How LCMS, WELS, and the Shrinking ELS

 

This orgy was sponsored by a Thrivent branch, pooling your money with everyone else's and making that pay-off for the ELCA agenda and poly-genderism.

WELS Pastor Novotny, Time of Grace, and a twisted Jeske smile suggesting ambiguity. Perfect!

ELCA Has Its own Dogmatic Stances And These Dainty Resources

 Who will rob me of this meddlesome priestess?

We Have (Not) Gone Multi-Site. The Perils of Growth Fads

 

One recent fad - at least newer than cell groups - involves having multi-site congregations. WELS jumped on this late, as they always do with fads, and they adopted the lingo. A big old church kept trying to invent a new campus - The Core - even when they started one next to another WELS church. They call it The Core 922 now. A Jeske clone inhabits Core 922,  so we know it has to be vapid.

Facebook offered me a discount too good to be true - a RESI encoder. Nota bene - a warning to anyone who attended Fuller Seminary, Trinity Divinity, Willow Creek, WELS or LCMS seminary -

"Church purchased for multi-site use and used for about 6 months. We are no longer doing Multi-site, and these have sat on a shelf since they were removed. I cleaned it off and booted it up today and updated the firmware. This is the dual power supply version. 

It is in great condition and ready for your Resi use."

The latest fad is NOT going to church, and they are closing all over. A local friend said, "Our family church just closed. The members who were left did not want to pay the expenses anymore." The Covid scare encouraged what we did long ago, setting up an online church. We actually used telephones a bit, but then a Logitech web camera showed up in the mail, ending my resistance to video, and we began with Ustream. 

What really made me laugh was the pile of very expensive hardware to be used at the multi-sites mentioned in the sales opportunity. These poor Church Growth pastors and staff had to find a site and load it with electronics to dazzle everyone. 

Nota bene - avoid using a congregation's name with any connection to the Christian Faith, you know, like The Core 922.

WELS started a "new" congregation based on couches - not chairs - and "gourmet coffee." Even with five genius synod staffers propping it up, the experiment became a flop.

Grace in Milwaukee promoted one of its pastors as the "barista." When I posted that, the title was removed. 

 

The graphic was edited (by me), turning around the "casual, serious meme". This is  not just dumb - it is WELS dumb.

This is perhaps worse than the cross in a cup of coffee. WELS, of course.

The Haunting of the Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)

 

Also ELCA-ELS-CLC (sic)

The Photoshop above is not the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but it does convey the Big Five's love for every single expression of faith... except their own. See if you can find these notorious apostates, starting with Archbishop Weakland, who was invited to give a public speech (with some of his priests helping) at Wisconsin Lutheran College. WELS managers (they have no leaders) ran around saying it never happened, that it was private, etc. Yes, they are too dumb to lie effectively.

 Andy Stanley is truly a man of all faiths, like Ski, loving every faith except his own.

On Weakland's left is that lovable son of Charles Stanley, Andy Stanley, addicted to huge numbers of ministers and managers paying him enormous sums to learn how he does it. One savvy Lutheran pastor pointed out how mega-church rallies like Andy's are a sure sign of decay.

Directly above Andy Stanley is Bill Hybels with former President Bill Clinton, both womanizers who got away with it for decades. But wait, Bill got tossed out on his ear, leaving the Big Five bereft of his magic at Willow Creek Community Church. Team Jackson visited his cross-free church, listened to his empty message, and ate at his overpriced food court. It is not hyperbole to mention that WELS salivated whenever they brought up the glory of Willow Creek, sending pastors there to learn the effective incantations of a snake-oil salesman. WELS paid the tuition for their underlings to savor the sin of worshiping with Hybels. That reminds me of Herman Melville's allegory, noting that Jonah was anxious to leave town on a fast ship. "But he swiftly calls away the Captain from that scent. ‘I’ll sail with ye,’—he says,—‘the passage money how much is that?—I’ll pay now.’ For it is particularly written, shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, ‘that he paid the fare thereof’ ere the craft did sail. And taken with the context, this is full of meaning." 

Nothing is quite as tragic or comical as Lawrence Otto Olson (WELS) denying that he ever went to Fuller Seminary. He actually visited the Godfather of Church Growth, Donald McGavran. This Lawrence of the Doctrinal Dessert pedaled his bike uphill to get there. McGavran's book is like the novel Dorothy Parker detested. "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." Dr. Olson has been the tip of the spear for WELS' Church Growth, anointed to leave his non-growing congregation (Love Park) to watch his little college and withering synod fade away.

