C. Peter Wagner Would Like To Send a Message To the Big Five Apostates - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)

 

All Time Ichabod Views11,777,772

Call in the WELS Church Growth Stars! - The Church of Rome Is Sinking As Fast As The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)!

 

Think how much the Vatican could do for Thrivent, and Thrivent for them!

Catholic Faith: The End of the Italian Privilege

In figures, we go from 37.3% of the population attending Sunday Mass in 1993 to 23.7% in 2019—bearing in mind that declared attendance is always higher than actual attendance, which means that the actual figures are even lower. These are global figures—regardless of gender or age. The researcher also observes other new trends: for example, the growing disaffection of women for Mass, when traditionally, and particularly in Italy, they were seen as ‘pillars of the parish.’ Another worrying phenomenon is that older people, who were once known to return to the faith with age after a period away from the practice, are less and less returning to church. As a result, Sunday gatherings, hitherto dominated by women and the elderly, will soon be disappearing.

Devotees of The Dancing Word may have been a set-back.

The leader is below.

WELS has done worse, with a pastor cross-dressing in the pulpit - to illustrate the woman at the well. He became the head of one of the failing parts of the sect, because a DP was his dad.

Professor Diotallevi’s diagnosis is therefore very gloomy: soon, in Italy, attendance at Sunday Mass “will be reduced to a figure approaching 10% of the population, which in many parts of the country corresponds to an actual figure in the single digits.”

They are a team! Count on them! Glory in their success.

These guys are fix-it champions - the orans (angel) pose, clashing purples, bishop's hat, and Covid masks. 

Ichabod has a few answers to this threnody.

Where Are They Now? The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)At Work And Play

 

These men graduated from Mequon (aka Mordor) in 1970, and championed the vacuous methods of Peter Drucker, the business bully, C. Peter Wagner the Pentecostal. Disciple of Christ (sociologist) Donald McGavran urged pastors not to mix races together. As anyone can see, WELS inhaled the flatulence of Fuller Seminary and called it perfume. The Enthusiasts - those who create their own dogma - were happy to push away the Legalists and speed the decay.

I copied this verbatim from Christianity Today in 1991. I really thought some WELS leaders would phone or write me and be thankful I had set them free from the quagmire of Church Growth. It was already a complete joke and a matter of parading the errors of Pietism, Calvinism, and Druckerism.

The LCMS and ELCA did exactly the same things. Each sect encouraged people from competing sects to come over and finally hear the Gospel. 

• I was reading about Hagedorn today, a sacred name in WELS, and I was remembering how many wacky dreams he spun for membership growth. 
• I also read the biography of David Rutschow, written by his son, but without telling that Rutschow as a pastor did not allow Church Growth in his parish, but promoted it as the District Pope. 
• Wayne Mueller needs no introduction, since he is more Objective Faithless Justification than Rolf Preus, a man of all synods. Wayne told the kiddies at the WELS youth conference that evangelism was easy - "Just say - you are already forgiven." He reminded me of the farmer who put the wrong liquid in his sprayer and killed the whole crop.
  
• John Lawrenz achieved the honor of being President of Martin Luther College...for a month. He and John Brenner had no problem with hazing kids, which may explain how WELS rotted from their major abuse problems, not excluding alcoholism ("synod vitamins").
• Paul Kelm,D.Min., is the sect's favorite Mr. Magoo, the cartoon figure who constantly walked into all kinds of pratfalls and spills, coming out without a scratch. The more WELS faltered, the more Kelm stirred up new programs - conjoined with Hagedorn and others.

I feel obliged to repeat Kelm's climactic end to the Church Growth conference that I was required to attend. I objected to their deification of Paul. Y. Cho and other fakes. Kelm concluded his ultimate speech, "After you have heard all the things we can do with our Wisconsin Synod, can you name anyone in America who would not want to join our synod? (The audience remained silent.)

