Thrivent Uses Your Money To Send Candidates to ELCA Seminary

Janesville

Janesville couple 'Aware of the call'

By CATHERINE IDZERDA ( Contact )   Monday, Dec. 28, 2009

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Photo

Dave Nelsestuen

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Lisa Konzen

Dave Nelsestuen’s background includes expertise in the insurance and financial industries, organizational dynamics and team leadership.
Lisa Konzen’s background includes highly developed communication skills, experience with nonprofits and an understanding of families struggling with suffering and loss.
Here’s what they have in common: Both entered Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, at midlife.
Why start over again in such a difficult profession?
Both pastors and seminarians say it’s not about a job; it’s about a call.
“Some people are older before they became aware of the call in their lives,” said the Rev. Steven Ekblad of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Janesville. “But many times, they’ve always known the call was there, but couldn’t do it.”
Roped in, midlife
Nelsestuen, 53, and his wife, Mary, live in Janesville and have two grown daughters. For 32 years, he worked for the Lutheran Brotherhood, which later became Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
“I had a very successful career there,” Nelsestuen said. “But about six or seven years ago, I started getting restless.”
He had been active in his church, Faith Lutheran of Janesville, serving on committees and councils, taking classes and working with church-sponsored ministries and camps.
He was so involved people sometimes jokingly called him “Pastor Dave.”
A few years ago, he signed up for the Lay School of Ministry through the South Central Synod of the Lutheran Church.
He considered keeping his business and becoming a part-time lay minister.
At one point, a church official said, “Why don’t you go to seminary?”
This spring, he’ll graduate. He hopes to find work in southern Wisconsin or northern Illinois.
“I think everything that’s happened in my life was preparing me for this,” Nelsestuen said. “I think God’s had a rope around me for years, and now he’s pulling it in.”
Family first
Konzen, 43, of Janesville has been dealing with her “call” since she was a child.
“When I was little, I would bring home the misselette, scrounge up some grape juice and some of those ice cream cones with the flat bottoms for wafers and perform the mass for my Barbie dolls,” said Konzen, who was raised Roman Catholic.
She toyed with becoming a nun, but during her adolescence, she began to question the tenets of the Catholic faith and eventually left the church.
She attended a Baptist college, where she majored in English and minored in biblical languages.
“I had a strong sense of being called to do something,” Konzen said.
Instead of being called to ministry, she was called home to Janesville to care for her parents.
“Dad had diabetes, and for a long while, he had it under control,” Konzen said. “But then he had to have dialysis—that’s three times a week for three to four hours each time.”
During this time, she and her parents found a new spiritual home in the Lutheran church.
“I told my parents, ‘We’ll give this one try,’” Konzen said. “We landed at Good Shepard, and I finally felt like all the pieces had been put into place.”
Her father eventually ended up at Beloit Health and Rehab—as did her mother, after she had a heart attack.
“Taking care of him and Mom, I knew I was needed where I was,” Konzen said. “I didn’t see it as anything heroic. I got as much out of the relationship as they did.”
Her father died from pneumonia in June 2006, and her mother died three months later. She didn’t want to make any serious decisions while she was grieving for her parents.
She also was a little afraid—afraid of making the right choice, afraid of the challenges of a new life and afraid of life’s practicalities.
In September, Konzen started seminary.
“The fear doesn’t go away. It morphs into excitement,” Konzen said. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be good.”
Both rookie and veteran
Becoming a new pastor in your 40s or 50s has some advantages.
“What’s powerful about this is that they’ve had a whole bunch of time to think through what matters and what doesn’t,” Ekblad said.
At the same time, pastors used to the pace of the business world will be startled to find how small changes in church routines can cause major upsets.
“You cannot let your feelings become the focus,” Ekblad said. “And you’ll be more effective if you don’t have an ego problem.”
The key to success?
“Try to get out of the way and let Christ’s light shine through you,” Ekblad said.

Ding-a-Ling: Mass Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine - Part XII

Every time you hear the bells, another Missouri pastor popes.

Someone wrote that he has suspected LCMS William Weedon of being a closet papist. I thought so myself. The latest blog post suggests he is a Recessional Lutheran, working his way to Rome and hoping to take a bunch with him. His associates in blogging belong to the same smells-and-bells cult, redolent of incense, popery, and Mariolatry.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Weedon wrote recently about being obsessed with Mary.

The latest offering quotes Ratzinger verbatim.

"A Few Gems from Ratzinger on Liturgy

that I happen to think are bang on right:"

Would it be just a little more honest to attribute these bang on quotes to Pope Benedict XVI? I think so. I do not recall any pope being called Roncalli or Montini after elevation to the position of Antichrist.

Father Richard John Neuhaus was a "confessional Lutheran" until he joined Rome. Perhaps many LCMS pastors will walk the tightrope for years to come, but I doubt it.

Paul McCain, part of this circle, worked closely with Fenton until Fenton joined Eastern Orthodoxy and denounced justification by faith. Hearts across Missouri-land sunk as they bid a fond adieu to Fenton, their mentor in stratospherically high church practices.

McCain gushes over Weedon's deep, deep insights. McCain was thrilled that Father Neuhaus helped Missouri be in touch with the pope, who allegedly said, "Oh, those Missouri Lutherans." How many Missourians have poped since then? And how many priests have Martined?

The two-headed calf continues to beckon. Some go to Fuller. Others to Rome and Constantinople.

They never seem to consider the only path: the efficacious Word and the Confessions as a guide (not just a rabbit's foot).

---

Dan @ Necessary Roughness has left a new comment on your post "Ding-a-Ling: Mass Bells Are Breaking Up That Old G...":

I would recommend reading more Weedon and listen to his guest appearances on Issues, Etc., get a better sampling.

Pr. Weedon considered Eastern Orthodoxy but returned from that, refusing to give up Justification and grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone.

There are those in the LCMS that hug so tightly to tradition for the sake of tradition itself and a belonging to the Holy Mother Church, but Pastor Weedon is not one of them. He uses rubrics, etc., to point people to Christ.


***

GJ - That may be true, Dan, but I think it is mischievous to quote the Antichrist favorably when so few know even a smattering of Luther.

I have read pages and pages of Roman theology, very well done in fact, where I agree completely, and then it all  collapses with the Satanic statements on the next page. That is why the Antichrist is so dangerous today. The current candidate is an excellent diplomat, a charming fellow, and very Holy Father-ish. Why quote the pope favorably and use his maiden name?

