing the idea until people stopped resisting. When the WELS leaders in charge flipped the actual results, because the amalgamation vote actually failed at the convention, no one objected and the election committee was too chicken to tell the truth. The districts had to ratify this illegal move, and they stood mute while Gurgle said it would only cost $8 million, or they would pull the plug. But the contracts were already signed, Gurgle said, and they could not stop. So they were "voting" on nothing. It was a done deal as soon as the election committee rolled over and played dead.

One can blame the process factories or blame the sheep that volunteer their millions each year to go through this charade.

Gurgle was supposedly told to resign. Schroeder was going to fix things, but he is even more of an enabler than Gurgle was.

ChurchMouse has written about Diaprax.

Numb Them Up First - Diaprax

I had the misfortune of stepping on broken glass in the kitchen. The big chunk came out, but glass tends to sliver and fragments do not show up on an x-ray. The podiatrist explained that to me as he prepared to dig for glass and take it out. To operate, all he had to do was spray something on the bottom of my foot to make it numb. In a few seconds he was able to dig around, clean the wound, and find some fragments.

I had to come back, too.

The Lutheran Left works the same way. They numb people up first, then operate to remove the Gospel. Give them the credit they deserve - they have succeeded, decade after decade.

When Paul Kuske, Floyd Stolzenburg, and Roger Zehms started Pilgrim Community Church, some people were a bit shocked. Naturally, Kuske denounced me at a conference meeting for daring to question the dishonesty of the enterprise.

But PCC could find no takers for their generic mission, so they folded. Denying the liturgy, confessions, and hymns, they sank beneath the waves with watery groan, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

Lutherans used to be shocked at leaders denying the Lutheran name "to be successful." No more. The synods love it and fund it, punishing anyone who objects.

One LCA leader (LCA!) screamed about entertainment evangelism and threw the magazine down from the pulpit during his sermon. In contrast, Roger Kovaciny swore about my paper on the Means of Grace and threw it from his pew during the conference. My essay became the last chapter in Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure.

Readers can look around and see vast multitudes numb about what is going on in their church bodies. If the same things had been out in the open a decade ago, screams of pain would have been heard at headquarters and acted upon. No longer.

The process continues. Numb it up. Diaprax. Look up that term - diaprax.

Support the Diaprax - Process. University of Tennessee Pulls Funding for “Sex Week” | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

"Of course, you should go. The chancellor supports the process."
"Don't go. State funds should not be used for this."

University of Tennessee Pulls Funding for “Sex Week” | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes:

"By Todd Starnes

Organizers of the University of Tennessee’s first-ever “Sex Week” will have to find a new source of funding after embattled university officials reversed course and announced they will not fund the controversial program with state tax dollars.

Follow Todd on Facebook for Culture War News! Click here to join!

“We support the process and the students involved, but we should not use state funds in this manner,” Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said in a statement.

Cheek made the announcement after reviewing “Sex Week’s” final agenda. As a result, the student-led event will be forced to find $11,145 in additional funding. The university will continue to let the group use $6,700 in student fees.

UT System President Joe DiPietro said he supports the decision."

'via Blog this'

Loyal WELS Member - On the NNIV.Diaprax Says, "When Do You Want To Approve the NNIV? Now or Next Convention?"

Moo, the NNIV salesman from Wheaton College,
is the WELS expert on the NNIV's superiority.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/02/wels-your-diaprax-is-showing.html


Yup. NIV2011 or <b>else!</b>

Even if they do vote for option 2, do we really expect to see anyone who gets published in official synod propaganda to admit that the NIV2011 is inferior to the ESV or HCSB by using either of those translations? 

Why limit it to just those 3 options? Why not add the KJV in? We used it for decades, or is the KJV now heresy, since it is clear on justification by faith alone?

So yeah, the translation of this report from WELS-speak to normal
English is:

"Vote for the NIV2011 now, or vote for option 2 and we'll continue complaining about how bad the ESV and HCSB are compared to the NIV2011 until the next synod convention, where, since all articles and materials will have been published with the NIV2011, we'll bring this vote thing up again. And don't you dare think about using something other than these three!"

WELS - Your Diaprax Is Showing. Translation Evaluation Committee report | Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)

Translation Evaluation Committee report | Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS):

WELS' Translation Evaluation Committee has completed its report for delegates to the 2013 synod convention. In the report, the committee outlines two options that it sees for deciding which Bible translation to use in WELS publications going forward.

In "Option 1," WELS adopts NIV 2011 for use in materials produced by Northwestern Publishing House (NPH). In "Option 2," WELS does not adopt a single Bible version for use in its publications at this time, and NPH uses whichever version of these three (ESV, HCSB, NIV 2011) seems best for the passage cited and the publication in which the biblical text will appear ("eclectic approach").

WELS' Translation Evaluation Committee was created in 2010 when news was received that the NIV 84, the official translation currently used in WELS publications, was being phased out and replaced with what is often referred to as NIV 2011. The committee consists of Rev. Paul Wendland, president of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary; Rev. John Braun, vice president of publishing at Northwestern Publishing House; Rev. Kenneth Cherney Jr., professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary; Rev. Thomas Nass, professor at Martin Luther College; and Rev. Joel Petermann, president of Michigan Lutheran Seminary.