Herbert Chilstrom, elected presiding bishop of ELCA, 1987

I responded, based on logic and time spent with Chilstrom at lunch, "Herbert Chilstrom?"

The audience roared with laughter, which went through many waves of hilarity. It was ridiculous that given the right information, every single person would want to join the sect.

Like Missouri, ELS, the CLC (sic) and ELCA, all of them have used congregation and synod funds to promote their deadly, toxic waste matter.

C. Peter Wagner's Mushroom-Based Gospel - The NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION Translation.

 

WELS, Missouri, and ELCA devoured Wagner and McGavran. The founder of Church Growth, McGavran, tickled Olson and Valleskey pink, even though the Founder promoted congregations sponsoring Planned Parenthood. Wagner was a Pentecostal Space Cadet, endorsed by WELS in their little Milwaukee magazine - The Popes Speak.

Protestia link

The author of The Passion Translation version of the Bible is up and arms after Bible Gateway removed it from their list of available resources, claiming that the snub is a result of “cancel culture” in the church.

While Bible Gateway has yet to publicly comment on their motivation for doing so, we can’t say that we’re surprised.

This Bible “translation” might as well have been called “The New Apostolic Reformation Translation” given that it’s pretty much exclusively endorsed by NAR folk, from Bethel to Bobbie Houston, James Goll, John and Lisa Bevere, Patricia King, Chuck Pierce, and is infused with their special kind of theology.

The Passion is a single-author “translation” of the scriptures by NAR “Apostle” Dr. Brian Simmons of Stairway Ministries, who claimed that Jesus appeared to him and gave him “secrets” of the Hebrew language. Lest you be confused about the “Dr.” in front of his name, it wasn’t due to his scholarly prowess.

Rather, he received it from Wagner Leadership Institute – an NAR organization founded by C. Peter Wagner that offers courses in subjects like dream interpretation and miracle-working and where you can get a “Masters of Spiritual Healing, Deliverance, and Warfare” or a “Masters of Apostolic Leadership and Applied Ministry.”

Not to be rude, but that dude is as crazy as a rat in a coffee can." 

Let Us Pause To Honor the WELS Framework of Fellowship

WELS pontificates - "They are outside the framework of church fellowship." But of course, WELS ardently worships at the same throne.

I was talking to a member about all the honored greats of Church Growth who imploded, plus a few other scoundrels. WELS and Missouri share them - but the Little Sect on the Prairie is pure (yuk, yuk). Just ask the ELS.

Mark and Avoid Jeske is a regular Robert Schulller, liberal Calvinist, tireless self-promoter, anxious to include every confession of faith, except Justification by Faith.
He has his hands in Thrivent and the Seibert Foundation, The Core, Church and Church (now in stealth mode), and various other entities.

Starting at the top left - Craig Groeschel was being copied verbatim at the Glende-Ski Popcorn Cathedral of Love. The lawyer who proved this and objected to it was excommunicated. The DP supported Glende and Ski.

Top middle - Mark Driscoll - who said bodies would be piled up when he was done. Ski, Glende, and Bishop Katie went to absorb the magic.

Next row down, left - Donald McGavran, Disciples of Christ, founder of Church Growth, promoter of Planned Parenthood in writing.

Aging hippy with the moustache - Leonard Sweet - adored in WELS and the LCMS St. Louis Apostasiorium. Maybe he was really profound, but he sounded like one of those weed addicts who never stop talking.

The cheerful chubby is Ed Stetzer, who is currently very big at Wheaton College and Trinity Divinity in Deerfield. The Deerfield branch of Pietism was used so much by WELS staff that their Love Shack was mentioned twice in one annual report. Trinity Divinity has been disgraced by the behavior of Bill Hybels (below) and Ravi Zacharias. WELS gave pastors money to learn from His Holiness Hybels (but offered me a scholarship there).

