Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W. December 7, 2010

The Christmas Season is the time of the year that many people classify as the favorite. There is so much in it! Just take a moment to ponder.
Christmas cards….Christmas carols…manger scenes…Salvation Army bellringers…Toys for Tots…Santa Claus…Black Friday 4am specials…egg nog…candy canes…fruitcake…Christmas Eve candelight service…Christmas trees…lights…fudge…wrapping paper…silence…FedEx deliveries…children’s programs…company Christmas parties…Christmas ties…advent devotional booklets…cookies…family gatherings…decorations…bows…a “Christmas Story” movie, and THE Christmas Story.
I could go on, but you get the idea. It’s massive. It’s a seasonal event that requires the whole season.
This is not a new thought I’m about to put before you. Think of it more like being one of those sticky note reminders on your kitchen counter about something you know, but might forget.
There is an even greater danger of displacing Jesus during Christmas than any other time of the year. It’s all about him to the point that it can become nothing about him!
I remember being at a hospital one time to visit someone from the church I was pastoring. The patient had another visitor there at the same time, who was there…supposedly to encourage the patient, but the visitor monopolized all of the conversation and made it all about herself, even though she was in the room of the patient who needed attention.
Interesting, and disturbing.
Christmas is so much about Jesus, that it can become nothing about Jesus.
Last week our senior adults’ bible study was sharing what makes Christmas special to each one of them. One couple said that a tradition that they have that remains in a sacred time space is the reading of the Christmas story from scripture on Christmas Eve. Everything else is put on pause, all activity ceases, in order for the story of God Incarnate to be heard once again.
Perhaps that’s where we might start this year. In the midst of the fruitcake and wrapped presents, set aside some space…some time…for the scripture story to be heard once again.
I am such a radical optimist that I think the massiveness of the Christmas season won’t deluge upon us in some ways. I mean I almost have to use a forklift just to carry the Sunday paper in a couple of those weeks. I know it’s not that there has been a great increase in the news. The Gazette is on a sliding scale- as the rpice goes up the amount of news goes down. No…I know that the bulk is because a multitude of stores want to entice me to think that my life will not be complete without a visit to their crammed aisles in the coming days. The massiveness of Christmas surrounds me.
But maybe I can create some space for Jesus.

It that crazy!

WORDS FROM W.W. November 29, 2010

This is my tenth year of officiating high school basketball. Some might say that I’m a glutton for punishment.
Probably!
From November until March I attend Monday night meetings with other basketball officials. The meetings always include tips and instruction on certain aspects of officiating. We look at film clips, talk about basketball plays that could go either way. In officiating there are moments of uncertainty. There are moments where, simply put, we aren’t sure. “Was the defender there in time or was it a blocking foul on him?” “Was the ball released before the buzzer, or after?”
It occurs to me that the lives of most followers of Jesus are interjected with those moments of uncertainty as well. The uncertainty originates in our own minds and hearts that experience the void of wonder. It begins in the midst of a gray day. It commences in an unsettling conversation. It whispers in an illness that rocks us.
Sometimes the uncertainty is ever so slight. I’ve found myself thinking despicable thoughts about someone, and then the guilt and shame of what only I know is harvested in doubts that God could love someone so wicked.
Ministry is infected with uncertainty. People leave the church we pastor and we become uncertain about our calling to pastor. A Sunday sermon comes out passionless and we wonder if God is calling us to apply at Walmart. Each week carries with it a multitude of work details and we become uncertain as to which is more important, or more urgent.
In other words, the calling carries with it the ball and chain of uncertainty.
Let it be said, however, that God is never uncertain. Even when I’m doubting his interest in my life it never affects the heightened interest that he already has in it. Even when I’m skeptical that grace could be given so freely, he never changes the consistency of his intense compassion.
There will continue to be those moments of uncertainty in our walk with the Lord. It’s not a ripple effect of a diminishing commitment to our Lord, but rather a stain from our fallen creation.