---

William Weedon has left a new comment on your post "Ding-a-Ling: Mass Bells Are Breaking Up That Old G...":

Dear Pastor Jackson,

You will, I'm afraid, be waiting a very long time if you expect this pastor to "pope." I have absolutely zero positive reasons to turn Rome and countless negative reasons why doing so would be fool-hardy - the first and foremost of which being Rome's continual inability to distinguish law and gospel and thus continually confounding the doctrine of justification with sanctification. Beyond that there are the little matters of indulgences, purgatory, prayers to the saints, treasury of merits and so forth. I abominate all of these.

As for the bells, does your indictment then rest against the numerous generations of Lutherans in Saxony who used them after the Reformation???


***

GJ - Adiaphora, Formula of Concord, SD

5] Namely, when under the title and pretext of external adiaphora such things are proposed as are in principle contrary to God's Word (although painted another color), these are not to be regarded as adiaphora, in which one is free to act as he will, but must be avoided as things prohibited by God. In like manner, too, such ceremonies should not be reckoned among the genuine free adiaphora, or matters of indifference, as make a show or feign the appearance, as though our religion and that of the Papists were not far apart, thus to avoid persecution, or as though the latter were not at least highly offensive to us; or when such ceremonies are designed for the purpose, and required and received in this sense, as though by and through them both contrary religions were reconciled and became one body; or when a reentering into the Papacy and a departure from the pure doctrine of the Gospel and true religion should occur or gradually follow therefrom [when there is danger lest we seem to have reentered the Papacy, and to have departed, or to be on the point of departing gradually, from the pure doctrine of the Gospel].

10] We believe, teach, and confess also that at the time of confession [when a confession of the heavenly truth is required], when the enemies of God's Word desire to suppress the pure doctrine of the holy Gospel, the entire congregation of God, yea, every Christian, but especially the ministers of the Word, as the leaders of the congregation of God [as those whom God has appointed to rule His Church], are bound by God's Word to confess freely and openly the [godly] doctrine, and what belongs to the whole of [pure] religion, not only in words, but also in works and with deeds; and that then, in this case, even in such [things truly and of themselves] adiaphora, they must not yield to the adversaries, or permit these [adiaphora] to be forced upon them by their enemies, whether by violence or cunning, to the detriment of the true worship of God and the introduction and sanction of idolatry. 11] For it is written, Gal. 5:1: Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage.

It is irrelevant whether pastors in Saxony used mass bells, as you mention on your blog. This is a time of confessional crisis, when Lutheran ministers are slinking around, edging into Romanism, and covertly instructing others to do the same. Lutheran pastors should avoid aping the papal priests, as the Book of Concord states so clearly above.

Nor does it matter whether you ever join the Church of Rome. You are giving false support to those who are looking for encouragement in their escape to the Gospel of Purgatory and papal infallibility.

The Book of Concord indictment applies to all the smells-and-bells Lutheran clergy who make Rome the gold standard of worship.

---

Pr. Lehmann has left a new comment on your post "Ding-a-Ling: Mass Bells Are Breaking Up That Old G...":

On what basis do you make the charge that Pr. Weedon makes Rome the gold standard for worship?

As one who worshiped at Saint Paul's for a year, preached over 30 times from its pulpit, and has seen first hand the resources that Pr. Weedon uses to plan for worship, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Do us all a favor and find something that you know about to talk about.

***

GJ - Pastor Weedon's blog is self-indicting, regardless of what I post. He should retract it.

I know something about Roman Catholic doctrine.

Mark Jeske was never going to leave WELS, in one communication, and he was advertised on the front page of the LCMS website a few weeks later. That may not be the biggest switch of all time, but even Peter, our first pope, swore he would never deny Christ. Oaths are sometimes forgotten.

Let It Rot - How God Arranges Recycling

I got into Creation-centered gardening due to a lack of funds. I decided to garden in Midland, Michigan and went to the store. The inorganic products being sold, from fertilizer to bug spray, were going to add up to a lot of money, so I came home empty-handed. My church was blocks from Dow Chemical headquarters, so there is no little irony in my transformation.

I read all the gardening books at the Midland Public Library, then searched the children's books for all the books about nature. The children's books were often better, because they explained some of the most basic concepts better. I subscribed to the Rodale Press magazine and bought their books as well. One WELS gardening couple ended up with about 20 of those books. I won't mention their names, lest they be stretched on the rack to reveal all they know.

Although the infinite complexity of Creation is impressive, God's design for recycling is even more astonishing. A speaker on bird rescue reminded me of that when she mentioned the abundance of owls in Bella Vista. She brought a barred owl along to show us. In the big city of Bentonville, there are few owls because they view dead trees as litter. In Bella Vista, with so many ravines and tress, the dead trees are left alone. What man sees as litter, the creatures view as condos.

Dead trees provide living rooms for birds and mammals, but they also feed the soil as they rot into the ground. God uses rot to recycle. In fact, the lack of rotting spells trouble for certain areas of the world. Dung beetles were brought to Australia to deal with the sheep droppings from their vast ovine herds. In Alaska and Siberia, the cold prevents the rapid rotting we enjoy without noticing. In the desert, decomposition is slowed down by a lack of moisture.

Nitrogen is the basis for all protein, and God uses that building block for all kinds of tasty food. All we need for recycling those chemicals is moisture, soil, and shade. The creatures of rot start first. Molds break down cells to make them more receptive to decomposition (the receptivity axis in nature).

A good pile of moist organic material will heat up as bacteria attack those cells. Once the pile shrinks down and cools off, creatures will rush in to eat and be eaten. Sowbugs, pillbugs, centipedes, millipedes,--and ultimately earthworms--will work over the pile. Soil provides the home and the chemicals to advance the process. Soil will rot any piece of wood left in it, but it will also destroy harmful bacteria.

Fresh-dead wood, like sawdust, will absorb nitrogen and bind it for a period of time. That is why fresh sawdust on a garden can be detrimental. It will also attract every cat within a square mile. The binding and loosing keys are chemical, so that which the woods binds is also loosed when the chemical process is over. Thus old rotten wood is a superb soil conditioner and a great soil amendment. Woodsy gardeners will actually push every possible twig into the soil to aid this process.

Sawdust used to absorb fallout in a horse or cattle stall will have a booster built-in. The added nitrogen will make up for the binding quality of fresh wood rotting and speed up the rot. In addition, animal products add variety to the soil in the form of minerals.

Nitrogen is the key to the heating up and breaking down cycle. Plenty of nitrogen (grass clippings, chicken and rabbit manure) will heat up and break down fast. Low nitrogen materials (leaves, wood, cow manure) will break down more slowly. The ultimate compost pile will combine everything for diversity.

My yard renovation in Midland began with a professional cleaning up and taking away about 10 bags of organic material. I slapped my head when I realized that Midland citizens spent all their time giving away free soil remedies while paying for chemical fertilizers and insecticides.