The big white-haired portrait is C. Peter Wagner, aka Pete Wagner, also popular in WELS, though his Pentecostal ravings should have frightened most people away. He fell for the creepy guy who was "raising people from the dead" in Florida. He was the hot-shot promoter for McGavran, or as WELS might say, the Larry Olson for the Founder of Church Growth.

At the bottom is Andy Stanley, gay activist Babtist, son of the equally appalling Charles Stanley. Glende, Ski, Bishop Katie (and others) attended at least one Andie Stanley money-maker. Ski blogged about it - lavishing praise on Andy Stanley and worshiping with him. The blog was out in public for a long time. I copied parts of it, because I knew they would destroy the evidence and deny it. 

WELS pastors and staff, plus LCMS dolts of the same persuasion, can always be found with Enthusiasts. They are now so deluded that they continue on the same path, looking for more reasons their faithless Law speeches are driving people away or into their lupine jaws.

Let us not forget Archbishop Weakland, who was invited - with his priests - to offer public lectures at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WELS), a fact later denied by the college and WELS. The lectures were publicized (also denied by WELS). It was not a private luncheon, as WELS declared, which is even more bizarre than lectures. Weakland was also under fire for his relationship with a man and his misuse of church funds, but that was no problem for WELS.

Archbishop Rembert Weakland

One WELS Church Growth expert sold Cho books at a WELS gathering, and Cho was promoted at the Kelm conference I was forced to attend.

I do not remember if Hill's name was mentioned in awe - as so many phonies are in WELS - but he was a major influence for Robert Schuller, who received an award for supporting Hill's dogma. Pete Wagner talked crazy like this too. Luther warned that when the Means of Grace are set aside, many foul errors will rush in. 

 WELS has a special hatred for the Book of Concord. They are Quia Marias, pretending to love a confession they despise and corrupt. The ELS is the same but quieter.

Cross-dressing Andy Mueller, son of Wayne, is a big deal at Church and Change Your Gender, the WELS Church Growth cult that went invisible.

May They Live a Hundred Years and Look Upon Their Accomplishments: The Cutting Edge Bled the Synodical Conference to Death

The class portraits of the seminary in Mordor are useful for identifying who drank beer together. Fortunately, the worst of them published their wisdom and gloried in taking over the Wisconsin sect. Their Church and Change organization was out in the open, on the Internet, and they had conferences not attended by Kudu Don Patterson.

There were many others, like Valleskey and his pal Bivens, all the leaders in American and world missions. Missouri and the Little Sect on the Prairie have their counterparts. C. Peter Wagner listed five LCMS leaders in his Who's Who in Church Growth. The Little Sect always wags its chihuahua tail when WELS speaks or offers a treat.

I hope they all live 100 years and look upon the wreckage of their doctrinal and pastoral felonies. Waldo Werning was named in the Who's Who list of Church Growth heroes, and they all worked with him too - and Otten. The typical Shrinker bragged about going to Fuller Summer - as Valleskey, Bivens, and Werning did - and denied it when convenient.

The one thing they prize is money and visible, measurable success - not the Gospel. They hate the Gospel and glory in teaching against the Chief Article of Christianity - Justification by Faith. For that reason, God has taken away their previous success - when they actually taught the Chief Article - and handed them over to their Father Below.

Matt the Fatt, Mirthless Mark, and Pope John the Malefactor are not leaders - but followers. They protect the apostates, who reward them with undeserved salaries and benefits, chiefly the benefit of the doubt. They could not possibly be shielding felons among their church workers, could they? Let's hope they stay in office another 20 years, so people pay a fortune for their maladministrations, their promotion of Church Growth and ELCA dogma - UOJ.

Fancy this - the LCMS-ELS-WELS have sent their leaders to Fuller and Willow Creek for decades, just like ELCA. And now they are all Barthians, because Fuller is Barthian. Has any synod broken the news that Fuller is pulling back, canceling building plans and ending their local cancer nodes? They are going down together, with ELCA just a little bit in the lead.

