Your Icha-peek for the Day: Churches Gone Wrong

 WELS has promoted Church Growth - and lied about it - since 1977. Ditto LCMS - they are a little more honest. "WELS is failing," a PhD at Martin Luther College has admitted. Is it too soon to ask Kelm, Jeske, and Company to apologize and hand over the loot they have, spoiling the Egyptians at Fuller?

Tal Bachman: Christians, Come Back

by Tal Bachman

The Bachman Beat

September 3, 2020

I remember when Christians used to actually believe in Christianity. Those were the days. (Some still do, but their numbers are shrinking.)

Back then, you could still visit an average (Protestant) church and hear a pastor actually teach real doctrine and share authentic insights. You could hear his thoughts on how to live an upright Christian life, or on why bad things might happen to good people, or how Christian marriages might be improved. And you could hear it all supported by actual Bible passages.

After the sermon, you could hear the congregation sing hymns affirming the importance of obedience, humility, faith, courage, or some other Christian virtue. They were something, the old hymns: bold, clear, impactful, sometimes even militant, like "Onward, Christian Soldiers" or "God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand", or particularly thoughtful, like "How Great Thou Art".

Things are different now. Wander into a typical Christian church these days, and, far from hearing a sermon challenging you to live an upright life, you're more likely to hear an unsuccessful attempt at a Jeff Foxworthy-style stand-up comedy routine, Hallmark-style stories of dubious veracity, and utterly vacuous "praise songs" which all sound like U2 album rejects from 1986. (They even feature the thumping eighth-note bass parts, echo-drenched guitar, and melodramatic vocal performances.)

Oh, and I forgot: At some point, you're also going to see the pastor dutifully hand the mic over to his overly-assertive, overly-eager, overly-made-up wife (presumably on pain of divorce, or possibly even death), who will then speak loudly and rapturously—all about herself—for the next half hour.

end of quote

***

GJ - I dare to say that if:

1. Congregations taught Biblical sermons (fresh, new, every Sunday, adhering to the text, Luther, and Lenski;)
2. Taught faith in Jesus as forgiveness and salvation;
3. Used the social media to publish sermons and Biblical studies, streaming video to broadcast worship;
4. Gave opportunities for special worship (Ascension) and Biblical studies...

They would be blessed with spiritual and membership growth, but only if the emphasis is on faithfulness rather than popularity, success, and Thrivent grants.

 WELS sold this book to foolish pastors. Cho had a very special cell when they caught him embezzling.

How Much Will It Take To Get You into this Old New Hymnal?

WELS doubles-down on paid Presbyterian bar music, and on their pseudo-liturgy.

Dr. John Meyer, Martin Luther College, in a paper entitled "Things that Don't Change, Stay the Same":

"As the WELS declines, it is doubling down on a new hymnal with even more emphasis on liturgical worship at the same time that society is becoming less churched and more informal. Even though some congregations that have moved away from liturgy have found success connecting the gospel to people with non-Lutheran backgrounds, people within the Lutheran culture suggest that if people would only change and like traditional liturgy they would love it. Instead of seeking to connect with people where they are, Lutheran leaders seek to change people by training them to love the liturgy....People won't do it. They will simply move on to something that makes sense to them....Deep change is difficult. It requires admitting one is wrong....It is actually easier to persist in disfunction (sic) rather than adopt successful new practices, even if it is clear that failure to do so is harmful to oneself and the organization."

John Meyer. Director of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education

Office: WCC 115

PhD, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities: Educational Policy and Administration
MS University of Wisconsin, Madison: Curriculum & Instruction
BS Dr. Martin Luther College, New Ulm MN: Education

Dr. John Meyer is the director of the graduate studies program at MLC. He also teaches Foundations of Educational Research to graduate students as a co-instructor, and Curriculum and Instruction in Elementary and Middle Schools to undergraduates.

 They work overtime to keep the door windows clean.

***

GJ - How cruel, to quote these leaders of apostasy. Meanwhile, our little group continues in the historic liturgy and creeds, the 75 year-old The Lutheran Hymnal, and the KJV. The KJV and its younger cousins are the only Bibles exemplifying inerrancy, the Means of Grace, and Justification by Faith.

