Lutheran Carnival XXIX is now up at Hot Lutheran on Lutheran Action. Thank Sean for helping out. The next carnival is at Lutheran Carnival.

Today was a breath of fresh air. I went to a voters meeting and it went well. One of the biggest things I noticed was that with an all male vote, things went quickly. Admittedly, the most discussion was repairing the roof, but we went through quickly, didn't ask too many questions, and nothing was discussed that got really nasty. I came out of the meeting in a surprisingly good mood, which differs quite a bit from what I normally feel after a voters meeting.

I am slowly becoming more and more impressed by the WELS as I get more familiar with the synod. For instance, this article shows how the hymnal, Christian Worship (CW), has helped WELS accept some things that it would have never accepted not to long ago. For instance, WELSians in the past had a deep dislike of chanting of any kind. One of the things CW did was get the people chanting the psalms, and also get them chanting period. It also is helping overcome some of the disdain towards the pastor chanting. So, for all the things that may annoy me sometimes, there are good things happening.

I looked and suddenly realized I have not written anything of any substance for a while now. It's not that I don't have anything to say. I have a lot to say. It's just when I get to a computer, I have often forgotten what I want to say.

I have been thinking a lot about marriage lately which should surprise none of you since I am to be wed soon enough. I think back to how exactly things transpired, and I believe it was good for both of us. One of the best things about meeting someone over the internet, for all the bad that it can cause, is that you really get to know the person and become attracted to them because of factors other than looks. What is a shock is meeting the person in the flesh for the first time. I don't think I ever mentioned exactly how scared I was when I first saw her. It didn't hit me until I landed and had to get off the plane. I ran to the nearest bar for some liquid courage and waited.

I don't want to tell the whole story, but a word of advice to anybody who is thinking about or is pursuing a relationship over the internet: it takes a while to adjust to the person in real life. It is a funny thing, especially since we knew each other so well because of the many conversations Elle and I had before we met. When I had to leave the last time I went up and visited, I broke down. We were praying Compline together and I had a hard time making it through the service without crying. It was hard. I decided that would be the last time we would be apart and not know when we would be together again. I guess there is still one last goodbye, but that isn't really a goodbye. It's more like see you later.

I've probably said enough for now.

I want to let you all know that the Lutheran Carnival is looking for more hosts to host LCs XXXI-LX. If you want to host, follow the instructions found in the above link.

Lutheran Carnival XXVIII is now up at Drowning Myself Whenever I Can. Lutheran Carnival XXIX will be hosted by Hot Lutheran on Lutheran Action.

I have not been good and reminding everyone about this as of late, but I remembered tonight. Lutheran Carnival entries are due by 7 pm CDT (2400 UTC) tomorrow. If you have an entry, send it to lutherancarnival at gmail dot com. I'm sure Chaz will be happy to take it.

I apologize for not having responded to some of the comments made recently. In general, I don't respond to comments unless they are really good, very challenging, or they piss me off. When I do respond, I find writing a post to be the best way.

Remember what happened to 2/3 of the Magpies?

That's how WELS deals with people who want to be "catholic".

Caveat emptor!

I had no clue as to what the good Father was talking about, so I did a google search. For those (like me, for instance) who do not know what he was talking about, this little journal is what he is talking about. Apparently, it caused quite a stir within WELS, especially when you realize how small the synod actually is and how low church the synod acts. They called for chanting, weekly use of the Lord's Supper, and a host of other things that seem very normal to me but make most in the WELS creeped out. Would some of my fellow WELSians wonder about me when they see a crucifix hanging up on my wall? Probably.

I will take the warning to heart. You see, above all else, the weekly celebration of the Eucharist is on the top of my list of change. I believe if that changes, many other things will follow. I hope and pray.

But they'll have to acknowledge the divine institution of the Office of the Holy Ministry first... minor details like that, that are only there "so that we may obtain such faith" (AC V).

It's been a long time since the days of sending PMs on a bulletin board. Let me say something to you that I have heard from more than a few WELS pastors and maybe some in Missouri would agree. Both WELS and the LCMS say one thing but, overall, practice something else. WELS may in theory believe what it says, but in practice it all seems to be much more like the LCMS than any of you may realize. The LCMS has had a WELSian view of the OHM in her official practice since 1989. Lex ordandi, Lex credendi.

Indeed. And there is SO MUCH BETTER in the general Wichita area--Grace (LCMS) McPherson and Christ (LCMS) Hutchinson have been long time homes to many from Wichita, and they will be in the right place when Missouri finally completes its implosion, whereas the WELS will continue its self-satisfied slide until the few within her finally come out decades too late.