 Barth's children had two mommies, because Barth moved his mistress, Charlotte Kirschbaum, into his home and lived with her alone in the summers. Everyone knew, just like the Walther circle and their promiscuous Bishop Stephan. Barth/Kirschbaum are the two most prominent theologians for Protestants, Catholics, and Fuller Seminary.

 Hybels is another favorite among the apostates - the founder of Willow Creek, the trainer of Lutheran pastors of all stripes, and the target of many women whom he pursued. As Lenski noted, spiritual adultery and similar problems go together. 

WELS-LCMS-ELS Reaping the Thistle Seed of UOJ, Panting after "Growth". It's All about the Benjamins. From 2011

"I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with the church-growth principles we've developed, or the evangelistic techniques we're using. Yet somehow they don't seem to work." 
C. Peter Wagner
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 47.

"The Fuller Evangelistic Association has a doctrinal statement. It is the statement which was adopted by Fuller Theological Seminary some time ago. It does not differ from their early statement and has never yet been changed, that I know of. This statement explicitly affirms that the Bible is free from all error in the whole and in the part. Both Dr. Hubbard and Dr. Fuller are part of that organization. This means they are signing two different doctrinal statements, one of which affirms inerrancy and one which does not. We also know that Dr. Hubbard frankly disavows inerrancy and even declares this view to be 'unbiblical.'
Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 220.

"The graduates of an institution usually give full proof of the teaching they received from the school in which they studied. According to Dr. LaSor's observations the leaven was present when David Hubbard, Daniel Fuller, and Ray Anderson were students. They went from Fuller to graduate study overseas and were promptly converted to the neoorthodoxy and liberalism of their professors. They returned to Fuller Seminary having moved farther to the left than any of their teachers at Fuller. And now their students in turn begin to reflect their views."
Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 236.

***

GJ - Anti-inerrancy, unionism, and women's ordination came into Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect on the Prairie via Fuller Seminary study, which was universal for world mission and American mission leaders. The so-called mission counselors in WELS are simply salesmen for Fuller Seminary and its bastard offspring, such as Willow Creek and the rest of the humbugs.

All about the Benjamins,
but the Georges now - in the Obama Depression.

------

Fuller Pietism

Fuller Seminary in Pasadena was formed to teach inerrancy, although its initial position was really quite soft. Nevertheless, the faculty went through a revolution and Fuller adopted an anti-inerrancy statement. When The Battle for the Bible, about Fuller, was published, Harold Lindsell, the author, was attacked by Fuller for being “bitter and jealous” that he did not become president. In fact, the author was offered the position and turned it down. Notice how the amazingly successful president of Fuller Seminary, the late David Hubbard, defined the problem of inerrancy. Like most liberals in the driver’s seat, his words drip with sarcasm and scorn. The words are taken directly from the brochure Fuller mailed the author during a vain effort to recruit him.[52]

Fuller: The Bible Does Not Consider God’s Word Inerrant

J-773

"Were we to distinguish our position from that of some of our brothers and sisters who perceive their view of Scripture as more orthodox than ours, several points could be made: 1) we would stress the need to be aware of the historical and literary process by which God brought the Word to us...4) we would urge that the emphasis be placed where the Bible itself places it - on its message of salvation and its instruction for living, not on its details of geography or science, though we acknowledge the wonderful reliability of the Bible as a historical source book; 5) we would strive to develop our doctrine of Scripture by hearing all that the Bible says, rather than by imposing on the Bible a philosophical judgment of our own as to how God ought to have inspired the Word."  

David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Inerrancy Misleading and Inappropriate

J-774

"Where inerrancy refers to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its use. Where the focus switches to an undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, the precise sequence of events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and inappropriate. Its dangers, when improperly defined, are: 1) that it implies a precision alien to the minds of the Bible writers and their own use of Scriptures; 2) that it diverts attention from the message of salvation and the instruction in righteousness which are the Bible's key themes;...5) that too often it has undermined our confidence in the Bible we have... 6)that it prompts us to an inordinate defensiveness of Scripture which seems out of keeping with the bold confidence with which the prophets, the apostles and our Lord proclaimed it."