The aw-ficial Bible of the WELS is the NIV, which repudiates inerrancy, plays games with the text, rejects the Means of Grace, and teaches Justification of the World.

"We Ran Out of Catholics" - Mark Jeske

Wisconsin Lutheran College invited predator Archbishop Weakland to give public lectures at their college, assisted by priests he knew. WELS lied about it and said it was a "private luncheon."

Mark and Avoid Jeske will substitute for Roman Catholic Vice-President Mike Pence at the commencement of the college.

Jeske's address will be, "We Ran Out of Catholics." He is ideal as an emergency substitute, because no one really knows what he believes.

 "We ran out of Catholics," Jeske explained to a group of MLC students trying desperately to stay awake.

 Jeske's Change or Die! business brings LCMS-WELS-ELCA clergy together so they can learn ecumenism from one another.

 ELCA Pastor Heidi Neumark was invited to speak at Mark Jeske's Change or Die! wind machine, featuring WELS, ELCA, LCMS, and women's ordination. Readers do not need to guess what ELCA women pastors stand for, starting with abortion on demand.

Pound of Borage Seed

I planted a 1/2 pound of Borage seed - in the new compost pile. Borage's chief virtues are feeding bees, decorating salads, and increasing the beneficial insect population. I read that its presence alone increases the beneficials. Besides that, Mrs. Ichabod likes it fresh from the plant.

The compost will have a covering of blue and pink flowers. Jesus and Paul used Creation illustrations because people were close to the soil in those times. People are more likely to cite movies than books or the Book. English was once shaped by the King James Bible, with Shakespeare (Oxford) the twin foundations of the English language. Now our language is determined by tweets and cartoons.

The lengthy Parable of the Sower and the Seed is explained by Jesus Himself, which shows that this parable should be studied carefully and kept in our minds. The sower scatters seed without digging and placing seed in marching band rows. Clearly the sower assumes some seed will fall on good soil, where it will flourish and multiply. But lo! What do we have today? Everyone should study the soil and plant the living seed of the Word only where they think it is fertile.

That means, for Lutherans, planting in the wealthy Lutheran suburbs. If the Apostles had followed such a misconception, the Christian Church would be extremely limited today. Our ancestors were not necessarily refined. Christianity provided the Ten Commandments and the freedom that led to America and Western Civilization.

Paul said "Sow abundantly that you reap abundantly." Lutherans have become so indolent that they can barely manage the strength to offer a partial worship service on Zoom, using borrowed messages. Stingy short-term efforts yield microscopic results.

One Biblical pastor was run out of the ministry for criticizing the Church Shrinkage Movement. He thought he was not a success. Sowing the Word faithfully is success. Huss was burned at the stake, as so many were after him, like Tyndale. They did not leave marble cathedrals, but they started or helped the Reformation.

Paul said, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." Vainglorious ministers like to say how much they accomplished, as if God could not do it without them. I heard several WELS pastors brag about how many LCMS members they rescued from the flesh-pits of Missouri. Taking members from one "conservative" Lutheran church to another - that is true salvation! In fact, Frosty Bivens observed in his book about the Michigan District, WELS - that WELS pastors took in Masonic Lodge members as quickly as Missouri excommunicated them. Likewise, George Orvick, ELS, was equally famous for his support of Masonic members. John Brug said he could not keep out Masonic members in his mission church because he would have had no church left.

But that is what becomes of an organization where material success is everything and Scriptural fidelity is an adiaphoron, a matter of indifference. The examples from above are more from the tradition of preaching and worshiping the synod, not the Gospel.

 Remaining a believing pastor is success. The pastoral epistles teach that. That seems to be a low bar, but it is really a difficult standard. Every possible pitfall is before the person who dares to preach and teach the Gospel. Today, an ordained Lutheran pastor is in a tiny minority if he teaches Justification by Faith.

The websites, publications, publishing houses, schools and seminaries are devoted to Halle Pietism. As a result, the vast majority of ministers and teachers are Rationalists by default. They do not want a blog about apostasy to address their apostasy.

