Mergers Mangle Mainline Denominations

President Jack Preus LCMS, left, brother of Robert; unknown participant; Robert Marshall, LCA President; President Dave Preus, ALC, cousin of the brothers. I met and knew three of these leaders, whose unity efforts were expensive and disastrous.

From an ALPB  pastor:
For most of us my generation (I'm 59, and hence was baptized in the ELC which merged into the ALC in which I was confirmed and ordained, and then merged into the ELCA), we've experienced mergers as dead-ends, with enormous energy, focus, and funds expended on institution with congregations relegated to "funding-sources" while the institution postured as "the church doing ministry." 

We also witnessed the capture and control of institutional leadership, especially in the ELCA, by revisionists.   As a traditionalist who endured the "long defeat" of 2000s, I give revisionists their due.  From the start of the ELCA (and before, going back to the Commission on the New Lutheran Church) into the 1990's the revisionists from the ALC, LCA, and AELC came together, organized, and focused their efforts with much greater political adeptness than the traditionalists.

ALPB.org

***

GJ - I wrote about this in Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure. I found that - in all denominations - the apostates consolidated money, power, and properties while repudiating traditional Christian doctrine.

The LCMS did not gain anything by participating in unity talks. Their Seminex cast-offs, who accomplished little in Holy Mother Missouri, went to town in the New Lutheran Church - ELCA - and did their best to destroy it with selective quotas.

I tried the LCMS but saw first-hand how weak the DPs were, how devious the "conservative" pastors like Cascione were.

WELS was different! Haha. And the ELS claimed covertly they were far superior to WELS. More ironic humor.

If you want copies of Liberalism, order direct from me.

I Remembered Another Business Fad - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Highly effective pets can do a lot of damage.

When I was recalling business fads, such as the newest about strengths, The 7 Habits came to mind a few hours later.

A Different List Entirely for Effective Christian Congregations

1. Trust the Word of God
2. Conduct a Means of Grace Service - Expository Sermons Based on the Text, Never Plagiarized
3. Replace Calvinistic Programs with Biblical Teaching at All Levels
4. Pastoral Visitation Based on the Word
5. Required Study Time for Pastor and Teachers
6. Generous, Constant Use of Reformation Works
7. Members Assume Social and Administrative Jobs

Two Kinds of Work - Different Pay

Liz Copeland's Clancy is an award-winning pet.
He loves to pose for his adoring owner.

He recognized the incredible privilege of his pay and status, but his anguish seemed genuine. “If you spend 12 hours a day doing work you hate, at some point it doesn’t matter what your paycheck says,” he told me.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/21/magazine/elite-professionals-jobs-happiness.html

That is an article about extremely high-paying jobs where the people are miserable. It fits the grumpy, vindictive, and destructive church officials I have known, too.

We have extremely low expenses, such as $30 a month for water. Even then, we are going to sell the limo for almost nothing, because a young couple could use a car that will not take 5 years to pay off.

Doing work all the time is the best part - enjoyable, satisfying, and eternal-life changing. Many people share the labor, which allows printed works to reach circulation in many different ways.

Study Business Management - Be a Coach! - Get Certified in Multiple Forms of Making Money. The Fad du Jour for WELS

I found bunny petting for Easter in several WELS ads, including Patterson and the future professor for the Asian mini-seminary.

The odious Don Patterson Network has been a source of scandal and amusement for some time. The parsons who hang out at gimmick conferences are easy to spot. They spot the latest fad and adopt it.

Church Growth clergy like Patterson will hold an Easter service in the cemetery and publicize Easter egg hunts and live bunny rabbits for petting.

Ski and Glende took "live bunnies" a bit too far.

Patterson and Team Kudu got involved in coaching - for money. Shouldn't a man who can hunt the dangerous kudu deer afford to share his wisdom without charging for it? No.

The coaching fad has an add-on fad - Coaching for Strengths.  No surprise, this has Fuller Seminary connections, because Gallup Polling is involved. Fuller has had cozy relationships with Gallup because the school covets piles of facts and figures, since the school has no use for the Word of God, which they teach as fallible and ineffective.

My corporate guru tells me, "There are 50 leadership quotes, and they just keep circulating them, year after year."

