Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W. July 15, 2010

I’m at camp this week, experiencing life with fifty middle-schoolers, some who think they should be in the high school camp instead…and others who are longing for a week back with the elementary kids because they seem to get to swim more.
Today’s lunch consisted of a corn dog, chili, carrot and celery sticks, and a bag of potato chips…Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream! I saved the bag of chips for last because I thought I’d scoop up the chili with it.
When I opened the bag and started to reach in my fingers grasped thin air, as opposed to a thin chip. Then I looked inside the bag. My vision almost echoed before it caught sight of some ridges.
Two chips! The bag had two chips! Do you know how I knew there was two chips? I counted them!
One! Two! Thr…What?
Do you know how disappointing it is to open a bag of chips and be able to count them on half of a hand?
I was struck by the contrasts. Why spend so much time on the packaging and just put two chips in it? Why have that nice colorful logo, list the ingredients, have a nice easy to open top for the bag, and even make them a special flavor- Cheddar and Sour Cream- just to drop two chips into the pocket?
Why spend so much time making the outside look fantastic, and leave the inside almost empty? Puzzling…concentrating on selling a product that we don’t have much of.
It reminds me of a story Steve Wamberg told me about going to a Rockies’ baseball game on Coca-Cola night. For $10 you got a ticket to the game, plus a voucher for a Coke and a hot dog at the game. About the third inning he went to get his Coke and ‘dog’ only to find out they had run out of hot dogs.
Wait a minute! It’s a special night where a hot dog was being expected by about 30,000 people. He was a little disappointed, and came back and yelled up to Annie “No, one told them we were coming!”
Disappointment when something is touted or promised and isn’t delivered doesn’t promote much brand loyalty.
Let it lay it out for you. A lot of people who follow Jesus focus almost all of their attention on the outside “Christian appearance” but don’t have much to offer on the inside. Consider how “prayer empty” a large percentage of Christians are. Think about the disconnect that happens between life experience and scriptural comprehension.
Churches have a tendency to focus on the packaging of “the product’, but be short on fulfillment. There’s a focus on programming, but neglect of going to a deeper place. There’s a desire to make our buildings look pleasant and appealing, but sometimes an absence of “being” the presence of Christ to our community.
To paraphrase what Rick Rusaw says in The Externally Focused Quest, there’s a difference between “being the best church in our community” versus “being the best church for our community.” That one change in preposition makes all the difference. Being the best church in our community is still more about the packaging. Being the best church for the community is more about what the inside of the package has to offer.
Perhaps these words are simply the ramblings of a disgruntled potato chip guy, but sometimes what happens that is labeled “Christian” leaves a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths.