I recycled all my grass clippings and leaves, borrowing more from the neighbors. I put rotten hay and ground up trees (utility company treat) around bushes. Our yard became party central for all the birds. They had bugs under every piece of litter and prowled the yard constantly for food. Spiders grew fat and fertile from fly-bys. I used no inorganics at all, but I had healthy crops and very little damage from insects.

Some of the smallest details are free and yield great results. Butterflies like mud, and so do birds. I realize that one creature is the enemy of the other, but I let God sort that out. Shallow water is good for birds and insects.

The good insects, which are legion, bring down the number of bad ones. For instance, a cottony maple scale insect invasion was halted by a lady-bug invasion feasting on it. Asparagus beetles became lunch for a preying mantis I hatched for that purpose. If a dog snags some fur on a bush while chasing a squirrel, a bird will treasure it as a soft lining for her nest.

Plants have companions and need them too. I will write about that later.

Some Characteristics of WELS/ELS/Missouri Enthusiasm Centers - Church Growth Congregations

Gratuitous Animal Photo

1. They avoid the name Lutheran whenever possible.
2. They promote women's ordination and women usurping authority in the church.
   
3. They count on cell groups to make them grow, sometimes demanding membership in one as a condition for membership in the church. Just like the Pietists.
4. They love Reformed doctrine and attack any Lutheran who does not.
5. They love every denomination except their own.
   
6. They see the Sacraments as barriers to their success.
7. They call those who love the pipe organ "legalists" but demand that the pipe organ never be used. 
8. They imagine a jazz band will actually improve worship.
9. They replace sermons with coaching, worship with entertainment.
10. They take of their tummies during the Sunday embarrassment. Coffee and snacks are provided for the truly self-centered.
11. They argue heatedly that love will convert people.
12. They actually think growth depends on the amount of money spent, using "low" figures to shock people into spending oodles on silliness.
13. They are spiritual tyrants in the parish but insubordinate in their own denominations.
14. The ministers use their positions to support a degenerate lifestyle, taking advantage of the weak in their own congregations - preying upon them and demanding silence.
    

Advance Warning for Chicaneries

29^th Biennial Convention of the

Arizona-California District of the
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

June 14-16, 2010

 

Convention Flow Chart

Downloadable version in pdf

Monday, June 14, 2010

Morning

11:00 a.m.      Opening Communion Service at King of Kings Lutheran Church,
Apache Junction, Arizona

Afternoon

1:30 p.m.        Start of afternoon session
District President’s report
Elections begin and continue through the convention

2:00 p.m.        Keynote address and discussion—Part I 

“The Theology of the Cross”
Rev. Daniel M. Deutschlander
Professor Emeritus, Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota

How Many WELS Congregations Avoid the Name Lutheran?List Them Here

Display in the WELS Holy Spirit Room

The Conference of Pussycats advised congregations that it was wrong to avoid the Lutheran name. They were in a weak position, of course.

1. The WELS leaders took Lutheran away from magazine masthead, making it non-Lutheran in appearance. The Tell-It-Not-in-Gath folks just lost that round, with the name restored.
2. WELS changed from The Lutheran Hymnal to Christian Worship. I know Lutheran is in the sub-title, but no other Lutheran hymnal has dodged the name in the main title. Does anyone say something other than "Christian Worship"?
3. WELS Lutherans For Life formed separately because it was a sin, a sin I tell ya, to work with Missouri. Real estate mogul Robert Fleischman changed the name to Christian Life Resources, so no one knows it is pro-life and Lutheran. CLR works with all denominations now, especially twenties, fifties, and c-notes.

DisHonor Roll - NonLutheran WELS Congregations

Floyd Luther Stolzenburg advised WELS on Church Growth:

how to start a stealth mission - Pilgrim!

• Pilgrim Community Church, Columbus, Ohio, started by VP Paul Kuske, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, and Roger Zehms. RIP. One announcement from Zehms/Stolzenburg included - "Standing where Luther stood." Indeed.
  

Mark Freier is now a life-coach. He has performed marriages for atheists and Hindoos, catered events, and damaged several churches.

• CrossRoads Community Church, S. Lyons, Michigan, started with the blessing of DP Robert Mueller and VP Kuske, misled by Rick Miller, Mark Freier, Kelly Voigt. RIP Thriving as an Evangelical Covenant Church. And they used to thank the WELS pastors for getting them started. Pastor Joe has omitted those words from this page. Ichabod effect? I think so.
  
  
  
  
  Jeff Gunn's websty is a marvel to behold.
  
  
  
  
  Feel the buzz at Crosswalk?
  
  
  

• CrossWalk in Phoenix, not officially WELS, but generously donated two members and the pastor to leadership positions at Willow Creek Wisconsin Lutheran College. The second campus chaplain is a proud graduate of the Babtist "Drive" Worship Conference (with Ski, Katie, Glende, and four other WELS workers).
  

No room for Lutheran on the Crossroads, Chicago banner?

• Crossroads in Chicago

John [Hoh],
Thands (sic) for illustrating so well some key issues we face as we consider how best to communicate the message entrusted to us. You mentioned previously that you used these illustrations in your presentation at the recent Church and Change Conference. I wasn't able to make your session (there were way too many "must-attend" offerings at this conference). Do you have materials/handouts that you could post or otherwise make available for those who missed it?
Mike Borgwardt, Crossroads Church, Chicago. [Secret Church and Change list-serve.]

• Christ the Rock, Round Rock, Texas. $50,000 a year for Gretchen, plus the pastor's salary and benefits. Attendance - about 30. Blog - Rock and Roll (RIP).

Ski cuddled with MariQueen, Playboy model and alleged singer.

---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "How Many WELS Congregations Avoid the Name Luthera...":

Few pastors can or will walk in the footsteps of Christ the way Ski does. More power to him. Lesser pastors fear taking the Word to the dens of iniquity the way Ski does. In time we can expect Ski’s trophy pictures to include escorts, strippers, and street walkers.

---

• The CORE.
  Ski, Glende, and Katie run off to Schwaermer conferences, like Drive, Dirt, Story, Catalyst, and Granger Community. Cost - $250,000 in less than a year. Results - 9 members, including transfers from a local WELS church. 
• 
  
• Latte Church, aka http://www.casualaboutchurch.org/ aka St. Andrew, Waunakee. Gushingly promoted in FIC, St. Andrew has a woman who "administers the Means of Grace."
  

Coffee is apparently a Means of Grace at Latte Church.

