Plagiarism in WELS - A Deep Dive into the Past - 2015

Sent by a reader, who added - "This is you."
He added - "Time to give more reason to fear the truth."

Reverend John Thorpe

The first minister of record to preach here was a Calvinist minister, Reverend John Thorpe. Unfortunately soon after arriving in 1659, it became apparent he did not adhere to the gospel he preached. His shortcomings included addiction to strong drink, extreme profanity, and a foul disposition. In 1661, he was forbidden by court order to continue preaching.  GJ - Note - he was banned, not promoted. Read Jane's story here.

2008 Links

St. Mark DePere - removes evidence of plagiarism from their websty

GJ - St. Mark is the home of Church and Change, a political lobby funded by your offering money, WELS members. 

Creepy Plagiarism - Church and Changers Copy Each Other and Their False Teaching Idols

Church and Change Misbegotten Ideas - Including Ski from St. Marcus and Cross-Dressing Pastor Adam Mueller

Church and Change Board Member Ski Evacuates to Appleton

Another Coven of Changers Offering Their Toxins - Ski Again

You Must Read This - Parlow and Timmer Plagiarize Hybels Words and Emotions

WELS Pastor Adam Mueller -
From Church and Changer to Gender Bender.

2009 Links

The Rebels Guide To Plagiarism - How To Get Promoted from Round Rock to Asian Prof

Church and Change Conference in Appleton



2010 Links

 Change or Die - Seibert Foundation - Parlow and the ELCA LCMS Shrinkers

Parlow Plagiarism

Hilarious Kelm Graphic - From Anonymous - Not That One, Another Anonymous

More Fox Valley Plagiarism - From Intrepid Lutherans

Bethany Appleton Caught Plagiarizing Swindoll

Apology Erased from Bethany Websty


2011 Links

Why Did Pastor Christenson Leave St. Peter in Freedom after a Few Months?

Deep Sixing the Plagiarism Issue - Intrepids


2012 Links

Plagiarism from Paul McCain, MDiv



2013 Links



Intrepids - Steve Spencer - Afraid 

More Nostalgia - St. Matthew in Appleton - From 2010

Maybe we should experiment with the Means of Grace for a bit? If that doesn't work, we can go back to Church and Change methods.

News from St. Matthew WELS, Appleton, WI

Interest in our campus

posted Feb 2, 2010 12:02 PM by Ruddat, Jon

As you know, the UW-Oshkosh Head Start program has been renting some of our former classroom space for their program. Recently their leaders contacted us to determine if we might have more space for them on our campus. According to their leaders they really like our location and would like to stay here for the foreseeable future.

While there are several options being discussed, Head Start has told us that their ideal scenario may be to purchase our property. Since this was unexpected, it is important that we consider what our long term plans are for this property before we can give Head Start an answer to their questions. Therefore we are forming a planning committee to look into all options available to us.

Please be assured that Head Start’s interest in purchasing our property came unexpectedly and unsolicited. Please also be assured that no decision on this or any other major facility issue would take place without substantial member input and congregational approval.

However, the timing of this couldn’t be better since we are at the point where we need to make some long term decisions on what to do with our site and buildings. We know that over the next 2-3 years we will need to perform several large and expensive maintenance projects. These include new flooring for the church and replacing the school roof, which could total about $200,000. In addition, there has been a lot of interest expressed in building a fellowship hall.

We will be meeting with Head Start to continue this discussion. We will keep you posted. Please feel free to contact myself, one of the pastors or anyone on the leadership team with any questions or comments.

It would seem that the Lord is taking us in a certain direction and we ask you to pray for his guidance in this matter.

- Pat Jacklin, President

***

GJ - Fox Valley residents tell me that the city wants to buy the church for $2 million. St. Matthew's closed its school, so it has lots of classrooms and a big gym. The 100 year old building was remodeled about 15 years ago.

The Shrinkers want to sell the building and move to Monkey Joe's, a failed party center - how appropriate.

They want to sell by September!

Attendance and membership are both down, a shock to those who believe in Church and Change. The whole district is Church and Change but they are going down faster than the Greek economy.

Paul Calvin Kelm - why did you abandon Fox Valley when they needed your services so badly?

From 2011 - Intrepid Lutherans - SP Mark Schroeder Issues Scorching Report on Church Growth

One Church Growth leader was definitely not happy.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2011

http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2011/12/wels-synod-president-mark-schroeder.html

WELS Synod President Mark Schroeder issues scorching rebuke of Church Growth Movement

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In an official Synod address, though in a most even mannered and gentlemanly way, Rev. Mark Schroeder, President of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, excoriates the Church Growth Movement (CGM) and Sectarian Worship within our midst, and in their place emphasizes fidelity to Scripture and the Confessions in doctrine and practice, and uplifts a deliberate, unified and unique Lutheran identity under them. The first 42 minutes of this address is well worth a congregational study.

[As an aside, notice Schroeder's use of Power Point (PP). Black lettering on white background. Nothing to look at. Nothing to distract his hearers from what he had to say. According to the latest in leadership studies (and statistical research regarding the helpfulness of PP), if an organizational leader is forced to do PP to his audience, Schroeder's method is the way to do it: no color, no animations, no diagrams, no silly pictures; only black lettering on white background (which has been proven to maximize PP retention). Anything else, while increasing audience approval (i.e., they enjoyed it more because it was more entertaining, giving them the impression that they "got more out of it"), results in much lower retention of what was actually said. Preferably, it is increasingly being advised, if the actual words of the speaker are important enough to be retained and considered by his hearers, studies and theory are beginning to show that doing PP to one's audience ought to be avoided. It is only useful for summary of detail, and only when the speaker and his words don't really matter.]