            David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Inerrancy Advocates Are Against the Bible and Tick Me Off

J-775

"We resent unnecessary distractions; we resist unbiblical diversions… Can anyone believe that all other activities should be suspended until all evangelicals agree on precise doctrinal statements? We certainly cannot."

            David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

The downhill doctrinal slide of Pietism begins with placing the good works of man above the truth of God’s Word. At every stage of the decline, the Pietists firmly believe that they must tolerate doctrinal laxity in the name of getting more done, for the glory of God, of course. Soon they find themselves helpless to stop the radicalism of the next generation. The last bishop of the Lutheran Church in America, James Crumley, begged his extremely liberal staff not to succumb to the radicalism of the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Soon, those same staff-members were ousted for being too conservative by ELCA Bishop Herb Chilstrom’s network.

Road to Unitarianism.

From anti-creed to anti-Trinity

Pietism begins with the slogan of “deeds, not creeds.” In every case, Pietism has spawned Unitarianism in the next generation or two. The University of Halle was the mecca of Pietism in one generation and the headquarters for apostasy in the next. The American Lutheran congregations most devoted to unionism in the 19^th century became Congregational or worse in the next. Fuller Seminary, somewhat conservative but ecumenical to a fault, became an anti-inerrancy school in only one generation. The Augustana Synod blended Pietism from the old country with orthodoxy from Capital Seminary (now Trinity, ELCA, in Columbus, Ohio). Lutheran orthodoxy was taught at Augustana Seminary until the 1930s, and then the old faculty was removed at once. The Pietists at Augustana were instrumental in bringing the Social Gospel Movement into their seminary, by calling A. D. Mattson to the faculty.

The original Wisconsin Synod was as Pietistic and unionistic as a Lutheran group might be. Many congregations offered both Reformed and Lutheran communion, both Reformed and Lutheran catechism.[53] Some congregations, like St. Paul’s in Columbus, were named “German Lutheran and Reformed.” Many congregations, like old St. John’s in Milwaukee, had Reformed splits in their early days. The Wisconsin Synod, later influenced by the great theologian Adolph Hoenecke and the synodical leaders Bading and Brenner, who rejected Pietism and unionism, joined the Synodical Conference. However, the Pietists within the Wisconsin Synod were beaten down but not conquered. They lost, too, when the Wisconsin Synod finally voted to break with the Missouri Synod after two decades of dithering. However, the Pietists did not give up. They quietly networked and got their men into key positions, using training at Fuller Seminary as their uniting force. After years of denying that anyone ever went to Fuller Seminary, even though their own Lawrence Otto Olson bragged up his D. Min. degree from Fuller, the Church Growth advocates finally came out of the closet and said, “Yes, we love Church Growth. Yes, we love religious projects with ELCA. Yes, we want women to be ordained. Now try to stop us.”

Ordination of Women

The ordination of women is a natural step for Pietists, a necessary outgrowth of the cell group. In the cell group, which is anti-Means of Grace and anti-confessional, anyone may serve as the leader. In general, women tend to be more spiritual than men and enjoy taking these positions. Cell group method books call them “lay pastors” so there is little difference between serving as a pastor in a cell group and serving as one in the congregation. Although ordination is far more important than the Pietists allow, they have already accomplished their goal when they have women teaching men and women in authority over men in the church.

Historically, women’s ordination has begun with the anti-Christian cults, whenever an alpha female can gather a group together. The Pentecostal groups follow, since they believe the Holy Spirit calls them directly in their dreams and visions. One Pentecostal woman baptized herself in a bathtub, got her tongue-speaking going by saying “yabba-dabba-doo” repeatedly, and announced she had the gift of preaching, according to her submissive husband.