---


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "How Many WELS Congregations Avoid the Name Luthera...":

In regards to the life coach, the trajectory is pathetic, albeit predictable. Semi-spiritual terminology is mated to crass humanism: "missional and mission statements", "kairos moments", etc. It is shameless self-absorbtion and utter nonsense. The website mentions Henri Nouwen as a mentor? Egaaads! Let this serve as a warning to all how swiftly one generation can suffer shipwreck when it casts off its moorings.


***

Nouwen

GJ - I truly doubt that Father Henri Nouwen "mentored" Mark Freier. I knew Nouwen at Yale, but I did not take his classes. I knew students who did, and they never tried to claim some special status. I suggest that "P Boy" read The Wind in the Willows and try to imitate the truly repentant Toad of Toad Hall. Mark earned his nickname in WELS, but I will let others explain it.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "How Many WELS Congregations Avoid the Name Luthera...":

Every day we DON'T hear from the synod prez or others in charge that they are investigating and putting a stop to Ski's shenanigans, is another day the WELS slips closer and closer to losing this member. I wonder what Mrs. Ski thinks about his pictures with poptarts? From the looks of this picture, I get the impression he doesn't much care. He's proud enough to post this where all can see. I think the CORE is the first place the synod should start the cleanup and go from there.

Will Patterson Campaign for DP by Bragging about Rock and Roll Church?

At this address:

Boot Camp 512‎ -

Christ The Rock‎

Old Settlers Associates-Williamson‎

Rock'n River Family Aquatic‎ - 7 reviews

Round Rock Sertoma Girls Sftbl‎

There is a map, too, but I got tired of fussing with the graphics. Look it up on Google Maps. The websty would be a lot more interesting, but Kudu Don Patterson forced it down to one page so he could run for DP without too many more pratfalls. Ichabod's fault. Sorry folks. I can link y'all to about 100 other identical Schwaermer sites. Seriously.

3300 E Palm Valley Blvd
Round Rock, TX 78665
Phone 512-470-2133

Sunday Worship Gathering: 10 am

CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE AT CTR

Thursday, December 24, 6:30pm

Christmas Eve Service of Song and Hope  <==A few days ago!

Sunday, December 27, 10am

Service of Bible Lessons and Christmas Carols  <==Yesterday! They need a grant, please. Ask Joe to stop blogging and help with the giant one-page websty. Updating takes so long.

Happy Reader

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Other Side of the Two-Headed Calf Is Mooing, T...":

This stuff is weird. I had no idea, thanks for the info.
cw



Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Some Eastern Orthodoxy Scenes":

ROFL, I almost spewed my coffee out onto my computer, really.

I'm still plowing through the archives, really good stuff here, thanks again.

Church and Chicanry on Security Lock-Down!DefCon 5! Batten Down the Hatches!The Power of the Word

Patterson sponsored a pagan Easter egg hunt at his church.

I am sure he was not the Easter bunny. PETA would never allow it.

WELS pastors used to worry about Parcher posting in Christian News, but that was a limited audience, and few people keep their copies for long. Now they get Ichabod every time they Google anything about WELS. That is also true for hundreds of pictures and graphics. Try that at home, fellow students. Someone said, "It's incredible the power your blog has throughout the WELS."

1. Doebler dismantled his website on orders from Patterson and Gurgle. 
2. Patterson has locked down his Facebook so that his safari adventures aren't exposed. 
3. Patterson's church website announcements haven't been updated in several months either. 
4. The Southern Babtist Central District will no longer post their minutes/reports on the district site. 
5. Names of key Chicaneries are being dropped from board listings. 
6. The Changers are finally recognizing that the Internet postings and sites reveal a clear picture of their pan-denominational Rock and Roll church agenda.

Joe, Tim, Larry, Moe, Curly - I thought no one read Ichabod.

Gurgle is definitely mentoring Patterson as his campaign for South Central DP gets underway.

This is an obvious PhotoShop because Patterson will not post of photo of them working together.

Who sent you? Ichabod? Get away!

Joe Krohn's English Matches His Theology

Joe Krohn, aka LutherRocks, aka ex-Rockmeister at
the Doebler/Patterson Emerging Church in Round Rock.

LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Not Sure If Your Ears Can Handel This Cacophony fr...":

What about a song that has solid Lutheran (sic - missing word) and rocks and is done well? Hmmmm?

***

GJ - Joe Krohn is shy about using his own name on Ichabod, but he always used it on the secret Church and Change list-serve. He went to at least one conference and wrote often, gushingly without discernment.

I found the photo above on Facebook, but he is much more secretive again. When he published his short-lived Rock and Roll Church blog, he was shy about his identity too. In an unusual display of modesty, he erased all his files.

I have compiled all the Chicanery conversations that were sent to me by various sources. Since then the Slinkers have gone to their secret Yahoo groups, after discovering their security was as good as Northwest Airlines.

If you want the Word file, write me an email. I will email the attachment in a plain, brown wrapper. The document is about 300 pages long. Those hot-air merchants never stop talking - in secret.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Joe Krohn's English Matches His Theology":

Joe considers a Quia subscription to the Lutheran Confesssions to be cultish. Here are a few of Joe's quotes from the New Age Church and Change discussions:

I have been following this Dr. Sweet thread and it's morphs with great interest. This is a great example of the verse "iron sharpens iron" a pastor friend of
mine uses quite often....But you have to remain relevant in today’s society and if we need to bring in someone who can help us, I say go for it! When I see churches like Lakewood in Houston buy the old Omni because of their growth, or Saddleback in California, or Chandler Christian Church right in my back yard buying up chunks of real estate to expand, I think they must be doing something right!! I would never approve of their theologies, but hey, why can’t we take what they are doing right and graft it on our theology? We’re pretty proud of our theology aren’t we? At least that’s the impression I get from this list. We have to get proactive. I fear our Synod has waited too long. At times I grieve for WELS. We just need to get as evangelical as the Evangelicals are and be
like it says in our name: Wisconsin EVANGELICAL Lutheran Synod.
God Bless you all!
Joe Krohn


Hello All!
It was great to be in Minneapolis last week! I found the experience uplifting and inspiring. May God continue to bless us, alot!!! In regards to praying with other Christians. I have struggled with this, especially in light of what happened at our conference and was alluded to in a previous post. As far as our Synod's stance on fellowship, I get it. I agree on most points. But this prayer thing. It just seems that on many fellowship issues, we hold on to them and drive them so deep, that we offend. Then who is throwing obstacles in the way of other Christians and causing division? I was one who prayed along with Dr. Ben Freudenburg's prayer and felt that I did no wrong. I have mixed feelings about how some of my WELS brothers and sisters may feel about this(and me). I have read the passages that our Synod bases it's practices on. Quite frankly, I don't see the relevance in this circumstance. Those passages to me clearly define examples that are much more serious than praying with someone who is much, much more like me in faith than different. I understand that we should be careful. If we relax on some point, then it will be much easier on the next issue and so on.....and soon we find we've compromised everything away. But, what about that beautifully crafted devotion that Pastor Henkel gave about counting kernels and steps? We mustn't be so quick to judge. A worship service wasn't being conducted. There was no communion given. There were no baptisms. Sometimes I think that if one believes in Christ crucified, the Triune God and being baptized is THE way home, that should be good enough, especially when we KNOW that fellow believer is more, MUCH more like us than different.
In His Peace,
Joe Krohn

