Just click on "Confirmation" under the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod website
and you will find the word "links." Click on "links" and you will find
"Faith Inkubators." What is that? On the "Faith Inkubators" website it
reads "A quiet revolution is underway." That means most Voters’ Assemblies
in the LCMS aren’t even aware that their pastors have supplemented or replaced
Luther’s Small Catechism with "Faith Inkubators".
It goes on to say that "Faith Inkubators" is "A holistic, relational,
parent-led small group approach to confirmation ministry...transforming congregations,
youth, families and clergy." This is exactly what is happening.
A long list of testimonials are given by ELCA and LCMS clergy. The "Faith
Inkubators" website explains, "It’s not merely a curriculum, although a
new, wonderfully creative, interactive curriculum approach has been developed to
supplement it.... It’s not even specifically Lutheran, although it fits in
beautifully with the ‘priesthood of all believers’ philosophy...." "It
is a philosophy that promotes good stewardship of a pastor’s time." It is a
multimedia approach and employs seminars, satellites, training, internet, videos,
curriculum, images, analogies, humorous skits, dramas, art projects, and meditative prayer
journeys that implement methodology similar to Howard Gardner’s (left brain/ right
brain) Multiple Intelligences.
"Faith Inkubators" was started by Rev. Rich Melheim (ELCA) who started a
mentor-based program at Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater, MN. By the Fall of 96 over
1000 congregations were experimenting with the program as living laboratories. "The
movement currently involves 2/3 ELCA and 1/3 LCMS congregations and has its first UCC,
Presbyterian, Methodist and Catholic test sites." Yes, "Faith Inkubators"
is a pan denominational, globalist, relational, catechism.
"Faith Inkubators"strives for transformation through "PROCESS".
Each child is assigned an adult mentor or "Guide" on their learning, serving,
playing, praying, and growing journey. Pastors still teach content but a third of
everything is taught through interactive small group learning activities. This writer
evaluates the programs as enlisting spiritual guides, values clarification, and spiritual
gift assessments.
Melheim says he developed the program’s small group structure from Carl
George’s Meta Church Model; its philosophy from William Glasser (a secular humanist
and an expert in behavior modification); its business sense from MIT’s Peter Senge
(author of "The Fifth Discipline") and his own research. Theological
"tips" come from Dr. Pat Keifert of the Leadership Network (www.leadnet.org). The Leadership Network, who endorses
Willow Creek as a model for American Churches of the 21st Century, is also advising the
LCMS Council of Presidents on how to restructure congregations and the LCMS.
Who are Carl George, William Glasser, and Peter Senge and what kind of influence do
they have on the new catechism now being adopted by LCMS congregations?
Carl George
Carl George is a well known expert and consultant to denominations and independent
congregations on the Meta Church Model, a method of restructuring congregations within the
Church Growth Movement. He has regularly advised congregations, District Offices and
pastors’ conferences in the LCMS. The Meta Church Model establishes cells and group
leaders in house churches that then come together for worship on Sunday. George views the
centralization of the pastoral office as one of the primary barriers to growth in churches
today. His radical restructuring takes on many of the characteristics of the cell groups
once associated with the communist party.
William Glasser
William Glasser writes the following quotations in the introduction to his book
"The Quality School." "I cannot begin to acknowledge all the teachers and
administrators who help me as I struggle to bring the ideas of control theory and reality
therapy to the schools." "I have read and reread Deming, and I continue to
believe that quality is the answer to many societal problems and that quality schools are
possible." "Although I acknowledge the Johnson City, New York, schools in the
text, I also wish to acknowledge the work of others like William Spady (PR man for Goals
2000) and John Champlin who are deeply involved in Outcomes Based Education, (OBE) a
successful model which many ideas in this book support." "In his 1982 book,
addressed to industry but whose message applies even more urgently to the schools, Deming
says, ‘This book is teaching the transformation that is required for survival, a
transformation that can only be accomplished by man."
In another book, "School Without Failure," William Glasser writes "We
have to let students know there are no right answers, and we have to let them see that
there are many alternatives to certainty and right answers."
Peter Senge
Peter Senge is a world renowned business consultant at MIT. On his own website Peter
Senge writes about "Spirituality in the Workplace." A synopsis of his book
"The Fifth Discipline" is found there as follows:
"Senge’s pathbreaking book draws on science, spiritual wisdom, psychology,
and the cutting edge of management thought to show how businesses can overcome their
‘learning disabilities’ and beat the odds of failure. The book provides a
searching personal experience and a dramatic professional shift of mind."
Senge writes, "I found myself pondering these questions anew as a result of
participation in "Summit on Reinventing Government," hosted by United States
Vice President Al Gore in June 1993."
Again he writes "...we must also redesign the internal structures of our
‘mental models’. But anything less will fall short of the changes
required."
Rev. Richard Melheim has traveled the country since 1993 since he gave the
"wake-up call," "Conformation (Sic!) is Dead." He leads workshops on
how to transform confirmation ministry. Call 1-888-55FAITH.
