Thursday, May 24, 2018

Trinity Lutheran Seminary's merger into Capital University part of US trend.
Cap/Hamma Merger Becomes Trinity/University Merger.
Mainline Seminaries Failing Too - Not Just LCMS, WELS, ELS.

Lenski taught at Capital's Seminary, ALC, after serving as a pastor and a district president.

 John N. Lenker graduated from the ULCA seminary at Wittenberg College - Hamma Divinity School. Hamma had to merge with Capital during the warm up to
ELCA, but that was not enough to keep enrollment up.

Trinity Lutheran Seminary's merger into Capital University part of US trend

"“The traditional model of seminary education is predicated on the traditional church scene,” said the Rev. Kathryn “Kit” Kleinhans, who is to be installed as dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary on Tuesday. “The landscape of religion in the United States is changing. Traditional mainline denominations are growing smaller, and there’s large growth in those who are spiritual but not religious.”

The merger, which became official in January, has been in the works since Capital’s 16th president, Beth Paul, started at the university in July 2016. The impetus was financial, Kleinhans said.

The seminary’s budgeting and operating expenses were not sustainable, which has to do with a decrease in student enrollment,” Kleinhans said.

Trinity and Capital are just two of several seminaries and religious institutions in the country that are merging resources to keep the theological schools viable, said Tom Tanner, director of accreditation and institutional evaluation at the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh.

“As goes the church, so goes the seminary,” he said.

Nationwide, enrollment in seminary programs declined for more than a decade before leveling out in 2015 and 2016, according to the Association of Theological Schools, the national accrediting body for theological institutions. At Trinity, enrollment declined from 116 in fall 2013 to 80 in fall 2016 before rising again to 85 in 2017."

 Bexley Hall Seabury Western Eucharist 9/10/2013 Gloria Dei Chapel, Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Note that three other seminaries are involved,
all shrinking down, sometimes moving on to another location.

From Wiki:
Seabury-Western was formed in 1933 by a merger of Western Theological Seminary of Evanston (founded in 1883 in Chicago), and Seabury Divinity School of Faribault, Minnesota(founded in 1858). The new seminary endeavored to hold in tension the "High Church" and "Low Church" identities of its predecessors. However, for most of its history, SWTS occupied a place within Anglican churchmanship akin to that of The General Theological Seminary in New York: a liturgical bent toward Anglo-Catholic practices and an acceptance of modern theology and social tolerance.
In the fall of 2008 the seminary stopped accepting seminarians for the traditional Master of Divinity degree. In 2009 Seabury's property was acquired by Northwestern University with Seabury allowed use of the property for five years. In January 2012 Seabury formally left the Evanston site, functionally ending its presence as residential seminary, and the various buildings are now used by the Northwestern University. The seminary moved its operation to the national headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) near O'Hare Airport. In March 2012, the boards of Seabury-Western and of Bexley Hall Seminary in Bexley, Ohio, voted to federate.[1] Roger Ferlo was named as the federation's first president.[2]
Inaugurated April 27, 2013, Bexley Seabury seminary initially offered the Master of Divinity degree at the former Bexley Hall campus in Columbus through a partnership with Trinity Lutheran Seminary.[3] From its Chicago campus near O'Hare Airport, the federation offered its Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development in Chicago and the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching through the Association of Chicago Theological Schools.[4] The Diploma of Anglican Studies was offered in both Columbus and Chicago.[5]
In July 2016, Bexley Seabury consolidated on a single campus location at Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago's Hyde Park/Woodlawn district.

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ELCA Facts - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Another Customer of Fuller's Church Growth. Big Success.
5.3 Million Members in 87 - 3.5 Million Today

 Luther Seminary - too big to fail?
Failing - like ELCA.
Grand Tour of Failing ELCA Seminaries.


ELCA Facts - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:



"ELCA facts
As of December 31, 2016, there were 3,563,842 baptized members in the ELCA. There were 9,252 congregations organized in 65 synods in nine geographic regions.

