ALPB Ovaltines Say - The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, June 25th, Is All About Benke's "It's OK To Pray" at Yankee Stadium

 

They had hats too - church merch before its time.

Former DP Dave Benke

Benke made a point about the Augsburg Confession anniversary's date this year - by linking it with his defenestration as a Missouri Synod district president.

Now that thread is boiling over with discussions about Benke and who did what when.

I know Benke's OK To Pray was used as an excuse by ELDONUTs, to storm out of the LCMS. Of course, that was after Bishop Heiser's LCMS benefits were vested. One must be a steward of his benefits when shaking a fist at the LCMS.

Benke Predicts Closing of Mequon College and Continuance of Ann Arbor College.Will the President Get Half Pay?

 

https://www.alpb.org/Forum/index.php?topic=8633.msg545055;topicseen#msg545055

Dave Benke

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#30

Today at 09:56:12 AM

The longer you live, the more loss you may have to process.  For me -

Closed:          Childhood home congregation - Christ Memorial, Milwaukee
Closed:          High School - Concordia Prep, Milwaukee
Moved:           Junior College - Concordia Milwaukee - to Mequon
Closed:          Senior College - Concordia Senior College, Ft. Wayne
Closed:          First Congregation Served, Zion Lutheran, St. Louis
Closed:          Office as District President, Concordia Bronxville
Closed:          Member and Chair, Board of Regents, Concordia Bronxville

So it goes.  Valpo is not closed.  However, it's different, even way different.  Bronxville is different for me from those who were students, but maybe not for those who were professors, because I was there for a quarter century on campus, taught classes and understood the internal workings of the college with its partner on the national level, including presidential selection.  I was involved in a ton of tussles through the years to bring stability and growth.  I have a point of view on why it closed that's based on those interactions.  So it's pain, but a different kind of pain.  Because I believe Bronxville didn't have to close.

Ann Arbor, to me, is the opposite case.  They're open and fighting to stay open.  There's evidence to suggest they can and should remain open.  And there's evidence to suggest they're engaged to do so.  The announcement by the Regents that the 4 year strategic plan would be the path forward, which includes two campuses, coupled with the announcement of the inclusion of the potential option for de-coupling, let's anyone know that C-AA is not preparing to close or be closed.

Dave Benke

It's OK to Pray

***

A note from LutherQueasy:

The Valpo announcement includes a list of 28 programs that are being considered for discontinuation. This would, of course, involve reductions in faculty and staff.

Benke - "It's OK to pray at a pan-religious service at Yankee Stadium." - Mourning Losses with Father Weedon

 

"It's OK to pray at a pan-religious service at Yankee Stadium."
Benke was put back in office - Wallace Schulz was fired for doing the right thing.

ALPB Online Ovaltines

Quote from: Weedon on Yesterday at 08:16:08 PMI had heard that Slubs had died. I was very blessed to spend a day with him a couple years ago. He was at the seminary for a class anniversary and so I picked him up and gave him a tour of the IC and we enjoyed a lovely lunch. He was one of my favorite professors. Give my greetings to Greg (best man at my wedding!) and to Doc and Dorothy.

Will do.  One of the side effects of a college closing is the effect on the town/gown congregation connected to the college.  In Bronxville's case, the church across the street is Village Lutheran.  Their new neighbor is Iona College, which purchased the Concordia property.  They seem to have survived, with their well-regarded day school continuing its outreach and mission function.  Some of the Concordia professors shepherded small congregations in the surrounding communities.  Tom Sluberski had charge of St. Matthew, Hasting-on-Hudson, for many years.  St. Matthew closed several years ago, and will soon become the office headquarters of the Atlantic District.

Since I spent about a third of my life on the Concordia campus where the District office was located, I literally have not returned to Bronxville since the college closed - too painful a reminder of loss.  Maybe the re-purposed offices at Hasting-on-Hudson will provide relief and hope.

Dave Benke

It's OK to Pray

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Dave Benke

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#23

Yesterday at 07:49:27 PM

1) Closing the Music major is a big blow.  At Concordia Bronxville the music program offered through Concordia continues as an independent center in (I think) Stein Hall.  So there can be music after the music major.  Maybe they'll continue the summer program on campus.  Or

2) Go to St. Olaf:  https://wp.stolaf.edu/music/academics-in-music/.  I've heard them at Carnegie Hall - they're superb!  Maybe the summer institute could migrate to Northfield.

3) For Bronxville folks, a venerable professor passed away yesterday - Thomas Sluberski.  Funeral service Saturday at Village Lutheran.  Preaching will be Rev. Dr. Greg Walton.  I would imagine Ralph and Dorothy Schulz as well as Viji and Janet George will be there, past Concordia Presidents.