O! Happy Time! O Happy Fate! - When Ruled by This Triumvirate!Rhyme Borrowed from Cicero

 Election without Faith leads to Justification without Faith

A Report on the Meetings of ELS, LCMS, and WELS Leaders 2012–2015 

Background 
In 2012 the leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (The Little Sect on the Prairie), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) decided to hold an informal meeting, which was held in December 2012. The impetus behind the meeting was the election of Rev. Mark Schroeder as president of WELS in 2007 and the election of Rev. Matthew Harrison as president of the LCMS in 2010, providing a new opportunity for discussions.

Last but certainly not least, there was special joy to understand that we all hold to objective justification—that God declared the world righteous through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that we all recognize it to be the urgent mission of the church to take this gospel to the entire world. 

LutherQuest - Guardians of doctrinal stupidity.

 Did Martin Stephan's teaching about Objective Justification expunge his conscience in his affairs with young women? Did OJ make it easy for Walther to steal millions from his mentor and take control of the sect?

LutherQueasies No Longer Attacking Online Worship

 The LutherQueasies do the same thing, because their creed is identical - "God has declared the entire world forgiven."

Some readers will rejoice that SpenerQuest (aka LutherQueasy) has listed a few links to online services. They used to be deeply offended that we offered them every Sunday - including Advent and Lent, which some of their Church Growth parishes ignored altogether.

The WELS approach is so meager that one parish made a minor effort, including a borrowed sermon. Isn't that pure WELS? They brag about copying sermons to ease their tremendous work load, so why have everyone write his own sermon? Luther taught what Jesus practiced - preaching as the primary Means of Grace. WELS-ELS-LCMS people "know" that methods and gimmicks work, because their Calvinist professors teach how fickle the Holy Spirit is.

The Enthusiasts, who separate the Spirit from the Word, speak of everything they sell as "Spirit-anointed." Their programs, books, lectures, tapes, and software are all anointed. What is not anointed in their view? - the Word of God. They believe, teach, and confess that the Word is dead unless they make it come alive, forcing the Word to become real, relational, and relevant.

Real, relevant, and relational where the words on Ski's movie theater, but the images do not show up on searches.

We broadcast and save all our worship services and educational series. Our next door neighbor became a Christian and left her cult, and she watched each service before she died. She was so weak that she could barely walk next door.

People write in to say how much they appreciated having a traditional Lutheran service available when they were snowed in, sick, or unable to attend their local church. Every sermon is written out and sent around to those who want to receive the entire service and sermon by email.

Members visit and attend services, finding out how close our communion service is. We also travel and conduct services in various states.

 ELDONUT evangelism - the heart of it all.

Here Is an Exercise for the Objective Justification Sales Force

This is a Stormtrooper.

Update - LutherQuest (sic) actually did respond to this post -

Steve Schmidt (Sschmidt) Advanced Member Username: Sschmidt Post Number: 620 Registered: 3-2017

Posted on Friday, May 17, 2019 - 12:25 pm:       **Update** GJ - posts meme of Darth Vader, switches topic to Church Growth, calls his opponents "poopie-heads," and declares victory.

---

The Objective Justification Sales Force (ELCA-WELS-ELS-LCMS) wants to convince people they are legitimate. To do so, all they need to do is present a public Bible study on:

• Genesis 15:6
• Romans 4 (maybe include the bridge verses, Romans 5:1-2)
• Galatians 3:6-7

They explode into "Mah daddy said this," and "Walther said that" and invoking the great names of Lutherdom, like Quistorp, a Pietist.

But we all know and commonly acknowledge that doctrine is derived from the Scriptures, not from 

• the dogmatics books, 
• the oh-so deep theological books, and 
• convention resolutions.

So the Luther-Queasies throw up their cardboard defense of OJ with everything but the Scriptures.

We know their quia confessional subscription is a farce. How have these OJ disciples let Church Growth Calvinism run their sects for 50 years? Sadly, Robert Preus organized a Church Growth D.Min. program while he was selling OJ,  to bury WAM II politically - for teaching Justification by Faith. The Ft. Wayne Seminary faculty even voted for Church Growth principles (Marquart quote), so the Fort was a citadel, not to Lutheran doctrine, but to Calvinism. 