The ELCA is a diverse church body, becoming more so every day. This church is committed to growing in diversity and strengthening its global, ecumenical and interfaith relationships around the world."

 Let's keep our diversity selective, so we can crush the conservatives who dare to arouse our wrath.


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Luther Quest Author Asks: What’s Going on in Lutheran Church-Canada? – ANO / Lutheran Watch



 The disastrous senior center pulled the district into insolvency.


Luther Quest Author Asks: What’s Going on in Lutheran Church-Canada? – ANO / Lutheran Watch:



"Recently Rick Strickert over on Luther Quest cited my article “LCC East District Board Meeting, March 12-13 2018“. What his article didn’t get quite right was to the timeline of the restructuring events and the current state of affairs. LQ doesn’t allow people with a gmail.com email addresses to register on its site and enable me to correct the record there. Instead I’ve written this article to provide a short overview of the sequence of events from the start of LCC’s restructuring process to the current point in time."


CEF operated that way until the 1990s when it’s Board of Directors (BOD) decided to get into seniors housing as form of ministry.  This action was against the CEF mandate to fund churches and schools. Risky real estate development projects was not part of CEF’s mandate to keep depositor money safe and only use it for funding churches and schools.

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Enormous Gallergy of Photos - Before and After the Fire.
With its church devastated by fire, Trinity Lutheran considers the future | The Milwaukee Independent

 Historic Trinity Lutheran Church, LCMS, Milwaukee


With its church devastated by fire, Trinity Lutheran considers the future | The Milwaukee Independent:



"WITH ITS CHURCH DEVASTATED BY FIRE, TRINITY LUTHERAN CONSIDERS THE FUTURE"


Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, as news of the disaster spread across social media in realtime. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded by immigrants from Pomerania, Germany in 1847. Originally located on 4th Street between Wells Street and Kilbourn Avenue, the Victorian Gothic building was constructed on the corner of West Highland Avenue and North 9th Street in 1878.
“It is an absolute loss for Trinity Lutheran Church and our congregation,” said Reverend Jonah Burakowski. “But at the same time, it is just a building. No one died and that is the most important thing.


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How To Turn the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation into a Debacle,
By Matt the Fatt, Mirthless Mark, and Pope John the Malefactor.
Parroted by Herman Otten

 First we replace Justification by Faith with
Objective Justification without Faith.
Then we sell the sheep the New NIV and make tons of money.
Finally, we say, "Romans 3 proves it. ALL are justified."

Romans 3 New NIV - "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace..."



The only authors approved by Pope Herman the Perplexed are UOJ certified - Steve Flo, John W. Montgomery, CFW Walther - or else Roman Catholics like Randy Engel - or - any one of a dozen sects that deny the Means of Grace and the efficacy of the Word.

Although His Perplexity pretends to oppose modern theologians like Kirschbaum/Barth, he advocates their Objective Justification, which is the litmus test of the LCMS-ELS-WELS-ELCA, thanks to Fuller's Kirschbaumian influence. Yes, she was the theologian in that team.

Herman Pontifex hates the way ELCA covers up its homosexual scandals, but the editor was happy to bury the story of WELS' top staffer being a child sex porn trader (young boys). Nor was the Servant of the Servants of God miffed that SP Mark Schroeder absolved Hochmuth immediately, without any sign of contrition or faith. Not that faith matters. Everyone is already forgiven and saved, according to UOJ dogma

 Earlier, but still on websites.

 Later - a well fitted jacket will make up to 20 ounces disappear like magic.

The Chief Shepherd and Scribe of the Synodical Conference has taken a dislike to Undershepherd Harrison, who no longer sings ballads to Herman. They have a common friend in Paul the Unrepentant Plagiarist, a peculiar title for someone in publishing. But they all teach UOJ, so they should be great friends since they are all forgiven at birth, even before birth.