If we concede that the Confessions are old-fashioned, boring, and irrevelant, even though they are not, and we claim that doctrine is divisive, then there is no particular reason why women should not be ordained and called to serve as pastors of congregations. The Lutheran Church in America took the lead in dismissing the inerrancy of the Scriptures and in teaching the flexibility of the Confessions, so they naturally, as liberal Pietists, ordained the first women pastors in America, in 1970.[54] The American Lutheran Church followed. Acknowledging the ordination of known lesbians and homosexuals followed soon after.

Method Actors

Since Pietism rejects the Confessions, the efficacy of the Word, and the Means of Grace, advocates of Enthusiasm must trust in methods. The key to understanding the Enthusiasts is not only in realizing their separation of the Holy Spirit from the Word but also in seeing the implication of that concept. The Reformed do more than imply what their Enthusiasm means. They teach it quite openly – The Word of God is dead and lifeless without human aid. Here is the secret to cell groups, tongue speaking, the seeker service, entertainment evangelism, friendship evangelism, child evangelism, mission vision statements, and all the flotsam of the Reformed. Why must the ministers pretend to be used car salesmen, talk show hosts, or stand-up comedians? In their eyes, God’s Word is dead without a boost from them to make it appealing and get results. Since they have no faith in the Holy Spirit working through the Word alone, they measure their success by visible results they can put on a graph. They take people out to their parking lots and tell them how many acres they have paved. That is good news for the National Asphalt Paving Association,[55] but it means nothing to God to watch these people clown around and carry on to win the approval of people, who are not even given the chance to hear the saving Word of Truth. In a word, these men are ashamed of the Gospel.

Pietistic Methods

J-776

"Pietist preachers were anxious to discover and in a certain sense to separate the invisible congregation from the visible congregation. They had to meet demands different than those of the preceding period: they were expected to witness, not in the objective sense, as Luther did, to God's saving acts toward all men, but in a subjective sense of faith, as they themselves had experienced it. In this way Pietism introduced a tendency toward the dissolution of the concept of the ministry in the Lutheran Church."

Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

J-777

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."

            Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

We might as well start on the bottom of Pietistic practices with the “holy laughter movement,” also known as the “Toronto Blessing.” Pentecostals wore out speaking in tongues, singing in tongues, as well as dancing and being slain in the spirit. They have done every rock version of every spiritual ditty one could imagine. What was left? Holy laughter! (They are actually reviving an old Pentecostal fad.) The minister begins a Toronto Blessing service by telling some lame jokes. People are already set to laugh their heads off. After a few jokes, people begin falling out of their chairs laughing. It helps if the minister does this too, as Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, has done on television. Instead of piping their eyes with tears of contrition, yelling “Glory, glory, glory” on their backs on the floor, the Pentecostals now howl and bellow with laughter, with their backs on the floor. This too will fade and become wearisome. In contrast, the historic Lutheran liturgy is always uplifting to man because the worship service glorifies God, always emphasizing His grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Promise Keepers, a cancerous growth from cell groups and Pentecostalism, has also run through its time of excitement, its “movement of the Spirit,” and its roaringly high income. Wildly ecumenical and emotional, it offered to bring Protestants, Catholics, and Mormon men together in one big hug and cry. Stadiums were filled. Now they are not. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Visible and Invisible Church

J-778

"No one will open his eyes to the fact that mere human devices and doctrines are ensnaring souls, weakening consciences, dissipating Christian liberty and faith, and replenishing hell. Wolves! Wolves! How abominably, awfully, murderous, how harassing and destructive, are these things the world over!"

            Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 32. Second Sunday in Advent Romans 15:4-13.

Divisive Preaching

J-779

"All those doctrinal questions which were not immediately connected with the personal life of faith were avoided. The standard for the interpretation of Scripture thus became the need of the individual for awakening, consolation, and exhortation. The congregation as a totality was lost from view; in fact, pietistic preaching was (and is) more apt to divide the congregation than to hold it together."

Helge Nyman, "Preaching (Lutheran): History," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., ed. Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, III, p. 1943.

