WELS Layman on WELS Failed Methods - Curated Graphics by Ichabod - Feel Free To Share

"Did you ever notice the tactics used by those who are desperate? Not to minimize the importance of this, but the use of shabby translations is one of many measures employed by the rats on a sinking ship. The abhorrence of the KJV by WELS leadership most likely marked the beginning of the end of Confessional Lutheranism for the WELS. The venerable 1941 TLH was replaced starting in 1993. This was a year after Wayne Mueller’s official church growth denial and Corky Koeplin’s stern warning titled Whither WELS? in CN. 

[GJ - I sent Corky's essay to CN, and Timid Tim excoriated me for doing so. It was supposed to be Top Secret, Eyes Only! - but the anonymous sender never told me.]

 Let's just hope Scott Barefoot didn't pray with the LCMS leaders.

Thank you for re-posting some articles from the Ichabod archives. It helps to connect the dots. It also shows the progression or more accurately, the regression, in the WELS. The abuse of members by the called workers can leave permanent scars. I have witnessed firsthand families who were members of the same congregation for several generations. Then, because of a pastor’s arrogance, they left and never came back.

 This is a very good description of WELS, the CLC (sic), etc.

These desperation tactics clearly exhibit that they are an exercise in futility. Plus, there is also a little bit of damage control going on by the WELS leadership. But it is not much. The leaders still must save face. They certainly will not be held accountable for hoodwinking the members. Imagine if a DP got in front of a congregation and apologized for promoting Enthusiasm. Pinch me, I am dreaming.

GJ - My introduction to WELS "Evangelism" was the Kelm-Valleskey workshop where Cho's work was praised to high heaven (before his embezzling was revealed, of course). I stood up to criticize the use of an occult phony like Cho. (I previously met Cho and shook hands with him. Do not criticize - I listened, read his atrocious books, and met him. That is called research.

 Here is a verbatim example of Cho using Asian occult methods. American leaders ate it up like chocolate ice cream with sprinkles.

Even the membership numbers are deceiving. WELS baptized membership peaked at about 420,000. Today, it is about 354,000. That comes out to be slightly more than 84% of the peak. Those are official numbers based upon what congregations send to WELS HQ. I believe that congregations also submit attendance numbers. As head usher, I take a head count at every service and write it down on a spreadsheet in the ushers’ room. It is further broken down into a total number, number of visitors, and communion attendance. I count the offerings with the financial secretary. He just distributed the new offering envelopes for 2020. What is significant about that are the sets of offering envelopes that are never picked during the entire year. Some are members who are “still on the books” but have not been around, sometimes for several years.

 Are these two skirt-chasers comparing notes? In WELS, Willow Creek was considered the place to study success methods. They gave scholarships to go there, even though many did not need to study womanizing. Hybels was forced out early. Didja know he insisted on feminist Bibles? 

These sordid details tell the true story of WELS membership. I understand the synod apologists will claim that as an aggregate number, membership in Christian denominations has declined everywhere in this country. There is no disputing this. But these apologists have just made the rather obvious point that the CGM never works, no matter who uses it, the WELS included. This is contrary to what was promised when the WELS leadership boasted about spoiling the Egyptians.

Here is a brief sample of what has been tried: Leadership training seminars (church growth training), participating in School Choice programs for the parochial schools, retaining the services of a consultant (like Cornerstone Ministries), a new hymnal, new Bible translations, worship supplements, “blended” worship services also known as contemptible worship, staff ministers (when proposed, they could not articulate what it was, but they wanted it).

Here is not what has been tried for true church growth: Promotion of the Means of Grace solely because of the Efficacy of the Word.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will keep you and Mrs. Jackson in my prayers. God’s blessings for the new year.

In Christ,

WELS Layman"

Another WELS Layman Responded to This Post - This One is "WELS No More"

"Dear Pastor Jackson,

Another great post on Ichabod “WELS Layman on WELS Failed Methods” it was very much appreciated. At some point WELS must begin to notice that their members realize the truth and are leaving in droves. WELS has a culture of abuse, lying, and false doctrine, what a sad little denomination. I thought the recent meeting in Florida where they all (WELS-ELS-LCMS) jumped on the UOJ bandwagon was nothing more than defense of a very clear error in doctrine. Why would they make such a big deal of their doctrinal agreement of UOJ if they didn’t know people like me know it is not Biblical? Nobody reads Ichabod (sarcasm) and the UOJ they are selling is rotting on the shelf.    

I try to read Ichabod every day if possible, and really appreciate the sermons on Sunday.

Thank you for all you do!

God bless you,"

The Soldier's Psalm

Abuse in WELS/ELS - Common Characteristics with Secretive Cults and Sects - Old Post

This graphic illustrates typical LCMS-WELS-ELS deception.
Stephan was under house arrest for adultery and financial questions when he was allowed to leave with his sex cult.
Stephan was always a Pietist and so were the members of the Walther circle. Walther's mob robbed Stephan and kidnapped him, leaving him to die in Illinois.

More abuse information can be found on this link to the "Intrepid" Lutherans, who were dispersed by the WELS DPs. 