Over the past three years, the Translation Evaluation Committee has thoroughly researched the NIV 2011 along with other versions, notably the English Standard Version (ESV) and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). In 2012, the committee coordinated a review of these three translations in which the entire Bible was divided into 34 sections. Three WELS pastors were assigned to review each section in each translation, totaling 102 reviewers. Each reviewer noted the strongest and weakest passages in each translation, along with each translation’s appropriateness of English style and its overall acceptability for WELS as a publication translation.

The results of the review confirmed the committee’s conclusions that each translation has strengths and weaknesses. The majority of reviewers preferred the NIV 2011, with 86 percent of the reviewers rating the NIV 2011 higher than the ESV in overall acceptability for their section and 70 percent rating the NIV 2011 higher than the HCSB. In all of the 34 sections, at least one reviewer rated NIV 2011 the best.

As the Translation Evaluation Committee notes in its report to the 2013 synod in convention, “From the ‘Review of the 102,’ our own findings, and literally hundreds of conversations in which we have participated in various forums around our synod, two options have emerged, given as Option 1 and Option 2. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but the Translation Evaluation Committee sees either as entirely defensible and viable. Our recommendation is that the synod would discuss the matter thoroughly in the coming months, and then choose either Option 1 or Option 2 at the synod convention.”

The committee outlines advantages and disadvantages to each option in its convention report. Paul Wendland, chairman of the committee, emphasizes, “As a committee we are convinced that all the precious truths of our faith are clearly taught in all the translations we have considered. They have all been translated by people who have a high view of Scripture and who see the Bible’s message centering in Christ.”

Examples to support the committee’s conclusions—as well as many other documents created by the Translation Evaluation Committee to keep WELS members informed on the translation discussion—can be found at www.wels.net/translation.

The committee’s work is isolated to choosing a translation for use in WELS publications. The synod does not mandate which translation congregations or members should use.

View an optimized online version of the report to the 2013 synod in convention.

Why not?

'via Blog this'

***

GJ - See ChurchMouse and RogueLutheran posts on diaprax.

Moo, the NNIV salesman from Wheaton College,
is the WELS expert on the NNIV's superiority.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/02/wels-your-diaprax-is-showing.html


Yup. NIV2011 or else!

Even if they do vote for option 2, do we really expect to see anyone who gets published in official synod propaganda to admit that the NIV2011 is inferior to the ESV or HCSB by using either of those translations? 

Why limit it to just those 3 options? Why not add the KJV in? We used it for decades, or is the KJV now heresy, since it is clear on justification by faith alone?

So yeah, the translation of this report from WELS-speak to normal
English is:

"Vote for the NIV2011 now, or vote for option 2 and we'll continue complaining about how bad the ESV and HCSB are compared to the NIV2011 until the next synod convention, where, since all articles and materials will have been published with the NIV2011, we'll bring this vote thing up again. And don't you dare think about using something other than these three!"

Denominations Are Dead: Evangelicals Agree That the System Cannot Be Fixed. Holy Mother Church Has Self-Destructed

Yesterday I was talking to someone with similar connections to mainline denominations, including my hometown. We had a name in common. I said, "He is the reason I became a Lutheran." The minister speaking had a chance at that man's library, when he retired. He could take any book he wanted. "The trouble was," he said, "all the books were as shallow as he was. But he was known for being a good speaker."

We outlined some individual skirmishes. The Disciples of Christ, who are big in a swath from Illinois to Texas, would not ordain homosexuals. So they partnered with the United Church of Christ, who ordained homosexuals far earlier than anyone else. Any Disciple candidate who wanted to out himself could get ordained in the UCC and serve in the Disciples, because ordination was mutually accepted, based on their agreement.

And the Disciples refused to entertain even a watered-down inerrancy statement ("an option") because "it was credal. We have no creeds but the bobble." Para-church groups formed to battle this and they finally said, "Why are we bothering?" They dissolved their group within the Disciples and loosely affiliated after that time, leaving the Disciples as a group.

That will obviously be the trend from now on. Before the 2009 ELCA meeting I kept holding up the Episcopal Church as an example where serving bishops were taking their dioceses out of the The Episcopalian Church (TEC) as a whole. I never expected ELCA bishops to do the same, and not one serving bishop ever tried. But the retired ELCA bishops did join the movement out of ELCA after 2009 (ordination of homosexuals approved). At last count, six retired ELCA bishops were organizing NALC, a group parallel to the older LCMC.

The local ELCA church lost 2/3rds of its Sunday attendance after 2009. An LCMC congregation formed from the exiles.

ELCA began shrinking by 20%. Naturally, the ELCA bishop Mark Hanson and TEC's bishop Katie Schori, went to work to ensure their dominance and control - at any cost.

My friends in blogging and writing - ChurchMouse, California, and Rogue Lutheran - have all dealt with this phenomenon - Diaprax. Every issue becomes a process, a way of resolving it so the leaders get their way.

The denominations do not fear political action - they welcome it. The ambush is already prepared for each and every attempt. "Sure let's have a meeting where this is discussed." They identify the dissenters and pick them off, one by one. Some are frightened away. Others are bribed - I have names. The persistent are targeted in various ways.