Gallup has a Strength Center, and I found a consultant who was already certified as an executive coach with the  John Maxwell Team. I had the misfortune of hearing the Methodist minister John Maxwell - tanned too deeply, grinning too much - announce his wisdom as if on Mt. Zion.

Here is your Clifton Strengths Support kit for only 50 bucks.

So books are being derived from the strengths studies of Donald Clifton, an education psychologist.

Under Clifton, Gallup expanded beyond public opinion polls, entering the management consulting business.^[5] Gallup consulted with companies on ways to improve their businesses by honing in on their employees' strengths.^[4]In 1999, Clifton created the online assessment tool Clifton StrengthsFinder (now known as CliftonStrengths) that focuses on 34 themes that make up the user's personality.^[5][10][11] He co-authored the 2001 book Now, Discover Your Strengths with Marcus Buckingham, offering advice on determining employees' strengths and using those qualities for success at work. In 2007, the book was updated by Tom Rath^[12] and called StrengthsFinder 2.0, which is among Amazon's 20 bestselling books of all-time.^[13] Gallup's books helped grow the company's consulting division's revenue from $2 million in 1998 to $50 million in 2001. In 2002, the American Psychological Association honored Clifton with a lifetime achievement award as "the father of strengths-based psychology and the grandfather of positive psychology".^[4]After retiring as chairman of Gallup, Clifton was chairman of Gallup's International Research and Education Center and senior archivist of its World Leader Study.^[6]Following his death, Gallup and the Clifton Foundation donated $30 million to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to create the Don Clifton Strengths Institute, focusing on early identification and development of future entrepreneurs.^[14]

Do you see the alchemist's wand at work? If only we could look at all our strengths, we could have a strong, growing sect instead of a weak, insolvent one!

Flashback - that was supposed to happen with Five-Alarm Fire Marriages, a fad so hot it burnt itself to ashes in a few months.

But before that - the Spiritual Gifts Inventory, straight outta Fuller Seminary. If we could get all our members to look at their spiritual gifts, we could have a strong, growing sect instead of a weak, insolvent one.

Oh! Oh! I remember another one - Management by Objectives, fathered by Peter Drucker. If only we could identify and write down our dreams, our goals, and how we would reach those Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant,  and Timely goals, we could be a strong, growing sect instead of a weak, insolvent one.

Has anyone noticed Fuller Seminary canceling their expansion plans? Hahahaha!

1 Corinthians 3:6-8 King James Version (KJV)

6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Questions about the ELDONA YouTube Series on Justification

 "Slim, we know you're in there! Come out!"

WM asked about the ELDONA YouTube series on Justification, so I looked them up.

They prominently feature The Right Reverend James Rodham Heiser, STM, so I have trouble taking them seriously. He read Thy Strong Word in 2000 or so, found out what Objective Justification really was, and then ignored the issue while working closely with OJ fanatics, especially the Rolf Preus Synod crew, who went back to their original OJ synods (Little Sect on the Prairie and LCMS).

So - which is the real bishop? - the one working with Paul the Plagiarist McCain? - the one grinning with Rolf Preus and crew at Jim's altar? - or the patriarch explaining how bad OJ is, wearing a smug, knowing smile, saddened that so many are deceived by this false doctrine?

ELDONA suddenly switched to Justification by Faith when WELS Pastor Paul Rydecki and a group from Washington State advocated the Chief Article. The Rolfites were furious and horrified, which tells a tale in itself.

 These free printed books are going to the Philippines.
Here is our growing collection of free classic Lutheran ebooks, including a full set of Lenski and Luther's Sermons and Gems.

One of our future members gave up on ELDONA when he learned first-hand how nasty, petty, and dishonest ELDONA was, the venom fed by Heiser and his toadies. I was glad to see them change from virtual Universalism to the Biblical view of Justification by Faith, but sorry to see Heiser cloak his opportunism in typical Ft. Wayne rudeness.

The problem with Ft. Wayne seminary graduates is their idolatry of a few professors, notably Robert Preus, Kurt Marquart, and Dave Scaer. The Waynites are prone to unearned vanity and reproducing the same troubled triumvirates. They graduated extolling OJ without knowing what it is - how comatose were they in school? The triumvirate is infallible; QED, OJ is infallible.

