A Reader Found Another WELS Fad - Which I Visited - By Browser - Nine Years Ago

The Appleton Alcoholics were hotter than Georgia asphalt for the Andy Stanley Treatment, which has blossomed among the Babtists and others for years now. 

Previously I posted about the Unstuck fad in WELS, which may have sputtered.

They adored Paul Y. Cho in South Korea, until he was found guilty and tossed into the slammer.

David Valleskey's lopsided smile, half regret, half triumphant, reminds everyone that Mark Jeske often does the same in photos. 

The accounting has already started for these buddies from the same seminary class in Mordor, Wisconsin. 

Kent Reeder - Illumine - WELS

Eight years ago, WELS Pastor Kent Reeder, did his best to out-Kelm Paul Kelm, birthing Illumine, like one of those lab experiments from a midnight monster movie channel. Reeder is on LinkedIn, a good way to find out what individuals say about themselves. One famous LCMS star did that and soon erased his own basic facts - too much revealed.

Luther and the Concordists did not say -

1. Come to my church
2. Find a friend here
3. Embrace the love, have some popcorn and soda
4. Coin a cool name for our (name the sect)  church, and hide the denomination.

The Reformation taught the Bible (Traditional Text, not the Tischendorf-Westcott-Hort) to explain its meaning and to refute errors.

Seductive marketing gimmicks are not effective. They claim the concept but reject the truth - 

The Holy Spirit is always at work in the Word and never apart from the Word.

"Kent Reeder makes Mark and Avoid Jeske look confessional." Aye, and they have so much to confess.

LinkedIn - 

"Started Illumine Church in Rock Hill, SC in 2013. Planting a new church in Seattle, WA as of May, 2019. Distributing resources through Illumine Content. Led the Hearts & Hands Workshop in 2018, and continuing to encourage creativity through the Community of WELS Creatives. Former director of Camp South and the Amazing Race."

"Though much of my time in city ministry has been affected by pandemic realities, one of the things I’ve observed is that there’s a lot of listening to do in a city context. In suburban and rural spaces, it’s a lot easier for an organization to have an influential voice simply by speaking - there aren’t that many voices trying to be heard. Cities are bigger, more complex, and (certainly) louder - so listening and finding the right moments to participate in existing conversations becomes more important. (So far, at least!)"

Some say, in whispers, that Reeder is Paul Kelm II!

Synod Statistics Belong in the Fiction Section of the Seminary Library

 

The synod statistics group has its own room at headquarters. Holbein painting.

I was reading over some synod statistics, filled with awe and wonder. No names, please. They will just adjust their tables and make up new fables.

The Jackson Method involves a sampling of who is there on Sunday, among a group of congregations. Percentages of age groups matter as well. For instance, we have great-grandmothers, grandparents, parents, children, and babies. We also have a very large group of daily readers. Even if half of them are booing and throwing popcorn at the screen, we still have an impressive audience.

The infamous ELCA Sparkle congregation said they were packed with all the new people - so many age groups too! Their own videos show only a few dozen, mostly white-haired members.

I also look around at recent worship services, which are incredibly sparse in terms of numbers there - and in their truncated worship. We began Ustream so long ago that we used Roman numerals and yet had 32,000 views. We have used Vimeo and will use Zoom soon. We are also trying to improve in various ways.

When a congregation simply posts a video camera at the back to record the sermon, that is mighty stingy in terms of the Means of Grace. It also emphasizes who is NOT there, since the lens usually takes in the entire group. 

Like David Valleskey and Waldo Werning, Kent Hunter was the guiding light of his generation of Fuller Seminary failures. His Church Doctor Ministries is selling its properties at the moment. When will their sects apologize for the damage?

Boomer ELCA Church - From 1,600 Members to Closing

 

Paul Calvin Kelm's WELS mission tossed him out and asked for a LCA/ALC mission developer. WELS made Kelm an expert on Church Growth!

Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, sold their building to the U. of Chicago and sold a similar pipe organ to a Roman Catholic parish. "Whatever we own, owns us."

How many like Larry have made a life-changing bike pilgrimage to a holy man? I am biting my lip to keep from sobbing, tears of laughter shorting out my keyboard.

 Valleskey and Maxwell as authors! I heard Maxwell speak live - he almost made me barf.

Larry Olson, DMin Fuller, denied he went to Fuller Seminary, where he earned a prestigious DMin. "Prove it!" I read his sleep-inducing essay at  Martin Lutheran College library.

Valleskey taught WELS that they were "spoiling the Egyptians" by studying at Fuller Seminary. I pointed out that the Israelites took the valuables, not the garbage. And WELS still loves the garbage.