The persistent are going to be a minority. I noticed from a profile (Keirsey - free test) that Idealists are a minority. An Idealist is going to address issues according to principle rather than by what's-good-for-me. The persistent buckle and surrender - or they are driven away and shunned.

Look at the dullards and belly-servers who are SynCon DPs and SPs. And their history! No matter what the name of the man, the last 50 years have shown their eagerness to work with ELCA (or predecessors) for money and the warm glow of approval from apostates.

They are the apostasy enablers.

No one is more dangerous than the pastor or synodocat who pretends to oppose error and flips when it matters most.

Jon Buchholz is a good example of someone who agreed to sign the secret petition about Mark Jeske. He was known for being a DP "concerned" about the situation, stymied like poor helpless Mark Schroeder because the Gang of Four protected Jeske.

The only resolution at the convention, once the process took over, was one in favor of Jeske. And who spoke in support of that groveling, sycophantic motion? Jon Buchholz, California-Arizona DP, WELS, the Jedi Knight of Orthodoxy (in his mind).

As Henry  of Navarre once said, "The kingdom of France is worth a Mass" when he was forced to abandon his Protestant faith.

Buchholz was UOJ all the way, so I am not going to credit him with any scruples or doctrinal knowledge. He is simply one more example of someone eager to posture for a time, and even more eager to switch sides when convenient.

SP Schroeder and DP Buchholz are now adoring members of JELS:

JELS - the Jeske Emergent Legalistic Sect. 

Any questions? You are fired.

Using Process to Force the NNIV on WELS

http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/tag/diaprax/

churchmousec (http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "WELS Is Using Diaprax - The Process - To Move the ...":

'Unfortunately, the process works well.'

Sadly, it's been worked to a science, raklatt -- to the detriment of all. One of the Devil's best tricks. :/

Thank you, Dr Jackson, for the kind mention. My posts on diaprax, inspired by you and Rogue Lutheran, can be found here:

http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/tag/diaprax/

One of my conservative Christian readers who also has her own socio-political blog, Linda Kimball, has some interesting observations along this line, with regard to wealth redistribution. Please see her comment and my reply (pietists, be warned) here:

http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/force-and-cruelty-from-pastors-scatters-the-faithful/

Any feedback you might have in response or elucidation would be gratefully received.

Churchmouse

---

raklatt (http://raklatt.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "WELS Is Using Diaprax - The Process - To Move the ...":

This is not the first time for this kind of process. Back in the early 1990's, there was published a multi-page booklet for the pastors and/or leaders of congregational groups that was used to sell WELS' new Christian Worship hymnal. I studied the booklet thoroughly in disbelief. Those meetings, one of which I attended back then, were designed as persuasion. The justifications for the terrible texts of the creeds, and the texts and music of the liturgy, and the altered and dropped verses of the hymns, were contrived. The hymnal has been in use for a generation.

Unfortunately, the process works well. Imagine the effort at persuasion that will be needed when the next hymnal is published, if WELS has the money to publish another.

***

Dr. Moo at the cow-wash.

GJ - If everyone ducks and runs, the process works. I have seen the Process working but also failing in many different settings. For example, when the Lutheran Book of Worship (Liberal Book of Weirdness, conservative compared to WELS' CW) said they would not use "How Great Thou Art," they were flooded with 20,000 letters. I was told to write a letter to headquarters (the only time that ever happened to me). The Lutheran magazine pointed out that 20 letters on the same topic was considered a landslide response. The result was that the LCA/ALC backed down and later bragged that the new hymnal boasted "How Great Thou Art."

When the Methodists were going to print "Strong Mother God" as a hymn in their new masterpiece, the phone lines were so clogged that no one could get a call in or out for quite a few days. They backed down.

When Christian Worship came out, all the WELS pastors bought it -  and defended the atrocious, repugnant feminist Creeds - "fully human." I do not know of anyone who rejected Tiefel's effort. The ELS refused to participate, then lied about dropping out. One of the editors of CW was Iver Johnson, who capped his 50 year marriage with an affair with the church sexretary, whom he married.

So the real question is whether the members and pastors fight back or roll over and play dead...again.

Looking like the Portrait of Dorian Gray,
Lizard Hands says, "Trust me. The NNIV is so simple, the Mequon faculty can  understand it."

http://www.roguelutheran.com is another source of good research on  Diaprax.

---

Very important to read - from California:


Re:  "Diaprax-the Process- was used to move the sheep over the cliff to NNIV."    It wasn't the first time diaprax process was" used to move the sheep over a cliff."   It has been standard practice for WELS for decades and was used in 1970's to nudge the sheep over the cliff away from the KJV into free fall for any translation other than KJV.  At that stage of the game, it wasn't from the KJV cliff to a specific "new and improved translation", but to condition the sheep to  the accept whatever final choice was selected for them which turned out in due time to be NIV.   By then the sheep were grateful for any translation after some years of confusion and Bible classes comprised of participating in asking one another representing multiple translations: "what does yours say?" more than "thus said the Lord".