WORDS FROM W.W. July 9, 2010

Wednesday night about 5:45 there was a knock on our door. It was Patti, our next-door neighbor. She said to Carol, “I hope you haven’t eaten dinner yet, because I just won a free pizza party from 99.9 FM. Thirty pizzas are being delivered in fifteen minutes!”
A few minutes after 6:00 a Papa John’s delivery van, followed by a 99.9 FM vehicle parked on our block, set up a table for the pizzas and drinks, and our neighborhood had an instant block party. Patti even asked me to give a blessing prayer for the meal!
The music was pounding, the pizza was being consumed, and the event was crazy. A few minutes later it partially broke up because of lightning and rain, but it was good while it lasted.
The interesting thing is that I had just been reading The Externally-focused Quest by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson. They bring up the story that Jesus told his disciples in Luke 14 about a banquet. It’s a free banquet. Not one of those “Dinner on us, and then hear a presentation on how you can make sure your future is financially secure.” This banquet has no strings attached. It was just an opportunity to come and celebrate with the host. Think of it as a block party!
Then we read this.
“But they (the invited guests) began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ (Was the field going someplace?) Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ (Now there’s a party animal!) Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’” (Okay! I admit that I don’t quite understand how Jesus connects marriage with property and oxen.)
At our free pizza block party there were a number of our neighbors who came, but there were even more who didn’t. Patti invited them all. There were “Thanks, but no thanks” and “Thanks” with the indication they’d come…but didn’t.
It was free! There was even garlic butter dipping sauce!
Rusaw and Swanson make the point that Patti could have said Emeril, Bobby Flay, and Paula Deen was arriving to cook up a free meal, and people still would choose not to come.
What they are getting at is that the church to often tries to be attractional instead of missional. Or as our region’s executive minister likes to say, attractional instead of “incarnational.” The tendency is to put our time, money, and energies into creating a “Disneyland” instead of “going to.” They make the point that in the early centuries of the church, the followers of Christ, through their compassion and kindness, served the people around them.
I’ll have to admit, I was looking forward to hamburgers that night. The patties were ready. But when someone invites you to a free pizza party, you feel obligated to accept.
Connecting truth! There are a number of people who come to our churches out of obligation. It would be rude to say no. Obligation, however, is a tune that can only be played for so long. At some time it loses its status toward the top of the spiritual iTunes list. As our culture becomes less inclined to go to church, but not any less spiritual, those who are in the sanctuary on Sunday morning or Saturday night in order “to be nice” will slide.
What’s the answer?
Wouldn’t that make it seem pretty simplistic, to have just one answer?
I’ll give one point towards the answer, though. The people of God must become less defined by our properties, structures, and Disneylands; and more associated with faith, love, and action. The church unleashed, instead of leashed.
Free pizza is great! Freed people is better!

WORDS FROM W.W. June 30, 2010

The next time you hear someone make the statement “You’re so high and mighty,” it may be directed at one of the church officers of a Christian cannabis church.
The spiritual marijuana movement is growing . . . not just in secluded places away from any law enforcement officials, but also in a number of new churches that are springing up. A recent article in The Denver Post focused on the “Cannabis Church Revival Tour,” a three-event swing along the Colorado Front Range promoting the religious use of marijuana. You could say that “people are really high on it.”
Okay, I’ll try to keep the humor to a legal minimum. This is a quote, however, from Rev. Roger Christie, founder of the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry. He said, “I like to say that we get high to say ‘Hi’ to the Most High.”
His words, not mine!
Kathleen Chippi, a marijuana dispensary owner who is starting a cannabis ministry, said she will ask new church members to take cannabis theology classes. That should get high marks! Sorry! I couldn’t help myself.
The article closes with a quote from a 41-year old man. He says, “My whole life, I’ve been smoking weed, and I just thought it would be good to join something I believe in.”
Puzzling and troubling. There’s even a view that cannabis is a new sacrament right alongside communion and baptism.
I know I’m becoming increasingly old-fashioned, but my mind just keeps asking “What’s next?” Jim Beam at the Lord’s Supper? A church geared towards Denver Broncos fans that sticks pins in Oakland Raider dolls? Casino Christian Revival movements? Porn Addicts for Christ? Chicago Cub Spiritual Pilgrimage Tours? Pretty soon donuts will become another sacrament.
Our culture seems to have this tendency to start the foundation with something other than Jesus, and then throw Jesus on top of it to make it look spiritual. It’s the equivalent of slapping some deodorant spray on top of a body that is reeking of B.O. We can hide the source for a few minutes, but eventually the nasal hair-curling truth will rise to the surface.
If our relationship is not based in Christ we’ll substitute what we really worship deep-down, and then try to make it look spiritual with a few references to Jesus.
Cannabis ministry? It gives new meaning to the verse about the potter and the clay.
Pastor Bill

I’ve updated my technology gadgets recently. Now I can reach out and touch someone in multiple ways. Text, email, Facebook, Tweeting, and EVEN talking! I can even send the latest picture of my grandson to my mom and dad!

With every new gadget, however, there’s a downside. I’m just as reachable for everyone else as they are for me. For those of us who think that’s a pretty neat thing there’s the danger of caution zone that is about to be entered.

The ability and time to be quiet and ponder the things of God is being diminished. As I write those words I have links at the bottom of my laptop screen for my email and Facebook. I’m tempted to see if someone has sent me a message on Facebook in the past two minutes, because when you’re talking about the urgent moments of life checking Facebook ranks right up there! Right?