Leonard Sweet was one of the strangest celebrities for all denominations.

 One pastor was openly and deeply offended that I pointed out his website's love for Sweet. 

 Groeschel put together a growth factory - not that it worked - enchanting more than one Lutheran to sign up for his sermons and trinkets.

No one says it better than C. Peter Wagner. He has been all over the spectrum, mostly in the Pentecostal spooky realm. Christina and I went to the library at Luther Seminary, where she dug up the Christianity Today magazine with the revealing quote, above. She also found the article that Cho (biggest church in the world, S. Korea) was kicked out of the Assemblies of God. "Where did you get that?" Christianity Today asked. I said, "From your magazine."

The Big Five Sects have prostrated themselves before Church Growth experts, many more than the ones I have noted above. They are not victims but the cause of the destruction. See below.

"Whee! DMins are on sale at Fuller Seminary. Let's get ours so we can be called Dr. for very little time served and lots of money spent!"

How Do You Handle an Empty Cathedral of Woke?

 

WELS kicked Pastor Kevin Hastings out because he spray-painted the sidewalk of another WELS parish. Historic St. John Church in Milwaukee quit WELS.

WELS used a law firm to kick Pastor Hastings out, take over the parish, and grab its funds. They offered Hastings a pittance.

Various links to the melodrama can be found here from the blog labels -> Historic St. John Lutheran Church.

 The Wiki entry is a bit shy about the details. 
 Paul Demcak and Tim Kitzman were named as trustees in an article in 2014.

They have the answers to the journalist's questions. They went to Fuller Seminary and its satellite institutions of tomfoolery.

METROPOLIS

How Do You Resurrect an Empty Church?

America’s aging houses of worship face a stark choice: sell, redevelop, or pray for a miracle.

BY HENRY GRABAR

JULY 13, 202311:53 AM

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." 

The Fear and the Rainstorm

One seminary student was about to graduate. He was filled with dread about all the things he was supposed to do. He listed them all. I went through my mental check list as I read it. Only one thing was missing - preaching and teaching faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

The farmer at the dinner table said, "We need rain." I was aching to say, "I'm in sales, not management." It reminded me of the installation of an ELS pastor. The air was so heavy with thunderstorm implications that I said to Christina before the service, "Lightning and rains during the sermon." 

During the sermon, lightning began flashing with thunder breaking loose, sometimes far, sometimes directly over our heads. I was up front, robed, so I had a chance to look at her for every thunderclap. How many husbands have a chance to say, "I was right! I was right! I was right! I was right!" I did not miss a boom, crash, or explosion of energy.

One person said afterwards, during the reception, "That is a million-dollar storm."

On the way home from Minnesota, rain began to fall in stingy amounts, then more and more until the traffic added its own fog of tossed rain into the air. A McDonalds worker said, "We need that rain. The lawns are burning up." I added, "Not to mention the crops." 

Did anyone say, "The rain will not have any results at all"? No. Nor did anyone suggest buying something that really worked in Hoboken and that gimmick would surely work everywhere if used the right way. They knew in Minnesota and Iowa that they needed rain, not a sprinkle, not a cloud-burst, but a good old-fashioned gulley washer.

 "Please do not ask me about Gasoline - or anything else."

When someone quotes "Lord, Liar, Lunatic," I know he favors two out of three.

God is so patient with us that He established the parable (to stretch the term) of the snow and rain coming down, always having a three-fold effect, attaching that fact of Creation to the Word of God. Like the rain and snow, God's Word will

1. Never return to Him void;
2. Always accomplish His purpose;
3. Prosper His will.

Isaiah 53:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as (1) the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but (2) watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that (3) it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: (1) it shall not return unto me void, but (2) it shall accomplish that which I please, and (3) it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The entire Bible is filled with references and paraphrases about the effectiveness of the Word, the work of the Holy Spirit always effective through the Word. Remember that nitwit teaching Universalism to the LCMS youth? "Everyone! Everyone!" He put his adverb - always - in the wrong place. The Word of God is always effective, and nothing else is. Nothing! Nothing!

Nothing makes me more suspicious than a Universalist videotaping himself in front of 300 unread theology books. Borgwart is not the only one.

So put down your worn Fuller-Willow Creek-Church Growth manuals.

HERE I STAND SOCKS. Clearance price, CPH. Is this when you knew it was all over for Matt the Fatt?

The manuals are why the LCMS-ELCA-ELS-WELS-CLC-ELDONA fail so spectacularly. They would likely buy expensive umbrellas to jump out of airplanes, because they heard that works.