WELS controls the ELS, so one might as well consider the two dying sects together. The Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) is simply another, more corrupt, more immoral, more incestuous version of WELS. The LCMS follows to some extent, the worst abusers running the show while sub-groups try to exist on their own.

Clergy and laity driven out by the ELS, WELS, or CLC (sic) should consider themselves blessed, like the early Christians who escaped Jerusalem before the Roman armies surrounded the Holy City.

Those who go back to the abusers, hoping for approval, make a big mistake. They like to have their so-called Prodigals come back, as long as they are broken, subdued, and eager to worship Holy Mother Sect. The harshest critics make the best fuel for roasting the next set of dissenters.

If someone stays away, the long reach of the abusers never remains quiet. Relatives? Friends? Employers? New church body? They need to punish the escapees, just as the Mormons murdered those who tried to back.

ELS clergy call Mequon The Sausage Factory
for its identical products,
according to Jay Webber.

Secrecy and Spying
In an abusive sect, everything is a secret. I used to get so many secret letters in WELS that I had a rubber stamp made that said Burn This Letter! in red. No one wanted to be known for having a negative thought about WELS. Bill Gothard used the same tactic in his cult. Dealing with the facts is negativity, and negativity is from Satan.

Spying goes well with secrecy. Everything is everyone's business, so false friends make a practice of being buddies to keep track of someone who may stray from the plantation. They often encourage dissent and back away to let their target take the blame, the heat, and the Left Foot of Fellowship. Richard Jungkuntz did that to his fellow "martyr" Gehrke, and John Seifert practiced the technique on many pastors.

One layman told me how he was coaxed to bring his problems about Martin Luther College's feminist policies to various leaders. At two different meetings he was sandbagged by the person who urged him to come forward and complain. At the second one, he told the minister, "Are you going to stick with me and support me? Promise. I cannot take another experience like the last one." The second pastor promised all the way to the meeting, then turned on the fellow with savage, personal criticism.
Laity who have done to same to pastors.

If you want a friend in WELS, get a dog.

The people who do this think they are very clever, and they smirk because synod officials are behind them. However, they are really cowardly, wicked deceivers who eventually pay the price for their betrayal of the Word. Still, they leave a lot of broken, wounded victims behind.

"Do not tell on the brothers,
or they will beat you like a rented mule."

The Law and Anti-Law
The dominant UOJ dogma in WELS includes a heavy dose of Antinomianism and legalism. The Antinomianism is easy - "Everyone is forgiven all past, present, and future sins - without faith." Q.E.D. - the Ten Commandments are tossed out the window.

If a pastor is an adulterer, or homosexual, or alcoholic, that is fine, because he knows he is a sinner and knows he is already forgiven. The WELS clergy and their clones have a sheaf of excuses for false doctrine, including a "Luther quote" that justifies doing nothing about it.

If you register any kind of protest against any of this behavior, no matter how politely and deferentially it was offered up, with meek and contrite words, the response will be:

1. Silence. The letter or email is not even acknowledged.
2. Verbal abuse - "You did not sit down and exercise Matthew 18, explaining my sins to me."
3. False defense - "You have slandered me, violating the Eighth Commandment."
4. Personal attacks - "You never did fit in. You hated GA." (The secretive hazing ritual at Mequon features all kinds of deception, emotional and physical abuse, which helps to mold them into identical sausages, products of the Sausage Factory.)
5. Letter barrage - Various officials send nasty letters that quote some horrible thing expressed by mail and uses that to launch into tirades, clear threats, or implied punishments.
6. Whispering campaign - It soon becomes apparent that some people have spread anonymous ill reports among friends and church members. This escalates into slow, steady shunning and final ejection.
7. Absolution via family or Fuller. Certain families can do anything they want. Lacking the lucky DNA, someone can enjoy the same benefits by going to Fuller Seminary and loving it.
8. Let Herman do it - Although the sects hate Herman Otten and Christian News, both are handy for carrying out the work of shunning, which he is happy to advance.

The imaginary and unwritten laws are far more important than the Ten Commandments. This approach is incredibly useful in handling people. The moment toes are stepped on, the shrieking begins. For instance, I asked about women teaching men, women leading cell groups at St. Paul's, German Village. I was told (and this always comes from a friend, who is ordered to do so) that I violated a sacred principle. I identified the parish! I thought, "What a crock."

One college student got off the bus at Mequon and was sexually assaulted by one of the seminarians, who grabbed him...details to be assumed. I have the verbatim account and also verified it with the family. When he complained to seminary officials, he was told. "You are too sensitive." Although he went to seminary, they made sure he never finished. Likewise, the father of one homosexual made sure a pastor was driven out of the ministry for preaching against it - and you think ELCA is bad?

WELS Pastor Dave Wendt offered to gang rape a blogger,
because she is a liberal. Did he ever face charges for the threat?

Mark Jeske offered a lame, sanitized version of the threat
for his gullible readers.

