For All the Saints, Who From Their Labors Rest - One Year Ago

Gary Meyer

Gary went to be with his Lord and Savior on September 17th, 2014 at his home with his family by his side.

Gary was born June 1st, 1933 in Burbank, California. He attended Harvard Military Academy in Sherman Oaks, California. After graduating, he attended Arizona State University before joining the Air Force Cadet training program and graduated as a Lieutenant. He flew refueling aircraft for six years. He achieved the rank of Captain and then joined the California and Washington Air National Guard. He began his career with United Airlines in 1964. He retired after thirty years as a Captain on Boeing 747's.

Gary enjoyed hunting, fishing and camping with his wife and three sons. He was a member of the Retired United Pilots Association. Gary was preceded in death by his father, James B. Meyer and his mother Alice Viola Howland Meyer.

Change and Die Conference - Brought To You by the Jeske-Patterson Mob - And the Church Shrinkers in WELS, ELS, and Missouri

 #ChangeOrDie2015

Change or Die 2015

Thursday, October 8, 2015

11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. (approximate)

#ChangeOrDie2015

Country Springs Hotel
2810 Golf Road, Pewaukee, WI  53072
262-547-0201

(If you would like to reserve a room, please call the number above.  A block of rooms has been reserved for this conference for $109/night. The block rate expires on September 7, 2015.  The Siebert Lutheran Foundation is not responsible for hotel mini-bar charges or movies.)

Our Change or Die! Conference provides an opportunity for Lutheran ministry leaders to network and learn from each other.  The Conference is a safe place for assembling people from across the Lutheran tribes and building relationships across denominations. 

This year, the Conference focus is on Money, Millennials & Ministry Leadership.  Our speakers are:

Brenda Moore, CFRE, Brenda Moore & Associates, LLC, Carver, MN

Erin Morris, ELCA Diaconal Minister of Faith Engagement, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, MN

Rev. Tom Pfotenhauer, LCMS, Woodbury Lutheran Church, Woodbury, MN

Tim Schwan, Thrivent, soblessed, llc, Appleton, WI. Ask me about funding Planned Parenthood. 

Rev. Daniel Thews, LCMS, Faith Lutheran Church, Appleton, WI

Rozella White, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Chicago, IL. Ask me about our ELCA health plan paying for abortions for any reason.

Rev. Steve Witte, WELS, President, Asian Lutheran Mini-Seminary, Hong Kong

• We respectfully ask that you limit participation from your organization to an appropriate number.
• The Conference charges include free lunch and dinner. 
• Please plan to attend the entire Conference if you register, as costs are incurred for both meals for all registrants.
• If plans change and you cannot attend, please email your cancellation to Diane Dalhoediane@siebertfoundation.org.
• Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Martin Luther College Cross-Dressers will entertain the audience
with their interpretation of "Born This Way."

Registration is limited, so sign up early!

Our Planning Committee consists of:

Rev. Lisa Bates-Froiland, ELCA, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Milwaukee
Rev. Jim Bickel, ELCA, Outreach for Hope, Greater Milwaukee Synod
Deborah Engel, Siebert Lutheran Foundation
Rev. Mike Ernst, Retired, LCMS, Hales Corners Lutheran Church
Rev. Paul G. Hill, ELCA, Lake Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camps, Inc.
Rev. Mark Jeske, Time of Grace Ministry, Thrivent Ministry,  Church and Change Ministry
Bill Meier, WELS Kingdom Workers
Rev. Mark Schulz, LCMS, Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, IL
Brenda Skelton, ELCA, Siebert Lutheran Foundation

If you cannot attend, but would like to be added to our mailing list for future Change or Die conferences and other events, please click here.

Videos of the 2014 Change or Die Conference can be viewed HERE.

Tolja - Intrepid Lutherans Linked with Pornography, Yellow Journalism - WELS DP in 2013.Have Mark Jeske and His Abortion Loving Insurance Company Ever Been Named?

Prexy Peter would probably call the Galatians commentary "Yellow Journalism" -
if he has even read it. I doubt it.
He has probably been through Fuller/Trinity Divinity/Willow Creek brainwashing.

The Prexy Press

Peter J. Naumann     home   605-845-7242

620 W 9^th Street    cellular  952-807-3424

Mobridge, SD  57601-1622  PJNaumann@gmail.com

                                                                                                               

Epiphany - 2013

As you have noticed, we haven’t  been sending many updates between conferences.  That is for several reasons.  The two biggest are: Pastor Schroeder’s Together letter which summarizes very well just about everything that I would report from any meetings that we have in Milwaukee.  There isn’t much that follows that you haven’t already seen in this week’s issue.  The other big reason is that the Call reports are readily available on the synod’s Connect little corner of the world.  The reports are also linked to Together.  So, why duplicate? 