Dear Pastor (Bob) Gurgel,
I like the name change idea. At times I have wondered this: I love my/our Lutheran heritage. However, to an outsider that has merely looked at us and other churches superficiously (sic), I wander what they think. We talk about holding to the Lutheran Confessions, the Augsburg Confession, what is contained in The Book of Concord. The Mormons hold to The Book of Mormon and the teachings of their forefathers. Other churches I would guess have their sources/standards by which they base their doctrines. Some of it sounds cultish. I like the Followers of Jesus, because THAT is who we are. NOT followers of Luther. And wasn't it Luther who urged his successors NOT to call themselves Lutherans? Luther ALWAYS pointed to where he was coming from. The Word of God.
Have a Blessed Christmas Season everyone!!!
Joe Krohn

***

GJ - Hi Joe. See my new post on Church and Chicanery Lock-downs. It will be up when I get done laughing.

I spoke a number of times with Arizona-California-Las Vegas district pastors. They have not accepted CrossBalk as a WELS congregation and do not plan to accept it. There are many doctrinal issues with Jeff Gunn, former poster boy of Church and Change. The lack of Holy Communion is one. I also heard that CrossBalk is being kicked out of ALA because of the sect's alien status. Besides, CrossBalk is low on money now that outside gifts are not coming in - not exactly a roaring success. All the Chicaneries have their trotters in the feed-trough, but the slop is running dry now. Some may have to work for a living.

Too bad Gunn could not get himself hired at Willow Creek Wisconsin Lutheran College. But all of you cult member should be happy that Ski-buddy Buske has the divine call to develop Pietistic cell groups there. Unfortunately, the campus tells me that the college students want serious, liturgical worship there, not more clown acts.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Joe Krohn's English Matches His Theology":

pastorless Jerkson says:

"Unfortunately, the campus tells me that the college students want serious, liturgical worship there, not more clown acts."

That is a real knee-slapper! Nobody tells Jerkson anything. He makes it up and then claims he has sources. I haven't had a laugh like this since I saw a picture of mrs. jerkson.

***

GJ - There are far worse comments than the one posted above, but I wanted to let WELS discern the quality of support Church and Change receives on a daily basis. No wonder they have to beg for financial subsidies from the district, synod, Thrivent, and foundations like Antioch. Socially backward people have trouble holding on to jobs, wives, families, and sound doctrine. Where do neglected and abused children go when they grow up? Read the anonymous comment above.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Joe Krohn's English Matches His Theology":

Joe Krohn mentions that he prayed along with Dr. Ben Freudenburg (LCMS) at the Church and Change gathering. Freudenburg also spoke at this NACC gathering of Emergent New Age church growth mentors, http://www.christianstandard.com/pdfs/488.pdf. Note on the second page, Meet God in Worship, "The Desert will provide a different way to commune with God—alone. The Desert is a prayer labyrinth that will be set up in a private area of the convention center, offering a place for individuals to slip away for guided prayer, meditation, and reflection. In the midst of a jam-packed convention, there will be a quiet place for solitude." This is a popular New Age practice which is designed to allow the participant to experience and meet with god outside of Scripture and the Sacraments. This is a communion with the devil and his demons packaged in an appealing wrapper. ELCA states, "Thinking deeply about a passage of scripture while you walk is an excellent way to discover the meaning of God’s word and how it can be applied to your life." "A prayer labyrinth is an ancient tool for reflection on one’s life and spiritual journey. It is an active way of praying because it forces a person to use their whole self (mind, body, and spirit) in prayer, inviting the use of imagination, intuition, and creativity. A labyrinth introduces the idea of a wide and generous path to God, one that is horizontal instead of vertical. It is hoped that walking the labyrinth may bring peace, comfort, clarity, relief from stress, a sense of closeness to God, and new insights and perspectives on problems or questions in your life."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_labyrinth

http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=6641

http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/ftlab.htm

http://www.nazarethlutheran.org/prayer-labyrinth/

http://www.gracewoodstock.org/prayers.htm

Does WELS Evangelism Mean Teaching New Age Philosophies?

WELS Pastor Mike Borgwardt went to a Leonard Sweet performance

and loved it. Who paid for that? WELS?

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Beauty and Value of the Wedge Issue":

The primary wedge issue in the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification. It is a New Age doctrine that has been driven into the Lutheran Synods, hearts and minds. Most do not seem to mind the cold blade on their shoulders. By the grace of God some do.

The continued dabbling in the New Age, Emergent church, doctrines by the Church and Change folks continues to feed the problem. Compare the UOJ doctrine taught in the best selling New Age book The Shack with the WELS UOJ doctrine. They are exactly the same. Here are the C&C quotes on this issue:

---

"Thanks for the hint. I heard _____(Leonard Sweet) speak at an "emerging church" conference
this year and he didn't disappoint. Great choice!"
Michael Borgwardt [GJ - WELS Stealth Congregation, Chicago]

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"Full disclosure - this is Joel Kluender speaking - not Jennifer, my wife. I've been following the thread on Leonard Sweet and his being invited by some WELS congregations to the Church and Change conference. I have taken a look at his book online and I must say that what I have found is extremely disturbing.