4) As harsh as these changes are at Valpo, and Jim presents well the challenges, the recent situation at CUWAA is best described as a debacle, poorly conceived, poorly delivered, and walked back with a stout version of the Missouri Synod there in Michigan openly talking about de-coupling from the attempted overreach.

5) Charles' point is well taken.  If and as there are vibrant campus ministries for Christian young people at secular college campuses, the various programs in the arts are most likely going to lead to better vocational choices at those colleges/universities and not at the expense of Christian growth.  Queens College, right down the block from me and in the City of New York University system, has a really fine music program, and is - yes - affordable. 

Dave Benke

It's OK to Pray

From Former "It's OK To Pray" DP Dave Benke. ALPB Ovaltines Discuss Their Failing Colleges

 

LCMS DP Dave Benke signs his posts - "It's ok to pray" - because he invited himself to the pan-religious 9-11 Yankee Stadium event and led in prayer there. LCMS ended up firing Wallie Schulz for finding Benke guilty. Benke was hired back from the Schulz verdict and so "It's OK to pray" is on all his Ovaltine posts - aka ALPB Online Forum.

Benke quote:

The new CUWAA Strategic Plan called, "Wholeheartedly, We Will" was worked on for a year by a hired external consultant and dozens of stakeholders. This plan was approved by the Board of Regents during their February 8, 2024 meeting.

*** 

GJ

My initial response was - Church Growth Management by Objective Strikes Again!

Examples -

This plan includes the following goals:

1.3.1 Within 3 years, the Enrollment and Academics Units will collaborate to ensure that the

university—across its campuses—serves the largest number of LCMS church work students in

the CUS.

1.3.2 Within 4 years, the Enrollment and Mission and Church Relation Units will collaborate to

grow the number of Christian traditional undergraduate students across its campuses to 90%.

3.1.1 Within 4 years, the Enrollment and Student Success Units will achieve an overall

enrollment of 8,500 students across the campuses. ( GJ - There's more, but this is enough.)

Graduates of Fuller Seminary have to be the dumbest of all, because they have caused a rapidly increasing downhill slide ever since 1980 or so. After 44+ years of shrinkage, they continue to pander to the Drucker MBO, its crafts and assaults. The hired external consultant (big salary) got various people to write exuberant statements about what would happen for their LCMS colleges in the years to come. 

All colleges, universities, and community colleges are shrinking - a fact which most people ignore. I might guess that they had a frenzy of expensive additions to aim for the country club effect, to attract more students. One idea, years ago, was to charge less tuition (via grants and scholarships) to make the first two years easier to pay. Student/parent payments go up for the last two years because course credit transfers do not work very well. 

One university said on the phone, "We can only count six hours of credit from your previous school." The student said, "Then I am not signing up." The counselor responded, "OK. All your credits will transfer."

Student loans are mortgages on the students' futures, so not to worry, students and parents. America has decided that lacking a four-year degree might not be so bad.

One can guess that all the Lutheran colleges will fade away in the next decade. Most - if not all of them - major in non-Lutheran students.

And one more item which again is astounding to me:  ENDOWMENT QUESTIONS
🚨IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION: Of the anticipated $9 million deficit in operations between the two campuses this fiscal year, it appears that over $7 million is in depreciation. In other words, not contributing to a cash flow problem. This is not to be ignored, but the operating deficit is largely depreciation and not a loss of cash.
RESEARCH
• (Updated 2/26) Comparative Data within a sample of 39 institutions in Michigan and Wisconsin: https://bit.ly/comparative-data-2-26
• (New!) Long-term trends for CUWAA (as a whole), Wisconsin, and Ann Arbor https://bit.ly/cuwaa-long-term-trends
Additional questions for consideration:
Would the money that has been raised for Ann Arbor campus projects such as the Maier Center and the Weight Room addition (some $10 million) be returned by Concordia University Wisconsin to those who provided the funds?
Would the dollars originally given by various Districts of The LCMS and the Michigan Church Extension Fund be returned to them by Concordia University Wisconsin? The assumption was that those funds were given for a long-term solution, not a 10-year-solution.
The endowments that are held by CUW for CUAA (now valued at some $27 million) were generally given by Michigan District residents for the benefit of Michigan students. Would those funds be returned by Concordia University Wisconsin to the Michigan District to use to defray expenses for Michigan students attending Lutheran high schools, or other Concordia universities, or the seminaries?

What in the world is going on here?