NOTE that this video is no longer available. Perhaps there is a desire that it no longer be seen by anyone... More than likely, however, access to video simply lapsed. Someone should look into that. In the meantime, here is a link to the report itself:2009 WELS Convention Presidents Report (beginning on pg. 98). I doubt very much that WELS will ever see CGM referred to so directly, in the negative, at a Synod Convention, again.

Rick Techlin — the excommunicated-communicant-member of the WELS who still doesn't know what his doctrinal error was(which doesn't seem to be of great consequence after all, since, as I understand it, he is communing at a different WELS congregation now... perhaps his DP can help straighten that out?) — has offered summary excerpts from this address on his blog, Light from Light, some of which is included below:

"WELS describes itself as a confessional Lutheran synod. That means that we subscribe unconditionally to the Lutheran Confessions as contained in the Book of Concord of 1580 not insofar as (quatenus) they are a correct exposition of biblical teaching but because (quia) they are. It means that our synod boldly, and without qualification or hesitation, upholds the doctrine (what we believe and teach) as articulated in the Confessions and is committed to reflecting those doctrinal beliefs in our practice (how we express our faith and carry out our mission). Our unity in faith is created by the power of God’s revealed Word and shaped by the doctrines of Scripture; it is expressed in our common commitment to the Lutheran Confessions as correct expositions and explanations of biblical truth. Since the time of the Reformation, Lutherans have recognized the importance of articulating not only what we believe as Christians, but what distinguishes Lutheran belief and practice from that of other Christian churches that have departed from scriptural truth."


"There is no doubt that the early fathers of our synod were filled with a fervent zeal for mission work, but not all of them were fully committed to Lutheran doctrine and practice. They were sent to America by mission societies in Germany in which the distinction between Lutheran and Reformed teachings was blurred at best and virtually non-existent at worst. Their roots in pietism also resulted in a lack of commitment to sound Lutheran theology. True to those roots, they preferred to emphasize the importance of subjective feelings over the objective truth of God’s Word, sanctified living over justification, and the power of prayer over the efficacy of the means of grace. They emphasized the priesthood of all believers to the point where they downplayed the importance of the public ministry. John Muehlhaeuser, the first president of what would become the Wisconsin Synod, gave evidence of this doctrinal laxity when he said, 'I am in a position to offer every child of God and servant of Christ the hand of fellowship over the denominational fence.'"


"By God’s grace that orientation soon changed. In 1861 John Bading was elected as the second president of the synod. In contrast to Muehlhaeuser, Bading regarded the Lutheran Confessions as a proclamation of God’s truth for every age and was committed to sound Lutheran doctrine and practice. In his first address as president, he encouraged the young synod to sacrifice 'blood, life, and limb and suffer all rather than depart one hair’s breadth from the truth we have learned.' In the years that followed, we are grateful that through his leadership and through the beneficial influence of the Missouri Synod, God transformed our synod into one that was truly committed to the doctrines of Scripture and to the Lutheran Confessions.

"Striving to remain faithful to the Scriptures — and to maintain our confessional identity — does not involve a single battle fought and won. It is an ongoing struggle for the church militant. When the battle ends on one front today, Satan opens another front tomorrow. That’s why each generation needs to recognize this struggle as its own and engage in it zealously. Each generation, including ours, needs to resist the temptation to be led astray by false teachings, both blatant and subtle... When orthodoxy is assumed or taken for granted, it is likely soon to be lost.

"As Confessional Lutherans we are committed to holding on to the truth of God’s Word and to defending against all error. We do that, however, not merely to keep that Word for ourselves, but rather to share that message with the world now and for generations to come. It is a false antithesis to say that faithfulness to doctrine is somehow opposed to, or detracts from, a commitment to sharing the gospel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The truth of Scripture, entrusted to us by God, is what gives us a message to proclaim. A truly correct understanding of biblical doctrine always produces a correct understanding of the mission of the church and recognizes the compelling need to share God’s truth with the world."


"As Confessional Lutherans we will look for every opportunity to proclaim God’s law in all its harshness, and we will be zealous to share the sweet message of the gospel to every sinner convicted by God’s law. But we will never adjust or hide or downplay a single word of God’s truth in order to make it somehow more attractive. To do that is to empty the gospel of its power and to lose the gospel itself."


"Doctrine and practice are intimately related to each other. Therefore, it’s essential that we be wary of methods and practices that have their roots in evangelical and reformed theology and that may inherently reflect that theology. For example, these 'theological underpinnings' can show themselves in worship and outreach methods that emphasizes subjective feelings over the proclamation of God’s objective gospel truth; or that gives the impression that prayer is a means of grace; or that emphasizes the role of praise over against the centrality of the Word proclaimed and the sacraments administered."

Those of us who remain publicly supportive of Synod President Schroeder's leadership recall this address with fondness. It remains evidence of his intention to lead in the direction of confessional Lutheran unity, of his fidelity to Scripture and the Confessions, and of his trust in the efficacy of God's Word. May such continue among us.