Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category
April 23, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 23, 2016
I recently substitute taught in a fifth grade classroom. What an awesome experience! It gave me several revelations about the fifth grade and a typical church congregation. I wrote in Part one about “the system”, and how foundational it is in both groups. In Part 2 I’ll ponder another discovery- personalities.
It only took a few minutes of being present in the classroom to discover the personalities of this fifth grade class. Most of them were delightful in their uniqueness and yet predictable in their reactions and responses. It was very similar to a congregation, where uniqueness is applauded in terms of callings and giftings as long as they don’t upset the system.
There were the two or three students who saw their role as being the “irritators.” They were the ones who seemed to always drop their books at the quietest times, the ones who made farting sounds, and comments that brought laughter and attention for a moment. The typical church has a few people like this as well. Sometimes it is “the sacred child”, who has grown up in the church and can do no wrong…and offer nothing positive, as well! Sometimes the irritator is the one who wants the pastor’s attention and time. He/she is usually spiritually immature and wants to be needed. In the classroom the irritator is the one who slows down the completion of the day’s objectives and learning. In the church the irritator is the one who could care less about movement and progress. The church is their playground.
There were also the class leaders. When I started straying outside “the system” the class leaders steered me back onto the road. Class leaders can lead to achievement or lead the herd to run off a cliff. Thankfully the two class leaders I had were more like Moses and less like Aaron.
In the church the leaders are not necessarily the elected officers. They are the ones who guide officially or unofficially. There are leaders who lead the congregation to their kingdom and leaders who understand that they are servant leaders for the kingdom of God. I remember Bill Hybels giving a talk about getting the right people on the bus. That is, the right people to lead the church need to be on the bus. Too often the wrong people are the ones who fight to get on the bus. The right leaders will rarely push to be in a seat of power.
The fifth grade class had a couple of “helpers.” They were the students who picked up paper off the floor or straightened the desks at the end of the school day without being asked. It was part of who they were. They were self-motivated to help. If we had been in a rowboat they were the ones who would have manned the oars without being directed to do so. They saw their role as helping the class get to the finish line of the school day.
In the church the helpers are God’s blessings upon the pastor and leadership. Sometimes they serve in recognized positions, but “the helpers” stand out on a Sunday when the pastor is gone, or people are absent because of sickness. They fill in the gaps. They pick up trash off the floor…naturally…without thinking “That’s the custodian’s job!”
Helpers need leaders, but, in the loneliness of leadership, leaders are extremely indebted to helpers.
The fourth group of the class were “the silent.” They were the few students who never raised their hands to answer questions or offer opinions, the ones who needed encouragement and to be valued. The silent can easily get run over by the irritators and leaders. Like scared kittens they need to be coaxed to come out of their hiding places.
The congregation has the silent group as well. The interesting thing about the silent is that they will often come out of their hiding place in the pew if the leaders personally encourage them, or if one person invites them to come alongside him/her in some simple ministry. The silent can be there every week and yet be invisible.
Finally, in that fifth grade classroom there were “the outliers”, the couple of students who stood outside the expected, and surprised the teacher. They didn’t fit into any one category, and could not easily be described. They were the ones who didn’t fit in the grading curve, like the one student who was in our seminary Hebrew class and had studied Hebrew for years in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah! What!!!!
Outliers are simply surprisers! They hadn’t read the manual on what a fifth grader is suppose to be like. They were the special secret spice in the class recipe.
A congregation has outliers as well. They are the ones who surprise the pastor with a theological insight dealing with social justice, and yet are also card-carrying members of the NRA. They vote Republican and watch CNN, play the saxophone and run marathons. Congregational outliers are the few people who the pastor has a hard time getting a handle on how to describe. They often are the few who have a completely unique perspective on the church that is a revelation to the ears who are willing to hear it.
A fifth grade classroom….and a church congregation- different, and yet so similar!
Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Community, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: 5th Graders, church life, church personalities, congregation, congregation needs, congregational functioning, congregational life, elementary school, fifth grade, Fifth Graders, irritators, outliers, silent people, students
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April 22, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 22, 2016
I substitute taught in a fifth grade class this week. It was really an awesome experience, and I’m not just whistling Dixie! I found myself liking these kids! They didn’t try to tell me that their teacher gives them an hour for recess, or lead me down the wrong stairway, or shoot spit wads at me with their luncheon drinking straws…as some of us did a few decades ago to our substitute! (Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned!)
