You Dare Offend The Great and Terrible Oz?WELS Response to Dissent

The Wisconsin Synod is the only group where the tea leaves can be read on a daily basis. Only WELS has the daily Q and A on its webpage. My impression is that President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller writes these answers or has control of them. The answer I will dissect has I'll-Have-the-Last-Word-Wayne written all over it, either as author or final editor. However, to be fair, we do not know Wayne wrote it until he officially denies it.

You Dare Offend the Great and Terrible Oz?

Someone, we are led to believe, has asked AnswerMan about the proposals to fix the synod. The first proposal is identified as Mark Schroeder's. The Luther Prep president's proposal is well known and posted here at Ichabod. Schroder proposed establishing annual fees for congregation to cover basic synodical costs. Annual dues are generally seen as a step backwards in stewardship. Paul did not establish fees when he collected for the poor in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8 and 9), so why would WELS set fees for the rich in Milwaukee?

The second proposal discussed is clearly Paul Kuske's. The former Michigan District VP has fallen on hard times. He did everything the synod ordered. In Columbus, he set up Lutheran Parish Resources as the first Church Growth institution in WELS, providing employment for Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, who had been kicked out of the LCMS ministerium for cause (and never was a WELS member). The Michigan District expressed their gratitude for Kuske's service by voting him out of office, a rare event and a singular achievement.

Clearly, AnswerMan has his crosshairs on the Kuske proposal, which was also posted on Ichabod. I could link it, but readers should spend more time looking through all the posts. Currently, Ichabod is out-producing all Lutheran blogs combined.

How does AnswerMan choose to refute the unnamed Kuske report?

He blasts the Michigan District!

What better way to win the hearts and minds of the Michigan District? Half of all WELS members are in Wisconsin. The other half are in Michigan and Minnesota. The rest are scattered throughout the United States. Ohio, where Kuske promoted Church Growth, has very few members altogether. Ohio is part of the Michigan District, but a very small part indeed.

AnswerMan roars that the proposal comes from the district with the lowest offering per communicant for the synod, tied for lowest dollar per communicant.

Probably DP Seifert encouraged the Kuske report. That is how he works, how everyone in WELS works. But did the whole district write the report? The AnswerMan refutation of the Kuske report is a fine example of a logical fallacy called a Genetic Fallacy.

"A Genetic Fallacy occurs when the origin a belief or idea is presented as grounds to accept or reject the idea." Genetic Fallacy

AnswerMan is saying, "The Kuske report comes from Michigan, with a disgustingly low mission offering. Therefore, the Kuske report is invalid."

However, the mission offering plummeted from $28 million to $20 million in one year, certainly not from the spiritual laxity of the Michigan District alone. Besides, do the stewardship geniuses of WELS think a district will increase its offering when the synod breaks its ancient promise to support a Michigan prep school? A show of hands - Who thinks closing Michigan Lutheran Seminary will increase offerings for the people closing it? Hmm. One hand went up - AnswerMan's.

What really offends the Michigan District (and Luther Prep) is that the last convention passed a resolution opposing such a move. No, the convention is not the highest level of decision making in the synod, in any synod. The Chair of St. Peter's, the papal office in any synod, is the highest level. Surrounding this synodical pope is the Curia, those sharks and apostates who gain power by manipulating power.

AnswerMan, who lives off the synod mission offering, says the administration is irreplacable. The schools are not. The administration has doubled in size (per communicant) while shutting down schools. Arguing for the absolute necessity of these boobs is a hard sell when they have done such a miserable job of administration.

Try this mental exercise. If most of the administrators were fired, could some be hired back again when people had more confidence in their work? Of course. Can the land sold from various school closing be bought back in the future? No? Oh, it is too expensive now. And creating a school is far more expensive than keeping one going.

Turning AnserMan's logic on his own bluster, why would anyone listen to a synod adminsitration going bankrupt after receiving the largest charitable gift in history (the Schwan Foundation's)? Why go to the people who "lost" $8 million for stewardship advice?