It’s appropriate that the theme of summer camp this year is “Unplugged.” For some young people to go six days without any on-line social networking is like going into de-tox. Wait a minute! I’m afraid the same can be said for most adults. I’m starting to quiver just thinking about it.

At camp we have a daily “FOYB” time. That stands for, ironic as it sounds, “Flat On Your Back.” I’m coming to the belief that we need a time period each day when we’re unavailable in order to be available. That is, block out a two hour time period in order to be available to the whisper of the Holy. Some people might say that is easy . . . no problem . . . done! Others would respond to that suggestion with the words “ludicrous” and “insane.” In other words, I can’t do that!

Multi-tasking results in minimal listening. It gives equal time to the mundane and the urgent.

· I read Psalms, while listening to Lady Gaga and watching Bridezilla.

· I read “Our Daily Bread” while texting my friends about what movie we’re going to that night.

· I’m talking to someone about what God wants to do in their life, while hearing someone talking to me through my Bluetooth, and deciding what extra-value meal to order.

· I’m texting someone about work on Monday while in the midst of a congregation that has just been asked to pray silently for a few moments and listen to the small still voice of God.

It’s not that multi-tasking is an evil that needs to be weeded out. It’s a potential practice that can become an obsession. The obsession can blind us to what God really desires to be about.

Let me frame it in a different context. Think back to someone you used to date that you really cared about. If you need to go current, please do. You’re sitting in a Starbucks talking to this person. The conversation starts going a little deeper. About the time you have a life-changing question to ask the person, he/she gets a text from someone with that annoying little sound that accompanies it. The interruption is brief, but it takes a few moments to get the conversation flowing again. About the time another crossroads comment is about to be made the person gets another text with an attached humorous photo. This conversational ebb and flow keeps happening until you do an inner sigh and give up. That would be frustrating, wouldn’t it be?

Imagine if in this scene God was you (just this once!) and you were the one who kept getting distracted. Is it possible that God would become frustrated with your lack of focus on what He deeply desires to share with you?

Many of us wouldn’t know to answer, because we’re oblivious to our multi-tasking ADD lives. Perhaps you, and I, might take a tech break today—unplugged here in order to be plugged in to a higher power.

Pastor Bill

WORDS FROM W.W. June 17, 2010

There’s a story in the bible about loaves and fishes. It is dependent on a young boy’s willingness to share with people he’s never seen before in his entire life. Basically, he has come prepared and no one else has. He’s brought his lunch- five really small loaves and two little fish (Think minnows!). He gives his lunch to Jesus. He’s not exactly sure what Jesus is going to do with a young boy’s lunch. After all, there’s an outside arena full of people.
Nevertheless, he takes the first step and gives it up. It’s a fascinating story of selflessness and sharing. I used the story on the first day this past week at our church’s Summer Daze day camp. We focused on four different missions/ministries during the week, one for each day of the camp. We looked at earthquake devastation in Chile, working with some churches in Japan, a summer camp ministry aimed at Native Canadians in the northern part of British Columbia, and feeding hungry people through a ministry in our own city.
I put a challenge before the 53 campers. If they collected $500 for these missions I would get a Mohawk haircut. Then one of the campers suggested a blue Mohawk if $1,000 was collected. Oh, me of little faith, believing there was no way they would reach that figure, said yes!
Thus began a modern version of the loaves and fishes story, except modernized to take the shape of a neighborhood lemonade stand. The children in one family put together their efforts, and resources to serve lemonade to people passing by. How much money can be collected by selling lemonade? $10? $20?
Try about $120! A pretty good rate of return on about a $5.00 investment.
Being willing to put our resources together to be used by the Lord, and for the Lord, can have amazing results.
On Wednesday night I thought I might have to get a Mohawk, but the “blue part” seemed a real reach.
And then the flood gates opened…or should I say the piggy banks? Today kids with smiling faces willingly put money into the giant water bottle that held the funds, instead of using the money to buy themselves ice cream.
Loaves and fishes.
We concluded the day camp with a closing gathering to see if I’d get a haircut.
And here it comes!
$1,731.94!
Can you say blue Mohawk?
Can you also say “mission support?”
I was blown away, but it tells me of the hearts of children who want to help others. When we were looking at pictures of people devastated by the earthquake in Chile, someone told me that the kids were so focused and engaged in the situation. They saw the need, and they responded.
A long time ago a miracle started with a young boy’s loaves and fishes. This week it started with a pitcher, some lemonade mix, a big stirring spoon, and some kids who wanted to help others…and see their pastor sporting a blue Mohawk!