I also found myself connecting dots! A fifth grade class is a lot like a typical congregation.
First of all, there was “the system”. Every church has a system, sometimes written down in documents, but most of the time unwritten but known by the members. When someone veers away from “the system” there is much consternation. Special meetings get called. Phone calls get made. Side conversations become more frequent. In many churches “the system” is sacred!
In the midst of the fifth grade math class that was dealing with something called “line plots” I foolishly veered away from “the system.” It was as if a dark family secret just got revealed on Jerry Springer. There were a couple of gasps, several confused looks, but then one “rescuer” brought me back under control before I drifted too far into math curriculum heresy.
Close call!
Systems are important to help the congregation know there will be order in the midst of the journey. It’s kind of like serving the salad and main dish before you can get to the dessert. There’s an accepted order, a process for getting things done, and…processes that “we don’t do around here!” As a pastor there were a few times I didn’t follow the system, didn’t follow the order, and those were the most gut-wrenching, stressful times of ministry.
Clarification! There are times to go outside the system, but the “trailblazer” better have a well thought out plan before that path gets taken. If the congregational road has become a rut it is a sign that the system has become a detriment to movement.
The school system I was a part of this week included “parts” of math, science, and literature. Since it was a state testing day I didn’t get to have a part on “social studies.” Each part had its advocates and opponents. That is, there were those who were excited and focused, and those who just wanted to get through it. The purpose behind all the parts was for them to work together to provide a well-rounded education.
In any congregation there are also a number of parts in the system. There is worship, education/discipleship, fellowship, missions, serving ministries, and a number of other parts. People get excited in and invested in different parts, and, just as in the fifth grade classroom, there are other parts that they just want to get through. The passion comes out as the focus comes to the part they are excited about. The disinterest surfaces when the other parts are emphasized. I remember a man from a congregation I pastored who would get up and walk out when praise music was being sung, but sing with passion when a hymn was happening. Interestingly enough, in my experience there were very few people who loved praise music but had a disdain towards hymns. They were the much more flexible group when it came to the “music sub-parts” of the worship part.
In part two of “The Fifth Grade Classroom” I’ll focus on “personalities and pecking orders”.
Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Community, Freedom, Grace, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Prayer, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: 5th Grade Classroom, American Baptist Churches, belief system, church life, churches, classroom, congregational functioning, congregational life, congregational systems, congregations, fifth grade, flexible, learning, Passion, processes, substitute teaching, System, teaching
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April 21, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 20, 2016
Strapped in, buckled up, and securely fastened.
Carol and I drove the “Wolfe Bus”, disguised as a Honda Accord, down the road. The back seat was at capacity with three grandchildren. They looked like three kids locked into their roller coaster seats waiting for the ride to start.
A thirteen month old named Corin (Rennie for short); a five year old CEO named Reagan; and the eldest child straight from soccer practice, seven year old Jessie. “Grammy” and I didn’t have to worry about conversation. The back seat competed for it!
“Jessie, you can’t have any Cheetos, because I ate them all!”
“Reagan!”
“You can have Cheerios.”
“Da…Da!”
“Great!” he replied with seven year old sarcasm. “Grammy, did Reagan eat all the Cheetos?”
“Yes, but, Jessie, there weren’t very many left in the bag.”
“But I ate them all and you can have Cheerios.”
I contributed to the conversation: “Reagan!” (said with a semi-stern parental tone to it)
“Da…Ba..Ba!”
“Corin said she saw me eat all the Cheetos.”
“That’s not what she said.”
“Then what did she say? I’m sitting beside her and that’s what I heard her say.”
“She said, “Da…Ba…Ba!”
“Da…Da…Ba…Ca…Da!”
“I told you she said Cheetos.”
“Whatever!”
“Grammy, where are we going for dinner?”
“Home!”
“Da…Ba…Ca…Ca!”
“Corin says we should go to Cracker Barrel.”
Grammy looked at me with eyes that were rolling. “Reagan, are you Corin’s interpreter today?”
“Yes, when she has something to say she tells me and I let everyone else know.”
“Wow! Does she tell you to change her diaper?”
