As no press release is ever perfect… Through conflation and mis-recollection, a couple of details of yesterday's "Update on Pastor Chambers 'and other needs'" requires a little clarification. The sad reality of being associated with The Augustana Ministerium is that we hear of SO MANY pastors removed, forced out, unable to sustain their families, no longer able to serve the parishes to which they were called due to a lack of parish finances and/or worker-priest secular employment opportunities in the area, that it is easy to mix situations together inadvertently. At the same time, there are parts of each individual case that are, in our judgment, irrelevant. For instance, other than in so dire a need as we had/have with Pastor Chambers, where the man was literally about to be expelled from the hospital to go to his in-laws' house with the expectation that he would never walk again, we usually don't publicize the names of those who are receiving assistance. Other than a case where no one can try to gainsay the recipient *at all* (What, did Pastor Chambers inject some bacteria into his abdominal cavity so that he could bring about his removal from the parish due to infection? Obviously not, but in anything other than this, there will always be someone who says of *anyone,* "He brought it on himself." Such thoughts are irrelevant and the voicing of them to be diminished, not invited.)
Thus: 1) The LCMS pastor who served a large-ish parish that wanted, in large part, to hold to their unlutheran theology and practice and *not* embrace the truth that was lovingly brought to them (please take my word: anyone who knows this pastor would agree that he is "NOT some jerk like that Stefanski"), did NOT give this pastor three months' severance, but *six*…certainly *plenty* of time for someone who's only real training is in theology and only real experience is in being a parish pastor to find a secular job that pays roughly the same amount and has the same benefits. (Let's see…as I recall, LCMS 'district scale' guidelines are based on what a high school principal would be paid…surely some public school district would hire him to do *that* without further education or experience, right?) His severance, by the way, ended on 3 December; it was, as is generally the case in the LCMS, his 'reward' for going away peacefully.* 2) That ⅔ of what his income was serving the congregation that is not the combined income of this pastor and his wife is *not* without insurance. Indeed, he now has insurance, and the deductible is a mere $5,200.00. That doesn't help much for 'normal stuff', but at least if he needs a bypass, etc., he won't have the entire $50-60k out of pocket. 3) I typed in the sewer expense incorrectly: it should have been $3,600.00, not $3,200.00. By emptying accounts and receiving some gifts, that bill has now been resolved. Of course, resolving it required the emptying of accounts, plus gifts; there is no longer a cushion at all, and with the reduction in salary, things are not looking pretty. 4) *The whole 'reward for going away peacefully' thing really eats at me and a lot of other pastors: I wish we had the resources on hand that would allow us to say, "No, go ahead and FIGHT against those who despise the Holy Ghost's having placed you into this Office for their good, and WE WILL GUARANTEE you whatever they would pay you as a bribe to go away…that money that we know you will take, not because you are a Judas, but because you know that you have to take care of your wife and kids or be rightly reckoned "worse than an infidel." It hurts ALL OF US--pastors and laity alike--that we do not have that sort of a 'war chest' to help pastors at least force CLARITY from erring parishes: "We want you gone because we don't want to be 'that Luther', so, go away!" At any rate, as I said, "these folks are hurting…but their hurt is not very ad-friendly; it's not as easy to give to something where there is no visible, measurable end result to which one can point. Unfortunately, that's the sort of situation The Augustana Ministerium has *usually* faced these past several years…making it more difficult to raise the funds that we need to help take care of faithful pastors." Thus, please, now is the time for offerings to The Augustana Ministerium--a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, so your gift IS tax-deductible--by: PayPal: log in to your PayPal account and send your gift to [email protected] with a notation that it is for our "Chambers" or "Antiseptic" (to help the pastor who had septic system problems) campaigns, or, simply a donation to be used wherever we determine the most pressing need to be. Debit or Credit Card: go to http://augustanaministerium.org and click on a 'Donate' button and then make a note that it is "For Antiseptic" or "For Pr. Chambers" or just leave it as an open donation to our Pastoral Aid Fund when you donate. [Note: using a credit or debit card will bring up a screen that references PayPal, because they process our credit and debit payments, but you DO NOT have to establish a PayPal account to donate.] Check: just write "Chambers" or "Antiseptic" or "General Aid Fund" in the Memo line of your check so that we know how to direct the gift, and send it to: The Augustana Ministerium c/o The Rev. Gregory J. Schultz, Bursar 721 Payne Avenue North Tonawanda, NY 14120 Again, I want to encourage you to consider joining The Augustana Ministerium (pastors) or Confraternity (laity) both as a show of commitment to the ongoing work of serving Christ's servants in their struggles and to make sure that you are kept up to date on *all* that the Ministerium and Confraternity do. Because our commitment is to get the dollars to those in need, all of our administrative costs are borne *only* by our dues-paying members…and, at that, 1) we don't use *all* of their dues for administration, but invite them to direct 50% (pastors) or 85% (laity) to the aid of pastors, instead, an 2) when one member of your immediate family pays dues, we consider that payment to cover *the whole family*…which also means that the whole family has free admission to our annual theological conference, which has featured speakers such as the Rev. Dr. Steven Hein, the Rt. Rev. James Heiser, the Rev. William Weedon, the Rev. President Brian Saunders, the Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt, the Rev. Robert Schaibley, the Rev. Gary Gehlbach of LutheranLiturgy.org, and the Rev. Bruce Ley. Our 2013 conference will be in the Chicago area in early August. TO BECOME A MEMBER, please see our web site, http://augustanaministerium.org Again, thank you so much for your help thus far, and please remember to keep Pastor Chambers and all the servants of Christ and His Church in your prayers and on your gift list as you prepare to celebrate our Lord's birth and, soon we pray, His return. For more news, please check our web site (which, God willing, will soon be streaming our Facebook page). To learn more about Pastor Chambers as he goes through rehab, tune into his and/or his wife's (Karen Graf Chambers) Facebook feeds. Rev. Eric Stefanski, Dean of Communications The Augustana Ministerium ________________________________________________________________________ The Rev. Eric J. Stefanski Member of The Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America Holy Trinity Ev.-Luth. Church (Unaltered Augsburg Confession) P.O. Box 2612 - Harrison, Arkansas 72602 [email protected] http://www.HolyTrinityLC.com http://ELDoNA.org http://www.cat41.org "Stefanski is the David Helfgott of theology...a few moments of brilliance in a life filled with much incoherent muttering" ________________________________________________________________________ + Information for Confess And Teach For Unity's eList Subscribers + Posts to this list are sent by/through the Confess and Teach For Unity List Administrator at his sole discretion; you are receiving them because you are *or have been* a subscriber to one or more email lists run by Confess and Teach for Unity (CAT41.org). If you are no longer on any CAT 41 list and do not wish to receive such periodic mailings regarding new mail lists and other services, please click the 'unsubscribe link'. 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