Pastor Stefanski, I did prayerfully consider going to Hutch for church. I also prayerfully considered my fiancee's view and some past baggage she carried with her. You neither know these things nor how they affected my decision. Things are not nearly as black and white as they may seem to you, and deciding to do what I did was so much tougher than you might think. As for the slide, it might happen, but I have good reason to believe such a thing has a very good shot at being reversed. Seeing many of the men coming out of WLC, I have good reason to be hopeful.

Eschatology is one of those topics that keeps coming up every once in a while. It is amazing how much time people spend thinking about the end and what is going to happen. Often times, they want to skip to the end and not give any thought to what happens when our own personal end comes. One of the things that Lutheranism is very strong on is personal eschatology, which deals with what happens to me. This doesn't tend to be emphasized in Dispensationalism, even though it is one of the most comforting doctrines to those in Christ.

I'm not here to discuss personal eschatology, however, but to discuss John and how John writes. Anyone who has read the Book of John knows how out of sequence some of the events seem to be when compared to the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). The clearing of the temple is early, rather than late. Things are all out of sequence. If you continue by reading 1 John, things start getting even wierder. He seemingly contradicts himself and continues to say the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. If you ever have the time, read 1 John in one sitting and note how many times he says the same thing. When we read Paul, we understand him because Paul, for all his Jewishness, still thought like a Westerner. John, on the other hand, thinks like a near Eastern man, and it shows. His ideas go in circles. He keeps telling us the same thing over and over again. We don't think like this. John wouldn't have been bothered if, when writing about Christ, he told the story out of sequence. It doesn't bother him that he thinks circularly.

It is here where we get to the question: how can a Dispensationalist think that the Apocalypse of St. John (Revelation) gives a linear time line when nothing else he has written resembles anything linear? A Dispensationalist commits the error of being a literalist while not being literal. A literal reading would take into account John's tendency to wonder and be non-linear. This isn't anything new. People have been looking to older writings to determine how to read newer writings by the same author for years. We do this with other Biblical writers. A Dispensationalist, however, doesn't let other writings by the same author to get in the way of a bad hermeneutic.

The Lutheran Carnivsl is now up at Michael P. O'Connor's blog. Thank him for volunteering to do this. LC XXVIII will be hosted at Drowning Myself Whenever I can.

Having read some about the issues sweeping the ELS, I just have one question: why in the world are they going to civil war over this? We (the WELS and ELS) are in communion with the Ukrainian Lutheran Church, a church that practices the threefold division of the ministry. This is more radical than anything Rolf Preus may believe, but he has to go? I think it is safe to say that I am perplexed by the Doctrine of the Ministry in my new synod.

Being a new WELSian has been interesting. This past Sunday, people introduced themselves to me as former LCMSers gone WELS. The common theme was the whole SEMINEX controversy and what was going on during that time. I heard about Sunday School curriculums that blatantly said trust the SEMINEX leaders. I heard about people who were in a lot of pain. We discussed when we thought the LCMS would begin ordaining women. I say within the next 20-30 years, myself. The whole women as elders and as elected leaders in the congregation is a step towards this, no matter what people may think and say.

I have found I must adjust to a new mafia. Being the Godson and nephew of a pastor and a cousin of a DCE allows one to see the LCMS mafia in action. Yes, there is a LCMS mafia, and how you become a member of it is being either in the ministry or have family in the ministry. I have two degrees of separation between me and the First Vice President of the LCMS, and he probably doesn't know it. Everybody knows everybody. Now I am in a Synod where I know three pastors. I needed multiple pairs of limbs to count the number of LCMS pastors I know. Anyway, I now have to slowly weave myself into the WELS.

There is a culture shock. The Common Service is familiar, but there are enough tweaks to it to make it difficult to follow along without a hymnal. The newer services don't seem to have much in common with anything I know. That's just reality. I expected it.

I figured out what was going on. I didn't move sitemeter over to my new template. I forgot to move a lot of stuff (technocrati, blogwise, etc) over to my new template. Ooops.

Wow. I just looked at my numbers. Wow. I haven't seen numbers plummet like this since the stock market crashed in 1929. It is ugly. I went from 50 unique visitors to my blog on a bad day to single digits this past week. Ouch. Is there some reason why some of you are not visiting anymore, not like you're reading this anyway. Do you not like the new look? Do you not like the fact I am WELS now? What did I do wrong to lose you my readers?

I admit that what I had to do while trying to sort things out wasn't the best solution. You might almost think of it as being in a state of confession against a congregation. Not the best solution, but the best I could do while trying to change the situation.