The OJists are not ashamed to call their skunk patch LutherQuest when they hate the teaching of Martin Luther. So let's see them attempt Scripture-Quest for once.

Here is a good quotation from Luther to motivate them.

How long has WELS-LCMS-ELS been involved in Calvinistic Church Growth?

This published boast says that WELS came out in the open for Church Growth in 1977! Certainly things were brewing in WELS and LCMS years before that.

Booze Bible Study - The Final Frontier?

 Victory of the Lamb, WELS.

Hypocritical Fellowship Rules for the Cultish WELS and Superior LCMS

 WELS-ELS favorites: Andy Stanley below promotes homosexual unions; Archbishop Weakland, beanie, known homosexual, spoke at Wisconsin Lutheran College - public program, including priests; Hybels at Willow Creek, above Andy, retired early for chasing women staff members around; McGavran, above left of Hybels, was a mainline liberal, Disciples of Christ; Leonard Sweet, upper right off McGavran's ear, Leftie weirdo mainline guru; Stetzer, dead center, Fulleroid Babtist; C. Peter Wagner, right of Stetzer, Pentecostal Fuller faculty and always behind true flapdoodle snake oil ministers; 12 o'clock, Mark Driscoll, Ski-Glende fave - failed but retreaded cult minister known for his violent language; left at 11 o'clock, another Ski-Glende fave, Craig Groeschel, mainline producer of much-copied themes, sermons, graphics, as found at The CORE.

Note the above experts - WELS has been heavily involved with them for decades, which is why the sect is no longer Lutheran. Their teachers and leaders are trained by the Enthusiasts above, most of whom have made a shipwreck of their faith.

Comment:

People at the WELS church I used to attend (and readers of my blog at the time) became UNHINGED (emphasis in the original) when I provided details of Thrivent funding Planned Parenthood and by application, WELS responsibility for funding abortion.  There was no argument with the facts, just what they meant.

 When I said that WELS gave to the United Nations, some went bonkers and demanded proof. Do they demand proof for WELS-LCMS lies? Never. So I provided the year and page number of the Michigan District grant to a UN program, about $5,000, as I recall. No apologies followed, of course.

Thrivent gives LCMS $50 to $60 million a year, so ELCA probably gets $100 million for promoting a rather drab insurance company. Thrivent dollar-matched abortion fans on the staff (charity, you know). ELCA is one big abortion lobby and actually hires lobbyists with World Hunger Fund donations. They are all in it together, trotters in the trough - pennies for the local church, millions for abortion on demand and doctrinal apostasy. Herman Otten applied for and received a Thrivent grant. 

 But wait, there's more. Jeske uses his Thrivent board membership to fund his favorite charities, often involving Mark and Avoid Jeske. He gathers ELCA women pastors to lecture LCMS and WELS-ELS pastors on how to be Change or Die! ministers.

 I have played Whac-A-Mole many times, except I was always the mole.

What Is Worse? - ELCA or the Synod Leaders Enabling ELCA?

Mark and Avoid Jeske is just what ELCA needs as an enabler. His posse of WELS millionaires keeps him safe from the consequences of his vast betrayals. Jeske is equal or superior to Synod Presidents because he works with all synods - ELCA-WELS-LCMS - not wasting time with little sects. He can gather money more efficiently from big sects. Key to characters on the bus to perdition, left to right: WELS DP who kicked out St. John's and helped steal it back, Broken Angel - notorious ex-DP of the Anything Goes District, Ski, Jeske, Gausewitz thrown under the bus.

The LCMS-WELS-ELS-Little Sects are far worse than ELCA, because they stand back and murmur that their big, failing sister synod is so bad, so radical. They act as if God thanks them for preserving the truth, when their trotters are in the same pig trough, grunting and squealing for some more Thrivent grants.

Lutherans feed Thrivent with their insurance and investment dollars, excited to get some of it back in the form of lavish grants to the leaders who betray them on a daily basis. Matt the Fatt allowed that Missouri got $50 to $60 million a year from Thivent. As we say about the Arkansas football coach - $3 million a year and he still loses! They get enormous sums, which only grease the skids of their downward plunging sleds.