****Here is a direct quote from his book Quantum Spirituality.
"What tradition supposes Wesley to have discovered at Aldersgate is that Logos is an energy-releasing event. Energy flows are absolutely indispensable to the emergence of life, whether biological or
spiritual.ý Just as farmers are said to provide only 5 percent of the energy necessary to produce crops--the energy of nature provides the other 95 percent--so general reason or logos provides only the energy of receptivity in the divine-human encounter that leads to Logos . God provides the rest by other means." (p. 68)
***And here is another quote:
"But the energy of divine love was assembled in matter in the human form of the Logos-Christ. Jesus is God's most sublime manifestation of energy matter" (p.64)
And here is my (Joel's) response:
THESE ARE NOT JUST THE INERT, BENIGN MUSINGS ABOUT GOD BY A PHILOSOPHER FASCINATED WITH PHYSICS. THESE ARE FALSE DOCTRINE! IN THESE QUOTES SWEET HAS TAKEN THE CLEAR AND CONCRETE TEACHING OF THE INCARNATE CHRIST, AND COUCHED IT IN NEW-AGE THEOLOGY MASQUERADING AS "NEW LIGHT".
TO TEACH THAT WE HAV ANY PART IN OUR CONVERSION GOES AGAINST THE
CLEAR TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE. THAT IS WHAT THE FIRST QUOTE DOES -
SUGGESTING THAT OUR logos OR REASON PROVIDES 5% AND THE OTHER 95% COMES FROM GOD. BLASPHEMY!
THE SECOND QUOTE THAT JESUS IS "GOD'S MOST SUBLIME MANIFESTATION OF ENERGY MATTER" IS TANTAMOUNT TO DENYING THE ETERNAL DIVINITY OF CHRIST. JESUS IS NOT A "MANIFESTATION" OF GOD. JESUS IS GOD. IN SUMMARY, IF A SPEAKER WHO ESPOUSES THESE VIEWS IS BEING WELCOMED INTO WELS CIRCLES, THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM IN THE WELS. FOR THE RECORD, I AM AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, WITH A MASTERS DEGREE IN MICROELECTRONICS, AND I HAVE TAKEN GRADUATE COURSES IN QUANTUM PHYSICS. WHAT THIS GUY IS TEACHING IS NOT QUANTUM PHYSICS, IT IS BIBLICAL HERESY. ROMANS 6:23 AND JOHN 3:16 SAY MORE OF WORTH TO US AS CHRISTIANS THAN ALL OF THE QUANTUM PSYCHO-BABBLE IN THE WORLD. WE IN WELS SHOULD WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT."
Joel Kluender

***

GJ - Once again I have to ask, "Why spend Lutheran money to spread something decidedly anti-Lutheran and anti-Christian?"

I cannot bear to reprint Sweet's self-worshiping bio, so I will link it here. (If you are a Church and Change member, left click the blue line. If you went to Fuller, ask someone to help you.)

Paul Calvin Kelm backed the Sweet Church and Change conference, but he refused to discuss it with his own fellow pastors. Nothing was ever done about Kelm's doctrine or his union membership in Willow Creek - with John Parlow and St. Mark Depere.

Meanwhile, ELCA members are looking for a genuine Lutheran church, not a cheap imitation of a circus founded upon New Age Eastern Polytheism.

Beauty and Value of the Wedge Issue

Someone congratulated me for dealing with ELCA instead of the Chicaneries in WELS. They belong to the same tribe. ELCA is just a few months ahead of the Church and Change agenda. Those who get on the Pietism-Enthusiasm-CGM bandwagon are most likely to stop at Atheist Alley for a long stay.

ELCA was born in Pietism, fermented with political activism, and calcified with the quota system. Only radicals can have a say in ELCA today.

Wedge issues work well in dividing and destroying churches. First there is a little tolerance requested humbly, as Augustine noted. Next, the wedge issue asks for an equal say, as a matter of justice. Once established, the wedge issue assumes total dominance as the only possible answer to the situation. Any other position is ridiculed. Any person representing the traditional viewpoint is pilloried.

No matter how absurd and anti-Biblical the wedge issue, it will divide families, friendships, congregations, and synods. Bureaucrats dodge topics that may divide, so the wedge issue always wins.

Strange New Tolerance in ELCA

I will try to explain this situation for those blessed by non-membership in ELCA.

ELCA met in August and took the final step toward anything-goes ordination and partnering in the parsonage. But that was done under the local option motto. Supposedly the ELCA bishop of the area could decide whether or not to ordain or approve the call of people with alternative concepts of marriage. Just as America still has some dry counties, by vote, so ELCA would have some straight districts, by vote. ELCA follows the LCA in having synods within synods, so I have called the little ones districts.

Northeast Iowa decided to make a move toward rescinding the latest ELCA move, so consternation has followed. The homosexual activists want a clean sweep of all regions. Seminarians are already vowing to refuse calls to Northeast Iowa if the district refuses to loosen up. But alas, too many Iowans have come on down to the farm:






Oddly, the bishop's son has a blog where this conflict is being aired, along with the publication of daddy's letter. The son is a youth pastor and clearly sides with the offended who want to open up Northeast Iowa to their pan-sexuality.

Daddy bishop's expressed role is to continue the conversation and all that blather. Believe in the process, for the process will justify. That may give many Iowans the creepy feeling that NE Iowa's ruling board will find itself flanked by the allegedly neutral bishop.

I understand that bishops also move obliquely in the game of chess.

---

News article on NE Iowa opposition.


---
Pretty Good Lutherans:

In declining to state a position on partnered gays in the ministry, Ullestad is following in position of ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. He, too, has refused to take a public stance and claimed his role was to be a neutral moderator of the issue.

Since the national assembly decision, some gay and lesbian clergy told Pretty Good Lutherans that it’s time for Hanson to break his silence.

“Neutrality makes no sense to me,” said Pastor Megan Rohr of San Francisco. “He speaks out on other justice issue, but he doesn’t talk about this as a justice issue.”

She added: “One of the number one requirements of a pastor in the ELCA is that they (sic) speak in favor of justice.”

From Mothers Against Drunk Democrats - The Senator Who Gave Us Cuban Health Care

Rich Rev - Poor Rev

Rev. Dr. Stan Olson is on the right, installing a deaconess.

The Rich Dad Poor Dad series is based on a myth. The author's "poor" father was superintendent of the Hawaiian school system, and his "rich" father never existed. Nevertheless, I decided to kelm the concept for this post.

Stan Olson and I were in the same classes at Yale Divinity. Stan was in the doctoral program and I was in the STM program. We took Thessalonians with Abraham Malherbe and the doctoral seminar with Nils Dahl.

We also went to the same LCA congregation, Bethesda, just below the hill where YDS stands. Dahl, Sydney Ahlstrom, George Lindbeck, Jaroslav Pelikan, and Paul Holmer were members of Bethesda. One Sunday I was preaching and a number of YDS professors visited, including Henri Nouwen. The pastor when we were there, Hal Wimmer, became one of the first ELCA bishops when it formed.

Stan earned his PhD and taught at Luther Seminary. He also served a congregation in New Ulm and became a bishop. Now he is serving as head of ELCA's Division for Ministry, one of four main divisions. Apart from achieving the top post, Stan has done it all.

Like Al Barry and Robert Preus, I ended up in various synods while Stan ascended the ranks of the ALC and ELCA. Therefore, I could not avoid running into Stan's name in Lutheran news releases. I recall Stan endorsing Reformed-Lutheran communion, knowing that the Reformed reject the Real Presence and the efficacy of the Word. The ALC pushed for Reformed unionism while the LCA was cuddling with the Antichrist.