WELS Favorite Fuller Seminary Professor Anointed or Blessed This Rank Apostate and Criminal Todd Bentley- 2008

WELS Pastor Reuel Schulz thought Fuller Seminary professor
"Pete Wagner" was great. Wagner is probably more
influential than his mentor Donald McGavran.

You have to watch this until the end, when Todd Bentley does his grinning head wiggle with a grin.

He is still in business, but so is Jay Webber's fund-raiser, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg.

More on Todd Bentley - not exactly a Rolls Royce.

Kregel Academic - Contextualization in World Missions by A. Scott Moreau

Contextualization in World Missions Mapping and Assessing Evangelical Models
By author: A. Scott Moreau Pages: 432  Size: 6 x 9 inches  Published: 2012  Rights: WW  Imprint: Kregel Academic	Price: $28.99 ISBN:  978-0-8254-3389-4 Format: Paperback

Contextualization in World Missions

Mapping and Assessing Evangelical Models

By author: A. Scott Moreau

Pages: 432 
Size: 6 x 9 inches 
Published: 2012 
Rights: WW 
Imprint: Kregel Academic

Price: $28.99
ISBN:  978-0-8254-3389-4
Format: Paperback

Contextualization is the kind of book I loathe, and the style makes it even more difficult to bear. However, if someone wants to have an outline of everything going on in this area, Moreau's book is the place to start.

I found it ironic to be reading the book while teaching a graduate course in urban ministry. My students shared the same emphasis upon the efficacy of the Word, good works flowing from the central message of the church in the city - the Gospel of Christ.

Moreau's work is the ultimate example of the rationalistic, philosophical, statistical efforts started by Donald McGavran, whose non-theological graduate work made him reliant on numbers and the study of mass movements.

McGavran earned a degree at Yale Divinity, a school often denounced by Tim the Plagiarist for being liberal.   Yale Divinity had no Lutherans on the faculty at that time - just like Mequon today.

McGavran's doctorate came Columbia University, in education:

Gary McIntosh:
Later, he studied for his Ph.D. degree at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.  Training in educational theory at Columbia was greatly influenced by John Dewey. “Dewey spent slightly over a quarter of a century on the regular faculty of Columbia University.  He was appointed in 1904 and retired in 1930; the next decade he spent as an emeritus but active professor, drawing a full salary and continuing to teach graduate students” (Ryan 1995:156).  While McGavran must have encountered Dewey’s educational pragmatism during his studies at Columbia, McGavran never mentions or credits Dewey for any of his evangelistic insights.

McGavran lived and worked in the liberal, ecumenical Disciples of Christ, so he also participated in the World Council of Churches (boo hiss).

Where are the Disciples today? They work jointly with the United Church of Christ, whose ministers register for conferences as male, female, and transgender. The Disciples were too timid to allow homosexual ministers in their own sect, so their lavender group transferred to the UCC, where such things are embraced, loud and proud. 

That gives the context for Contextualization.

The author earned his MDiv at Trinity in Deerfield, one of the favorite training schools for WELS and the LCMS (along with Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek Community Church). Moreau also earned a D.Miss. at Trinity, three years later. A D.Miss. may be tougher than the laughable D.Min., but it is not a PhD. Seminaries are not noted for having difficult doctorates, but ministers love to be called "Dr." Clever marketing has extracted the maximum amount of money for minimal efforts. I may print up some D.Min. diplomas and sell them on the Net.

But I am not knocking the labor involved in this work. Believe me, no one will ever try this again. Moreau has categorized every possible contextualization scheme on this planet. Not surprisingly, he teaches intercultural studies at Wheaton College. 

The table of contents for the book indicates its content.