Where are your synod leaders this winter? They are wintering in the Caribbean at luxury resorts, courtesy of Thrivent. Missouri does it; WELS does it; ELCA does it. They plan together too, which is costly and cumbersome, but so worth it for giant grants.

No one wants to bell the cat, because they all want to be cool cats spending those grants.

LCMS Loves Working with ELCA - Just Like WELS

Mark and Avoid Jeske has Change or Die! Conferences every year with ELCA women pastors, LCMS and WELS Pastors.

The Evangelical Lutheran Liturgical Congregations website lists "congregations which use the historic liturgy of the Church in all of their services and practice Closed Communion" and "have not adopted worship customs from the surrounding culture." One of the congregations listed is St Paul Lutheran Church, Austin, TX. 

On Saturday, February 2, 2019, St Paul Lutheran Church is holding the 14th Annual Senior Fest, where one will "Join fellow Lutherans from the Austin and Central Texas for fellowship, education, and spiritual growth." 

This Senior Fest is sponsored by the Texas District of the Missouri Synod, Adult Lutherans Organized for Action (a Recognized Service Organization of the Missouri Synod), and........... The Southwestern Texas Synod of the ELCA. 

The devotions will be given by Rev. Michael Neuman, LCMS TX District President, and the Keynote Speaker is ELCA Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod Bishop Michael Rinehart. 

It gets worse. 

According to the Texas District Senior Fest brochure, there are six workshops and presenters:

1. BE NOT AFRAID! DISCOVER THE MYSTERY OF THE LABYRINTH! -Barbara Schutz, Spiritual Director, member of First English Lutheran Church (ELCA), Austin.
2. BOTH SIDES NOW: Dialog in a Time of Political Extremism - Bee Moorehead [actually Moorhead], Executive Director, Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy/Texas Impactmember and deacon of University Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Austin.
3. CALLINGS NO ONE HOPES FOR BUT MAY BE UNABLE TO REFUSE:Are you ready? How do you prepare? - Barbara Wiederaenders, member of First English Lutheran Church (ELCA), Austin.
4. FEARLESS GENEROSITY: Legacy Planning for Family and Ministry - Deacon John Dellis, gift planner, Lutheran Foundation of the Southwestmember of Abiding Presence Lutheran Church (ELCA), San Antonio.
5. HAVE NO FEAR; SAFE I ANCHOR IN HIS GRACE! - Dr. Robert Achterberg, member of St. Paul Lutheran Church (LCMS), Austin.
6. “WHO GETS GRANDMA’S YELLOW PIE PLATE”: A Guide to Passing on Personal Possessions - Blaine Nelson, member of St. Andrew Lutheran Church (ELCA), Canyon Lake.

Thus, of the six presenters (seven, if you include the Keynote Speaker), only ONE is a Missouri Synod Lutheran. 

One wonders how a congregation listed on the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgical Congregations website could be holding such workshops with so many non-Lutheran presenters. 

BTW, for a Senior Fest, the prayer labyrinth may need to be wheelchair-accessible.

 The Don Patterson does all this and more in WELS.
He is at Hollywood, Austin - or is that Holy Word?

Keep Hiring the Destroyers - Their Salaries, Your Sin-Tax: Consider an Alternative to Synods

Keep hiring these destroyers: Matt the Fatt, Mirthless Mark, and Pope John the Malefactor. Replacements will be just the same. Ask the Otten political machine. In fact, the new ones tend to be even worse.

 Do the "conservatives" have a problem with this ELCA seminarian, certified for ordination, lip-syncing at Luther seminary? No, WELS is a leader in hosting drag events, from prep to the parish.

Someone named a concept I was thinking about for a long time. The name is Creative Destruction. People fear the loss of institutions, but those institutions are either outmoded - like Netscape - or they have destroyed themselves by betraying their constituents. The good part of the destruction is a new form that suits the individuals who abandoned the old one.