WORDS FROM W.W. June 10, 2010

I recently got an e-mail from Mike Oldham, who is on the staff of the American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains. He was inquiring about my doctorate degree. Just call me Doctor Wolfe, or just “The Doctor” like it’s my disc jockey call name.
For the past three years or so I’ve been getting correspondence from our denominational headquarters in Pennsylvania addressed to “Dr. William Wolfe.” I don’t know how I got elevated to that next degree level, but there it is…every time. Even the mission giving certificates our church receives has my name embossed on it in bold letters as “Dr. William Wolfe.”
I’m going out on a limb here, but could it be that I received an honorary doctorate from an institution of higher learning and no one told me? Could it be that I was suppose to give the commencement address at the Gluten-free Cooking School of Spiritual Leadership and the invitation got lost in the mail?
If that’s the case, I humbly apologize…but please send me my framed honorary degree so I can mount it on my office wall.
I told Mike, who by the way will be a “Doctor” in the not too distant future, that I have not been, nor probably ever will be a “Doctor.”
I am willing to consider it if there’s a senior discount rate involved.
These days it seems like it’s easy to pretend to be something that you aren’t. Ever gotten a breakfast at Denny’s or a hamburger at Burger King and said to the person serving you, “No, I want the one that is in your menu picture. This looks completely different.”
There seems to be a loss of salvation between the end of the worship service and the exiting of the church parking lot.
“Hey! Isn’t’ that Deacon Smith who’s yelling at the Safeway cashier.”
Sometimes people even make you something that you aren’t without any effort on your part. I recently attended my sister’s church and was asked to give the closing prayer. I think that I must have given the appearance that “I could pray good.” It did roll out of my mouth and was honoring of the presence and personal nature of God…I think. At least no one threw anything at me when I said “amen.”
Evidently there are several people in this world who desperately want to make me a doctor. Thirty-one years in the ministry should get me something besides higher blood pressure, cholesterol, and closer in time proximity to higher places.
There was a good devout Unitarian that people wanted to make a Baptist because she brought the best baked beans to church potlucks. Belief systems were of secondary importance when a taste of the sweet sauce of the baked beans touched the tongues of the congregation.
There was a man who grew pot in his backyard, but he was an amazing shortstop for the Lutherans. Knowledge of his “side job” gave double meaning to the term “high chopper.”
We can masquerade as something that we really aren’t, but sometimes people have us arrive there even before we’ve even thought about it.
“Dr. Bill” sounds too much like “Dr. Phil” (I wonder if his is real!). I think I’ll just stay with Pastor Bill and Coach Wolfe.
It’s who I am.