So I came home from my 1,400 mile round-trip north, finding the gardens at home watered but still wilting in the 105 degree days. Rain is coming soon, and I know exactly what will happen. 

Is this not a bonk-on-head reminder for all Gospel churches, all faithful congregations? We have a self-imposed drought - NOT RELYING ON GOD'S WORD - purchased for millions of dollars, cleverly exploited by apostates waving their magic wands and pocketing their commissions:

• Waldo Werning
• David Valleskey
• Paul Calvin Kelm
• Lawrence Otto-B Retired Olson
• And many more.

 When David Valleskey, Fuller student (depending on the audience) said we should use the treasures of Fuller Seminary, much like the Exodus escape, I said to the Ohio Conference group - "They stole the gold and precious gems, not the garbage." Valleskey became visibly angry. The entire (tiny and shrinking) conference shunned me from that moment on. The Word is indeed effective. 

Why Are Lutherans Failing as Fast as Fuller Seminary? A Shorter Version on Apostasy

 Olson denied going to Fuller Seminary, as did Valleskey and Bivens. WELS GA hazing teaches seminarians how to lie and bully others as pastors.

 Only Olson could wear a church stole with a Geneva gown, sporting doctoral stripes he never earned. A DMin is an STM, not an academic doctorate.

This passage came up in a graphic by Norma A. Boeckler, and this explains the apostasy problem in a few verses. Because Fuller Seminary and Trinity Divinity and Willow Crick did not teach faith but success, they have created a generation of no-good-niks who should be selling bitcoin or miracle wart removal lotions.

KJV 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Lenski, Hebrews, Chapter IV.

The Attractive Promise: 

Those Who Believe Enter into God’s Rest, 

Chapter 4, The Rest Promised to Faith, 1-5. 

The passage quoted from the psalm (3:7-11) is full of threatening and thus serves as a warning; but in this very threat there lies the most blessed promise, which the writer uses with equal effect to make his readers firm and to stop their wavering. He thus uses both law and gospel in the true, evangelical way and becomes a model that we may well follow.

From Lenski's Hebrews, p. 128.

“But” the sad and tragic thing was that “the Word of the hearing (qualitative genitive: the Word they heard) did not profit them, not having mixed itself by faith with those who heard.” They had it but did not believe it. “It did not profit” is the historical aorist and summarizes 3 :7-19. The point stressed is the hearing: “the Word of the hearing,” “they who heard," reverting to the psalm (3:8) : “if you should hear his voice.” We should note that “promise” and “telling good tidings" (v. 1, 2) certainly involve the thought that both be heard. But not only heard: the voice of his Word heard, the promise and good tidings heard, must also be believed. Therein the Jews of the Exodus failed so tragically: they heard the promise of God’s rest, all that the glad tidings about this rest contained, but they hardened their hearts (3:8, etc.), they refused to believe and thus lost both the earthly and the heavenly Canaan.

1977! - and no apologies after 45 years of unfaith blundering?!

Matt the Fatt's Sect Is Growing Very Lean - This From 2017. Where Have All the Church Growths Gone? Long Time Passing...

 

 Waldo Werning ran around the LCMS, WELS, and ELS selling Church Growth potions. He admitted going to Fuller Seminary, then denied it, went nuts when I challenged him and quoted his admission and the date he told me. 

In 1971, the LCMS had a membership of 2,772,648. By 2010, that number was about 2,270,921, a drop of about 500,000 people. Since their peak in the late 1950s, child baptisms are down 70 percent and adult converts are down 47 percent. (LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

By Joe Isenhower Jr. (joe.isenhower@lcms.org)

Athough LCMS congregation members having more children might be one factor in reversing the 45-plus-years membership decline in the Synod, it’s certainly not the only one.

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison makes that clear in his message for readers of the Synod’s March Journal of Lutheran Mission after a December special edition of that electronic magazine included two independent studies about the Synod and the demographics behind the Synodwide membership declines. The March issue will be available by mid-March at lcms.org/journal-of-lutheran-mission.

Noting that he is “amazed” by the “Synod rumor mill” to the effect that he finds “the answer to our decline of numbers in the LCMS is to have more babies,” Harrison responds in the March Journal.

 “As I have repeatedly stated,” Harrison writes for that edition, “I doubt very much that any significant change in the childrearing habits of LCMS members will occur or greatly affect future numbers.

“That said,” he continues, “let me be clear that the Bible does say a lot about families and children, and it’s high time we open our Bibles and have a fresh look at it.”