Table of Contents

Section 1
Foundations for Evangelical
Contextualization
1: Models and Maps of Contextualization....................................... 27
2: Presuppositional Concerns in Contextualization 1:
Revelation .................................................................................... 49
3: Presuppositional Concerns in Contextualization 2:
Interpretation .............................................................................. 73
4: Discerning the Good from the Bad in Contextualization ........ 103
5: Concepts That Shape and Constrain Contextualization........... 119
6: Tools for Analysis and Application in Contextualization ......... 141
Section 2
Mapping Evangelical Models of
Contextualization
Introduction............................................................................... 174
7: Mapping Examples of Evangelical Contextualization............... 177
8: Initiator as Facilitator................................................................. 203
9: Initiator as Guide........................................................................ 221
10: Initiator as Herald....................................................................... 239
11: Initiator as Pathfinder................................................................. 259
12: Initiator as Prophet..................................................................... 277
13: Initiator as Restorer..................................................................... 295
14: Future Trajectories...................................................................... 311
Appendix A: Dean Gilliland’s Map............................................. 325
Appendix B: Marc Cortez’s Map................................................. 335
Appendix C: Charles Van Engen’s Map...................................... 343
Appendix D: A Composite Map of Gilliland, Cortez, and Van
Engen  353
Appendix E: A Visual Evangelical Semantic Domain of
Contextualization 361
Appendix F: List of Initiator Examples....................................... 369
References................................................................................... 381

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McGavran and his friend C. Peter Wagner set the stage for the enormous growth of Fuller Seminary and its alliances in all denominations (ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC sic) - including Roman Catholics. As a mass movement, Church Growth has emptied the Christian Church of content and replaced it with entertainment, coaching, and statistics. Ministers are clowns, and clowns are liturgists.

Where is the growth from the Church Growth Movement? The latest eructation--Emergent Church--is simply more ashamed of the Gospel, the name "church," and any confession whatsoever. The group that refuses to have a confession of faith will not stop there but keep going until the Scriptures are also removed.

Craig Groeschel has all denominations giving his sermons. I see the same series being offered on the Net (as if they are original in that parish) in ten congregations at a time, many sects at a time. They all have the same copied message, the same Scripture, the same title, and even the same Groeschel graphics. But that is fine for Lutherans, because DP Engelbrecht says, "Everyone plagiarizes."

Since McGavran started with two questions - Does it work? and What are the numbers? - We have to ask the same questions today, the questions they do not want to address, because their only concerns for these disciples are - Does it make money for me? Does it give me an easy life?

If you want to see why most Evangelicals are running full-speed into apostasy, buy this book and share with your cell group.

C. Peter Wagner, Fuller Seminary, Agrees with Ichabod:CG Principles Do Not Work (Because They Are Anti-Biblical)

"I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with the church-growth principles we've developed, or the evangelistic techniques we're using. Yet somehow they don't seem to work." C. Peter Wagner
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 47.

"The Fuller Evangelistic Association has a doctrinal statement. It is the statement which was adopted by Fuller Theological Seminary some time ago. It does not differ from their early statement and has never yet been changed, that I know of. This statement explicitly affirms that the Bible is free from all error in the whole and in the part. Both Dr. Hubbard and Dr. Fuller are part of that organization. This means they are signing two different doctrinal statements, one of which affirms inerrancy and one which does not. We also know that Dr. Hubbard frankly disavows inerrancy and even declares this view to be 'unbiblical.'
Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 220.

"The graduates of an institution usually give full proof of the teaching they received from the school in which they studied. According to Dr. LaSor's observations the leaven was present when David Hubbard, Daniel Fuller, and Ray Anderson were students. They went from Fuller to graduate study overseas and were promptly converted to the neoorthodoxy and liberalism of their professors. They returned to Fuller Seminary having moved farther to the left than any of their teachers at Fuller. And now their students in turn begin to reflect their views."
Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 236.

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GJ - Anti-inerrancy, unionism, and women's ordination came into Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect on the Prairie via Fuller Seminary study, which was universal for world mission and American mission leaders. The so-called mission counselors in WELS are simply salesmen for Fuller Seminary and its bastard offspring, such as Willow Creek and the rest of the humbugs.