 In 2008, the Right Reverend Bishop-for-Life Heiser was grinning in his purple bishop's shirt, next to OJist-for-Life Rolf Preus. Missing are - stacks of Thy Strong Word, given to the Heiser book selling operation years earlier. 

The YouTube Videos
ELDONA has a string of YouTubes on Justification, so I began watching them. They want to honor the Reformation but they do so in a strangely Methodist way, gently talking about Justification by Faith and smiling about those who actually believe and teach OJ (see the Rolf-ELDONA photo).

The ancient Christian and Reformation teaching style is to identify truth, support the truth with Scripture, and reject falsehoods about that truth. I did not take notes on what I saw, but where is that?  The OJists rage against those who "reject OJ" - as Heiser did before reading Thy Strong Word. But after? - he was with the Rolfians!

Why not identify those errors, the errorists, and show why they are wrong? I missed that entirely. Wading through history, especially in dealing with Zwingli, is jarringly ineffective. The Word is effective. Church historians turn into Leftists (Ralph Bohlmann, etc) who cleverly spin the facts their way. Example - the Lutheran Left said inerrancy was a new word, though it is found in its Latin form in the Book of Concord. How new is the BoC?

 To Mars and beyond!

Foot Traffic Down in ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC (sic). The Seminaries Are Collapsing, Too - They Have No Message

 This obscure but prescient meme illustrates how the Kudzu Vine of Church Growth has engulfed WELS, LCMS, and all the denominations. Staff Infection implies the self-anointed work of Larry Olson, WELS Fuller DMin, nicknamed Staff Infection by his peers, loathed by his students.

http://www.thearda.com/denoms/Families/F_90.asp 
-----------2017-------------2002--- 
ELCA -- 3,458,839 -- 5,038,006 
LCMS -- 1,968,641 -- 2,512,714 
LCMC -- 300,000 
NALC -- 142,000 

 "Just think how tiny WELS would be without decades of Church Growth training forced on everyone dumb enough to bow down to Baal!"

Don't Hesitate - Regurgitate!

My wife and I went to various events in the LCA. Sometimes I went alone, but I remember the one at Thiel College in 1978 where the national leaders did their Evangelical Outreach presentations. 

Like the smaller sessions, everyone had to learn Management by Objectives, pick goals and strategies, everything that I heard all over again from the WELS Church Growth gurus. The common themes were:

1. Peter Drucker's (MBO) parasitic attachment to Fuller Seminary;
2. The LCA-ALC-WELS-ELS-LCMS executives attending Fuller and forcing it on all their underlings;
3. Scary statistics.

Years later I had a letter from an ELS pastor who went to Fuller, served in Naples, Florida, and thought everyone should attend Fuller. He was on the Examination Committee!

In 1987, WELS-ELS acted like they had discovered Church Growth on their own. One person promoted the sanctified and sanctifying work of Paul Y. Cho. The required training that kept coming up in WELS was always Church Growth: 

• Valleskey, 
• Kelm, 
• Olson, 
• Huebner, and 
• Others even denser.

ELCA leaders adored Church Growth because it quantified their problems and gave them Calvinistic programs to follow. They naturally worked with WELS and LCMS executives in various insurance funded programs - all gigantic and expensive flops. But they were joined-at-the-wallet in promoting even more of the toxins.

ELCA is now at the final stage of Pietism - rationalism, Universalism, and social justice warrior campaigns. They have no thoughts of faith, so they find meaning in making society gay rather than somber.

The Synodical Conference leaders may have a little faith, but they are so ecumenical that they love every doctrine except their own. That leads them into turning their future pastors into little Church Growth/Missional executives. Instead of giving them the pastor guidance and Scriptural content of parish work, they provide gimmicks, slogans, and packaged answers. The seminaries pay a fortune and give up full-time income to be trained the same way they train salesmen on commission.

Is anything more symbolic of WELS than this?

Core Incompetence

The most significant cause in Lutheran failure is the lust for papal-style control. I keep up with the Roman Catholic scandals because they have reached the levels of Cardinal and Pope. There has been a winnowing of anyone normal in the priesthood, so the entire Roman structure aims at promoting evil, incompetent, greedy, power-hungry devils. Predator Cardinals like Spellman (RIP) made sure he had predator bishops, the bishops priests and seminaries full of idealistic young men. When asked about people finding their cardinal in NYC was having his limo pick up male prostitutes to bring to the residence, Spellman said, "No one would ever believe it." Until recently, few realized or believed it.