Dave Benke

It's OK to Pray

LCMS Leaders - Years Ago, Retired DP Benke Invited Himself To Pray at an All-Religions Festival at Yankee Stadium - But He Did Not Pray in the Name of Christ

Benke, on the far left, is the perfect description of an ecumenist. He loves every religion but his own. John Nunes has an interesting history, more ELCA than LCMS.

Retired DP Benke (Earlier Ex-DP Benke) On ELDONA and Other Sects

 Someone designed this graphic as "Benke's vita" or resume. Haha.
He prayed with all these world religions but not "in the Name of Christ."
Benke is one of those LCMS smart-aleck bullies who always has a putdown that avoids the real issue.
To re-elect the apostate, his supporters had hats that
said "It's OK to pray." Hard to find those photos on Google now.

Ex-DP Dave Benke:
Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out. My question was from the other angle - why do you want to stay if you honestly believe those in your denomination are so far off track? I don't have my ACELC membership roster in front of me, but the big bubble of membership is in Western Missouri and Nebraska, from my recollection, with scattered folks in Texas (The Keller Resolution People) and then here and there. ELDoNA is one of those offshoot denominations of the Missouri Synod with about 20-25 congregations, and they seem happy. Why not the same direction for the congregations in the ACELC? 

I'm not thinking about "blessed subtraction" from the Missouri point of view, but about Fresh New Starts for those folks. Jack Cascione's (former?) church simply became independent, but hooks up with others for mission. 

While I was district president, we picked up a congregation that had been in a very small micro-group, possibly acronymned (sic) FALC (Federation of Authentic Lutheran Churches?), and let's say five decades down the line from their affiliation with FALC we figured out a way for them and their pastor to become part of the Missouri Synod. That group had run its course. But the folks who remained through the whole era had not been unhappy in the micro synod, and did not join the Missouri Synod because it was bigger - they studied the doctrine and practice in our very own Atlantic District and made the choice to join. So it's OK to leave, and it's OK to join. Dave Benke 
https://alpb.org/Forum/index.php?topic=6857.msg431895;topicseen#msg431895

 For snazzy threads and $400 walking sticks,
join the ELDONUTs.  Like  the LCMS and WELS, they
studiously avoid publishing Luther during the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.

***

GJ - Apparently, the ACELC is living rent-free in Benke's head, where there is plenty of room. He is graciously snide, like so many church politicians I have known.

The departures from the LCMS suggest that large groups of people despise the direction of the sect. Lutherans resist packing up and leaving, so the existence of ex-LCMS congregations should send a message to the most ELCA of LCMS DPs.

 They won Rolf Preus back, so Benke should
brag about that accomplishment.

ALPB Online Forum - ELCA Exiles Speak about Why They Left Holy Mother ELCA

"Brett, I did not damage ELCA enough,
so Liz Eaton stepped in to finish the job."

1. What are some of the other problems that are not related to the 2009 decision?
2. Had the decision in 2009 been different, would NALC exist?

How about these to start. 

1. Lack of commitment to the Great Commission. (google "ELCA evangelism" and try to find a story or article less than 10 years old)
2. Creeping (but picking up speed) Universalism 
3. Advocacy efforts always political left of center even when official documents are right of center (i.e. abortion - so far as I know the ELCA has never advocated for any limits to abortion)
4. Drift from scriptural and confessional authority (OK this is related to the 2009 decision)
5. Blindness to their own failed policies (i.e - their 30 year commitment to the quota system has resulted in them being the whitest denomination in the country). 

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 Austin, like Paul McCain, has been put in the ALPB penalty box.

Charles Austin - ELCA Pastor  and Apologist Has This Right -

The "Steadfast" guys - though many of them seem to this outsider to be pompous, self-important and super-crabs skilled at stroking their own egos - are, at least recently, attempting to avoid the bitter and nasty language employed on that other site [LutherQuest - sic].

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 "I won a prize for - It's OK To Pray hats."

Former DP Dave Behnke, who barged in on a pan-religious memorial service at Yankee Stadium, and prayed with various religions without even naming Christ:

In answer to your question, the extremist "LutherQuest posters" are in large part layfolks, some of whom are not in the Missouri Synod.  The nasty stuff from clergy is somewhat diminished, in my opinion.  The examples provided by Don, although dated, indicate to me, however, that any niceness may be a veneer.

I don't know the way supervision is provided in the ELCA.  The change at Steadfast, again in my opinion, comes from effective supervision.  The elimination of the crackpot contingent is never going to be 100%, at any rate.


Dave Benke

 LCMS offers hope for Sodom.
Creeping Universalism? - WELS-ELS-LCMS has it.