Apparently the sheep and shepherds  settled down to be content, or at least tolerate the NIV which was only a step less offensive than the NNIV which is alarming the sheep and some shepherds now.    Once that herding of the sheep over the cliff where KJV had dwelt for generations, the old NIV is apparently being mourned.   But that is how Diaprax works...gradualism as the old saying about boiling the frog goes.  The deliberate abandoning of the KJV was the first mistake.   Time lines are not necessarily tools for cause and effect, but they can be instructive to trace events and results of transitions.  How much peace, joy, and yes growth and well being has been the lot for WELS during the past 40 years?   One controversy after another.


Until and unless the sheep understand the process of Diaprax, aka The Dialectical Process, Management by Objectives PPBS by whatever name, they will always be subject to the misleading of the elite doing the planning and programing with the sheep  to be  facilitated into constant change and predetermined objectives.

---

churchmousec (http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Using Process to Force the NNIV on WELS":

'If everyone ducks and runs, the process works.'

Unfortunately, the process is specially designed to make every opponent duck and run. Think of the 2008 US presidential election ...

'Once that herding of the sheep over the cliff where KJV had dwelt for generations, the old NIV is apparently being mourned. But that is how Diaprax works...gradualism as the old saying about boiling the frog goes.'

Yes, that's it in a nutshell. So, not only do we have to bow to socialism but errant theology as well. Errgh.

Churchmouse

---

California says:

....I first heard the term "diaprax" years ago in connection with the work of Dean Gotcher, whose lectures and written material exposes what it is, and how it works.   I knew the system as being the same as what I and a few others ad encountered and figured out on our own  when researching and battling schools, then in WELS.  I had the privilege of attending one of Dean Gotcher's lectures in San Francisco Peninsula area some years ago.    A google search brings up lots of info and references to him, and his work exposing Diaprax which has engulfed nearly every facet of organized and/or public life, both secular and religious. His work may be useful to any future expose and explanation you suggested you may write in the near future.

DEAN GOTCHER

Institution for Authority Research

Box 233

Herndon, KS 67739 

deangotcher@gmail.com

Mr. Dean Gotcher is the founder and director of the Institution for Authority Research.  His background is in education and European history and philosophy.  His extensive research in the area of education reform has given him exceptional insight into what education reform is all about, who is responsible for the changes, whenthe reforms really started, and most importantly, why our system of education (and our entire nation) is being restructured.  

He is internationally known for his research, and is referenced as a source in many articles and books. He is a consultant to business managers, state legislators, school board members, school administrators, teachers, and Bible-based ministers; as well as a sought-after guest on radio talk-shows.   

He is the author of the booklets Dialectic and Praxis: Diaprax and the End of the Ages, (Vol 1 and 2) explaining the dialectic process which is the foundation of and justification for Goals 2000, Outcome-Based Education (OBE),  School-to-Work (STW), and the Church Growth and Emerging Church Movements. He also explains Total Quality Management (TQM), consensus, the Delphi technique, group dynamics, cognitive dissonance, paradigm shift, and their roles in restructuring society. 

Over the past sixteen years he has held over 4000 seminars and/or weekend conferences.  He shares in his seminars that the main goal of the process and those promoting it is to destroy any overt position of authority, especially parental authority.  As a Christian, he believes the ultimate authority is God and His Word.  He shares what God has to say to us today regarding the subject of authority and educating our children. 

Questions he will address in his presentation include:

*      What are the differences between traditional and transformational ways of thinking? 

*      How do they relate to OBE, TQM, STW, Goals 2000, Church Growth, and the Emerging Church? 

*      How do these processes affect the workplace, government, church, or family relations? 

*      How do these processes destroy faith in God?

 

Recommendations: 

Dean Gotcher is THE expert on the Hegelian dialectic or consensus process at the heart of Total Quality Management and the new global management system.  Schools, corporations, community groups, and governments are implementing this manipulative system of teaching, training, monitoring, and manipulating people (derogatively calling them "human resources") around the world.

To avoid compromise and to equip our children, friends, and families to stand firm in God’s truth, we need to understand the goal and strategies of the consensus process.  I don’t believe anyone understands its danger better than Dean.  And no one is better equipped to help Christians prepare to resist its subtle and overt pressures to conform to the new global beliefs and values and to become ‘group thinkers.’  I recommend that everyone hear God’s warnings and encouragement through this wise and godly man. 

(Berit Kjos, author of Brave New Schools;  website:  crossroad.to) 

We have the highest regard for his Christian life style and commitment to ministry.  He is known as one of the most knowledgeable researchers in the country on the topic of educational psychology and theology.  He refutes the modern worldview with authority and responsible research, as well as a solid biblical foundation. 

Two-Timing Tyndale: WELS Ditching Biblical Scholarship for UOJ. January Diaprax

The Little Sect on the Prairie also likes to turn a
Gospel admonition into law - "Go manufacture disciples!"
rather than "Go, teach all nations."

The New NIV has already been approved by WELS. The franchise is simply waiting a bit to squash all opposition.

The next step is the January exercise in process (diaprax). Victims from all over WELS - two from each district, I believe - will gather at The Sausage Factory for some GA nostalgia.

Hold back the tears of laughter now. This is not a post from The WELS Potato. The participants will have an open discussion of the translations being considered (really only one).