I am sure some of you were either disappointed that I have moved on. I haven't abandoned Lutheranism. I still will defend the Biblical truths proclaimed by the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. WELS is the best place for me to do it now, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. There are no ELS churches in the area (the nearest is in Carthage, Missouri, a four to five hour drive away and home to Precious Moments). I honestly admit the transition from one synod to another might be easier, buy I am slowly becoming more comfortable with the WELS. I can at least go from one WELS church to another and know what to expect. There isn't much diversity, which I appreciate. The LCMS is becoming too diverse. If you want to know what happens to a diverse church, look at the ECUSA. They're diversifying themselves out of existence.

Anyway, the lawsuit nobody wants to mention has been settled. I agree with the author of the piece, in general. I did not like the lawsuit, but it seems to have accomplished what it set out to do. The goals of the suit were good, but the suit itself wasn't. The fact there was a lawsuit filed, in a strange way, shows what a poor leader Kiechnick is. If you want to elect another moderate, fine. At least elect someone who can lead. The analogies comparing Kiechnick and outgoing ECUSA Presiding Bishop (must stop laughing) Frank Griswald are numerous. They are both politicians rather than leaders, and they both used less than honest methods to get their way.

Lutheran Carnival XXVI is now up at A Beggar at the Table. The next host of the Lutheran Carnival is yet to be determined, but you all might get lucky and I won't have to do it.

Ever since Elle and I started talking to each other, I wondered if this day might come sooner or later. I had a feeling I might end up taking the step I took today a long tome ago. I thought I might have to do this sooner or later, and I also realized that neither of us go where I was and raise a family. I would have liked to, and my Evangelical Catholic leanings really pull me towards places like my former church. It is too bad I could not remain there.

Anyway, I am now a member of a WELS congregation. Are there things about WELS that bug me? Yeah, but nothing like female elders. I think I would rather deal with these little things than have big issues hanging over my head. When I met with the pastor, most of my major questions to him and the Vicar had more to do with the liturgy than doctrinal concerns, even though I did ask about the Office of the Holy Ministry. I'm still not sure I completely understand it.

Anyway, this is now a WELS blog. I will still keep up with what concerns me about the LCMS, but no longer as a participant, but as a concerned observer. I still love and respect the synod that nurtured me though the first 30 years of my life, and I still have family within the synod. I'll just also have to add WELS issues to my plate now. I'll probably be the first WELS blogger pushing to make the synod more catholic.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

This has now reached critical mass. I have no hosts for Lutheran Carnivals XXVII & XXVIII, which happen to be the next two carnivals. This means I am hosting the next two carnivals unless someone decides to step up and host. If you decide you want to host, contact me at daniel dot sellers at gmail dot com.

I am sure more than a few of you are wondering what the cryptic message I left Friday meant. I am sure a few of you know what I was talking about and are wondering what I might have left to say. For the first group, I need to explain myself. For those of you in the second group, I'm going to take the one point that seemed to hit home and expand on it to the point where it becomes painful.

If you've read some of what the Terrible Swede has said about what has happened at our church, you at least have some idea of what is going on. One of the things you must understand about Immanuel was that it was the liberal congregation in town. They started putting females into major roles within the church in 1991, with the direction and full blessing of the pastor at the time. When they submitted their revised constitution, the District rejected it because it allowed females in major leadership roles in the congregation, including elders. So, they elected female elders and went on happily and the District did squat about it. The pastor neither followed the rules of dissent (yes, there is a formal dissent process within the LCMS, believe it or not (see here for a take on the dissent process)) nor even attempted to do so, as far as can be seen. Of course, the feminism lead to all sorts of other problems within the congregation (pro women's ordination, pro-choice elements, and open communion) which also had consequences on the events to come. In any case, the pastor took a call. The vacancy pastor had the same views as the previous pastor, and so things continued until the current pastor was called two years after the previous pastor had left. He soon discovered what he had to deal with.

How did I end up there? The current pastor, for all his faults, is the most confessional pastor in the area. I got to know the pastor through various ULC (University Lutheran Center at Wichita State University) events, and at the Terrible Swede's wedding, where I was a groomsman. In any case, I joined the congregation not truly knowing all that had happened. It all came to a head at the voters meeting from hell in December 2004. Let's just say most of the elements that didn't like what pastor was doing left, many for ELCA congregations. Many of us figured this would be the end of all the problems. It was. For a while.

In Early May, I went off to see Elle in Alaska. One of the greatest things that ever happened to me has its roots in that trip. I mention it for two reasons: Elle is the main reason why I did what I will soon tell you, and I got a nasty cold from flying in airplanes for 8+ hours with people carrying colds. That cold kept me from the May 2005 voters meeting where a decision was made that forced me and my many friends into action.

When I joined, I was under the impression that female elders were a thing of the past and that Immanuel would not go down that road again as long as our pastor was there. That was the impression I had and I think my friends had, at least. Since I was sick, I did not go to the voters Meeting. Can you guess what happened at the voters meeting?