 Mirthless Mark and John Brug keep Pope Herman tamed
by appealing to his vanity.

Two Shasta Daisies Are Now Twelve. Sun and Rain Have the Rose Garden Bursting

Shasta Daisies multiply and yet are easily divided.
They host beneficial insects and bloom all summer.

Last year our Laotian neighbors pointed at the Buckwheat plants literally engulfing the roses - and laughed. I could spot the rose bushes in that jungle with some effort. Our crew carefully mowed down the Buckwheat with their weed-eater, just in time to scatter the mature BW seeds for a second crop. And now the cold sensitive (?) seeds have sprung again. Nevertheless, the two cover crops last year added even more fertility to the soil.

 The foreground is the infamous Joplin tornado damage, which was 50 miles from our home.

Our biggest challenge is keeping up with the unwanted growth bursting around the roses. The Easy Does It Roses, some from the first bargain buys, have about 100 orange blooms. Many others besides the ones named below are blooming and budding.


We are dwelling in a garden of roses. On Mother's Day, for the third year, every home on our block got a rose at 6 AM. Today we took roses to a friend who works at Cracker Barrel. I picked these:

  1. Mr. Lincoln - tall, red, and very fragrant.
  2. Veterans Honor - small, glowing red, fragrant, perfection on the bush and lasting in the vast.
  3. Fragrant Cloud - orange-red and very fragrant.
  4. Peace - yellow with pink edges as it ages. No fragrance.
  5. Easy Does It - orange colors with a light scent. Absurd blooming.
  6. Pink Peace - related to Peace, deep pink, blooms well.
On Mother's Day, I predicted our roses would bloom in two weeks. Warm temperatures and plenty of rain changed my pessimism into alarm - now I had to get serious about mulching and planting the divided plants (daisies and mint). Sassy watched me work on the daisies so they would be growing in the midst of the roses, like the Joe Pye and mint. 

I told our main helper that I installed an auto-pooper for the birds. They love it. I had to dig it into the ground to stabilize it. Many branches came off this piece and were cut off. The trimmers wanted it smoother, but I saw its value as a perch, with branches reaching out in each direction.

Birds love to find a place where they can look for food and preen. Any perch will lead to planting their favorite foods. In our yard, the spread of Wild Strawberry is supported and encouraged. The birds do their share, planting this colorful groundcover all over. This hardy plant  starts early in the spring, blooms and fruits in the shade, and feeds many creatures early, long before other fruits.



Mrs. Robin makes this perch her favorite stopping point between the Crepe Myrtle and her daily tasks. She admonishes me if I get near her nest. She is far more vigilant than most synod leaders and many pastors.

Our yards, front and back, are a constant source of delight: the pleasure of Creation and the fulfillment of work bearing fruit. Little Ichabod said, "Yours is the only home with a shovel behind the front door." I could add, "And other in the Town Car trunk." Rose shears are here and there in the house and car, always being used to prune and to share more roses. Likewise, I have 15 rose vases, because I hint at rose lovers - "I have more roses than vases." They keep me in vases and I keep them in roses.



The painter knows I can always use more five-gallon buckets, some of them moving onto gardening friends. My latest example of rain on new plants gave me young Crepe Myrtles that burst into growth from the combination of God's rain and my stored rain in buckets, used a little later. 

Last year I experimented on a new Crepe Myrtle and shamelessly spoiled it with mulch, stored rain, and extra water. Its faster growth compared to its companions told me to do more of the same with that group - so I am doting on them too.

Plants teach us patience and show us how God works. Most plants just sit in the soil the first year, and they seem to be on the point of departure. In the second year, they start growing and show promise. In the third and fourth years, the growth is astonishing.

 I cannot give the plants away fast enough now.

 Rodale founded the magazine Organic Gardening and a publishing business with it.