“No, she tells me to tell you to change her diaper, but she’s okay right now.”
“Ca…Ca…Blah!”
“Granddad, I finished reading those books you got for me.”
“Encyclopedia Brown?”
“Yes!”
“That’s awesome, Jessie! You read them really fast.”
Not to be moved out of the spotlight: “We learned the letter “Z” at Lil’ Sprouts yesterday. Do you want to hear it?”
“Sure, Reagan!” Grammy replied.
“Zebra, zoo, zookeeper, zoom, zig-zag.”
“That’s awesome, Reagan!”
“Z is the last letter in the alphabet.”
“Za…Ba…Za!”
Jessie giggled. “Corin is saying Z!”
Granddad humor: “I guess you could say that is the end of things.”
Confused silence!
“Ba…DaDa…Blah!”
Categories: children, Grandchildren, Humor, love, Parenting, Story, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: Encyclopedia Brown, five year olds, grandchildren, grandfather, grandkids, grandparenting, pre-school, Z
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April 19, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 19, 2016
One restaurant chain offered a special deal last Friday, April 15, where a customer could receive a free entree with the purchase of an entree. They just assumed that April 15 was Tax Day, like it usually is!
But, lo and behold, the Internal Revenue Service had delayed the income tax return filing date until Monday, April 18. The three extra days allowed millions of people to procrastinate even longer in paying up!
The extra days came as a result of Emancipation Day, a holiday that is celebrated in the District of Columbia to recognize when slaves were freed there. Since Emancipation Day is April 16, a Saturday, the day before (April 15) became a holiday for government workers in D.C.
Thus the three day stay of execution!
Consider the three days as the grace of the IRS. What is rightfully due to them was backed off for seventy-two hours. Across the country there was a collective sigh of relief, like when a snow day postponed that Algebra test we were scheduled to take at school. Our initial thought was “Thank God! Another day to study and prepare!”, and that thought soon melted away from our minds as we went sledding with the neighbor’s kids. That evening we prayed to God for a blizzard to descend upon us, or, if not that, that he might eliminate Algebra as a school subject entirely!
The IRS planned this three day grace period long before it arrived, but, you see, grace is not high on the IRS’s priority list. Monday came…tax returns were filed…and the money was due.
And let’s be honest! The grace of the IRS, limited and distorted as it is, mirrors our own extended grace. We’re prone to back off from throwing the hammer down…for a while, and then we become stone-faced and legalistic.
One reason for that is that people take advantage of a grace-filled person. When someone hears that there is a grace period he often looks to see how he can personally gain from it. A person of grace is seen as being a soft touch.
And so, like the IRS, we offer limited grace, because…that’s just how it should be!
The more I comprehend the grace of God the more I am overwhelmed by it. It filters into my life and I know I’m not deserving. It confounds the minds of those who live by right-and-wrong boundaries.
In makes no sense to most of us, and yet, as followers of Christ, we trumpet its virtues.
This year we wrote a check to the United States Treasury that lowered the national debt a wee bit. What do you think the IRS would have said to me if I would have pleaded for mercy? Would compassion have been the response? If you believe that, I have some excellent shares of Krispy Kreme stock I’d like to sell you!
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Freedom, Grace, Humor, Jesus, Nation, Pastor, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: April 15, Emancipation Day, grace, grace period, income taxes, IRS, limited grace, taxes. tax returns, the grace of God, United States Treasury, unlimited grace
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April 18, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 18, 2016
Peace is a highly valued condition seldom understood and, most of the time, awkwardly explained. It is searched for like the Holy Grail, elusive to find and fleeting when experienced. It gets treated like a chemical formula…two parts this and one part that…but it’s not confined or easily defined.
Sometimes peace is experienced in the knowing, finding out a diagnosis and having a sense of peace about it. Sometimes peace takes a long time in the arriving. I remember standing beside the hospital bed of a young mother who had just lost her unborn baby. It took a long time for her and her husband to have peace about the loss. They grieved a long journey and asked a lot of questions that mostly began with the word “why?”
But sometimes peace comes in the lack of clarity. It’s the sensing that things are going to be okay no matter the outcome. It is the best kind of peace, because it is not dependent on what someone says or does, how circumstances play out, achievement or rejection. It’s walking into the fog that often descends along the banks of the Ohio River without reservations.