The LCMS, WELS, ELS, and CLC (sic) have a knack for elevating the least competent, most conflicted, dumbest clucks in the ministerium. Because they have established a structure of anti-Biblical, anti-Lutheran dogma, everyone is either numb, scared, or hoping for advancement. The scandals are covered up, because, as Spellman said, "No one would ever believe it." 

"Graph the Numbers" - Kent Hunter & Waldo Werning Cackled with Sulphuric Glee!Extracted from Juicy Ecumenism

Note that ELCA began with 5.3 million members and leadership trained at Fuller Seminary. WELS' Norm Berg mentioned his friendship with ELCA's Mac Minnick, Fulleroids both. They have taken the broad, easy path to perdition, and their synods with them.

As United Methodists look ahead toward next week’s special General Conference on human sexuality, there is a great deal of knowledge and wisdom to be gained by looking at the recent histories of other mainline Protestant denominations that have walked this road.



https://juicyecumenism.com/2019/02/15/happened-denominations-passed-one-church-plan/?fbclid=IwAR0zkQBELbOnDAQfIFrZJ7k_G66Y-UNxqwbLaMGFKprDeGU0KAhIeAKNM34

Rev. Donna Smith, who was pastoring an ELCA congregation in 2009, stated that her church gave people options, such as an assurance that “all gifts would go to the local congregation and local benevolent causes.” She said she knew of some congregations that directed all of their benevolence away from their synod and ELCA.

The ELCA’s numbers show a denomination that did not find unity and is now struggling greatly. A slew of congregations left the ELCA between 2009 and 2013, the first five years after the liberalizing change, with the vast majority of these departures coming in 2010 and 2011. In all, 675 congregations disaffiliated from the church, about two-thirds of the 954 that took a congregational vote to decide whether to leave.

The ECLA’s decline has continued far beyond the first two years when the exodus was greatest. The ELCA lost three percent of its congregations from 2016 to 2017, the most recent year for which data is available.

From 2009 to 2017, membership has decreased from 4,542,868 to 3,455,573, a drop of 24 percent. In that same period, the number of congregations also dropped significantly, from 10,348 to 9,039, a loss of 1,309 congregations or over 12 percent of them in a mere eight years. These number indicate that apart from entire congregations leaving, churches that stayed lost many people. Baptisms of children and adults combined have dropped 37 percent since 2009.

 WELS' own Mark and Avoid Jeske has been a leader in radicalizing ELCA-WELS-ELS-LCMS, one big dysfunctional family, united by Objective Justification.

The Continuous War - But Only One Side Is Fighting. Do Not Let the Walther Cult and Mythologies Quench the Gospel

The war to replace the Chief Article - Justification by Faith - began in America with Bishop Martin Stephan's cult. He learned the Easter absolution of the world at Halle University. Stephan attended two universities but never graduated.

CFW Walther associated with Pietists before he met Stephan and participated in a Spener-inspired cell group with his friends. When their abusive Pietist-guru moved away and died, they latched onto Stephan, another abusive Pietist. Stephan specialized in young women, one serving as his favorite, though he was married. He took her along on their voyage to America, with his healthy oldest child. He left his ailing wife and children (dying from his syphilis) behind.

Zion on the Mississippi and other sources make it clear that everyone in the Stephanite leadership knew about the bishop's STD (not a degree, mind you) and flagrant adultery. After all, he stayed with his mistress at one spa and told his wife, who came to plead with him, to go home.  Stephan was under house arrest when he told his cult to go to America with him. They left so he could abandon most of his family and take along his mistresses. Their syphilis outbreak provided Walther with an excuse to organize a riot to rob, threaten, kidnap, and depose the bishop, whose lifetime office he signed onto - when they landed in the Big Easy (New Orleans).

Walther claimed - without dispute - that Stephan taught him the Easter absolution of the world, false doctrine that CFW never abandoned. Pietists, with a nod toward Halle, have kept the pollution alive. ELCA is based upon Pietism, like WELS, the ELS, and Missouri. Adoration of Spener Pietism, its ecumenical taint, and cell groups have combined to make Universalism the common thread of all mainline groups.

