The Nihil Rule

... a guest post... you, too, can submit a guest post to layman@nihilrule.com ... I just read your "Merge for Mission" article, a week after watching the WELS Connection for February 2025, which featured the WELS 100 in 10 initiative ( https://wels100in10.net/ ). I told my wife at the time that it seemed odd to me that they would take young guys right out of the seminary to do these church plants. Why not look at guys who have already been in a parish for a few years and gotten some measure of experience under their belts on the day-to-day stuff, rather than throwing a raw seminary graduate into both trying to pick up that experience and simultaneously undertake the mission thing? Is it because they think inexperienced men will be more pliable with regard to perceived mission needs? Is it because they think there will be fewer consequences for men who don't yet have families -- or that such a perception will make family men proportionately less likely to take such calls u...

You may have noticed that the blog was offline for about a week. Last Monday I received - at my personal email address - a lengthy email by someone from the Synod office culminating in a request for me to delete the blog. I affirmed, and did not deny, I am the author. But as to deleting the blog, this I believe is beyond my control at this point. Let me explain.  When I started this blog about 3 years ago, I was looking for an outlet to write. I am a very mathematical mind, and writing has never been a strong suit. I started a blog on a whim. I picked a domain name based on Peter's dissertation  on the nihil rule I was reading at the time, and the avatar of the preeminent Wisconsin Synod theologian and started writing stuff. I had no intent to be 'that' guy. I did not anticipate the turn that would take place after the Lutheran Leadership conference. A few posts asking question and poking at things and I had several people emailing me and group chats were formed along with...

(2025/03/212 UPDATE:  Removed the memes to focus on the content, strikeout reflects updated information not available at the time of posting. Minor edits for clarity and 'snark reduction'.) "Mission Together Meeting" (Archived) ... But there's more! Three more "Merge for Mission" videos available on the YouTubes, to be specific. First, we have Pastor  Joel Gaertner's presentation   ( Archive )   to the congregations of Immanuel, Shirley (WI) and surrounding congregations. Pastor Gaertner let a few things slip where Jon had been a little more tight-lipped. Joel tells us there are 24 conversations "in one phase or another." Note: these are not 24 churches discussing merger, but 24 mergers with two or more churches involved! In the case of Milwaukee it's something like 7 churches, at least five in MSP. If we assume an average of 3 churches per merger (and assuming the average merger is a consolidation) we are going from 72 churches to 24 c...

Rev. Charles Porterfield Krauth in his 1871 The Conservative Reformation and its Theology, ( the CRT I gladly affirm ) pages 195-6: "When error is admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are always three. It begins by asking toleration. Its friends say to the majority: You need not be afraid of us; we are few, and weak; only let us alone; we shall not disturb the faith of others. The Church has her standards of doctrine; of course we shall never interfere with them; we only ask for ourselves to be spared interference with our private opinions. Indulged in this for a time, error goes on to assert equal rights. Truth and error are two balancing forces. The Church shall do nothing which looks like deciding between them; that would be partiality. It is bigotry to assert any superior right for the truth. We are to agree to differ, and any favoring of the truth, because it is the truth, is partisanship. What the friends of truth and error hold...

  (2025/03/07 UPDATE:  Video has been pulled, but you can find a cached copy here .) (2025/03/21 UPDATE: Several comments have been altered to be more neutral, and the meme has been removed. The overall substance of the critique remains unchanged.) Mission Together is a program put together by WELS Congregational Services but is not listed on the WELS Congregational Services website; a reader shared this presentation  and the associated  Google Drive  resources: a copy of a similar presentation, a document with the types of mergers, the process document. and a Bible study. Unclear to me  Let's talk our way through the two-hour video presentation. Our presenter is Jon Hein the Director of WELS Congregational Services. He makes it clear that the WELS does not push mergers on congregations but is ready to assist when congregations have questions or want to consider mergers. After the pleasantries around 15 minutes in, we get to the problem statement: WELS cong...

  Christian Worship: Hymnal page 697 | Hymnary.org Our Synod President translated Nicolaus Selnecker's baptismal hymn for CW:21. ("Baptismal Life" is a Getty-free zone 😉 )

  Return to Wittenberg  is "an organization sponsored by pastors and laymen affiliated with congregations of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS). Our mission is to promote, develop, and strengthen a Biblical understanding of the Evangelical-Lutheran faith." More from their about page: We use “Return to Wittenberg” not to describe a literal return to 16th Century Germany, of course, nor to represent the repristination of the same in the modern context, but rather to represent a periodic journey to review and be refreshed in the Scriptural teachings contained in the Lutheran Confessions—especially the Small Catechism. Return to Wittenberg presentations draw strength from a broad network of individuals from multiple Lutheran synods. Our cooperation across synodical fellowships does not imply a spirit of compromise or indifference, but rather a conviction that uncompromising voices will be heard more loudly and more clearly if we c...

  If you missed it, Gen. Mike Flynn on behalf of DOGE posted a list of Lutheran organizations  who had received grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services, most of it going to Lutheran Immigration and Social Services (LIRS). However, at the very end of the list we find our own Wisconsin Lutheran Child & Family Services, one of the few organizations on the list to get less than a million in grant money. We can find the award information  online and read the abstract: "Christian Family Solutions (CFS) is proposing a project that will serve youth ages 4 to 10 living in and around the Milwaukee area with a network of mental health care services. Through this program, we will provide day treatment services, train mental health providers and school staff, provide peer mentoring/support to families, provide consultation to professionals who work with these children, and advocate for the need for better care and early intervention services. The children we w...

  Rev. Andrew Mueller prepared a 28 page document entitled " Fissures of Men: An Evaluation of Critical Theory in the Light of Scripture " for the AZ/CA District Conference in October 2024.  The paper is fantastic, starting with an introduction heavily grounded in the Scriptures and proceeding to identify challenges posed by our society. After defining critical theory, Pastor Mueller proceeds for the bulk of the paper to identify the lineage of Critical Theory in four parts, pausing at moments to make touchpoints in the WELS. The paper finishes with a worldview comparison between Biblical Christianity and Cultural Marxism and the "Critical Dilemma" where Critical Theory views God-given constructs as oppressive and objectionable.  This is the kind of document the CoP should have generated. Definitely worth your time to read in full. "The purpose of critical theory is to divide and conquer. It dares contend with Christ, which is a fool’s errand we know. Yet it f...

Pastor Dan Berg provides daily Bible readings and reflections for families on the  Kitchen Table Catechesis  page. He also has short one-minute catachesis  lessons for the littles. Excellent!