In the first decade of my previous pastorate, there was a big framed picture of Jesus in the main hallway of the church. It was a three dimensional picture of our Savior.
It had a light behind it, that when turned on, gave the Son of God an eerie look about Him. It was like He was always looking at you no matter where you were in the hallway. He had that wavy three-dimensional look to Him.
“3-D Jesus” was a part of the scenery. Those of us who frequented the building each Sunday were used to Him, even to the point that we no longer noticed Him.
The guest sign-in book was on a podium directly in front of Him . . . facing Him. I wondered if anyone was ever scared away by looking at Jesus.
We had some “Jesus humor” among a number of us in the church about 3-D Jesus. We joked about “turning Jesus on” when we arrived at the building on Sunday morning, and then making sure that we “turned Jesus off” when we left. You can probably follow our train of sarcasm in those statements.
3-D Jesus had been mounted on the wall in our church for so long that even when the light switch was turned off you could still see the tracings of His face. It was our version of the Shroud of Turin, except we called it “The 3-D Jesus of Mason.”
No museums requested special engagements.
I don’t know who had given 3-D Jesus to the church, but I believe He was a memorial gift. Sometimes churches get rid of Jesus before giving up something given in memory of someone. Thus, 3-D Jesus stayed . . . and stayed . . . and stayed. It was only in re-painting the main hallway that He didn’t show up again after the paint dried.
I’m not sure, but I think there were a few people who didn’t show up again after that as well.
Sometime Jesus becomes part of the scenery until He’s not there anymore. Then He’s noticed. Of course, that never really happens—He is always there. It’s when our world gets rocked or the scenery of our life gets changed that we suddenly realize that we’ve been missing Him, even though He’s always been there.
Perhaps that’s when the light really goes on.
Pastor Bill

WORDS FROM W.W. May 26, 2010

“Atheist” (n.)- Doubter; agnostic; nonbeliever.
I’ve been reading Craig Groeschel’s book The Christian Atheist. The title leaned me in the direction of the bookshelf that displayed it. The “half-price for three days only” got me to pick it up. The gift card convinced me to buy it. The book sleeve’s sub-heading is “Believing in God but living as if He doesn’t exist.”
Hmmm!
Unfortunately I have to get through the first 11 chapters before coming to the final chapter entitled “When You Believe In God, But Not in His Church.” (I’m too compliant to jump to the last chapter first. Somewhere in my life- probably first grade- it was hammered into me that “good little boys” didn’t do that!)
Atheist is one of those names that we’ve black-listed, but an atheist is a doubter. That means that at one time Thomas qualified. Even at the end of Matthew, one verse that continues to confound me, talks about the disciples worshipping Jesus, “but some doubted.” Everyone of us doubts in some way. That doesn’t mean that that on Sunday I’m going to say something like “You may have come here this morning with a lot of atheism. You’re atheistic about the possibility of healing happening in your life. You’re an atheist that hope could come into your life. But,let me assure you, that you don’t have to leave here today still an atheist. Jesus is big enough to handle your atheist-infected mind.”
The word has history that usually conjures up pictures of Madalyn Murray O’Hair ranting and raving about prayer in the public schools. O’Hair was named by Life magazine as “the most hated woman in America” in 1964. If you remember her at all you may remember that she didn’t really convey having “a warm personality.”
So “atheism” has history in Christian circles.
But it’s also very close to home in an uncomfortable way! We do doubt! We do live in ways that say we’re believers, but not committed to it. When we talk about commitment it too often is defined by how many church activities and study groups we’re a part of. The confusing thing is that there are believers who aren’t committed to anyway. Being committed to a group, or a study, or being in a worship service each week would be a welcome sign that they are still alive, let alone following Jesus.
My “atheism” shows in my too frequent doubting that people can change. I become cynical that God can mold and shape clay into something extraordinary. History is more often than not a good indication of what will happen in the future, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob also has a history of writing the impossible made possible.
Could it be that the “atheism” of the church keeps pulling us back to what we’re used to and what we’ve always experienced? Could it be that a more intimate relationship with God is just outside of our reach because we’ve doubted that he can extend himself just a little more in our direction?
That takes me to the end of this column, but also the beginning of chapter seven in Groeschel’s book. It’s entitled “When You Believe in God, But Don’t Think You Can Change.”
I’m hesitant to read it.