But this time we should send an extra  note of thanks.  You heard from Pastor Schroeder that CMO came in very strong this year.  You can see that on the other files attached.  Thank you all very much for your efforts and thank your generous members as well.  This together with other good financial news has enabled extra funds for much needed repair work at the schools and to authorize a couple more home mission starts. (May one of them be Williston, ND!)  Our district was first in performance again, as it has often been in recent years, and we jumped up a couple levels to fourth in per / communicant CMO.  (Maybe we’ll make it to $100 / communicant yet.)  Seriously, thank the people and then more so thank our gracious God who has given us ample supply and moved our hearts to use a goodly portion for his work.  May many teachers and ministers be well trained and many souls reached and strengthened through their work. 

Thank You, Lord Jesus

Call Report  1/15/2013

Pastor Vacancy  (vacant since) [call #]   

                Morning Star, Carstairs, AB [2] Dustin Blumer called 

                Jon Hein to the Commission on Congregational Consulting - WELS [1 - halftime] (1/7/13)

Teacher Vacancies 

                Saint Martin, Watertown, SD Gr 3f (6/30/12)  [ ]

                Bethel, Sioux Falls (10/28/12)  [3] calling 1/27/13 

                Saint Paul, Rapid City, Gr 5-6 (6/30/12) [3] calling 1/27/13   

                Great Plains LHS, Wttn, SD, principal  (6/30/12) [2] calling  1/19/13   

                Great Plains LHS, dean of students (1/2/13) [1] calling  1/19/13   

Holding Calls away  

                Ben Schmeling to Beaver Dam, WI

                Ben Schmeling to Clinton Township, Michigan

                Gerhardt Juergens to Cambridge, MN

Call Accepted 

                Bethel, Sioux Falls, SD, Ben Tomczak

                Mike Schultz - hymnal director

                Great Plains LHS, Watertown, SD President, Dave Maertz

Calls Declined  

                Tim Berg to Morning Star, Carstairs, AB

                Steve Bremer to GPLHS, principal

                Rebecca Kramer  to Bethel, Sioux Falls, SD

                Richard Muchka declined to Rapid City

Synod Pastor Vacancies  About 40 regular pastors are needed as 1/7/2013.  There will be 37 graduates in May. 

SAB Sale and Move     The committee continues to work on selling one or both of our properties.  There is one firm offer on the Mayfair Road site, and perhaps another coming. 

Every Member Visit (EMV)     You have the materials and the plan for this.  Hopefully, some have used it or plan to soon.  We pray every congregation participates in some manner.  We plan to use it at Glenham & Mobridge in February. 

Various Conference of Presidents Business last Week

John Braun from NPH     gave us updates on three things.  First, the plans for the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.  A new catechism is planned in connection with the anniversary.   The other event coming in 2015 is the 100^th anniversary of the Forward in Christ magazine and it’s predecessor  The Northwestern Lutheran. 

Continuing Education for Called Workers     We had a fair amount of discussion on this topic.  Others had questions about the need for it and the expense of the new pastor mentoring program.  Questions, concerns, and suggestions will be taken to the whole committee and to Richard Gurgel. 

Intrepid Lutherans     I don’t read this yellow publication or any others of its ilk.  There are better things to do and to read.  The main concerns were about its promoting the false justification views of one of the principals and infractions of the Eighth Commandment. One said that, sadly, such muckraking tabloids will always exist.  As I’ve told many graduates to the district, I would hope we could find far better materials to read and ways to spend our time. 

 

Pornography     There continues to be great concern for the many people - members and clergy alike - who have fallen prey to this material and sin.  As we know, internet pornography is a special temptation.  If one believes the figures that are given, many, many people are involved. May it not be true of us.  Concerning the whole subject of 6^th Commandment sin it is good to remember Prov 6:32-33 and 1 Cor 6:18 among others.  It would be best for anyone taken by such activity to seek help, beginning with prayer to God, through repentance and faith.  Spend more time in the Word.  Then think about, “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure …” (Phil 4:8).  And, be assured, there are brothers, sisters, and professionals ready to help. 

WELS Convention  Please note the proper date, here and below: July 29^th to August 1^st.  This will be a day shorter.  The convention will convene Monday morning and the opening service will be that evening.  Adjournment and the closing service is planned for Thursday. 

If your congregation is a delegate or alternate, please identify firm delegates soon. 

District Constitutions     Two memorials are coming from the COP to the convention.  One would make district councils optional.  The other would allow districts to eliminate the legislation committees. 