Stan was also quoted in his determination to help change the rules for ELCA's homosexual and lesbian clergy. Those who were kicked out will now be welcomed back in, even though one homosexual pastor caused ELCA its biggest lawsuit loss - $40 million.

Perhaps people are thinking that I will label myself the Poor Rev, but I am not. I am the Rich Rev, not in money but in doctrine. I will gladly pass into eternity with nothing left behind, rather than give up the Scriptures and Confessions. I spent my LCA pension money to remain independent, and I have no regrets about that, either.

The Poor Rev is the man who did nothing to stop this travesty but happily pivoted - to change the rules once a convention was manipulated into a desirable outcome.

The Poor Rev has helped impoverish his own church body. He will have a generous retirement, enriched by a constant rise in pension contributions and salary from the same organization. (McCain would be proud of Stan.) In retirement Stan will see ELCA fracture and fail. The dissenters leaving ELCA are inspired, energized, and ready to pay the price for leaving Holy Mother Synod.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Rich Rev - Poor Rev":

Why would any Lutheran (aspiring or not) attend Yale 'divinity' School?????

***

GJ - Why would any Lutheran, aspiring or not, attend Mequon, Mankato, St. Louis or Ft. Wayne?

Faithful Service - New Blog Listing

This is an actual photo of John Travolta kissing a shocked Kirk Douglas on the mouth. The idea was simply to give an award
to the distinguished older actor.

I added Faithful Service to the blog list because it gathers plenty of information about ELCA.

Lutheran News is another one, but its linkage does not always work from Ichabod, probably because of its advanced, faulty software.

I find it amusing when people try to demean my research and writing as "bitter." I am genuinely saddened by what the apostates have done to all the Lutheran groups, from ELCA down to the micro-minis.

Just to give a little perspective - The LCA church where I was confirmed in 1964 would have given the WELS Church-and-Changers the boot in a nano-second. We had liturgical services at all times, even at Luther League meetings. We sang Lutheran hymns. The sermons were Biblical, not coaching, self-help, name-it-and-claim-it travesties copied from the Schwaermer. Nor was my last LCA call any different in its use of liturgy, creeds, and hymns. I was happy to be much more grounded in better Lutheran hymns while attending LCMS and WELS congregations.

I wrote a book-length manuscript about ELCA apostasy in 1987. Christian News published it as a special issue. The conservative Lutheran synods were all embarrassed about Out of the Depths of ELCA because they were working with ELCA and dividing up the AAL/LB loot while doing it.

One chapter in the manuscript was about homosexual activism in the ALC, LCA and mainline groups. All of it was carefully documented.

Everyone continued as before, as if the Flood was not going to happen. Every joint meeting and joint ministry with ELCA only encouraged the apostates to do even more, and they did so with great zest and flair. One cannot separate the current fruit of their labors from the vast number of earlier ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS ecumenical projects funded with AAL/LB/Thrivent dollars. The hypocritical CLC (sic) has also participated through Thrivent, in spite of their nuanced, Pharisaical claims. WELS has stopped its "ill-advised" projects with ELCA.

The Munich Pact with the Episcopalians started the howls of outrage in ELCA. I believe the surrender to Rome in the joint statement on justification came before the episcopal debacle. Both employed the Delta technique of feigning mass participation while directing a predetermined goal. The vote against Biblical standards in August was another example of the same techniques.

I am glad ELCA finally outed itself brazenly as a dictatorial, dishonest, thuggish, and brutal organization. I have been astounded at members putting up with all the previous onslaughts. Now they no excuse.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Faithful Service - New Blog Listing":

"The hypocritical CLC (sic) has also participated through Thrivent, in spite of their nuanced, Pharisaical claims."

Your ministry was always full of lies, and so is this a lie. Prove it!

***

GJ - AAL published on the Net the participating members of their branches. Several were CLC (sic) congregations. After that was discussed, one congregation mysteriously disappeared from the published list. The large one in Mankato was known for participating in AAL. That was funny, because the CLC (sic) was always defining itself as so pure, so concerned about fellowship, and so much better than the others. One CLC (sic) pastor was kicked out by Pope Dan Fleischer for discussing the Mankato situation. I heard the audio tape. Eggs Albrecht, the previous president, quit the CLC (sic) in disgust, with his two congregations. Someone said he rejoined later.

I recently told a pastor, "The CLC exists to make people thankful that there is something far worse than the worst parts of WELS."

Alternatives to ELCA

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson dons his bright episcopal apparel.
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
I didn't say it.

ELCA elites on wrong road

By: Les Ristinen, Frazee, Minn.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elites have apparently determined that social and lifestyle policies that contradict Scripture are not congregational voting issues. It is in print that the ELCA spent $1.15 million on the sexuality studies but did not allow congregations to determine if such a study was necessary or valid. Nor did ELCA hierarchy allow congregations to vote on the issue of accepting Biblical sinful lifestyles.

Congregational donations are intended for God’s work. Our funding is meant for spreading God’s word, not to study ways to subvert Scripture to accommodate sinful lifestyles. We can only guess what future nonconforming issues are on the ELCA elitist agenda.

Alternatives to the ELCA have emerged. They truly promote healthy marriage, family culture, religious and personal responsibility. Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal) has taken action to create a new resource Lutheran body that is not committed to “lifestyle over Scripture.” Another Lutheran spiritual leader is Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, which accepts continued ELCA membership while faithful to God’s Word.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Alternatives to ELCA":

Wasn’t the issue of scriptural inerrancy the cause for so many problems within the ELCA. Do many ELCA church members realize that CORE and LCMC are, theologically speaking, the ELCA minus gay clergy. If they knew, then would many hopeful ELCA churchgoers still be eager to join CORE or LCMC?

Reject organized religion? And how many people have the self-discipline to read, study, pray, and sing God's word on their own, alone in their own home, every week.

***

GJ - Denial of the Word--authority, sufficiency, clarity, efficacy, and inerrancy--made straight the highway for man's philosophy du jour.

The first battle lost was over the original text of the Bible. Once they made people uncertain about the text of the Scriptures, the best preserved of all ancient books, they moved on to other areas.

More ELCA Cuts

"Nodding our heads like yeah, shaking our hips like yeah."
Cutting our staff like yeah.

The Lutheran

12/7/2009
Southeastern Synod may cut grants, staff

In many ELCA synods, the new year will bring new concerns for funding of vital ministries.

Take the Southeastern Synod, where Bishop H. Julian Gordy committed to keeping synod members "informed and to be transparent in all decision-making."