WORDS FROM WW May 23, 2010

Today is one of those days! Depressingly celebrative! Joyfully sad!
Lizi, our youngest child, receives her college diploma. It’s the culmination of four years of hard work and applying herself. And now today she walks!
Why downcast, O my soul?
Call it “the dad syndrome” or “fatherhood flu”, but it comes as a dad reflects and remembers…
…the day of birth (Carol and I watched several episodes of M.A.S.H. and played two games of Scrabble as we waited in the birthing room. Scrabble strategy you never hear about: Play against a pregnant woman in labor. Her words will get shorter as the game goes on and she will care less and less about winning.)
…eating birthday cake for the first time- kept the hose close at hand.
…first day of school etched in our photo album. (The missing front tooth will always give it a special flavor.)
…swimming like a fish.
…Buddy Basketball dominance.
…kicking the “For Sale” sign down in front of our house in Mason, Michigan. (The next day it was not only kicked down again, but also dispatched underneath a pine tree hoping not to be discovered.)
…making intelligent decisions in situations that many of her friends didn’t.
…getting baptized, and Dad not being able to finish it because of all the emotion.
…Prom.
…seeing her developed sense of justice and compassion appear in a number of situations.
…taking her to college that first year, and experiencing synchronized crying with Carol within a mile of leaving the parking lot of Lizi’s dorm.
And so today as she walks to the front of the platform and receives her diploma, I’ll be proud and also a little sad. I long for those days when she was still on the slide and swings, but know that part of parenthood is the growing of the child to come to the point where, in some ways, she doesn’t need us to catch her any more. It’s a fulfilling moment that we receive with hesitation and dread.
Oh, to keep them as children! I’d better stop. The tears are heading towards my eyes!

WORDS FROM W.W. May 14, 2010

I grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show. I got to know all the characters. Aunt Bee always got on my nerves. Otis continues to be my favorite drunk of all time on any TV show. I looked far and wide until I finally found a barber like Floyd, except his name is Phil. And Barney…well…what can you say about a grown man who can still sing soprano?
And then there was Goober! Goober was weekly evidence that you don’t have to be smart to get noticed. In fact, if there was an episode without Goober I felt a little cheated. I wish I could have met Goober’s parents to help me understand how he became who he was. Goober was always saying something that showed his lack of comprehension, and he would do things that had you rolling on the floor laughing while secretly hoping you yourself never did anything like that…and people saw you do it.
In years since we’d use the derogatory comment “What a Goober!” to categorize events that were completely void of intelligent decisions.
And yet all of us at one time or another put a hat on that communicates that we are Goobers.
Goobers in a GQ world, that’s who we are much of the time.
The GQ world is that place where people look perfect and without blemish. It’s a world that distances itself from Jesus, because when you believe you have it all together there’s no need for someone to be your Savior. Flaws are admissions of guilt. Imperfections taint the view.
Which makes Goobers stand out even more with their faults and failures!
I was a real Goober this past week. No…really! I got tickets to a Colorado Rockies baseball game and three of us headed to Denver on a night that more resembled hockey weather than baseball. We were just a few minutes away from the stadium when the radio informed us that the game had been cancelled. I had put the five layers of clothing on for nothing!
Then one of my friends (He still is, in case you’re wondering!) told me that our tickets wouldn’t have been good anyway.
“Huh?”
“These tickets are for the afternoon game tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
I had ordered tickets for the wrong day, and, of course, we couldn’t go the next day.
My friend said to me, “Well, think of the positive. At least we didn’t pay and park.”
I guess that’s a victory. I envisioned us walking up to the gate, having the ticket scanner scan our tickets and then saying “These tickets are for tomorrow’s game.”
“Huh?”
“These tickets aren’t good for tonight.” And then under his breath “What a Goober!”
Goobers need grace…lot’s of it! People who are permanent residents of the GQ world need grace also, but won’t often admit to it.
Come to think of it, Barney was one of those who always was trying to live in the GQ world, that is, the place of perfection and power…but he was more of a Goober than Goober himself. Most of the episodes of Andy Griffith were about the predicaments Barney would get himself into as the result of trying to be something he wasn’t.
At least Goober knew who he was…and wasn’t.
Back to my recent Goober moment. I am extremely thankful that the two guys I went to the game with, or almost went to the game with, gave me grace (They put in some grief also, but no objects were thrown at me). It will stand out as a moment that we will laugh about for years to come. It’s good to have people like that to walk through life with. If you can’t think of anyone who can be that for you there’s some searching you need to do.