Youth Discipleship     Because of the good turnout last summer CYD is planning to hold these rallies every other year. 

WELS Debt Elimination     Our indebtedness should be under $9,000,000 by convention.  Together with the Jubilee offering and regular payments, we have made good progress on eliminating this debt.  When it is fully paid, there will be $1,600,000 more annually for other forms of ministry.  The suggestion was made that we have a debt retirement drive in 2015 to pay it off completely.  Stay tuned. 

Names, Names, Names     If you have someone in the military, be sure to let Milwaukee know. If you know of people moving to western North Dakota, contact Jake Hannemann for Williston; Jordan Ertl for Minot; and Ryan Wolff for Dickinson.   Services are being held in each town.  We hope to send a request to the general board for a new mission exploratory effort in at least Williston this winter, it not one or both of the other locations. 

Statistics & CMO Pledges     Please be sure to submit all this to the synod via Connect as soon as you are able.   Thanks! 

Walking Together Video     Did you all see this short (4:15 min) presentation of what our synod is and does.  It is in the “toolbox” of last fall’s WELS Connection DVD.  It is a very interesting, short overview of the synod’s work.  Use it where and when appropriate, perhaps especially in annual meetings as 2013 CMO pledges are set. 

(You can find the video on the synod’s site: WELS.net  > Connect Resources (bottom left of page) > Resources (on right side) > Walking Together > Walking Together video (under the pic, in the links.)

Calendar

January 22-23, 2013             Rocky Mountain Conference, Missoula  

February 5, 2013             Western Conference at Morristown

2/13/2013                         Ash Wednesday

3/31/2013                         The Resurrection of Our Lord

4/9-11/2013                         Spring Pastor Conference, Rapid City

5/18/2013                         MLC graduation and assignments

5/23/2013                         WLS assignments

7/29-8/1/2013                         WELS Biennial convention at New Ulm

9/24-25/2013                         Western Conference at Gillette

10/2-3/2013                         D-M/NE Teacher’s Conference (in Colorado)

Thanks for all you do

May the Lord abundantly bless you, yours, and your ministries!

***

GJ - Prexy Peter fails to mention that one motivation for the Intrepids was to provide a counter-lobby to back Mark Schroeder.

Under Steve Spencer, it has always been a Mark Schroeder shop, but apparently people took the original statements seriously and began to think on their own.

This has a great advantage for Schroeder and the DPs. Now that the flowers have bloomed, they can cut them off, as Mao used to say.

They can also denounce them as trouble-makers and scare anyone else from thinking and studying the Word without expressed, written permission.

They want to play justification by faith as one person's opinion, which is what I heard about everyone else who has ever objected to the absurdity of UOJ. 

The Great Depression in Higher Education Started Five Years Ago

Many decades ago I predicted university education costs would soar because government loans were inflating the price of school. Like medicine, the individual cost was not a big problem because most of it was covered in some way. Universal health insurance either drives the price up or cuts down services - or both.

As experts are noticing at last, college have no incentive to cut costs when the difference will be made up in readily available student loans.

The Lutheran seminaries have followed the same path, leading to incredible costs for useless degrees. If an art history degree is useless, what value is an MDiv from a synod that delights in getting rid on young pastors? The wives put their husbands through seminary (another subsidy for the synods) and usually work outside the home in the parish. The synods put less and less money into their own schools while sprucing them up.

Every college has to look like a country club and every Lutheran seminary has to have bigger dorm rooms, a deluxe chapel, and big offices for the professors. How did they exist before? - we wonder.

Colleges, universities, and for-profit higher education corporations are closing down. In ELCA, Chicago, Berkeley, Southern, and Luther have had their crises. All four have partnerships with other schools. The seminaries merge with their colleges to reduce costs and sell off extra property. Overlooking the ocean with a handful of students? The dollar signs dance in their eyes. Sell! Sell!

Berkeley and Southern have already rejoiced in their new collegial relationships. Luther fired their president for running the largest seminary into a sea of red ink. My old seminary in Canada sent a letter asking for money to bail them out of their pension shortage.

The ELS and CLC (sic) must ask themselves why they have an entire school set up to teach one or two graduates per year for sects that are shrinking faster than Hillary's nomination chances.

Likewise, WELS must wonder how much longer they have to prop up Martin Luther College, where the students are known chiefly for drinking, cross-dressing, coming out of the closet, and spending their extra money on gambling.

In the years to come, many expensive but lesser known schools will close, because parents are not going to spend $50,000 a year (gross, far cheaper with loans and some grants) for an unknown school. There are hundreds of them, bereft of their old ethnic alumni support, short on endowment funds, long on fixed costs, racing to be as spiffy as Olde Squeffingham College down the road.