Peace gets linked up with happiness like they are twin sisters, but happiness is more like a distant cousin who shows up at weddings and reunions.
Recently I experienced a sense of peace in a time of uncertainty. There was a decision that was to be made by a committee that affected me. I knew that the decision was out of my control, and, remarkable as it sounds, I had peace about it regardless of the outcome. The disappointment in the news was minimal, as would have been the excitement in a decision that was positive.
Those moments of unclear peace are few and far between. Perhaps it is because I’m getting older…and older…but I view those times as ways that God redirects us. We’re prone to struggle against the wind instead of going with it. That doesn’t mean that everything is going to be cheesecake and champagne (or since I’m Baptist, Baptist champagne…otherwise known as 7-Up!), but experiencing peace is never discovered when we keep a death-like control grip of our life direction. It’s letting God chair the meeting, but knowing that he will always involve you in the dialogue.
I’ve experienced what the Bible says about peace. It surpasses all understanding. That’s comforting, knowing that today is also “Tax Day”, and the IRS got another kind of “piece” from me!
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: Baptist, Baptist champagne, inner peace, Ohio River fog, Peace, peace about decisions, the peace that surpasses all understanding, unclear
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April 17, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 17, 2016
Reagan, our delightful five year old granddaughter, has a creative side to her that emerges just about every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings at 11:55 when I pick her up from the “Little Sprouts” pre-kindergarten class. For the thirteen minute ride from Ms. Brianna’s place back to Grammy and Granddad’s house the unplanned spontaneous brainstorms of a very verbal and cerebral five year old take center stage…from the back seat.
Last Thursday she invented a new routine to run by me. Every time I said something to her she would reply “I can’t hear you because I have my ears covered.”
And then she would laugh!
We went on like that for a while. I played along by pretending to say something but remaining silent. The backseat voice: “I can hear that you aren’t saying anything!”
Reagan has a talent for getting the upper-hand in various non-competitive competitions. We went back and forth in this new listening game until we pulled into the driveway. She loved it, and I was exhausted!
My granddaughter teaches me as much about the silliness of the moment and the sacredness of life as anyone else. I’ve had to hide my copy of the book Killing Reagan when she’s around, just in case she gets the wrong idea.
In her childlike words and actions she shows me glimpses of my own relationship with my Father God.
I’m acutely aware of the fact that I often cover up ears to the whisperings of the Spirit and pretend that I’m deaf to the leadings and warnings. I surround my spirit with sound-proof avoidance and go on doing what seems comfortable and self-serving.
“I can’t hear you, God! I’ve got my ears covered!”
“Well, how do you know I’m saying anything, my child?”
“Because I just know!”
“Why not take your fingers out of your ears and listen then?”
“Because you might say something that I don’t really want to hear.”
“And in not hearing with your ears, does that keep your spirit from knowing?”
“You ask questions that are very uncomfortable to answer.”
“That’s because I love you more than you love yourself.”
Reagan pulls back the curtain and shows me some scenes from my spiritual journey even as she is living the life of a five year old. After all, a grandfather may have his ears covered to a conversation with God, but he will never close his ears to hearing the words of his granddaughter.
Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Grace, Grandchildren, Humor, Jesus, love, Parenting, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: child games, conversations, conversations with kids, granddaughters, listening, not listening, pretending not to hear
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April 16, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 16, 2016
I remember my seminary days of studying theology, talking about it in non-personal ways, and writing papers about it that connected with my mind, but not my soul. A minister friend of mine recently referred to that period of our lives as “reaching for our theology.” That is, we reached for books on library shelves and wrote various statements in essays that were a mixture of what someone else believed and what we thought we believed. In those days, we were not adverse to do some name-dropping in these papers of theology. If a quote from Moltmann’s The Crucified God could be nonchalantly inserted into the pages we would go for it…whether we understood the run-on sentences or believed the doctrine.
Like flying in a plane at 35,000 feet and describing what Kansas is, our words were often “reaches’ for a grade, and not heartfelt beliefs. I confess…I was often in that place of reaching.
And then many of us upon graduation took positions on church ministry staffs and we soon discovered that there is a difference between “reaching” and reality. What we seemed to be able to stay a safe distance from- the actual experiencing of our statement of beliefs- suddenly moved into where we lived.
