Not the weirdest so much as one of the weirdest. Check this out:
Why did you cancel “Issues, Etc.” on the eve of its “Issues 300” fundraising campaign?
“Issues 300” was not a formal, sanctioned fundraising effort being done in cooperation with the LCMS Foundation; rather, it was an effort by Rev. Wilken and Mr. Schwarz to raise funds for the syndication of the one-hour Sunday-evening broadcast. There were no ads, publicity, direct-mail materials, telemarketing strategies, or donor visitations poised to be set in motion by the Foundation. There were no projections to suggest that “Issues 300” would offer significant help in meeting the fiscal and stewardship responsibilities of reducing, and eventually eliminating, the large budgetary variances at KFUO-AM.
If David Strand was trying to paint an even more sympathetic picture of Rev. Todd Wilken and Jeff Schwarz, he did it. If David Strand was trying to paint a bureaucracy that is even more clueless than we thought, he nailed that, too.
First off, David’s “answer” fails to “answer” the question. David seems to be saying that it doesn’t matter that Issues, Etc. was canceled on the eve of the Issues 300 campaign because Issues 300 was not run by the LCMS Foundation. That would be the same foundation that charges about 30 cents on every dollar raised (far, far, far above normal fundraising rates)? And this is a bad thing?
And the answer also makes you realize these poor guys, the only guys expected to raise money for their own show, go out and do something of their own volition since the management of the radio station is so incompetent, and Strand acts like they’ve done something unworthy/bad?
David Strand, who is the Synod’s top communication guy, apparently didn’t realize what Issues 300 was all about. The projection for the campaign was that 300 congregations would donate $1,000 for Issues, Etc. My math’s a bit rusty but it seems to me that $300,000 is more than the $250,000 figure that David Strand is claiming was the reason he fired Todd and Jeff.
Filed under: Updates
Also, there was advertising for Issues “300″. See youtube.
I caught that too and it is obvious that, with this Q&A, they are just stepping into it deeper and deeper.
I sent emails to the BCE and Berger was the only one to respond. Who are these people and why can’t I get more of a response? Are they better than me??
What I am also curious about is how close they may have been to reaching that 300 mark. One wonders if they were very close and the show was canceled because canceling it after they just raised 300,000 would have been to difficult even for Strand, et. al. Just another question I had…
Makes me wonder if now is the time for some of the “would-be” 300 to step up and pledge their support. Not that this would bring back the show on KFUO, but it might shed some light on Eric’s question AND it might lay some additional groundwork for anyone working to bring back the show in/on another venue. I am confident that Messiah Lutheran in Lebanon would have signed up to be one of the 300 congregations Todd & Jeff were looking for. Anybody else?
Brian,
Sure. The 300 should step up — but not to KFUO or LCMS. Issues won’t be going back there.
There was also a guy on the petition who said he was seriously considering redirecting $750,000 away from Synod to an independent “Issues.” Has anyone contacted him?
Why the hell should Jeff and Todd have to raise $$ anyway for their show? I’m sure they had more than enough to do. This is a MANAGEMENT task.
Looks to me like it was a total “no win” for J&T. That’s what happens when there’s no will or support from the people who should out there leading, not making excuses — David Strand, et. al.
Bob,
The only mention of a $750,000 amount in the petition that I could find was:
987.
Wendell A. Volkens
St. Paul – Council Bluffs, IA
The $750,000 LCMS beneficiary of my policy is in jepordy here.
I couldn’t find anything that mentioned redirecting that amount to an independent issues.
Follow the money. When you follow the money it is obvious that IE was cancelled for political reasons, not financial ones. Look where the politicians are spending our Lord’s money. Big bucks are going to the Purpose Driven Church Growth Movement, Financial Consultants, Buildings, and Bureaucracy. They obviously don’t want to spend it on Confessional Lutheranism.
Show me the money! Maybe IE was cancelled so abruptly because had Pr. Wilken and Jeff shown Synod the money, Synod couldn’t have use the financial reason for canceling IE. Then they couldn’t as easily have tried to cover up the true theological/political reason for canceling the program.
A more obvious reason for the cancelation is that they were ticked because they couldn’t get their cut from the ‘Issues 300′ till.
Eric,
My mistake. It had been awhile since I saw this — I thought the guy had said that. But it’s possible, eh?
How can David Strand sleep at night? Really. Doesn’t all of this twisting of the truth (dare I say–lying) weigh on his conscience? I wonder how he justifies this in his mind.
So sad, that the day issues was cancelled, we were going to make a presentation that night to our voters assembly about having an Issues KFUO Sunday. My colleague walked into the meeting ready to present and was shocked to hear that the show had “disappeared.” We were also going to push to be one of those 300 supporters via our mens group.
Michael
What if they canceled the show before Issues 300 because they could still point to the lack of finances? If Issues had gotten that $300,000, then there would be no other reason to cancel the program. The shut it down while they still had the evidence of the lack of money.