Face it - WELS cult prisoners and Missouri loyalists - all your leaders want to be loved and accepted by the ELCA radicals. ELCA leaders are highly educated and much smoother in their deceptive ways. ELCA is still double the size of the LCMS and they get gifts of $30 million at a time.

The brazen attitude of the OJists is magical, a marvel, the Seventh Blunder of the Modern World. They only mean the universal absolution of the world - without faith - when they use the term Justification. If they happen to talk about Justification or even Subjective Justification, they slink into OJ immediately.

They let people imagine that SJ is Justification by Faith. They let people think that OJ is the Atonement. But - take away the fleece for a moment - and the claws and fangs appear. They cannot abide Justification by Faith, or Luther (except when misquoting him), and stick together like army ants.

 The ELS leader, Pope John the Malefactor, was called to be the New Testament professor without having earned a college degree. That should remind Bethany Seminary supporters of Bishop Stephan, his limited education, and his Objective Justification.

The Little Sect on the Prairie
When the ELS pastors get disturbed by the truth, they run to one of their own and ask, "What is he saying? Tell us, Ginger Guru."

The last time there was a real confrontation about UOJ, it came from two farming families in Kokomo, Indiana. WELS is still lying about that, because the statements the farmers objected to came from WELS ignoramus JP Meyer and an old OJ dispute. Since 1983 or so, no one has brought this up for any length of time.

The forces of their Father Below have expanded the reach of their demonic dogma. Rewards and great peace are granted them for their energetic apostasy - but in this world only. "Let not many be teachers, for they will get the greater condemnation." (James 3:1, Jackson Surfer Dude Paraphrase)

My actuaries say I have 20 more years to blog - at the most - and perhaps far less. People will have to do their own research and fighting for the Chief Article. Follow the example of the Qanons and do your own digging.

WAM II's Essay - A Glimpse into the Organized Effort To Radicalize Missouri and WELS. Purpose? Power! Money! Creeping Ecumenism

 We met WAM II at the funeral of Fred Rutz Senior.
Maier was just as sociable as he looks here.
OJists glare and fume a lot, I have noticed.

I am not sure about the logic or sanity of people telling me what to write or ordering me not to publish. I seldom respond to other Facebook or social media posts, except to agree, sometimes to add a Constitutional or Biblical point.

The Maier essay is linked here.

One reader asked about the Walter A. Maier II essay lodged alone in the precious WELS Essay File, which has grown faster than the Oxford English Dictionary, without adding much to theological knowledge. I am so old that I remember when it was an accordion file folder left on the circulation desk at the seldom used Mordor Library. In fact, I remember an excellent paper by Fredrich that never made it into the current digital monstrosity, a clear case of metastasis. No room at the inn? He was an excellent teacher, writer, and historian. His essay was about the disasters every time Lutherans were marking the Reformation - like 2017.

The Holy of Holies contains two (2) contradictory essays by Jay Webber. The first questions whether the upcoming ELCA is truly Lutheran, based on Braaten-Jenson's hideous Dogmatics. However, his "Oh Jay!" essay, 30 years later, adopts the same Universalism condemned in the first one. One can expect no less from someone who just got an STM from an online ELCA school.

Why Write about WAM II? 

A Summary Exposition of The Doctrine of Justification By Grace

Through Faith ,1983

By: Walter A. Maier II

WELS ->In this paper Maier opposes the Synodical Conference view of objective justification. Many of Prof. Siegbert Becker's papers on objective justification were in part directed against Maier's views. Similar views were held by some members of the WELS congregation in Kokomo, Indiana, who objected to WELS position on this doctrine. The LCMS rejected Maier's position in their statement on justification, though they do not mention his name.

GJ - Big lie above. The Gausewitz catechism taught Justification by Faith. The LCMS KJV Small Catecism did the same.

An anonymous scribe, perhaps Brug, added the warning in red to the essay. Someone gave me proof of Mordor doing the same with dogmatics quotations that actually teach Justification by Faith! The nerve. Is Mordor a bit insecure about their demonic dogma? I think so.

First, Some Criticism and Sympathy

I do not like slogans, because they become dogmatic weapons several steps removed from the Scriptures. Supposedly, WAM II used "The Atonement plus faith = forgiveness" or something similar. That sounds like a loose construction, if I am quoting correctly.