In January 2010, the synod's council will consider budget cuts for the rest of the 2010 fiscal year. The cuts, which could be effective as soon as Feb. 1., would reduce, but not eliminate grants (more than 12 percent of the synod's proposed $3.67 million 2010 budget) to Southern Seminary, Newberry College, social ministry organizations, and other ministries.

Layoffs 'inevitable'

The proposed cuts would also affect synod staff, whose salaries were reduced by an overall (but not across the board) 10 percent in September 2009. According to a Dec. 5 letter from Bishop H. Julian Gordy to synod leaders, "layoffs will be inevitable in the first part of the coming year."

Gordy wrote that annual unrestricted mission support from congregations was down more than five percent from 2008. While early 2009 looked promising, the months from July to November showed a 13 percent decline from those same months in the previous year. "This is the time of year when we would normally expect mission support to be increasing, as congregations seek to fulfill their pledges prior to year-end," Gordy wrote. "So far, we are seeing much the opposite, and the negative impact next year, unless the downward trend is reversed, will be profound."

In a Dec. 7 interview with The Lutheran, Gordy said he attributed some of the decline to the economy, and some to the actions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The assembly approved a social statement on human sexuality. It also acted to allow congregations, if they choose, to call ministers who are in committed same-gender relationships.

In synods across the ELCA, some congregations have reported withholding, but actual numbers are hard to come by. "We've heard from some congregations that are withholding or designating their giving," Gordy said. "We've also had some congregations make special gifts [beyond their regular mission support], or say they hope to do more than last year. But [the extra giving] hasn't made up the difference yet."

Synod staff have been in conversations with many congregations, Gordy said, "to talk about how people who disagree can still be the church together."

In the ELCA, unrestricted (as opposed to designated) mission support from congregations (part of what many congregations term ‘benevolence') is sent to synods. Synods then pass on a portion—in many cases, nearly half—to churchwide ministries. Because the funds are unrestricted, they can be used in "a way that best supports and serves the kinds of covenantal relationships our church has, and trusts the people who carry out those relationships," Gordy said.

Not about what it does 'for us'

Worst-case scenario? "If we withhold money from a local congregation, synod or churchwide because we're not happy with one another, pretty soon those people who have the money to exercise that sort of clout would be the ones to make all the decisions," Gordy said. "And the sense of the body of Christ deliberating together gets lost. The church is not a voluntary organization of like-minded individuals. It is the body of Christ and that means we're called to be together with people we don't agree with."

Gordy hopes members address areas of disagreement, such as sexuality, in "more covenantal ways." Those ways include conversation and the ELCA's "constitutional, confessional and democratic" structure, he said. "We influence one another through conversations more than through the very blunt instrument of withholding."

Communicating this can be a struggle, Gordy said. "We live in such a highly individualistic, consumeristic culture," he said, adding: "I get asked a lot: ‘What does the synod do for us? What does the ELCA do for us? ...But we didn't come together for what it does ‘for us.' We came together because God's people come together to do more work in the world. Look at [Hurricane] Katrina. Especially here [in Southeastern Synod] we know that individuals and congregations—working through churchwide structures—did things that folks alone couldn't do."

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12/9/2009
Pacifica Synod faces budget cuts

Among the ELCA Pacifica Synod's more than 120 congregations, undesignated mission support was down 15 to 20 percent through November, said Richard Ajer, assistant to the bishop for administration, finance and mission support.

"Some congregations are withholding as a sign of protest, [six] are in various stages of voting to leave, and the economy has hit our area really hard. We have many struggling, small congregations, where even a full-time pastor is a huge stretch."

Pacifica's synod council is working on a revised 2010 spending plan that is roughly 80 percent of the original $2.18 million for the synod assembly to consider in May, Ajer said.

ELCA Bishop - We Need To Recruit More Members

ELCA Bishop Eaton

Bishop's Article: Northeastern Ohio Synod
Northeast Ohio Synod, ELCA ^ | 15 December AD 2009 | Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

Posted on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:56:36 PM by lightman

From NE Ohio December newsletter - Bishop's Article:

On December third we held a special meeting of the synod council, deans, committee chairs and synod staff to take a look at the projected $250,000-$400,000 deficit for fiscal year 2010-11. Since a $400,000 deficit is a jaw-dropping number to me, I wanted advice on how to carry out the ministry that we do together as a synod. The short-term solution is to reduce hours and compensation for the entire staff. Developing a long-term solution is going to take a lot more work.

I have had many people who are quick to point out that it is the actions of the churchwide assembly that got us into this mess. I know that members and congregations are withholding mission support. It is not always clear if this is principled or punitive. When I explained at a meeting with a congregation the effects of withholding support – camps, colleges, seminaries, social service agencies all will suffer, not to mention synod and churchwide staff – one person responded, “Good. Maybe you’ll get the point.”

Well, here’s the point as I see it and it has little to do with sex or churchwide assemblies: Of course the actions of this summer’s assembly have exacerbated the current crisis, but they are not the cause. If we had never had a human sexuality study, if ministry policies remained the same, we would still get to where we are now. Maybe not as quickly, but inexorably. I am convinced that this is not a financial crisis, nor is it a membership recruitment crisis. It is a spiritual crisis. We have coasted in this church and its predecessors for generations. We cling to a nostalgic image of the church that we remember from our childhood. And since the average church-going Lutheran is twenty years older than the average U.S population, that childhood was a long time ago.

The world has changed. The church no longer has a place of privilege. Sunday mornings are no longer off limits. When planning new communities fewer places are allotted to religious institutions because they don’t pay taxes and developers have determined that they don’t add value to the community. Twenty- and thirty-somethings are absent from our pews. This reality didn’t come about in the just the past four months.

What do we do? Compete with the mega-churches? Jettison the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed to be more accessible? Preach a “health and wealth” gospel that promises people their “best life now”? Rescind every action of every churchwide assembly since 1988?

No.

In the beginning Advent was a penitential season. Only after centuries did it become a season of preparation and anticipation. For me, and especially this year, Advent is a time to cling more tightly to the gospel. When we read in Isaiah, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” We see the reality of our situation. On our own we are helpless and lost. We cannot effect our deliverance. We are, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “like prisoners who must wait for someone from the outside to unlock our cell”. The death and resurrection of Jesus has done that. That is our core belief. That is the faith. It is Christ and Christ crucified that is the unshakable foundation of the church. And it is a matter of life and death. If we as the ELCA cannot recover some of the urgency of the faith, if we are unwilling to bet our lives on this gospel then no amount of programming or hand-wringing will make any difference. But if, with God’s help, we are able to shake off our spiritual lassitude there is no power on earth that can withstand the gospel.