"Conservative" Lutheran leaders in sects - like LCMS, WELS, ELS, etc - gloried in the bounty coming when ELCA formed in 1987. I recall a Schaller column suggesting they would get 600,000 ELCA members disenchanted with the takeover of the radical Left. But the LCMS-WELS-ELS followed ELCA down the same path - closing parishes, shrinking seminaries, disastrous numbers, working with their ELCA colleagues at Fuller and Willow Creek, via Thrivent.

Mrs. Ichabod asks me about secular political villains - "Why do they keep doing crooked things when they are already in trouble and the NSA has the evidence?" My response is, "That is what got them there, and it is all they know - just like the synod leaders."

Creative Destruction
The synods are destroying themselves by rejoicing in Objective Justification, feeding the Church Growth parasite they invited to stay, getting even with everyone who dared to question them. (Ask Paul the Plagiarist and his pal Herman Otten for advice, tips, and strategies.)

 Children understand this too, but synod leaders do not.

This is all anyone can do, but it is a good start. 

The pastors and teachers can make their families and their local institutions an island where the Gospel Word is taught and practiced.

Parents have an endless supply of opportunities to teach their children from the earliest age. No other audience is so eager to learn and so able to take it all in. They can advance in their reading skills if they hear stories from the beginning, read early, and absorb a passion for learning, reading, researching. The first area is the Bible, with so much to learn, but the only book that energizes the reader to learn even more, with many blessings accompanying the practice.

What better way to combine efforts than to teach a new language - Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish - while reading the Gospel of John? We did that in Latin and Greek, with no words written in, a German parsing guide, and Lenski for emergency help.

One IT expert was boasting to Little Ichabod about his knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. LI began conjugating a Hebrew verb. The expert said, "OK! OK!" But there are many other applications, such as being a father, teaching his children, and helping at his independent congregation.

One of the best lessons is time spent with the children. Parents who love spending time with their children - in only two decades - have children doing the same with theirs. Too many let their children become synod-orphans or parish-orphans. Mom and Dad may get many honors and positions that way, but titles and plaques are pretty hollow when people have nothing else.

Your 5 AM Post on Saturday

 These three profess shock and dismay at the way ELCA carries on, but look carefully at the friends and enemies. They love to work with ELCA and scrape the pro-abortion Thrivent insurance dollars into their pockets. They abhor Justification by Faith and the Means of Grace.

Archbishop Weakland retired in disgrace after being the highly promoted lecturer - with his priests - at Wisconsin Lutheran College. No, he did not retire for that reason.

ChurchMouse Shocked? Try ELCA Luther Seminary's Drag Dance in the Chapel

Cover photo for Anders Nelson's Facebook page.

ChurchMouse shocked!

Source of story - Exposing the ELCA

https://www.facebook.com/anders.nelson.92/videos/10216933940076131/

Apparently an annual event -

"Anders Nelson

December 10 at 4:12 PM · 

Here’s Rhonda F’Plause’s debut performance at Luther’s Annual Lip Sync Battle! I think she did Dolly proud!"

 This is the opening of the video.
You can see the cross on the left of the photo.
He dances into the sparse audience, whose members love it.

 This storm happened after the 2009 ELCA vote.

Luther Seminary Is Selling Off Property To Remain Solvent?

How Could That Be?
They just got a $21 million gift!

Mrs. Ichabod and I visited the campus, to do research on WELS and LCMS working with ELCA via AAL/Lutheran Brotherhood. She found the crucial article and said, "Now I've got you, you fat little liar."

https://www.parkbugle.org/luther-seminary-to-sell-15-acres-of-buildings-land/

 Unlike Brian Williams, I was there.
Someone asked, "How did you know about Paul Tiefel's material?" I said, "We drove to Luther Seminary and looked it up." Mrs. I is a whiz in research, the best anywhere.

 We also found the proof that Cho was kicked out of the Assemblies of God for false doctrine - no small feat, getting kicked out of that sect.

Luther Seminary’s new “Campus of the Future” plan will bring big change to the school by offering free tuition to all incoming students starting this fall and to the St. Anthony Park neighborhood when it sheds 15 acres of land and buildings in the northwestern part of its campus.