On the "Faith Inkubators" website Melheim says "There’s a line of
Oswald Chambers which reads, ‘the purpose of prayer is not to find the answers, but
to find God.’" ... "We need an incarnational, relational ministry approach.
We need small group bonding."
Through relational ministry in small groups, "Faith Inkubators" leads
children to share difficult experiences in their lives with each other and then with the
entire class. Once the children become open with their feelings, Mark Holmen gives the
following "Action Plan" on the "Faith Inkubators" website to
confirmation leaders when children reveal sensitive information. "Before you get too
involved in youth ministry, it is important that a clear plan be developed which will give
you the direction needed to handle these situations."
The advice is to go with the information to the:
Pastor
Church Council Representative
Youth Committee Representative
Youth Representative
Law Enforcement Representative
Local Family Counselor
Church Insurance Representative
Treatment Center Representative.
This information may be what the children reveal about themselves in class or what they
reveal about their parents. This is most likely what they mean by holistic.
The relational approach of "Faith Inkubators" helps the students discover
their felt needs and belong to the group. Their approach to dramas and skits in role
playing can be traced all way back to transformational Marxist and educational
pyschologist J. L. Morano who invented role playing, social metrics, psychodrama, and
social drama. In 1953 Morano authored "Who Shall Survive". "Faith
Inkubators" also employs the techniques of Group Dynamics, invented by another
transformational Marxist, Kurt Lewin. "Journaling" invented by Robert
Havighurst, author of "Adolescent Character and Personality" teaches children to
write about themselves and their families. The Red Chinese employ "Journaling"
as the most effective technique to evaluate parents and families. Efforts at spiritual
gifts inventories are little more than thinly disguised personality profiles collecting
data to aid in values clarification.
Mark Holmen has his own home page. He is also part of "Milestones" ministry
where he is quoted with Peter Benson, of the Search Institute.
This writer was quite surprised when Dr. Henry Baum, of St. Peter Lutheran Church,
Macomb Michigan, a congregation of 3000, published 9 concerns or reasons why I should be
removed from the ministry. He sent his 9 "concerns" to the Macomb County LCMS
Pastors. Baum’s first concern was that I teach that the Creeds are our definition and
confession of the Gospel. I was even more surprised when he was eager to withdraw all of
his concerns at meeting about 10 days latter. The following day I discovered that he and
the senior minister, Pastor Robert Kasper, were using "Faith Inkubators" at
their church. Many of the members were not aware that "Faith Inkubators" is now
"supplementing" Luther’s Small Catechism. Upon hearing about the charges
against me, members at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church received information through the
mail about "Faith Inkubators" before I met with Dr. Baum.
What would be the motivation for resisting the confession of the three Ecumenical
Creeds and threatening charges against me? My concern is that pastors not write their own
creeds. When the catechism and the confession of the Gospel go out the door something must
come in the door. In this case it is "Faith Inkubators: the quiet revolution".
Many congregations of the LCMS, ELCA, and other denominations in our area are using
"Faith Inkubators" Hundreds in the LCMS have adopted it and hundreds more are
moving in that direction. Rigid formulations about the Gospel in the Creeds become a
barrier to change. The average LCMS layman knows little if anything of what I am speaking
about, but the Council of District Presidents knows. As usual, Michigan, Texas, Minnesota
South, Southern, California/ Hawaii, Nevada and Florida/ Georgia Districts lead the way.
The COP has already agreed to retrain 300 LCMS pastors for "Leadership"
coincidentally reminiscent of the philosophies of Carl George, Peter Senge, Covey, and the
Leadership Network. Doctor Norbert Oesch has been chosen to head the program with funding
from LCEF and an unnamed source. President John Johnson of the St. Louis Seminary has
given this retraining program his and the St. Louis Seminary’s full support. A degree
wil be offered through the St. Louis Seminary. Doctor Norbert Oesch’s brother, Eugene
Oesch, is chairman of the St. Louis Seminary Board of Directors.
If the District Offices of the LCMS are not shut down immediately and the entire Board
of Directors and President of the St. Louis Seminary removed from office there will be
little left of the LCMS that Luther or Walther would recognize. The pan-denominational
globalists are instituting their new catechism to transform the LCMS while 99% of the lay
people are watching TV.
The more I speak out against rewriting creeds, the more threats, insults, and attacks I
receive from LCMS clergy. I also realize that much of what I am writing comes too late.
When the Synod has to beg its members in convention not to substitute informal statements
of faith for the three Ecumenical creeds the time is not far off when God will call his
faithful out of the LCMS. Nothing on earth stays the same except God’s word and
Christian doctrine drawn from God’s word. The transformational processing of
"Faith Inkubators" leads Christians into the new world order and changes them
into candidates for eternal damnation right in their own church.
Yes, "Faith Inkubators" is very appealing to young people.