We went from explaining grace to having to live out grace in our ministries. We went from “reaching preaching” to “preaching from our life experiences.” In many ways it was good, but in some ways it was to uncomfortably close to home.
John Piper is a well-known author and, until 2013, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. I have several of his books in my personal library, including Desiring God and Future Grace (I just name-dropped, didn’t I?). In 2010 Piper took an eight month leave from his position for what he called “a reality check from the Holy Spirit.” He sensed that he had a growing disconnect between what he wrote about and who he was.
A reality check from the Holy Spirit! Many times in my years of ministry I sensed the Holy Spirit nudging my life. Sometimes I faced up to it, and other times…I just kept flying over Kansas!
One of the most difficult elements of ministry is connecting what we believe with why we believe it. It’s the knowledge getting married to the intimate, the distant God that we realize is close at hand, the words of God now being experienced with the breath of God.
In my “reaching days” I could quote from Moltmann’s Theology of Hope, but the reality of ministry is standing by the bed of a hospice patient and talking to him about the hope of the resurrection and what it means for each one of us.
There is a difference between preaching on forgiveness and being forgiving to the person who has purposely told a lie about you that has resulted in deep emotional pain.
I had many excellent professors back in my seminary days. One that I will always be indebted to was a theology professor named Tom Finger, not because I took pages and pages of notes in his classes, but rather because he kept asking me the hard questions:
“Why do you believe what you believe?” “
“What does that mean to you and for your life?”
“What difference does it make?”
He took me from flying over Kansas to having my feet in the dirt. People like that are God’s uncomfortable blessings upon our lives, because they help us figure out life. We see their handprints upon us as we gradually transform from “reaching preaching” to “preaching from our reality.”
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Community, Death, Faith, Grace, Holy Spirit, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: belief system, Beliefs, Desiring God, doctrinal statements, doctrine, Future Grace, John Piper, Jugen Moltmann, ministry, pastoral ministry, Preaching, reality check, reality check from the Holy Spirit, statement of faith, systematic theology, theology, Theology of Hope
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April 14, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 13, 2016
My friend, Steve Wamberg, and I are sharing the Sunday speaking duties at a very small church in a small community on the Eastern Plains of Colorado. Wonderful people, simply incredible! Steve and I have come to realize that this small congregation is, for lack of a better term, stuck. They don’t have a pastor, and they are an aging congregation in the midst of a community that is declining in population.
What’s a church to do?
This Sunday they’ve asked us to help them “talk”, to brainstorm, and create a little bit of congregational movement. One of the first things we’re going to help them figure out is what might be a couple of easy victories. For instance, one of the church signs has been leaned up against the building for several months. Perhaps an easy victory for this congregation would be to put the sign back up, make sure it’s in good shape, and even plant some flowers around it.
That might be an easy victory that the whole congregation can get behind. One easy victory can be the primer for another victory.
Most congregations need easy victories that can be applauded by all. Let me emphasize the “by all” part! There is a danger in many churches of a “victorious superiority” to surface as a result of one ministry/program having success. However, when a whole congregation agrees on an initiative the whole congregation can applaud itself.
Easy victories are within reach of any church. It just needs to be willing to see them. Here’s a few examples of what could be easy victories:
-Children are encouraged to be involved in the ushering duties of Sunday worship. A mentor usher trains, demonstrates, and encourages them.
-The church sponsors a “Thank You Breakfast” for teachers and administrators from the local school sometime during the school year.
-The congregation adopts a flower bed somewhere in the community and cares for it.
-A monthly gathering of senior citizens is begun for fellowship and presentations from different professionals in the community who have resource information relevant to the lives of the elderly.
– One Saturday morning paint the hand railings outside the building.
At some time, however, a church needs to identify a direction for the long journey. If an easy victory is like a trip to the local supermarket to purchase items for dinner tonight, the long journey is comparable to a trip across country that needs to incorporate lodging, meals, road maps, and reliable transportation. Whereas one can be accomplished with little effort, the latter takes more thought and discussion.
If a church experiences a few easy victories it prepares itself…motivates itself…to take on a long journey. For example, in Denver there is a large population of Karen people from Myanmar. A couple of churches have committed to the long journey of helping the Karen get settled, find employment, and establish a Karen church and/or worship service where their native language is spoken. It is a very long journey and the churches that have been traveling it are very committed to international missions and ministries.