Harrison begins his latest Journal message with a word of thanks “that so many of you” decided to access the December online edition — with more than 10,000 views, as of Feb. 9.

The two extensive demographic reports covered in the December issue were conducted by Dr. George Hawley, assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and Dr. Ryan MacPherson, professor of History at Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato, Minn.

About the findings

In that December issue, Harrison provides six bulleted points concerning Hawley’s and MacPherson’s reports.  They are summarized as follows:

• “This demographic decline is not only an LCMS problem.”
• “The retention of baptized and confirmed youth is a key area on which to focus.”
• “The [Synod’s] persistent, long-term decline manifests itself both in a massive decrease in child baptisms … and a smaller but still significant decrease in adult converts.”
• “The number of child baptisms and adult converts have decreased together in a remarkably similar pattern.”
• “Thus, there is no wedge that can be driven between openness to life (family size) and sharing life (evangelism).
• “These reports don’t only share difficult data; they also point out what the Synod does well and what strengths we can build on. … The key here is to build a strong Lutheran self-identity among the membership.”

Synod’s response

For the March edition, Harrison notes six “important foci that must be taken seriously and acted upon by our pastors, laity, congregations, districts and the Synod.” He adds that many in those groups “are deeply involved in this kind of work already.”

Those points of focus — with comments about them from Harrison — are:

• Evangelism and outreach. “Synod’s new personal witnessing program, Every One His Witness, is heating up. Our evangelism expert, the Rev. Mark Wood, is coming and going, training people all across the Synod!” Since January 2016, 18 Every One His Witness workshops have been conducted, with 10 others scheduled through mid-April. (For more information, visit lcms.org/witness-outreach.)
• Re-invigorating congregations. “We’ve produced re:Vitality for congregations to have a good look at themselves and move to a better strategic position for outreach to the community.” Since January 2016, 30 “Connect to Disciple” workshops — the first module in the re:Viality program — have been conducted (lcms.org/revitalization).
• Healthy workers. “We must all concentrate on making sure our pastors and church workers are forgiven, healthy, supported and engaged in the work of their vocations.”
• Intentional outreach to immigrant populations. “The LCMS may be overwhelmingly Anglo, but that is changing. It’s changing slowly, but it is changing. The nations are at our doors. It’s time to help them find a way in. Our schools and universities are gems in this regard.”
• Church planting. “Synod’s Mission Field: USA church-planting manual and other resources are now available for districts and congregations to use in reaching out to the diverse communities of our nation” (lcms.org/churchplanting). Printed copies of the manual are available for $14.99 from Amazon.com.
• Resolution of internal issues that cause conflict. “We’ve come a long, long way. The 2016 [LCMS] convention was unbelievably calm. Resolutions on controverted issues passed overwhelmingly. We’ve got a long way to go. God grant us repentance, patience and fidelity.”

Why the studies?

The Rev. Heath Curtis, coordinator for Stewardship Ministry with the LCMS Office of National Mission (ONM), told Reporter via email that the ONM commissioned the demographic studies “to try to understand what’s going on” after listening to “oft-repeated” comments about “a decline in membership and an aging of the church’s membership” as his office was “helping Synod congregations with their stewardship needs.”

Curtis laid out “some of the insights … and questions raised” in the reports.

“The facts are stark,” he explained. “Christians make up a smaller and smaller proportion of the American population every year (down to just 71 percent this year). Every district of the LCMS has experienced numerical decline in the past decade — from a 4 percent decline in some places to over 25 percent in others. The counties where the Synod is strongest across the country also tend to be the counties where population is decreasing. The Synod is growing in membership in counties that are growing in population, but more slowly than the overall population increase. What’s going on? Will it get better? What does the future hold?”

Curtis — like Harrison — points out that many of these challenges facing the Synod are also true for other large church bodies in the nation.

And Curtis notes that “the reports also highlight the many strengths of the Synod in education, community building and outreach.”

Curtis offers a workshop — primarily for professional church workers and lay leaders — aimed at making the “large amount of informative and interesting data [in the reports] useful at the district, circuit and parish level.” 

For more information about the workshops, contact Curtis at heath.curtis@lcms.org.

Posted February 28, 2017

Herman Otten sold the Marquart critique of Church Growth and the editor promoted David Valleskey's adoration of Church Growth. 

***

Spener's Birthday Today - WELS/LCMS Palaces Closed. ELS - "Who's He?"

 Spener brings it home, and the pigs love it.
Woo, pig, souie - Church Growth Hogs.

What Did the Church Growth Experts Say? - "It's All about the Numbers!"