WORDS FROM W.W. November 16, 2010

In my lifetime I’ve had a few of the pocket New Testaments that the Gideon’s distribute. They were convenient. You could slide one of them into one of your Wrangler Jean’s back pockets and run lickety split out the front door. My brother-in-law is a Gideon, and I’m sure he could probably tell me how many of those pocket Bibles have been given out over the years.
Convenient. There are some pretty smart people in the Gideon’s organization that figured out a long time ago that handing out Bibles the size of your living room coffee table probably wouldn’t be very effective.
With the Gideons it makes sense. After all, the goal is to put scripture into people’s hands.
There’s a trend in the church, however, to “pocket” everything. That is, making everything convenient to the point that God is about serving our every whim and whine.
If we were in the Upper Room it means that we’d stick our feet out so Jesus could not only wash them, but also give our toes a pedicure.
The culture of Christianity has taken on a strong element of putting Jesus in our pocket. Pocket Jesus! Sounds like a new Ronco product that you can pick up at Walgreen’s, located in the same aisle as the Chia Pet and Snuggies.
In his book Transforming Church, Kevin Ford writes of the danger of creating a culture of consumerism in the church instead of an emphasis on “community.” He writes: “Consumerism is individualism on steroids. It is the logical end product of living for self. Consumerism paves the way for the worship of self, and self-worship leaves us alone with the object of our devotion.” (Transforming Church, page 59)
Consumerism whispers that Jesus is at my disposal. He’s right there in my pocket to pull out when I need a little assistance. He’s that cross that I pull out if I run into any vampires. He’s the ointment for inconvenience. If I’ve made a mess of a situation he’s the “spot remover” to make it all go away. He’s duct tape for a tear. He’s prayer tonic for a bad hair day.
All of those things take their origin from a mindset that says Jesus is under my control, Jesus is there when it suits me personally. But you see, the Lordship of Christ can’t fit into a “Pocket Jesus”. Our Savior took our sins upon him, but recognizing Jesus as Lord is an entirely different understanding of his purpose, his relationship with each one of us, and who answers to who.
“Pocket Jesus” indicates a temporary interest, a fad, a craze.
Our storage closets are filled with some of our past “crazes.” They were useful and interesting for a time, but they gradually worked themselves into “has-beens”.
“Lord Jesus” is what that pocket New Testament proclaims. “Pocket Jesus” is what we often relegate him to.

WORDS FROM W.W. November 1, 2010

This week begins a new experience for me. I’ve traditionally taken Monday as my day off, and gone back to the hyperness of another week Tuesday morning. In recent months I’ve found that Monday is not a slowing down day, but rather a day of hyperness that just happens to be around the house instead of at the church or hospital or wherever ministry is taking place. In other words, I’ve had difficulty slowing the engines. Finding quiet moments is more of a personal choice issue than a ministry or vocation issue. I too often choose to race by the slow zones of my day and come to the point of depletion by my own doing.
“Slowing down” is hard.
Last week I was in one of the big warehouse stores buying a 50 pound bag of popcorn seed (In case you’re wondering, it was for the church!). In front of me at a register was an elderly couple. After a few moments I knew this was going to be a time of “waiting”, but I stayed in the line. The elderly gentleman got his credit card out, but then realized it was his insurance card instead. He was confused, and I could tell he was a little embarrassed by his slowness in the transaction. He turned to me and said, “I’m sorry that I’m taking so long.” It was one of those God-moments that was pressing in on my spiritual oblivion. I had just been in a conversation the day before about slowing down with someone I mentor. I looked at the elderly gentleman and said, “No problem! Too many people in this world are in too much of a hurry.” (Myself included!) When he finished his transaction he turned to apologize to me again. I told him it was all right, and then said “I hope you have a great day.” He smiled at me in a way that said he needed to hear that.
Our weeks are often categorized as “A quiet moment before a frantic pace.” Soon the pace swallows the quiet moment and simply leaves us either restless or un-rested. My pace has invaded my writing time this past month. The repercussion of that is that my writing time is also a period of reflection for me. It gives me the opportunity to sit, ponder, meditate, write-delete-rewrite, think again, and come to that point where I sense a point of release and peace as I hit the “Send” button.
So tomorrow, as will be my Tuesdays for the coming weeks, the people that I serve as pastor are graciously allowing me to devote to writing, praying, and reflecting. It’s not that publishing companies will come clamoring to my door to discover the next Hemingway. I have no fantasies about ever publishing anything else. I simply am looking forward to pronounced quiet reflection with no deadlines. There are times that I sense there is something inside my being that needs to be verbalized on paper. It’s as if it is in me, but needs to be discovered. As a pastor, I look for the message that is within me each week. The Creator keeps creating in my spirit. I trust that he will now help me create some sense of some of the other life-stuff that roams around in my thoughts.