Staff at the Closing Church

Synod Staff

Our Guiding Statement: Trusting in the Spirit, we are journeying together with God's people so that all may discover and participate in what God is doing among us through Jesus.​ ​

Shared Values:​ Spirit-led and Christ-Centered​ | Justice, Equity, and Belonging | Becoming and Equipping​

Our ​Priorities:​ Connection​ | Organizational Infrastructure | ​Spirit-Led/Christ-Centered Movement

Rev. Shelley Bryan Wee

• Bishop

• Send Email

Rev. Andy Yee

• Assistant to the Bishop

• Send Email

Deacon Dianne Johnson

• Director for Evangelical Mission

• Send Email

Rev. Herb Shao

• Director for Evangelical Mission

• Send Email

Tabetha Myatt

• Synod Administrator

• Send Email

Rev. Dr. David Hahn

• Director of Formation & Learning

• Send Email

Susan Berg

• Communications & Events

• Send Email

***

WELS did a lot more damage for a lot less money than ELCA. They worked with LCMS and ELCA for their big Thrivent evangelism debacle.

United Methodists Paid Their Conservatives To Get Out of Dodge!

Mirthless Mark Schroeder continues the WELS formula of deformation theology: despising Luther's Biblical theology, buying the atrocious, butchered NIV paraphrase, selling a Calvinist hymnal.

What did I write about WELS-ELS-LCMS copying ELCA's ordination standards - years ago?

 Diaper-changing academies are portrayed as evangelism and Christian education, but there is no genuine attempt to have a school.

 The least able are promoted to permanent positions of power.

After years of wrangling, the warring parties in the fading United Methodist Church have agreed to send the conservatives packing with a large sum of cash.

Denomination numbers are always questionable. In comparison, the Lutheran Church in America claimed over 3 million members in 1987, when they merged with The American Lutheran Church - 2 million plus, with a side helping of Seminex (AELC). Thirty-five years after the ELCA merger, they boast 3+ million members, losing roughly the entire ALC after promoting numerous "evangelism" programs, Fuller-based, joint efforts with the WELS-LCMS, funded by Lutheran insurance.

Christian News, under Herman Otten, published Kurt Marquart's excellent booklet against the ravages of Fuller Seminary's idiocies. Fuller shrank too, haha.

 Note the ambiguous smile.

But Otten also promoted David Valleskey's groveling ode to Fuller and Church Growth, selling it through his numerous connections. WELS told its failing congregations to buy a copy, the only time I recall that the sect made a book required reading for all the congregations.

I have noticed that videos of ELCA and WELS celebrations are quite similar, half-empty congregations - even though they are supposed to be large scale or historic events. The services are lame, dreary, and more like the funeral of a notorious family member.

How Did the Baby Boomers Ruin Their Own Denominations in One Generation?

Various stories and personalities come up in my conversations and email exchanges. I often say, "Yes, I met him, talked to him a bit." One person usually responds, "You know everyone!" Sometimes I was just in the audience, but I figured it was always worthwhile to be there and meet that person if I could, because the chance would not likely come again.

I am an unrepentant Baby Boomer, born soon after WWII was over, so I figure we are now seeing the last of the Boomers retire from wrecking their own denominations.

The Boomers' work was truly monumental in scope, because they

1. repudiated the stance of their own groups,
2. boosted seminary costs to Yale Divinity levels,
3. scraped the church budgets into their own bottomless pockets,  
4. rewarded one another with praise, honorary degrees, fat pensions, and
5. wrecked the big, old congregations that supported them.

More concisely, Boomers stood for nothing, accepted apostasy with open, scrofulous arms, and looked down on anyone who shuddered about the future. They knew get-along-go-along tactics: they polished them to a fine glow.

One of our members was shocked to find Concordia Publishing House printing more Luther books, the latest on Exodus - $64! The actual cost is about $5 per volume (if that) after the start-up figures are paid by initial, often automatic, purchases. Those standard issue books go out to a large audience and harvest lots of money. Watch a Missouri pastor on video and see the collection of 300 unread theology books looming over his empty head. He will say with unfazed modesty, "No, I have not read ALL of them."

 Required reading for brain-dead WELS

 No, never went to Fuller, no never, well, hardly ever!

 Luther is just not their bag, as my hippy friend used to say.

Weeds are productive in their own way, but sterile. All the large ones indicate fertile soil, but they are programmed by the Creating Word for other tasks, such as feeding birds, holding soil in place, and taking over after a large fire or flood. The Boomers, praising themselves, have said:

1. "We have spoiled the Egyptians and robbed Fuller Seminary of their Church Growth treasures."
2. "We have built new additions to the old congregations to renew them - a parish hall for every church still in the black. And we helped them finance it, too!"
3. "We have laid the foundations for Woke! America and provided places for the previously ignored to take over - as clergy, magazine editors, professors, bishops, and more. Look at the history of the big old churches still operating - they have a rich supply of Megan Rohrers to keep up appearances."
   

 Episcopal Bishop Robinson divorced his wife and later his husband.

 He has been a professor, a pastor, a bishop, and now runs the ironically named United Lutheran Seminary. AND - he is an Osage Indian.

 Is anyone else asking about diversity, inclusion, and equity in this pose?

 The smaller the jurisdiction, the grander the robes, hats, and sticks. Ask ELDONA.

2009 is when the storm tore the cross off of the ELCA church used for that convention.

The 2009 meeting gave them what they demanded, plus a sign from heaven.

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.