 Waldo Werning, Fuller Alumnus, Self-Proclaimed Church Growth Expert, David Valleskey Pal

I knew the late Waldo Werning. I hesitate to say "sainted Waldo Werning." When I rebuked him for lying about his Fuller attendance, he went ballistic on me. An ELS pastor asked me, "What did you do to Werning?" I said - "I pointed out his lies."

When I asked Werning earlier if he went to Fuller, he said he did. I wrote that in my Day-Timer and quoted it to him. When someone starts a hog farm, one does not wonder where the smell comes from. He plagiarized Fuller and the WELS/LCMS mission bosses ate that up. We were still FB friends when he died. He said before he died, "Are you staying out of trouble?" I said, "No."

Werning said, echoing Kent Hunter (Fuller DMin! - like Larry Olson) - "You must measure the numbers and let growth be growth and non-growth be non-growth."

Google says we averaged 2,000 views per day in December, a lifetime total of almost 9.5 million. No ads. No monetization. So much from "a spare room in a rented house," to quote a Matt the Fatt staffer who had to erase his plagiarized blog.

 "Downplaying?" Yuk, yuk, yuk. That is how one gets to be president of Mordor. He was in a class all by itself - Church Growth and state prison.

9,000,032 Views - 19,141 Posts - 19,216 Comments - Founded 2007

Mrs. Ichabod and I waited for the numbers to roll over last night, but it took a few more hours to reach 9 million. Why don't the others put a counter on their sites? 

I have some humorous remarks, but the best ones come from the opponents - see below. They are highly motivating for more blogging and books, as some might have guessed.

Controversies tend to call for books, and I learn a lot from writing each book. I appreciate the help I get from Christina, Norma A. Boeckler, Virginia Roberts, Terry Howell, and Janie Sullivan. I am working on the second edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

 Book reviews and comments provide more visibility for books. Thank you, Warren!
Now, everybody - put away your NIVs, ESVs, and New KJVs.

***

February 3, 2020
17,875 posts

A list of the most viewed Ichabod posts is here.

Mrs. Ichabod and I had a watch party this morning, waiting for the Google counter to roll over to 7 million.

Pageviews today

536

Pageviews yesterday

1,129

Pageviews last month

36,115

Pageviews  all time history

7,000,008

Posts - All time total - 17,210

Favorite responses from readers - "When you finally die, everyone will be so happy."

"You are a coward."
Signed Anonymous

"Just because I am anonymous does not mean I am a coward."
Signed Anonymous

"You cause trouble everywhere you go."

Sainted District President Robert Mueller

"No one reads Ichabod."
Various ELS and WELS pastors

"You have no credibility!"

ELS Pastor Kincaid Smith

"All your future emails with go into my spam folder!"

Larry Otto Olson, WELS pastor and DMin, Fuller Seminary

"Most of the views are from news articles."

"Sure, you published Luther's Sermons, no wonder there are a lot of views."

"I ignore the content and enjoy the graphics."

"I enjoy the content and then look at the graphics."

 Six Million Post

Five million views - November, 2016.

Four million views in 2015.

Three million views in 2014.

Two million views in 2013.

Posts with More Than 5,000 Views

The Holy Spirit Teaches Better Than Man - 122,000+ views

Dr. Lito Cruz Suggested Using PayPal - Over 88,000 views

Rev. Anonymouse Hates These Luther Sayings - Over 22,000 views

List of Hyles Related Clergy Sex Abuse Cases - over 17,600 views

WELS Discussions on Facebook - Over 17,000 views

WELS Discussions on Facebook II - Above 13,000 views

48 Detroit Parishes May Close - Over 13,000 views

Book of Concord Selections, Luther Resources - over 12,000 views

Famous Lutherans - over 10,600 views

The Pileated Woodpecker Sighted Again - almost 10,000 views

Craig Groeschel Facts Page - over 8,700 views

LCMS Seminary Cost Scandal - Tuition and Loans Support Prof Salaries - over 7,600 views

Lutheran Seminary Fraud - 7,000 views

Chesterton's Donkey Poem - 7,000 views

Navigation Page - Luther's Sermons, Lenker, 8 Volumes - Over 6,700 views

Luther's Sermons - Quinquagesima, 1 Corinthian 13 - 6,700 views

Otten Accuses Harrison of Sexual Harassment Settlement - Over 6600 views

UOJ Study Would Threaten the Rat Temple - 6,000 views

Top Ten Crimes in WELS - 5,000 views

Project Gutenberg - Apology, Love and Fulfilling the Law - 5,000 views

Randy, when he was a bit younger...