Long journeys require congregations that are willing to stay the course, and staying the course is not something that our culture has a tendency to be willing to do. The hunger for success too often derails the journey.
Easy victories encourage and motivate churches, but the long journey shows the depth of a congregation’s commitment. Recently I was the starter for a middle school track meet. The participants in the girls’ 100 meter hurdles race were lining up. One young lady was looking down the track at the rows and rows of hurdles. With a concerned facial expression she asked me, “Do we have to run the whole way?”
Seems like a silly question, but that’s the question that many churches have to ask themselves as they look at the long journey. Do we have to go the whole way? Does a church that says it is committed to helping struggling families in a changing community that is experiencing more violence stay the course, or go halfway and then flee the scene?
The question for any congregation is “what is that long journey for us?”
I would tell you that is varies from church to church, but always involves three things: relationships, sacrifice, and transformation. The long journey will always involve all three, never just two out of three!
Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Community, Pastor, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: brainstorms, buy-in, flower beds, journeying, movement, the long journey, victories, victory
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April 10, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 10, 2016
There is free photo editor available for computers called “Picmonkey.” It allows a person to touch up a photograph and make blemishes disappear. In effect, it brings the picture of a person’s face to perfection. It hides the imperfect.
If there was a “Picmonkey” that churches could use to cover up its imperfections it would be used as much as, or more than, the communion wine! A primitive form of it appears in the newspaper one day each week on the religious services advertisement page. Church slogans and pictures of smiling faces and praying people appear there to convince the reader that spiritual awesomeness is ready to be had at that location.
But the truth of the matter is that every church has at least three things: warts, pimples, and beauty marks. Forms of “Picmonkey” are often used to hide the warts and pimples and accentuate the beauty marks, but, believe me, the blemishes are still there under the make-up.
“Warts” are those things that just are! I’m speaking two Sundays a month at a very small congregation in a small community about forty-five minutes away from the city. Their pastor resigned in a bit of a church dust storm last fall. The congregation is a great group of people in a dated building trying to move forward. One of their warts is the placement of the women’s rest room. It is halfway down the stairway to the basement. Halfway! It is a wart that just is. There aren’t many women’s rest rooms that are halfway down a stairway, but, in this building, it would not easily be relocated, so…it just is!
A lot of church warts are related to the structure the congregation meets in. The church I pastored for many years had a leaky baptistry! Not a good thing for a Baptist church! Whenever we had a baptism we would have to bring in the fans for a few days afterwards to dry out the carpet. For $125 we bought a livestock watering trough that was smaller than the baptistry so it could fit right in the midst of that space. The leaky baptistry is still leaking, but the trough takes care of the problem. It was one of our warts that was humorous in some ways, and frustrating in others.
Every church has its warts. Some are more visible than others. Some warts are the result of gifts given to the congregation years before that have now become part of the congregational facial imprint. Some warts are even people- the person who talks non-stop in a small group, the man who falls asleep every Sunday during the sermon and starts snoring. The warts of a church aren’t necessarily good or bad. They just are! They are like Cindy Crawford’s facial mole. It just is, and now we wouldn’t recognize her without it.
“Pimples” are those tensions in a church that are often under the skin and not readily visible. They aren’t pleasant, and have a tendency to rise to the surface after a while and, forgive me, spew on others. A number of years ago there was a situation where a young unmarried woman in the congregation I was pastoring became pregnant. There was an evident tension between those who did not want to help put on a baby shower for her, and those who wanted to express their love and caring to her as she went through this. Those on one side thought that putting on a baby shower would be condoning pre-marital sex, while those on the other side felt that the young woman needed extra support and encouragement during this time and, after all, the baby was coming! Those who visited our congregation probably weren’t aware of the tensions, but the stakeholders were! Every church has its pimples!
Pimples exist in areas of a church where there are territorial battles, like the organ doesn’t get used any more, but those “cotton-pickin” drums do! Or a pastoral search committee is divided in its support of a potential candidate. Some of the committee see the candidate as a visionary for the future, while others are afraid he/she will change “their” church too much.
Pastors and congregations often become a festering pimple that is in danger of becoming a cluster of blemishes. Like adolescent faces it takes time and effort to slowly let the zits run their course and be healed.