The consequences of her election were not noticed immediately. She did not assist in communion initially. By October, however, she was at the altar distributing the Blood of Christ and disturbing my friends and I. We brought our concerns to the pastor, who allowed us to commune separately after the service for a while. This was not a set up that most people liked. The Altar Guild didn't like it because it meant they had to wait to take the communion set down. We didn't like it because we liked communing with the rest of the Church. The Council didn't like it because we were making a statement that we were not part of the congregation (which we were). In essence, it was the best compromise that could be reached at the time.

My Uncle died in January this year. I told you all about what a rough time it was for me. What I didn't discuss was what added to the pain. Less than a week after burying my Uncle, I was in a meeting to discuss ESL with my pastor and a gentleman who taught with me and the head of the Social Concerns Board. After that meeting was over, Pastor asked the gentleman and I to stay for a bit and talk about what happened on the Women Elder front. Pastor had told us that he was working on solving this problem. Ultimately, what the council decided to do was resubmit the constitution with the changes made in 1991 and ask district what they needed to change to get the constitution approved. In a move that surprised everyone, the constitution that was not OK 15 years ago was suddenly OK. District approved it.

It was at this point wondering if all was lost. I was trying to decide what I wanted to do and how I was going to go about doing it. My decisions varied from wanting to just fade away to fighting. It was one day at work while I was thinking things through while scanning well logs into the computer that I realized what I was going to have to do. All the while, I made sure my conscience was clean. I had to practice selective fellowship. I just did not commune when she was up there, which was a lot. The elders were minus one elder, so whomever happened to be around to fill in did, and she was it most of the time. The council eventually asked those of us who did not like the practice to commune in the front pew. What that meant was communing like a person who could not come to the altar. I was willing to go along with it, but there was no woman elder there that Sunday, so I communed as a normal communicant. After discussing it with one of the others who did not like the practice, I decided not to go along with it because he was not comfortable with it. The council then asked us again to commune in the front pew. I never did get a straight answer to the question of whether it was a strong request or if they wanted to force us to do it. At that point, I stopped communing anytime she distributed. I no longer communed after church.

As I said in the preceding paragraph, I made a decision one day in March at work. I had to take into consideration my future spouse, any children God may bless us with, and my sanity. If it were just me, I would have stayed and fought. I had to take kids I didn't even have into consideration and asked myself if I could honestly take my future wife there when she has problems with what is going on and my kids through it? How can I catechise my kids in the truth while going somewhere that doesn't seem to want the truth to get in the way of their clique? I couldn't. It was time to go.

So here I am again, floating in Lutheran Limbo, praying that I made the right decision, and fervently praying for my former congregation and its pastor. A lot of damage happened because of this episode, and many people suffered because of it. Was it worth it?

If anyone out there says that it was worth it, you need to be hit with a 2x4 over the head. I saw how you all reacted when I said that this episode killed the ESL program. I saw the uncomfortable looks you all had when I asked how are you going to minister to the neighborhood without ESL. The Church is no longer building the relationships that need to be built with the neighborhood and the trust that will bring people to join. That all went when we left. I heard lots of talk discussing how we need to bring people in to increase the cash flow of the Church. What do you all think ESL is? It was a ministry tool to try to bring unchurched Hispanics into our congregation, help them to become faithful and active members of the church, and to help the church continue long after we were gone. What happens when the older members all die? How will the church continue? It isn't going to continue as Immanuel Lutheran Church, I can promise you that. The hope for the future is Immanuel Inglesia Luterano. The neighborhood you are in demands it. How are you going to grow without ESL? How is the church going to survive in the bario continuing to be an English-speaking congregation? It may sputter along for five, ten, maybe even twenty years. At some point, the reality of the situation must become clear, and unfortunately, it may already be too late.

Do you think any Hispanic will find female elders acceptable? If you think so, you are deluding yourself. You might be able to convince the females of it, but there is no way any Latin male would ever go for it. Machismo is a big part of life in the bario. Female elders just are not manly. Without the fathers, you have a one generation stay of the inevitable. Read the studies. Fathers have a much bigger influence on whether their children go to church than their mothers ever will. If dad goes to church, his children are much more likely to go. Not only that, they are conservative on social issues. That means they are pro-life.

What does this mean? A congregation in the perfect place to do Hispanic ministry is completely out of touch with the surrounding neighborhood and, by its actions, cut itself off from the community. Unless something drastic happens quickly, I am afraid Immanuel will die.

So what are my options? There are two different ones, but I will let you all wonder until Sunday. Then I will reveal what I am up to.

I just wrote a huge post and lost part of it because I forgot to save it as a draft and because I then forgot to cut and paste. It sucks.