In May, the seminary’s board of directors approved the sale of a parcel that includes Northwestern Hall, the administrative building at 1501 Fulham St.; Stub Hall, a dormitory at 2329 Hendon Ave.; several houses and the LDR apartments on Fulham Street; a vacant home in an alley off of Hoyt Avenue in Lauderdale; and the 7 acres of wooded land abutting the Lauderdale Nature Area, known as Breck Woods. Bockman Hall, what many consider the centerpiece to the St. Anthony Park campus at the top of the hill on 2400 block of Como Avenue, will also be sold.

Michael Morrow, Luther vice president of finance and administration, said the school is hoping to find an “outside partner” that would renovate Bockman Hall, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places, and create space that the seminary can use for short-term student housing.

“I know the noteworthy change for the neighborhood is the change to the campus, but we’re excited about the new vision we’ve adopted,” Morrow said. That “new vision” includes the new Jubilee Scholarships, which will give free tuition to all incoming students this fall and increased scholarships to current students.

“We are very concerned about the cost of higher education and people going into ministry with large levels of debt,” Morrow said. Student debt has hindered the number of people going into the ministry, he said. Students will still need to pay for room and board, transportation and books, but the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts students will get full tuition.

The land sale is all part of reshaping a seminary that no longer houses all of its students throughout the school year.

“We need a different campus,” Morrow said. “We have a much different student base. The campus we have was designed for larger enrollment with everyone here taking classes full time. Today we have 500 students. About half are in the distributed-learning program, which means they live all over the country [and] take most of their classes online. We don’t have that many people here.”

When students do come to campus, it’s for two to four weeks out of the year, he said.

“For us, it’s not what we are getting rid of; it’s what we are moving to,” he said. “We can meet our needs with Olson Campus Center and Gullixson Hall. Bockman would be a good housing place, but we don’t really need all of that.”

Olson will be the campus entrance and center and will remain open to community gatherings, Morrow said. For several years, the St. Anthony Park Community Sing has used the center on the third Monday of the month for a neighborhood sing. That should not be affected by the changes to the campus, he said.

The seminary properties will be offered as a package and put on the market in July, Morrow said. The price will be made public when it goes on the market, he said.

The seminary could sell Breck Woods separately if proposals were made, he said. “We know there are people interested in doing something with the woods, and if they want to make a proposal, we would be open to listening.”

A group of residents who live near Breck Woods have been looking at avenues to protect the woods from development.

“We have been advised that one of the nimblest resources for securing Breck Woods for the public is the Trust for Public Land,” said Cynthia Ahlgren in an email. “Trying to put together a consortium to buy the land requires a longer lead time and the seminary’s timeframe to sell is short.”

The group sent a letter to the city of Lauderdale, the Trust for Public Land and Luther Seminary on June 11 supporting conserving Breck Woods for public use and wildlife habitat. “Any decision to develop and change this valuable natural resource will be irreversible,” the letter said. “We support preserving the woods, recognizing the importance of green space not only for ourselves but for the wider community.”

Luther Seminary has slowly been selling under-used portions of its property for several years. In 2014, the seminary sold five apartment buildings on Eustis Street to Greenway Village. Senior housing developer Ecumen bought 1.6 acres at Luther Place and Como Avenue in 2015 to build Zvago, a 49-unit co-op currently under construction. HealthPartners purchased 4.5 acres of land across from its Como Avenue building in 2016 to build a replacement clinic. The date for the clinic groundbreaking has not been announced.

The large grassy lawn along Como Avenue will remain part of the seminary property for now. “It is not part of what we will be bringing forward [in July],” Morrow said, however, “we are not convinced that we have a long-term need for that property.”

As far as the current package that will be up for sale and any future sales, “we know that we are picking who our next neighbors are,” Morrow said. “We are real concerned about picking someone who is a good neighbor.”

 Robin Steinke is the recent Luther Seminary president,
the first lady president there.

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https://alpb.org/Forum/index.php?topic=7020.msg445958;topicseen#msg445958

United [sic?] Seminary has had free tuition for those in ELCA candidacy since it began operating, and Mt. Airy had been doing so for a year or two before the merger with Gettysburg.

spt+