This process will identify the boot-licking and ignorant friends of the NNIV while setting apart those who actually understand Biblical translation. Those who go along with the program will be rewarded while those who resist will be vilified behind their backs and punished in various ways.

Lying is basic to WELS management.
GA is based on lies, and still exists,
but they lie about that too.

The look on Paul Wendland's face during the convention discussion said it all - "How dare they question my authority and the majesty of my office?"

After this farce is over, the Dishonest Presidents will manipulate the upcoming meetings to approve the NNIV. They may even pull a Gurgle and say, "The presses are running at NPH already. We can't stop now!" (Feign a look of alarm and concern, for effect.)

The Gang of Four (Wisconsin plus Minnesota) will deliver roughly 75% of the WELS population to the NNIV. They are not alone in their doctrinal lassitude. If a district comes down against the NNIV, the minority will be condemned as extremists and Ichabodians. Even the ultra-polite Intrepids are dismissed as radicals.

The discussions and votes do not matter, except they serve as justification for the final decision. Only the feminist Shrinkers wanted Northwestern College merged into Dr. Martin Luther College, but amalgamation turned into a fact from all the fake participation and faux-votes. The ultimate vote failed, so amalgamation buddies turned the results around and reported a victory. It pays to have the power to appoint the ballot committee.

The only question is - will anyone fight this battle?

PS - Don't expect Synod President Mark Schroeder to show any leadership. He is utterly silent.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Two-Timing Tyndale: WELS Ditching Biblical Scholar...":

The attempted steamroll by Committee 19 can be watched here (Note: most of these men have been teaching the (W)ELS called workers - Clergy, teachers etc)

http://vimeo.com/channels/wels#27483517 

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Two-Timing Tyndale: WELS Ditching Biblical Scholar...":

Wendland begins his manipulation of the Convention attendees at 1:30:30

WELSians - Your Diaprax Is Ready To Be Served - By Church and Change

"Leadership - Fostering positive leadership through consensus and team ministry"
http://staffministry.net/resources.php?file=154

Jonathan Favorite

Director of Worship Arts

CrossWalk Luth. Ministries

Phoenix, AZ

http://staffministry.net/directory.php?sort=last_name&order=a&search=&page=3

Crosswalk - wait I thought Buchholz wouldn't have them in his district?

Our 2011 officers are:

            Chairman – Jonathan Favorite

            Vice Chairman – Kyle Swogger

            Secretary – Ben Carlovsky

            Treasurer – Levi Nagel

http://staffministry.net/resources.php?file=157

Buchholz blames Church and Change on the Boomers, but he has a nest of them himself.

Wait - this just in - the DP is "working on it. Be patient. It takes time."

Read This Comment and Visit the ELCA Seminary Website

You, Brett. Sit down. I'm not done explaining this.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "ELCA Members Are Intrepidly Holding the Bishop's F...":

Among Lutherans, Biblical study has always been done best in community. When the community explores the Word, sometimes long-held understandings are renewed. Other times, they yield to a new understanding, which is not simply a recent or rare occurrence.

Diaprax - Hegelian Dialectic in action. The method used to achieve acceptance of the New World Order Religion under the Antichrist.

***

GJ - I will now explore selected ELCA seminary sites to show what they brag about - their new insights into Biblical scholarship. The images and words will just be a taste, albeit a bad taste, of what they offer. Feel free to explore the websites on your own, remembering that they glory in their shame, as Paul warned in Romans 1.

Wartburg Seminary

 EXPERTISE:
Dr. Bailey has extensive knowledge in the following categories and is able to serve as a resource on:

• Biblical studies, with special interest in the Gospels and Paul's Letters.  [more narrowly, the Sermon on the Mount & Pauline Practices as Models for Today's Church]
• The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• Homosexuality and the Bible

David Lull:
Co-Editor, with William A. Beardslee, New Testament Interpretation from a Process Perspective, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 47/1 (1979).
Co-author, with John B. Cobb, Jr., and Barry A. Woodbridge, “Introduction: Process Thought and New Testament Exegesis,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 47 (1979): 21-30. Abstract: Few effective contacts have been made between recent process thought and New Testament studies. Work on one side seems little affected by work on the other. Partly responsible for this alienation, which is indicative of the relationship between contemporary theology and biblical studies in general, is the direction that biblical studies took under the leadership of Rudolf Bultmann, for whom empirical and socio-historical concerns were not germane to faith. Equally responsible is the direction that process theology took under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, who saw their task less as the explication of specifically Christian tradition and experience, and more as the elucidation of the general features of reality. Recently a body of literature in Old and New Testament studies that attempt to bridge this gap has been developed. Whatever importance the interaction between biblical studies and process thought may be for biblical scholarship, it is vital for process theology.

Craig L. Nessan, Th. D. Academic Dean & Professor of Contextual Theology E-Mail: cnessan@wartburgseminary.edu Office Number: 105 Fritschel Hall Office Phone: (563) 589-0207 Fax: (563) 589-0333

Draft Resolution on "Ending Hunger as a Core Conviction" (2004).  Downloadable in Adobe PDF or in MSWord formats.