Scholarships are aimed at enticing first-year students, making it far more expensive to stay for all four years. Money is also apportioned to appeal to the affluent. Poor people do not load up the annual fund appeal with gifts.

Similarly, Martin Luther College is not far from Bethany Lutheran College and One Room Seminary. If Schone drives out students from MLC, they drop into BLC. If they want the urban experience, they have Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee and Concordia University in Mequon (far more scenic).

We will see a collapse of overbuilt colleges and universities that expanded for the Boomer generation. The Boomers packed into those schools and came back for more education, but the same schools used loans to build up the physical while bankrupting their students, who are still stuck with the loans.

Beware of offending students who text throughout the class.
The school sees them as walking bags of money.

Get Used to Matthew 5:11 If You Question Holy Mother Synod

I know as much as others about two different groups of people who left WELS. Universal salvation - without faith - was one issue. Any denomination so completely bankrupt in doctrine will  naturally bear many more bitter fruits of apostasy.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Evil, false-teaching wolves are not going to appreciate being corrected, and they react with lupine rage when their ovine food supply is threatened. Like all mainline leaders - WELS is thorougly mainline - they know how quickly the landslide can move downward and take everything with it.

The response from false sons within the pale is to trash the people who object to...false sons within the pale. In the past, synods had the advantage of communicating easily with the loyal troops. Human nature is so perverse that congregational members will trust the officials they do not know over the pastors who have visited them at home and in the hospital, buried their loved ones, and administered the Means of Grace. The District Pope or Circuit Pope picks up the phone and works on scattering and slaying the flock. They obtained their positions by serving their Father Below.

But now, blogs can reach the general audience and quote chapter and verse about what is going on. The Internet age is great for obtaining verbatim evidence with graphics from the sources. Court records are on the Net, and the Church Growth fanatics seem to have a disproportionate share of court records - appearance bonds for DUI, convictions, and so forth.

The Eighth Beatitude is the least appealing blessing:

1. when men shall revile you
2. and persecute you
3. and say all manner of evil against you falsely.

Matthew 5:11 explains bearing the cross, and the words themselves invite rejection. We all want to be praised and thanked and honored. Trusting the Word instead of princes is like changing a light bulb when reaching up from a wobbly kick. Far too many are willing to give the chair a kick and dare others to climb on that chair again.

WELS has a well-earned reputation for nastiness, a by-product of their Pietism and utter disregard for the truth. Going back to Protes'tant days, WELS has always treated dissent with "Shut up while we tell you off about all your sins." That scene, from over 80 years ago, is repeated every time someone dares to have an issue with WELS apostasy. 

The next step is official shunning and the synodical whispering campaign. ELCA, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie do the same, but they are a bit smoother in execution. WELS seems to have a Biggest Liar contest going on, a hallmark of their GA hazing abuse training. Lying in WELS means - This is our position and do not forget it.

This is where people falter. They get involved in "You should have done this or that." But the real issue is opposition to the Word of God. When the apostates are threatened, all the weapons in their thuggish arsenal are employed:

• Charm - so they can get information and spread it in their own words.
• Backstabbing - so they can separate friends who might support each other.
• Bribes - so they can silence opposition.
• Threats - so they can scare people into silence.
• Slander - so they can make everyone afraid of opposing their agenda.

WELS is so corrupt that the leaders will laugh about the multiple adulteries of their Church Growth pals and yet run around with the shocking reveal that "Pastor X has criticized our beloved synod!" This style is not exactly wrong for WELS, because the net result is retaining the cult slaves while repelling the dissenters for good. 

Now that I have painted an ugly picture about synodical ugliness, I have to add - it is a blessing, just as Jesus teaches us. Bearing the cross means being set free from the lies and false doctrine of Holy Mother Synod. Those who left ELCA in droves found they were better off without the useless battles. 

I had fun with WELS emissaries sending their ugly messages to this blog. I copied them into the main body of the post so they would be preserved forever, or at least for a few more years. Most of them were anonymous, for some reason. 

The Fox Valley WELS Drinking Society started up various blogs and erased them - more fun. Mark Schroeder's buddy on the Synodical Council even sent messages via the pastor's ELCA minister friend. But now, the only ugliness comes from their Chief Nasty, Joel Lillo. I thought the new DP and old SP finally silenced him, because he makes WELS look so stupid. But Lillo has to offer his wisdom and wrote again.

Alas, poor WELS - the positive comments and information is still coming in, from a wide variety of sources.