WELS elected Mark Schroeder as Synod President over two years ago. I am skeptical about elections and conventions, especially since Gurgle was the dream candidate of the conservatives about 16 years ago.
Gurgle retired suddenly and resurfaced at the Headquarters of Church and Change/South, paid from the reduced salaries of staff at Holy Word. Who says Don Patterson isn't a nice guy?
Schroeder has shown himself to be a doctrinal leader. Many high-flying Shrinkers have had their wings clipped for good. When Schroeder speaks, confessional Lutherans take heart and Changers squirm.
Parish pastors know that their influence does not really take hold for about five years. Institutional leaders seem to have more immediate impact, but they probably feel like the captain of the Titanic, trying to remedy a situation with too little time left.
If the synod studies the Bible and the Book of Concord for the next few years, applying the lessons learned, great blessings will follow. Enthusiasm cannot exist side by side with the Means of Grace. One must expel the other, as the Shrinkers have shown with their excuses for having no communion services - not to mention their cloaking and deceiving about being Lutheran.
The lowpoint of WELS will be remembered as the time when the word Lutheran was dropped from WELS Lutherans For Life, the new hymnal, the magazine, campus ministries like Point of Grace, the TV show starring Mark and Avoid Jeske, and many new congregations. The issue is not the word itself, but the spirit of Zwingli behind it. The Shrinkers want the worldly success of those frauds they covet and emulate. The Chicaneries are so possessed by carnal desires that they copy verbatim the sermons--even the emails--of their Reformed heroes.
Luther and Zwingli cannot co-exist as doctrinal leaders. "Du hast einen anderen Geist," (Translation for Mequon graduates - "You have another spirit.") Luther said, when he refused to shake Zwingli's hand. Zwingli rejected the Real Presence while Luther emphasized the Biblical teaching of the efficacy of the Word.
Luther did not start the Reformation. The Word of God ignited the underbrush that had accumulated for centuries. Luther proclaimed the Word and accepted the consequences. Thirteen years after the 95 Theses, he was advised not to be present at the Diet of Augsburg, because he might have been seized and burned at the stake. I wonder how many Lutheran pastors today would live with a death sentence over their heads for 13 minutes, let alone 13 years.
The same problem has repeated itself in each generation. Lutheran pastors were forced to accept the Prussian Union - denial of the efficacy of the Word, the Real Presence, baptismal regeneration - all for the sake of outward peace and unity.
The Definite Synodical Platform and "American" Lutheranism were new versions of the same old compromises with the Reformed.
Church and Change is a WELS institution set up to promote Zwinglian doctrine. One only has to look at its stars, board members, and parachurch offshoots to see the bitter fruit of such endeavors. The Shrinkers charge money to have people come to have their doctrine changed to Zwingli's and Calvin's. WELS members even paid to hear space cadet Leonard Sweet, a United Methodist New Ager.
November 5-7, Church and Change wants to Regain the Momentum lost since their man Gurgle was ousted, the horse and his rider tossed into the sea. What a beautiful way to celebrate the Reformation - to have a conference devoted to Reformed doctrine and practice.
Many want to mark and avoid this conference. But even an old hidebound Bronze Age Missourian like Pieper said it was proper to go and observe false teachers at work. How else can one write effectively about them?
At the Changer conference, I would count the Doctrinal Pussycats in attendance. They are the enablers and protectors of the Shrinkers. I would do a census of Jeske Corp - Ski, Bishop Katie, Lampe, Becker, and His Grace. I would look for the foxes of Appleton - Parlow, Kelm, Glende, Ash, Witte. I would observe the reactions of the audience and the content of the presentations.
The strength of this blog is not my writing, but the information supplied from across the US. Lutherans know they can raise issues here without getting Sisera Counseling from their brothers in the faith. In many cases, one person will be cut off from the Shrinker source but another one will supply the same materials. Stealth works both ways. I imagine Shrinker meetings now invoke secrecy more frequently than the Holy Trinity. WELS once pronounced anathemas on leakers after I sent Corky's 1992 essay to Christian News for publication.