On the other hand, I do not like essays written only for a few theological professors. That is not in the style of Luther, the Book of Concord, or the Bible. This essay is ponderous.

Sympathy

The Righteous Brothers, Jack and Bob Preus, were using this issue to crush WAM II as a leader of the LCMS. They were wrong in the content of their claims and disgusting in the methods.  They evoked the cowardly nastiness of the first Missouri Pope, CFW Walther, who led the riot to overturn Bishop Stephan, rob him of all his gold-land-books, and kidnap him to Illinois.

They demoted WAM II for teaching the truth! 

I can see WAM II unleashing his academic ability to show that Justification by Faith is indeed the Chief Article, without feeding the hunger of the Norwegian Dobermans. Nevertheless, I wish WAMII would have confronted the horrible errors of Objective Justification, which cannot be excused, explained, or made palatable.

For example:

• Justification by Grace! through Faith - is now used as a deceptive introduction to OJ. Because of this, the slogan should have been euthanized rather than employed.
• Quoting errorists of the LCMS tradition - Walther, Franzmann - elevates them to undeserved deutero-canonical status. What happened to a brief summary of the Scriptures - with notes and condemnations from Luther and the Book of Concord?
• Using a lot of Greek in English form does not help. A supplement afterwards might have helped.

Conclusion

WAM II is not a false teacher. The Righteous Brothers and their evil comrades were using a little understood term to usurp authority through deception, bullying, and well-understood threats. Synodical vengeance is visited onto the third and fourth generations, but the truly perverse are rewarded.

Epitome of Justification by Faith

Genesis 15:6 clearly states that Abraham was Justified by Faith because he believed the Messianic Promises of God.

Romans 4 uses Abraham as the prime example of Justification by Faith, extending that lesson to include everyone who believes the Gospel. They too are Justified by Faith.

This teaching is hated, vilified, persecuted, and distorted beyond all human understanding so the radicals can crow on top of their manure pile.

Facebook Friends Respond to Posts

 Dude! Why join ELCA? The leaders are just like LCMS-WELS bureaucrats - career criminals in doctrine.

Don Gutz 
I am so sick of your attacks on the Lutherans. If you are so upset with these three synods, then join the ELCA. You are tiresom (sic) and boring!!

FrThomas Aaron Frizelle 
Dude, why are you going on about Preus and WAM II?! Who cares? Post your sermons instead. Write about the glory of God instead. Or just share a humble prayer, or a prayer request. You're starting to sound like Rod Serling.

 "Picture a blog. Not just any blog. A very special blog. One with almost 17,000 posts and close to 7 million views."

 They rejoice in their opposition to Justification by Faith and work closely with Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber's ELCA. Are they Lutheran? Long before Q, I did my own research.

***

GJ - These are Facebook friends I do not know, and they still have me listed as a friend.

I assume that they remain nominal friends because they want updates, which I gladly offer at no cost to them. If there are posts I do not want to read, I do not write the authors to excoriate them for writing something anathema to me.

When I was in Cleveland, a funeral director used "dude," circa 1973. I thought that language fad had died away.

This is the philosophy of ELCA, and yet LCMS-WELS-ELS are happy to work with ELCA on a wide variety of religious projects, with WELS Pastor Mark Jeske as the Thrivent Paymaster.

To Build a World-Wide Classic E-Library for Everyone To Use. Free Ebooks and Low-Cost Printed Books

 Returning from her gig in the Philippines - Andrea!
We all prayed for her, and she went from 2+ pounds to 12+ in about three months.

At 5 AM I was talking to our Philippine missionary and to Ivy, whose baby Andrea was born in the Philippines while she was visiting. The digital age has expanded our reach and shrunken our world. I was getting real time photos of baby Andrea - and a short video too.

Job's Comforters, whose descendants are legion, enjoyed the extreme poverty of our little Bethany Lutheran Church. We had no building or mortgage; no church lawnmower, since we lacked a lawn. But that only freed us to blog and to publish.

During that time, the Internet reached a new stage of maturity. When I first taught online, we used printed books, so they arrived by mail when I had new classes. Soon the texts were all ebooks which were already in the online classroom when the course started.

I enjoy printed books and still routinely order them for hobby reading (US Navy) and for theological research. However, they are a problem of weight, delivery, and cost, even though inexpensive when sold as used books.

Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry

Alec Satin began collecting public domain (no copyright) books and publishing them as ebooks: no cost, instant delivery, many potential formats.

Since certain 19th century press-lords want to control printed books and gather the dollars from that monopoly, it suits us to make them free as ebooks, public domain for anyone's use. No one needs to worry about the press-harpies jumping on them and creating problems. If someone wants to reprint or edit Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant - no problem.

Faithful Lutherans Need E-Library Nodes. You Can Be One.

Public domain is the opposite of the monopoly approach. No one can tell you what to do or how to do it.

Lutherans in various locations and countries should set up public access to the books they want others to have. That can be a blog or website. Others have already done this for Luther's Sermons and other Luther books.

My favorite way to transmit and to share is using Dropbox. The lower level is free and people can build up a lot of free storage space by inviting people, etc. I may go professional soon.

Dropbox.con

A Dropbox link can open up an ebook, whether the user has the software or not.

Some of our members and friends took the time to scan and save all of Lenski in PDFs, so we have them linked here.

As long as I am around, I will add public domain sources to that link. But we all know that websites and Internet sources go away, sometimes without warning. If a number of people share their own Internet Luther, Lenski, the old classic Lutheran books, etc, they will not disappear as some of Bunyan's printed works did - from constant use and sharing.

Those who value these works should keep local backups of their favorites and Internet sources like Dropbox. We know software changes and the hits of today become the Netscapes of yesteryear.

 Norma A. Boeckler has her own books, helps others with theirs, and illustrates all of mine.

Printed Books Are Still Loved and Used.

The policy for all my print books is to publish them retail for no profit, with Kindle ebooks at 99 cents. Those who want the printed books at my cost can order them at roughly a 75% discount over retail. Just write me at greg.jackson.edlp@gmail.com

The initials are for Every Day Low Prices!

 These are books being delivered to the Philippines, in person, by our church attorney, Glen Kotten.
Notice the covers by Norma A. Boeckler.

The Genius of the Apostate Synods

These clowns own Nadia Bolz-Weber. They enable her and her ilk with their slobbering snouts in the Thrivent trough, gorging themselves on Thrivent's "mutual benefit funds" and starving the Gospel they despise.

Nadia Bolz-Weber, an ELCA pastor, publicity hog, and vulgarian, posed with Gloria Steinem and their golden calf. Google for the whole putrid story.

When a child wanted to argue a point and felt he could wear me down, I folded my arms and said, "The discussion is over." He learned fast. When I tried to persuade him about another topic, he folded his arms and said, "The discussment is over."

The synodical leeches are just like two-year olds, clever enough to avoid discussion about anything significant.

The King James Version? - Not even a topic.

The traditional text of the New Testament? - Never discussed.

Justification by Faith - "There is Objective Justification and Subjective Justification..."

The synod that supposedly defeated Seminex should not be teaching against Creation. - Eighth Commandment! You have slandered our precious, highly educated professors.

Now at Home, Born Premature in the Philippines - Andrea Anderson

Andrea Anderson was born three months premature, so she was very fragile for weeks. Our congregation prayed for her, and we prayed for her IM on Facebook.

She is now home with her mother Ivy and her father Randy.

Luther and Lutheran Books Travel to the Philippines for World Missions

Books headed to Pastor Jordan Palangyos from Bethany Lutheran Church, Gregory L. Jackson, Norma Boeckler

20 Gems, Volumes 1-8 of Luther's Sermons, 2 Thy Strong Word, 3 Book of Concord, 8 KJV Bibles, Creation Gardening, 3 The Lost Dutchman's Goldmine, The Story of Jesus in Pictures, Catholic Lutheran Protestant, Introduction to the Christian Faith, Beginning Greek; + Acer 1080P DLP Projector.

Thank you - Attorney Glen Kotten.

This is the Bethlehem World Missions model - working from a spare room in a rented home - low-cost yet international in scope.

Free Books for Lutheran World Missions

and

Classic Lutheran Books

 One of our free, public domain treasures is the eight-volume Luther's Sermons, Lenker edition, plus the Gems - all in one full-color PDF.

We also have Lenski's Commentaries, free PDFs.

Many Martin Chemnitz Press books are already posted as free, public domain PDFs.