Abusive Cults Have Their Own Language
Bill Gothard used "defrauding" and other mysterious terms to link the Bible to his special mindset. He manipulated people by making his desires innocent and wholesome while condemning them for objecting. Thirty-two women lodged complaints against him at the end and he was forced out - "Nobody knew," as Mark Schroeder is fond of saying.

Special words make people feel elite and above the crowd. Only some know the true meaning of GA (now called HB - get the joke? - no more GA). The in-crowd can reference GA and let that pass over the heads of laity.

The clergy, whose warped behavior often starts in prep school, have plenty of special terms, such as the physical abuse they hand out for anyone who "tells." The truth cannot be tolerated, so they gang up on anyone who tells the truth. If word of their abuse reaches the officials, the abuse is doubled. The school officials know and approve, because their job is to produce unthinking slaves to row the ship so they can enjoy the Captain's Quarters and the Officers' Mess.

Did anyone vote for Church and Change to take over WELS?
Here is one C and C founder installing another one.
Co-inky-dink?
When I posted this, one WELS official wanted to know, "Who told?"

WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)-LCMS: Cults Switch Dogma
Once upon a time, the Lutheran groups had the liturgy, creeds, sermons, hymns, and an interest in Luther's doctrine. They liked the KJV and used it at all services.

Now all of that has flipped, but no one has confessed how they changed it and turned vice into virtue. A few vintage WELS members recall the Gausewitz catechism (justification by faith) and the KJV being good. After all, the KJV is a revision of the Tyndale, and Tyndale modeled his translation after Luther's. Tyndale took the trouble of studying with Luther and Melanchthon.

Vintage Lutherans are left isolated, bewildered, scorned, and abused.

We met one cult member in the hospital. He was friends with Erin Joy. He said to me, "Erin has to learn she is not the center of the world." I said, "You tell her," and she grinned at me.

This cult member bragged to me that whenever they changed doctrine, which was fairly often, teachers were sent out to re-train the members.

Does that sound familiar? WELS has been trained in the New NIV for years now. Only one DP objected to the New NIV at the previous convention. The one following saw no objections at all. To avoid a ban on the NNIV, the convention blessed all translations. Mequon got its way and Mark Schroeder crumbled again. Or perhaps he was only pretending to object. That is good GA style. Play one side, the switch. Seifert and Buchholz are good at that.

Sorry, Baby Blue Eyes, he can and he will.

These Synods Have Handed Their Members Over to Bible Deceivers, Frauds, Enthusiasts. Behold! The "Modern Scientific Text" and "Dynamic Equivalence"

 They mock the Scriptures with their "anything but the King James Version" snide remarks and polemics.

 "Amen! Brother bishops, the ELDONUTS have the same progressive position on Bibles."

Check out the ESV errors here.

Readers may remember the fuss caused by LCMS' Kloha over the text of the Bible. I saw the cast of characters and the tired old tactics and thought, "Ho hum."

My ennui was not based upon lack of interest but upon the decades of wanton pollution promoted by ELCA-WELS-LCMS-ELS-ELDONUTs.

Note this well and keep it in mind for each of their pious pronouncements -

Their rejection of the traditional Biblical text began with their acceptance of the:

1. NIV (more ecumenical than the National Council of Churches)
2. New NIV (even worse than the old one)
3. RSV (who erased the Virgin Birth in Isaiah 7)
4. ESV (regurgitated RSV) 

What do these disasters and almost all modern versions have in common? Besides making millions for the denominations?

They rely on and boast about the lethal combination of text elimination from the three great frauds - Tischendorf, Wescott, Hort - and the continued modern corrupting of the text - plus the atheistic, impulsive, and ridiculous "dynamic equivalence" smoke and mirrors of the apostate Eugene Nida.

That combination of "modern scientific text" and "dynamic equivalence" means every new Bible translation (paraphrases, to be truthful) is a work of fiction and fraud.

They will only allow "modern scientific text" Bibles in the church, classroom, seminary, even the pulpit. Once that is established - and it was, decades ago - the King James Version is excommunicated. It is a secret probation, even a double secret probation - but oh, so effective. The person who reads from the KJV in a Bible study or class is like a bug slowly crawling across the picnic plate. "Flick it away!" And they do.

WELS began mocking the KJV, long before they adopted the old NIV, which was a joke by itself. Any pastor who objected to the NIV was kicked out on the spot.

LCMS is publishing the Mark commentary with the ending of Mark 16 treated like a lepers' colony, separate. Oh yes, the passage is there, but the very title of the prolix commentary gives away the status  of Mark 16:9ff. Now add to that the gold-plated price tag of $100 for the two-volume work covering the shortest of the four Gospels. Oh my.

The laity and most pastors have been kept in the dark. Our little group is gathering and sharing resources for a future volume on the Biblical text and translations.

The best translation is the King James Version, using the traditional text and the precision method of translation modeled by Team Luther and brought to English people by the martyr Tyndale.

The two most influential books in the English language are the King James Bible and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. And which are the most neglected today? - so much that a Moby Dick rare printing is worth $3,000 on the market and a Pilgrim's Progress from the same source is worth $50.