Lutheran Church Canada - LCMS Releated - In Financial Meltdown from Outrageous Monetary Practices

 Why did we loan all that money out with no repayments?

Michael Schutz (Michaelschutz) New member Username: Michaelschutz Post Number: 1 Registered: 5-2018

Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2018 - 1:12 pm:       Hi all, I'm a pastor in LCC. I poke my head in here from time to time to read a little bit of the goings-on, but haven't been compelled to enter into discussion until now. I'm a member of the LCC District in question, and can tell you much of the very long story, but I'll make that very long story very short for now in hopes of answering the original question, at least a little bit. In January 2015, we found out by letter from our District President that the District's Church Extension Fund was essentially insolvent. It was described as a "cash flow shortage" and so all further deposits and withdrawals were frozen at that point while it began to be sorted out. We came to learn that there was almost $100 million deposited in CEF, that the assets were at that point valued at somewhere around $50 million, and that there was no indication that the situation could be improved. We learned there was one project that had been going on for the last 25 or so years that comprised the vast majority of the portfolio - a church, school, and seniors housing project in Alberta. Tens of millions had been lent over the years, and virtually nothing had been paid back, not even interest. This wasn't the only project that had been having trouble with repayments, but because of the size of it and because it was such a large percentage of the fund (and because the CEF was not its own legal entity but a component of the District as a corporation) its problems essentially caused the whole District to collapse financially. Over the past 3 years, all CEF loans have been called in - even those in good standing. All District assets are being sold off; not just CEF properties but everything, including the offices. District staff has gone from about 12 to 2. Depositors have collectively lost millions, though efforts are underway to recover as much as possible, including this big project being turned into a corporation with the depositors as shareholders. It's possible that depositors could gain all their deposits back with the promised interest, but that could be decades away, and with so many elderly depositors, the mandate for this new corporation is to get it ready to sell and sell it off as quickly as possible. In short, it's a huge mess. The situation has been described by District leadership as "erring on the side of ministry", and as you might imagine, there's been the whole gamut of reaction to that, from essentially agreeing with that all the way to a class-action lawsuit that is now also underway against the District leadership. In terms of restructuring, there are two types of restructuring going on right now. Firstly, the District has been under court-ordered protection for the last three years (technically, it's not bankruptcy) so that the assets of the District can be sold off and as much as possible can be returned to depositors. This has been managed by a court-appointed firm. Concurrent to all this, LCC as a Synod, with our 3 Districts, has been undergoing a Synodical restructuring. In my opinion, our District's CEF situation was the catalyst for this actually happening, but the idea had been under discussion for many years (really, ever since the founding of LCC in the late 1980s). Again, opinions vary widely as to the specific need and the specifics of the solution we've adopted, but we are working through it. The financial/business side of this is bad, of course, but the spiritual implications have (and will continue to be) massive as well. When it's church leadership that breaks a trust like this, the spiritual implications are even a bigger deal than the civil ones, in my opinion. Of course, there's much, much more to the story, but I hope that gives some clarity at least to the fundamentals of the situation.

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 In 2012 the Prince of Peace Village development had a loan worth $70 million from the investment fund. (CBC)

 Let's see. The fund gave roughly 70% of its cash to this white elephant, but this ministry did not even pay interest on the loan. When did the auditors begin to smell the pot roast?

Sayings of Charles Porterfield Krauth - Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry – "Faithful to the Reformation"

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Sayings of Charles Porterfield Krauth - Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry – 



"Faithful to the Reformation": "This Lutheran Library “short” is taken from the two volume biography of Charles Krauth published by Adolph Spaeth. Spaeth includes in his Preface to that work the following:

“The Motto chosen for this Memoir is Dr. Krauth’s description of Martin Luther, in the biography of the great Reformer which he undertook shortly before his death – “Faithful to the Truth, and true to the Faith.” It may be properly applied to Dr. Krauth himself. It represents his own religious and theological development. Faithful to the truth of God’s everlasting Word, he became ever more true to the Faith of the Church of his Fathers, and in the end its most consistent, learned, and eloquent witness in the English language. If we mistake not, there are not a few in our American Lutheran Church who, under the influence of their early training, still have their difficulties with that faith of the fathers, but are earnestly endeavoring to overcome them. We trust that this Memoir may be of special service to all such honest inquirers.”1"

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About the Author

Krauth, Charles Porterfield, D.D., LL. D., was born March 17, 1823, at Martinsburg, Va., son of Charles Philip K. and his wife, Catharine Susan Heiskell, of Staunton, Va. He was educated at Pennsylvania College and the theological seminary in Gettysburg. Having been licensed by the Synod of Maryland, in 1841, he took charge of the mission station at Canton, near Baltimore. In 1842 he became pastor of the Lombard Str. Church in Baltimore; 1847, at Shepherdstown and Martinsburg; 1848, in Winchester. On account of the ill-health of his wife he spent the winter 1852 to 1853 i n the West Indies, serving the Dutch Reformed congregation at St. Thomas’, during the absence of its pastor. In 1855 he became pastor of the first English Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., and in 1859 pastor of St. Mark’s, Philadelphia. Later on he served the mission churches of St. Peter’s and St. Stephen’s, in Philadelphia. In 1861 he resigned the pastorate of St. Mark’s in order to devote his whole strength to the editorship of The Lutheran, which in his hands became the strongest weapon in the conflict against the shallow, unprincipled “ American Lutheranism “ which ruled our English Lutheran Church of that time. He was pre-eminently fitted to transplant the spirit of true, historical, conservative Lutheranism into the sphere of the English language, and there to reproduce and establish it on such a basis, that its future should be secure. When the theological seminary at Philadelphia was founded, in 1864, he was appointed Norton professor of dogmatic theology, and at the installation of the first faculty he delivered the inaugural address, defining the theological position represented by that institution.

In the establishment of the General Council he took an active and prominent part, being the author of the Fundamental Articles of Faith and Church Polity, adopted by the preliminary convention at Reading, 1866; of the constitution for congregations, adopted in 1880, and of the theses on pulpit and altar fellowship, presented in 1877. He was also actively engaged in the liturgical work of the Church, resulting in the publication of the Church Book. From 1870 to 1880 he was president of the General Council. In 1868 he was appointed professor of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1873 he held the position of vice-provost, and after the resignation of Provost Stills he carried the burden of this office for many months. After a journey to Europe which was undertaken, in 1880, not only for his own recuperation but chiefly in the interest of the Luther Biography with which the Ministerium of Pennsylvania had charged him, the chair of history at the University of Pennsylvania was given him in addition to all his other duties. But the burden proved too heavy. In the winter 1881-82, his work in the seminary was frequently interrupted through bodily weakness. He died January 2, 1883.

He was one of the most prolific and brilliant writers of our English Lutheran Church.2

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LCMS Central Lutheran School posts Gofundme page to help keep it open – Twin Cities

Central Lutheran School posts Gofundme page to help keep it open – Twin Cities:



"The school was dealt another blow last summer when a systems malfunction caused government funding for toddlers and preschoolers to lag two months behind.

“It’s such a tightrope,” Wegner said. “The checks were coming late. We had to play catch-up.”

She estimates that the school is currently $350,000 in debt, of that, $127,000 is debt to vendors. Much of the rest is back pay to teachers and to Wegner, who said she often donates her entire paycheck so her teachers can get paid.

‘DOING SOMETHING NEW’
The option of closing down is something no one at Central Lutheran wants to consider. The staff is proud of the many opportunities they provide their students on a limited budget.

Pastor Nick Kooi from Emmaus Lutheran Church, which helps support the school, said he has been impressed with the dedication and creativity of the staff."



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