And pimples can arise in the most unexpected places, like what is served at the coffee fellowship time each Sunday? Folger’s (which was good enough for my parents and also for me) or Starbucks (Quality matters!)?
And then there are the beauty marks…the equivalent of cute dimples and stunning eyes! A church’s beauty marks are present regardless of what the board and committee structure is. In fact, the beauty marks usually are present outside of a committee’s decisions. For example, every church has certain people that are the embodiment of Christ. The church is enriched by their presence, not because of the things they do and the ministry positions they fill, but simply because of who they are. They are the unofficial spiritual mentors.
Sometimes a beauty marks is something distinctive about the building. One church I was Associate Pastor of had an incredible stained glass window in the sanctuary that was wondrous to gaze at. The way the light hit it seemed to make it come alive. For me it still is the most awesome stained glass window I’ve ever seen, and people from the city knew about that church’s “beauty mark.”
Every church has its beauty marks!
Warts just are, pimples need attention, and beauty marks cause gratitude.
A church with too many pimples needs to invite in a spiritual dermatologist. A church with a lot of beauty marks should bring attention to them and not take them for granted.
And the warts? Live with them and avoid the temptation to cover them up with “Picmonkey” touch ups!
Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom, Grace, Humor, Jesus, love, Parenting, Pastor, Prayer, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: authentic church, baptistry, beauty marks, blemishes, church drama, church grievances, church problems, church tensions, organ-playing, pimples, warts, Worship
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April 9, 2016
WORDS FROM W.W. April 9, 2016
Today marks the one hundredth day of retirement for me after thirty-six and a half years of church pastoral ministry. One hundred days! In my later years of ministry I was feeling the loss of energy and finding it hard to get recharged on Monday for another week of ministry and activity. I’ll be honest! I looked forward to retirement. When I announced my retirement date about one hundred days beforehand I began the countdown.
In many ways beginning this new phase of my life has been enjoyable. I enjoy the freedom of deciding whether I will or will not do a certain task. For example, in recent weeks I’ve started substitute teaching and if I don’t feel like taking a position on a certain day I don’t. The freedom is a breath of fresh air.
But the greener grass on the other side of the pasture has some challenges hidden in it! In my backyard there is a certain soft spot in the grass that I frequently step in when I’m mowing the lawn. It is well hidden and not deep enough to cause me to turn an ankle, but enough of a depth to sometimes make me lose my balance.
That’s a picture of how it is for a pastor who retires. There is the expected steps as he/she walks through the challenges of ministry, the fulfilling of the roles of being a pastor…and then there is the slipping step of retiring. Who am I in that moment of surprising imbalance and uncertainty?
Ministerial ethics has made me keep some distance from the church I pastored for sixteen years. It’s the right thing to do as the congregation searches for the next pastor, and has some time to figure out who it is. Interim periods are great times for churches to regroup, evaluate, talk, and move ahead. Having the former pastor hovering inhibits that process, kind of like having the dad of a teenager sitting in at a gathering of adolescents! It affects the conversation and is not cool!
So where does that leave me? Truthfully…wandering! A retired pastor enters the woods, but has a hard time finding the path. It is one of those journeys that Google Maps can’t give directions for.
Who is my church? What do I do on Sunday morning? For that matter, what do I do on Saturday night? How do people from my former congregation greet me now…Bill?…Pastor Bill?… Mr. Bill? Is my purpose still the same? What congregation do I become a part of?
Retirement is a time of questions and confusion, and, like a first semester college freshman trying to find his classroom location, I’m trying to find my way.
Scripture doesn’t help that much in this part of the journey. Aaron got taken up to Mount Hor and everybody said “See ya!”, and he died there. I really don’t want to be taken to the top of Pike’s Peak and left for dead!
So I wander to something that is not yet clear and comfortable. It is a redefining travel. It is the soft spot in the lawn that I sink into before finding solid ground again. And it may end up being the most important part of my life journey, because through it I’ll discover who I really am and who I’m not!
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Death, Faith, Jesus, Pastor, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: Aaron, ministerial ethics, ministry retirement, pastoral ministry, pastoral roles, pastoring, Retirement, Sunday morning, wandering
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Words from WW Blog 