Aha! Matt Has Not Actually Seen This

I know a lot of you WELS and ELS pastors are reading this, so take a gander at what the Ft. Wayne seminarian says about Green Bay, De Pere. Isn't Paul Kelm there? Yes, I see that he is.

I anticipate what WELS leaders will say. Matt has not seen these apostate acts first-hand. Read and weep, Old WELSians, because it can only get worse.

At January 22, 2006, Matt Makela said...
Dear WELS and WELS student,

Sorry for being vague. Nothing is intrinsically unbiblical about contemporary worship. However, St. Mark's contemporary worship is often unbiblical. My source of information concerning St. Mark's is my former hairdresser who is a faithful member of the congregation. Please note that on their home page (http://www.stmark-depere.com) there are three main pictures. The rightmost of the pictures has what contemporary worship typically looks like at St. Mark's. My informant has told me that songs with decision theology lyrics such as "Refiner's Fire" and "I Choose You" are sung regularly at St. Mark's contemporary services (they have 3 per week). Often there is no confession and absolution, creed, or Lord's Prayer. The site does, however, have a very good Q&A portion that is very faithful to Scripture. My informant told me that women read Scripture and help with distributing the elements not terribly often...probably once a month at one service. There were at one point Bible studies based on the Purpose Driven Life, which I find very disturbing (it's unforunately happening all over the LCMS).

Let me clarify that I have not personally seen anything that goes on at St. Mark's. However, my witness is very trustworthy, and I have no reason to doubt her. I hope this clarified some of the confusion.

***

At January 23, 2006, wels_of_pure_doctrine said...
Matt,
I personally talked with Pastor Parlow of St. Mark DePere this morning. He emphatically told me that they do NOT allow women to distribute the elements. Only called men are allowed to help with that. He also told me that songs which contain reformed lyrics (I believe you mentioned "I choose you") are not used. They often write their own songs, and ANY song they used not written by one of their WELS ministers is put under doctrinal review (that includes hymns as not all their services are "contemporary."). I don't know what was up with your informent, but he demonstrated to me that those things are simply not true.

***

GJ - Now we know it did happen and perhaps still does happen. The official denial has been posted. You have already broken fellowship with WELS by reading this blog, so repent you guilt-free saints of UOJ.

I wonder - does Paul Kelm supervise the doctrinal purity of the hymns? No one is more Reformed than he is.

Some may know that the WELS and ELS leaders got together to discuss women distributing Holy Communiion (and more?). They said, "Naughty, naughty." That does not mean it actually happened, ever, anywhere, at any time.