I Wanted to Go to the Waffle House when in Houston but Ended Up in the Schwaffle House, by Pr. Rossow

Getting down South means one thing – eating at Waffle House. Even though I am working to control my sugar and carb intake these days there are just some things you have to do.

I haven’t made it to the Waffle House yet but thanks to Committee 8 on Structure and Governance I have spent several hours in the Schwaffle House. As others have expressed elsewhere, I and many of the delegates are tired of the Floor Committee giving all the same reasons for supporting their massive overhaul of the synod’s structure and governance. Some of their reasons are actually pretty good but the fact that they have an answer for everything and the fact that they have taken up so much time to speak without rebuttal causes one to question if their reasons are all that good.

Bishops Buegler and Stoterau – your little skit and scripted back and forth dialogue got old really fast. Actors you are not. You can do much better than that. Bishop Stoterau, you are one of the most convincing speakers I have ever heard. I can see why President Kieschnick chose you to chair this committee. I would caution you however, and I heard this from numerous delegates, hearing your spiel for the umpteenth time has worn them out. Taking several hours for presentation instead of letting delegates debate the issues has caused you to lose credibility. The delegates have heard it all before at the regional gatherings and those who were delegates to their district conventions heard it there as well. It is old and it is getting more and more worn out with each exhaling breathe you take to sound the demise of the synod unless we pass your proposals.

Some delegates will no doubt think that they should vote for this because you have worked so hard on it but overall, delegates should instead look closely at the holes in your now worn out reasoning.

  • You assert that these proposals better support the congregations of synod yet at every turn the parish loses out because of your proposed centralization of power. If power gets centralized, somebody loses and in this case it is the local congregation.
  • You say this all about the duplication of effort. We could have saved countless hours and dollars (spent for the regional gatherings and for the extra two days of convention) if you had just made a list of the duplicate efforts and asked the delegates to pick and choose which ones they want to eliminate.
  • You say that we must do this or the synod will go broke yet you are only proposing a $1.4 million dollar savings in an $84 million dollar budget.
  • You propose that resolutions from districts should have priority yet the Convention Workbook shows that you rejected resolutions on restructuring from 11 districts and the only one you accepted is from President Stoterau’s own district.
  • The layman from King of Kings Church in Omaha that you put in front of the delegates to give one of your many “Structure and Governance Tesimonies” told the convention that God had spoken to him and told him that the proposals were necessary and that those of us who oppose the proposals are not listening to God.

That last one kind of hurt even me and I have some pretty thick skin. I guess once I get out of the Schwaffle House and finally get to the Waffle House I will need an extra squirt of whipped cream to salve my broken spirit. Oh the carbs… oh the rising blood sugar levels… oh the overburdened delegates… oh the poor, poor, pitiful synod…

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