WELS UNIONISTIC WORSHIP CONFERENCE

                         AT ELCA COLLEGE

                      ROCKS WISCONSIN SYNOD;

          WELS SEM PROFS VALLESKEY, BIVENS, TIEFEL SPEAK

 

WELS pastors are shocked that the Wisconsin Synod, which is in fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod only, will hold a worship conference at an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America college, Carthage in Kenosha, Wisconsin, July 21-24.  Women will teach men, contrary to 1 Timothy 2:11.  Reformed ministers will teach Lutherans how to worship!  An ELCA staffmember will teach!  A number of LCMS men will teach, but no one in the ELS will lead anything.

 

The ELS people I spoke with had no idea that this inter-denominational conference was being held.  They were not invited to speak or to attend.  My guess is that some ELS pastors and professors know as much about worship as Episcopalians, ELCA, and graduates of Wheaton College.  Some even understand computers and MIDI.

 

                          WELS and ELCA

The conference is organized by Professor James Tiefel of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.  The Wisconsin Synod has condemned ELCA in WELS and Other Lutherans for being non-Christian, but the lavishly printed brochure says nothing about Carthage being ELCA.  WELS also published What's Going on among the Lutherans?, a best seller by Patsy Leppien and Kincaid Smith.  Pastors naturally wonder why WELS would want to be associated in any way with ELCA, homosexual and lesbian pastors, abortion on demand, and venomous attacks against all the doctrines of Christianity.

 

David Cherwien, director of music ministries at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Minneapolis, ELCA, will speak at two of the workshops.  The brochure does not list his affiliation.  (I had to phone his church.  The first person to answer did not know the synod affiliation.  The second person confirmed that the congregation is ELCA and that David Cherwien is on the staff.)  The church phone number is 612-927-8849.

 

WELS has been working with ELCA leaders for years.  It first came out into the open at the Snowbird leadership conference, sponsored by Lutheran Brotherhood.  WELS helped organize the conference with ELCA and the LCMS, according to Lutheran Brotherhood's Bond magazine.  WELS district presidents and seminary professors attended and were taught the Scriptures by an ELCA seminary professor.

 

WELS organized a unionistic radio show with ELCA and the LCMS, "Joy," produced at the LCMS radio station KFUO.  Dramatic denials from WELS were countered by the ELCA executive and his secretary who said that WELS was involved from the beginning.

 

WELS organized the AAL funded Church Membership Initiative with ELCA and the LCMS.  WELS executives organized the massive Church Growth program, including the unionistic session in Orlando, Florida, where Rev. Dr. Martin Marty (ELCA) taught the WELS about evangelism and George Gallup (Episcopalian) led the entire group in prayer.

 

Some of the women who will be teaching men are:  Carolyn Fons, Gwen Tjernagel, Cheryl Diener, Patricia Backhaus, Mary Prange, Rita Schwanke, Carol Janetzke, Linda Moeller, Brenda Glodowski, and Grace Wessel.

 

Rev. Theodore Hartwig, defender of the ecumenical feminist creed which WELS adopted from a unionistic group for Christian Worship, will speak.  WELS worship attendance fell significantly after CW appeared in all the Wisconsin Synod churches.

 

           Major Presenters:  WELS, Episcopalian, LCMS,

                            But No ELS

Pastor Harold Senkbeil, LCMS, will make one major presentation:  "Holy Ground:  Lutheran Worship and Contemporary Culture."

 

Carl Schalk, LCMS, will make another major presentation:  "Enlivening the People's Song When the People Don't Sing."

 

Another major presenter, John Bertalot, is Reformed.  He is the director of music at Trinity Church (Episcopalian) in Princeton, NJ, and teaches at Princeton's Westminster Choir College.  His phone number is 609-924-2764.  "Mr. Bertalot's Tuesday afternoon workshop, Practical Ideas to Help Children Sing, will make some of the points of this workshop practical as he actually works with a live children's choir."  Question:  will he work with Episcopalian children, so it won't be unionism, or will he lead WELS children in worship?

 

Seminary professor David Valleskey is the keynote speaker.  His colleague, Forrest Bivens, will give another presentation, as will James Tiefel.

 

WELS mission counselor Wayne Schulz will give a typical Church Growth speech.  The brochure states:  "Does the worship of historic Lutheranism create a barrier to you?  What are the pitfalls?  What can be done?  Is there a connection between worship and evangelism?"  Is there a connection between Church Growth and this talk?

 

          Minor Presenters:  WELS, ELCA, Reformed, LCMS

                            But No ELS

John Behnke, LCMS commissioned teacher, will teach about bells in the worship service.  He teaches at Concordia, Mequon.

 

James Huebner, Church Growth consultant for WELS, will speak to teens.

 

Timothy Buelow, WELS, formerly with the Orthodox Lutheran Forum, will talk about "Worship When Lutheranism Was Young and Strong."

 

Devon Hollingsworth will speak on "MIDI Wonders."  He is the minister of music and organist at Christ Church of Oak Brook, Ill.  He is a graduate of Wheaton College.

 

David Cherwien, ELCA, will teach WELS members and pastors how to "Write Your Own Psalm and Verse Settings" and "Creative Variety in Psalm Singing."

 

Many WELS women will be giving presentations to the pastors and laymen who attend, as noted before.

 

                       How Did This Happen?

Professor Tiefel claims that the WELS Conference of Presidents approves of his unionistic event, which is partly funded by AAL.

However, someone who asked about the event learned that synod president Karl Gurgel approved it without the COP.

 

The actual cause is 30 years of unionism and doctrinal indifference, building up slowly, as George Barna teaches in The Frog in the Kettle.  Barna is frequently quoted in Valleskey's new Church Growth book, We Believe, Thefore We Speak.

 

Nobody wondered or cared why WELS leaders said the same things as the faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.  Nobody wondered or cared why WELS leaders were friendlier with ELCA than with the ELS.  If someone dared to question any single unionistic event, he was cast out into the outer darkness until he came back into the fold, humbled and spineless.  All the recent events with ELCA have been reported in CN with direct quotations from the sources, so that WELS can charge AAL and LB with lying and question the fraternal benefit societies' use of the Eighth Commandment.

 

The only result of fair and accurate reporting in CN has been... Carthage College.  "A Vision - a dream, really - of what worship could be.  What worship could be and what worship should be in Lutheran congregations.  The National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts means to offer the vision and we're hoping that you will want to be among those who will see it and catch it."

 

Those who want a copy of the Carthage College conference brochure may send $3 to:

 

          Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

          22 N. State Street

          New Ulm, MN  56073-1834.

          faith@ic.new-ulm.mn.us

 

Included will be a 9 page list of direct quotations about WELS unionism with ELCA and what WELS used to say about unionism.  The Snowbird conference with ELCA is reproduced from LB's Bond magazine.

 

If we spoil the Egyptians for too long, the Egyptians take over.