Some Call It Organic - I Call It Creational
Now we realize that the fungal networks build up slowly and are easily damaged by 
  • osterizing the soil with a tiller, 
  • killing the fungi and other microbes with fungicides/fertilizers, 
  • wiping out the good insects, spiders, birds with pesticides.
The fungal and root networks building together, and they participate in making the soil more fertile.

 Gabe and Paul Brown, bumper crops learned the hard way,
from four straight years of failure.


"Leave living roots in the soil as long as possible. They create 75% of the soil's organic matter." Gabe Brown

DP Kudu Don Patterson wanted to be exponential, so he took his fellow sheep to be sheared at Exponential, an enormous and expensive gathering of wolves. One would think that a graduate of Texas A & M would know more about Creation and the efficcy of the Word.

To experience the exponential effect of God's Word in the congregation and district, one only need to trust the efficacy of the Gospel - rather than the appeal of the pop music and popcorn. As any pastor will attest, so little seems to happen in the first few years of his call, however that is measured. But faithful sermons will soon alarm the apostates and attract those who seek the Gospel. 

A good DP will have the pastor administer anaesthesia, so everyone sleeps contentedly. One alternative is to sponsor spirit retreats rather than spiritual retreats. But Kudu Don already thought of that. What better way to have happy campers than to get the women thoroughly drunk on a Patterson Spiritual Retreat! Yes indeed - the women bet on which newbie will puke her darlin' little guts out first.

Luther loved Creation and enjoyed gardening. His approach was to preach the Word and let God act through the Word. Very little of that is done today.



Theodore Schmauk - Last of the Three Great General Council Leaders - Krauth, Jacobs, Schmauk


 

Theodore Emanuel Schmauk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. (May 30, 1860 - March 23, 1920) was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian.[1]
Theodore Emanuel Schmauk was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of a Lutheran minister, Rev. Benjamin W. and Wilhelmina C. (Hingel) Schmauk. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, (class of 1883) being ordained by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in that year. In 1897, he received the degree of D.D. from Muhlenberg College and in 1910, the degree of LL.D. from Augustana College.[2]
He first went into church work as a Lutheran pastor at Lebanon, Pennsylvania (1883–1903). He became editor in chief of the Lutheran Church Review, which he had helped found and organize. (1889–1920). Between 1903 and 1920, Dr. Schmauk served in numerous capacities with the United Lutheran Church in America. Dr. Schmauk was President of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North American(1903–20).[3]
He was one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua (1892); one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Dutch Society (1891); and one of the organizers of the Lebanon County Historical Society (1898). Dr. Schmauk was President of the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, (1908–20) and in charge of the Department of Ethics, Apologetics and Pedagogy, (1911–20).[4]

 Schmauk was close to dying many times, but his academic work, Sunday School work, and pipe organ research were remarkable.

Selected works[edit]

  • Charms of Conversation (1889)
  • The Voice in Speech and Song(1891)
  • Catechetical Outlines (1892)
  • The Fugitive Criticism of the Old Testament (1894)
  • History of Old Salem in Lebanon (1898)
  • Manual of Bible Geography (1901)
  • The Early Churches of the Lebanon Valley (1902)
  • History of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania (1903)
  • Bible Facts and Scenes (1905)
  • The Christian Kindergarten (1906)
  • The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church (1909)
  • Account of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania (1910)
  • Christianity and Christian Union (1913)
  • How to Teach in Sunday School (1920)
  • Annotated Bibliography of Religious Education and Child Psychology (1920)

Shelter Cat Gives Everyone Hugs and Won't Take No for an Answer - Love Meow





Shelter Cat Gives Everyone Hugs and Won't Take No for an Answer - Love Meow:



"Zorro came to the Pennsylvania SPCA four months ago for a chance at a better life. "He was being fed by a Good Samaritan for some period of time, and he was so friendly that she was trying to find him a permanent home," Gillian Kocher Director of Public Relations of PSPCA told Love Meow."



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