Many Members, Yet One Body: Committed Same-Gender Relationships and the Mission of the Church.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress (2004)

Give Us This Day: A Lutheran Proposal for Ending World Hunger.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress (2003)

Wartburg Faculty Expertise - also includes theology

GETTYSBURG SEMINARY ANNOUNCES 2011 SUSPENSION OF GHOST TOUR ACTIVITY ON CAMPUS

(November 1, 2010)  The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg announced today that all permission for ghost tour activity on the Seminary’s campus will be suspended as of April 1, 2011.

No ghost tour groups will be allowed on seminary property as of that date until further notice, according to seminary staff. The decision stems from the prospect of construction of an historic walking pathway on the Seminary Ridge campus beginning in the spring of 2011. Conditions for an evening and night-time touring of the 52 acre campus will no longer be safe for visitors once construction begins.

Because of the potential for additional rehabilitation construction work in connection with Schmucker Hall beginning sometime thereafter, the Seminary is not announcing an expected date of an end to the suspension. “This is a simple matter of safety” said John Spangler, executive assistant to the seminary president. “Common sense says that the construction of the pathway will make it impossible to welcome those night time visitors,” he added, “but we believe this gives adequate notice to those few groups who have been using the space.”
The Seminary also noted that it does not sponsor or endorse the content of the ghost tours, and that the graduate and professional theological school does not receive compensation for the use of the campus grounds.

My Classmate Stanley Olson: There But For the Grace of God Go I

Both are official ELCA photos. The one on the right was cut out from the 2009 ELCA convention photo, when Olson went up to speak.His official bio on the ELCA website still says:"Olson was raised on an Iowa diary (sic) farm. He is a graduate of two ELCA colleges (Waldorf and St. Olaf) and of Luther Seminary."

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 5, 2010

Stanley Olson Elected President of ELCA's Wartburg Theological Seminary

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of directors of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, elected the Rev. Dr. Stanley N. Olson to be president of the seminary, effective Jan. 1, 2011, according to a Nov. 4 seminary news release. Wartburg Theological Seminary is one of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     Since 2005 Olson has served as executive director of the Vocation and Education program unit in the ELCA churchwide organization.

     "The Wartburg community gives thanks to God for the appointment of Dr. Olson as our president," said the Rev. James A. Justman, chair of the presidential search committee and chair of the Wartburg Theological Seminary board of directors.

     "His grace, strength, and integrity are gifts among many that will lead us in mission and inspire us to love and serve in Jesus' name," said Justman, who serves as bishop of the ELCA East-Central Synod of Wisconsin.

     The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, said Olson brings to his new role "exceptional gifts as a servant leader," and is a "wise theologian and collegial administrator."

     "In his ministry as parish pastor, seminary professor, synod bishop and churchwide executive, Stan has consistently asked how we serve the free course of the gospel and lift up the vocations of all the baptized," Hanson said. "As the former executive director of the Vocation and Education program unit, Dr. Olson is very familiar with and committed to the vocation of theological education in the ELCA, and the vital role of our seminaries in preparing leaders for a church engaged in God's mission."

     "With confidence in God and deep appreciation for the mission and people of Wartburg Theological Seminary, I accept this call to serve as president," Olson said. "Wartburg is a wonderful asset to the church. In these challenging times, the ELCA needs the kinds of leaders Wartburg is gathering and sending out. And, Wartburg needs the church to send the people who should be nurtured for leadership and the resources and partnerships that will make that possible."

     Olson will follow the Rev. David L. Tiede, the seminary's interim president who has served since July 1. Tiede was appointed interim president after the Rev. Duane H. Larson resigned as the seminary's president earlier this year to pursue other opportunities.

     In his current role, Olson, 64, has provided leadership for the ELCA's partnerships with seminaries, colleges and universities, lifelong learning programs, outdoor ministries and campus ministries, as well as supporting young adult and youth ministries, and guiding the ELCA candidacy program.

     From 2002 to 2005, Olson was executive director of the ELCA Division for Ministry. He served as bishop of the ELCA Southwestern Minnesota Synod from 1994 to 2002. Olson served as senior pastor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minn., and associate pastor of First Lutheran Church, Duluth, Minn.

     Olson also was an assistant professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, an ELCA seminary in St. Paul, Minn.

     Olson was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa and raised on a farm near Eagle Grove, Iowa. He holds degrees from Waldorf College [sold to an online school business - Dana College, also ALC, just closed], Forest City, Iowa, and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., one of 26 ELCA colleges and universities.  In 1972 Olson earned a master of divinity degree from Luther Seminary. He earned a doctorate in 1976 from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., where he wrote a dissertation on the New Testament.

     Olson is married to Nancy Olson, ELCA associate in ministry and member care coordinator at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Park Ridge, Ill. She is an organist, and has served as a parish music director and on the staff of a synodical resource center. The Olsons are parents of two adult daughters.

     During the meeting the board of directors also took action to sustain Wartburg Theological Seminary's financial strength, the news release said. The board approved a work plan for the seminary which identifies initiatives to be taken in the next three years to create stability and move from recovery to health. The board also voted to end two years of retrenchment, the release said.

