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| Herb Chilstrom did not become an LCA bishop, one of his goals, but he became the first ELCA bishop. |
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| Chemnitz is next to Chilstrom in my good guys/bad guys graphics folder. Other than that, there is no connection at all. |
The origin of ELCA as a factory for social justice warriors is well known. The key to being hip in the LCMS/LCA/ALC was loving the Social Gospel Movement, which rejected Christian doctrine in favor of reforming society through government regulation and federal laws. Pietism was a good starting point because the Pietists saw the congregation as a convenient place to organize the "real church" - the conventicles or cell groups. Those who value the Means of Grace and worship are not real Christians, according to the cell group denizens.
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| Putting a lot of money in, to get a chance at grabbing some cheap toys - that sounds like the Church Growth Enthusiasts. |
Pietism is also ecumenical, which is a great way to break down doctrinal barriers and doctrine itself. Just listen to the self-proclaimed growth experts and coaches of the LCMS-WELS. They loathe Luther and ape Barth/Kirschbaum. They have eviscerated their own synods and long to be like ELCA. But do not worry - they have a brilliant new program for healing the injuries caused by previous programs, vision statements, and pipe dreams.
The solution is not to go synod shopping, because they are alike in various ways. The Luther module in their training was replaced by the Peter Wagner Fuller module. Whose idea was that? Peter Wagner's! He got all the denominations to send their executives to Fuller, and the executives got their underlings to go. Soon the ambitious (but simpleton) pastors signed up for easy access to better synod positions.
A Methodist church is rebirthing itself by eliminating all the older members from membership. Roger Zehms, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, and Paul Kuske started a mission with no Lutheran attributes (worship, name, etc) and warned Lutherans not to attend or join. Pilgrim Community Church closed faster than a snake-handlers parish in White Fish Bay, Wi. They featured a Plymouth Rock graphic with the wrong date on it. Calvinist outreach?
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| The Lutheran Librarian is discovering treasures from the past - more than 150 ebook titles and many print copies coming out. Like Spindletop, the source was locked up until it was tapped. |
The solution is widespread knowledge of Luther, the Confessions, and Biblical basics. Our little congregation pondered what we could do about the situation. The synods largely ignored the Reformation's 500th Anniversary, so we published 11 volumes of Luther's Sermons, print and Kindle, and then made merged PDFs to give them away for free. The next step is Word files for free distribution, editing, and translating - no fees, no corporate attorney will send a certified letter.
Luther's primary emphasis was the sermon. So what do the synodocrats do? Answer - they produce failing Calvinist programs to degrade the sermon to the point of plagiarized mockery. They are being honest with their underlings - only a dummy would copy the garbage being produced and devoured by the Fulleroids.
The sermon is a chance to teach a significant part of the Bible in the church year. Jesus converted people through preaching. So did the apostles. Martyrs died because they preached the Gospel to people ruled by leaders of darkness.
There are two verbs for teaching in the Great Commission, no verb for manufacturing disciples.
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| Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, and 30 other books can be found here - non-profit, public domain. |
Preaching is primary. Supplemental teaching follows. Our little group gathered as many out of print Lutheran books as possible and posted them as free ebooks - thanks to Alec Satin. Now many of them are being offered at non-profit prices on Amazon.
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| Norma A. Boeckler is already working on Understanding Pilgrim's Progress, which is being written for the sessions on Wednesday at 7 PM. |
Besides that we have the unceasing work of illustrating the Bible through Norma Boeckler. Who can determine how far those have traveled on the Net? One pastor denounced uncredited copying on a page where he featured Norma's art, uncredited. I kidded him about that - he did not know. Norma did not stop with art or her own books, but went on to help others produce their books.
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| Do you want a packed Sunday School? Start a mission. This is our Philippine Mission, Pastor and Mrs. Jordan Palangyos. |
A Philippine mission came to us, and they are in the second stage of the chapel - putting on the permanent roof. They are very interested in education and printing too. They now have their own printer (before the roof!). The Apostles started with publishing the Old Testament in Greek.
We have more opportunities, with Travis and Lauren Cartee are interested in producing the spoken Word on Youtube.
We also have a recent MDiv graduate, Zach Engleman. Scholars within our group discuss doctrinal topics via email.