***

GJ - Stan and I took Thessalonians, the Gospel of Mark, and NT Christology together at Yale. We went to the same LCA congregation (Augustana Synod) below the hill from Yale Divinity School. The YDS Lutheran faculty attended there, including Paul Holmer, Nils Dahl, George Lindbeck, Sidney Ahlstrand, and Jaroslav Pelikan.

Yale had a well deserved reputation for conservative Biblical scholarship. My Old Testament professor, Robert Wilson, had no use for the Documentary Hypothesis of the Age of Rationalism. Dahl and Malherbe emphasized the historical and grammatical interpretation of the text. Dahl knew all the theorists like Mowinkel and Bultmann - they were his professors.

During the year we also heard from Roland Bainton, honorary Lutheran, who was still lecturing. Krister Stendahl came from Harvard to lecture on Paul and see his granddaughter. Some people came for endowed speeches and found they were relegated to the basement, because there were so many like them.

Stan was quite enamored of church politics as a doctoral student. He wanted to be top dog and got to be a seminary professor and a bishop. I wondered if the quota system moved him out of the seminary position. He became head of a division in ELCA, which would have been one level down from Archbishop. They apparently ended the divisions during their many staff cuts. He remained in Chicago as head of an office.

Long ago, Stan was quoted in The Lutheran, congratulating his future seminary (Wartburg) for holding a joint communion service at the Presbyterian Seminary a mile away. That was the David Preus ALC initiative, since Crumley was snuggling up to Rome. If the LCA bishop could approach Rome, then the ALC Bishop could re-unite with the Reformed. I was still in the LCA and wrote Preus about it. He replied, making fun of my concerns.

Recently, Crumley and Preus were both quoted as saying they were sorry they got merger started. They never would have done it, if they had known what would develop under Bishop Chilstrom and the current poobah - Mark Hanson. Archbishop Mark still has his position, but many have lost theirs as hundreds of congregations have split in half or headed for the LCMC and NALC for refuge.

Anyone understanding Process or Diaprax would have realized that a quota-based ELCA was bound to become a denomination owned and managed by fringe elements of the far Left.

I said to an LCA group, before I left, "We are programmed and budgeted for failure." An LCA pastor said to the leader, "Is Greg right?" He was alarmed. The leader, who came from business, said grimly, "He is right."

The same is true for Missouri, WELS, and the rest today.

Stan was quite willing to go along with the 2009 ELCA homosexual mandates. All the old rules were re-written and the former exiles were welcomed into ELCA in little groups while members, pastors, and money fled in large groups.

I suspect Stan's job also went out the window in the latest round of cuts. If not, his position was handed to the Lavender Mafia as payment for keeping Archbishop Mark in power.

As anyone can see, Stan's college still exists in name, but no longer as the one he attended. Waldorf, in spite of its luxury name, was so broke that it had to be sold off to a for-profit business.

Likewise, the seminary is in deep yogurt financially, like many ELCA seminaries. I was in the Chicago seminary president's office when he said, "We cannot have three seminaries this close together." Iowa, Seminex, and (LSTC) Chicago were competing for the same students, even though they accepted male, female, and undecided. Chicago has had many mergers and coop arrangements since then and is still in trouble.

Stan will probably lead Dubuque smilingly into merger with Luther (a merger with Northwestern Sem) and LSTC (Augustana, ULCA, Central, Suomi merger). Following all mainline merger trends, the final Pan-Luther-Senm version will be a beautiful campus with endowed professorships of atheism and do-goodism and very few students.

Stan is the man for the job. He has gone along with ELCA's 23 years of mainline apostasy, the amen corner for every bad idea.

All I have to show is a few books and the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Stan and his co-workers have created two new denominations.
PS - Embedded in the article are the reasons why the story about Martin Luther College (WELS) closing is likely true. Waldorf and Dana had long histories of service, but they could not keep their doors open. Wartburg Seminary is in deep trouble, as the board minutes show. If the largest Lutheran group cannot keep its schools open, do WELS members think the same issues are not affecting their schools?

Get in a car at MLC in New Ulm, Many-snowta. The drive to Bethany Lutheran College and their five-student seminary will take about 45 minutes. From Mankato, drive to Willowcreek's Little College in Milwaukee. That can be completed in the same day, even with stops at all the custard stands along the way. The Sausage Factory in Mequon keeps getting smaller, too.

MLC gets more expensive and smaller each year. The Omega Point is approaching.

---

Craig L. Nessan, Th. D. Academic Dean & Professor of Contextual Theology E-Mail: cnessan@wartburgseminary.edu Office Number: 105 Fritschel Hall Office Phone: (563) 589-0207 Fax: (563) 589-0333  Personal Website:

COURSES:
HT 267W	Ethics in Lutheran Perspective
HT 363W	Dietrich Bonhoeffer
HT 394W	Liberation Theologies
IN 206W	Theology of the Congregation
MN 350W	Church and Ministry

PUBLICATIONS:

Draft Resolution on "Ending Hunger as a Core Conviction" (2004).  Downloadable in Adobe PDF or in MSWord formats.

Many Members, Yet One Body: Committed Same-Gender Relationships and the Mission of the Church.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress (2004)

Give Us This Day: A Lutheran Proposal for Ending World Hunger.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress (2003)

Diaprax and the ELCA Merger in 1987

Going along with the process has its rewards: Pastor Ski and Pastor Tim Glende, WELS.

Pastor Tim Glende is fond of stating what a fabulous education he has, which means no one can dispute anything he does or says. Graduating from two unaccredited schools is enough to make anyone vain, I suppose, even though he was a mediocre student.

Therefore, all the Sausage Factory graduates should be in awe of my experience, since I have the advantage of their stellar education plus other schools as well, including (ptui, ptui) Concordia, Ft. Wayne. Tim's uncle Brug and I were both at Yale, at different times. The Mequon professors are using their spare time (no students to speak of) to finish their degrees, to catch up with people like me. Perhaps they will write books some day.

I was at the meetings preceding the ELCA merger, which united the LCA, The ALC, and the Seminex bunch, based on their common unbeliefs. The merger was consummated in Columbus and officially began January 1, 1988.

Mrs. Ichabod and I attended the Chicago LCA convention of 1979, the Toronto LCA convention of 1984, and the ELCA convention in the Twin Cities. Needless to say, I knew a number of participants, bishops, leaders, managers, seminary professors and president. I had lunch with Bishop Crumley one time and Bishop Chilstrom another time.

ELCA began with a process. Those who are doing their homework know that this was Diaprax. There was a great show of universal participation in the whole shebang, so that no one would be left out. "We will read and consider every single suggestion." The ideas poured in, of course.

I could tell from the beginning that the entire merger was a fraud. The Diaprax began with quotas. The radicals who left the LCMS got the most people on the Commission for a New Lutheran Church. The other quotas were Black, female, and homosexual.

Anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature knew that the quotas would determine the outcome, because the outcome necessarily demanded quotas. That meant the straight, white male pastors with large churches lost decision making power to the misfits of society. The pro-abortion feminists logrolled with the homosexual lobby, and they dominated everything. Straight white male pastors with large congregations were the new minority. Bishops were set aside and made impotent, with the new Church Council ruling the roost. The bishops were allowed to meet and pass resolutions, which had no power.

Retired pastors previously had a voice and a vote at all district meetings. They lost both, but no one minded, since they were bound to oppose the Brave New Church Body envisioned by the quota people.

Traditionalists had to argue to include Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the ELCA constitution. The vote itself was a squeaker, 33-30, as I recall. The Commission denied that it happened, of course.

So, 22 years later, many in ELCA were rocked and shocked that their own quota-driven synod voted for homosexual, lesbian, bi-sexual, and trans-sexual pastors.

About 350 congregations have joined the LCMC since that assembly. Another group, the NALC, has formed under the leadership of six former ELCA bishops, including my first one - Kenneth Sauer.

That is why Missouri and WELS are headed exactly the same way. Both synods employ the same methods to control the agenda and quash dissent. That also explains why WELS and Missouri work happily with ELCA on a wide variety of projects while acting superior and holier than ELCA about doctrine. They all have the same doctrines - UOJ and Diaprax.

UOJ = everyone is forgiven, so there is nothing to argue about.

Diaprax = join in the process for making a brave, new world.

Time To Study Diaprax

Beware the synod that lets people oppose something, as long as they keep moving everyone along toward the final goal.

Churchmouse brought up a topic that addresses the current rush toward synod suicide - diaprax.

Diaprax relies on ‘felt needs’ and our ‘higher-order thinking skills’ (HOTS), sometimes called ‘human reasoning skills’.  Although it panders to elevated reasoning and thinking, it is in reality highly subjective and emotion-based.  Gotcher explains dialectic, which you have probably encountered in workshops either at school or work:

The first consideration of dialectic thought is how people relate to one another. This is the personal need each individual has for social relationship. The focus in satisfying these needs is not on what you think when you think about others—that is monodimensional thinking or the traditional way of thinking (didactic)—but how you think about others—that is multidimensional thinking or the transformational way of thinking (dialectic). The “others” you must think about include not only family, friends, community, established ideas, normal behavior, and traditional ways of doing things but also strangers, enemies, foreigners, innovative ideas, daring behavior, and new or different ways of doing things.

Note the other terms used for this: ‘multidimensional’ and ‘transformational’ ways of thinking.

He notes that dialectic would have stayed in a philosophical and socio-political realm had it not been developed and brought to the public at large beginning in the 1930s via ‘praxis’. 

I mentioned this topic to Brett Meyer, who told me he was already up to date on it. I wrote back - "Smarty pants."

I am sure California is also well informed. We have exchanged many emails about how WELS has changed itself into a failing mainline denomination. That began at least 40 years ago, so do not blame me or Ichabod, Deputy Doug.

I have provided the complete post below, with many links in it. Google the term and start studying the topic. This is your homework, Ichabodians. If you do not know this for yourselves, you will not be able to counter it.

I will write about it in the near future. Normally I do that in the morning, with fresh coffee and a host of typos.

I just want to warn people - If you think you can complain about something, or write a letter, or have a sit-down with a synod leader, you are delusional. Bureaucracies are set up to deal with dissent: to absorb it, deflect it, and turn it inside-out. The so-called Intrepids are perfect examples of this, finessed into promoting the false doctrine they dared to name.