I’m amazed at obedient dogs!

I’m talking about the Golden Retriever who sits and waits until his master tells him to come. This morning as I was driving out of our subdivision there was a man with his beagle “having a moment” on the street corner. The beagle sat with his eyes on the master in front of him. I don’t know how long they stayed there. I didn’t want to sit and stare and their “moment together.”
Of course, there’s other canines that flunk the test. I don’t know if ADHD is a condition that some dogs have, but…man! They need to watch a few Rin Tin Tin episodes.
I haven’t written anything for a couple of weeks now. I’ve had other things to take care of, but it’s also been a “waiting time.”
I good friend of ours, who we dearly miss, used to balance a cookie on his dog’s nose, and tell “Chaps” to “Wait…wait…wait…okay!” I’ve been waiting and waiting, but there hasn’t been a cookie on my nose.
I’m not very talented in the “waiting department”, but waiting is part of the intimacy with our Lord. In our church right now there are a few ladies (My oldest daughter being one of them!) who are in a waiting period. It’s better known as pregnancy. The waiting allows the expectancy level to continue to rise. It includes uncomfortableness, anxiety, morning sickness, or “all-day sickness”, joy, preparation. Growth happens each day. From one ultra-sound to the next the expectant parents see the development of the child within.
It’s all waiting…until the birth experience to a new time.
There are many times in during that pregnancy that the mother wishes the tape could be fast-forwarded to the end; and yet, something would be lost in the richness of that “moment” is that took place.
Waiting…
Not many of us are good at it. Just wait for a moment behind someone who is sitting at a green light, but not moving. When that happens to me I start quivering, unless it’s someone on a cell phone oblivious to the world. Then, I get angry!
If I could interview anyone I might choose the 33 Chilean milers. I’d like to ask them if they experienced different stages of waiting, different thoughts and emotions as one day spread to a week, and a week spread to a month. Did “waiting” become like a companion with them? Did any of them come to a different place in their faith, even as they sat in the same place? What kind of faith-questioning moments did they deal with?
Some may say that God draws close to us in our waiting. I believe God is close to us whether we’re in the midst of a frenzied pace, or waiting in an underground tunnel. I’m coming to the point where I believe the waiting moments of life will either cause our heart to cry out to God more, or we’ll scream in protest as we turn away from Him.
Waiting will not leave us in the same place.

P.S. I’m going to go get my cookie now, God!

WORDS FROM W.W. September 20, 2010

I was reading an article recently that consisted of an interview with Alan Hirsch, regarded as being at the forefront of a movement in the thousands of congregations today called “missional churches” or “missional ministry.”
Hirsch makes the point that the church is declining in attendance and needs to find different ways to speak and new innovative forms of “church.” He writes that almost all churches in our country are “attractional” in their nature. In that form they are attracting 40% of the population. It doesn’t mean that 40% of the population is attending church; it just means that 40% will entertain the possibility of attending. That means that 60% of the population aren’t interested in the attractional form.
That’s hard for us who were raised in the church, and have been attending church our whole lives, to hear. Hirsch’s point is that it doesn’t matter whether a church is contemporary in it’s worship, offers a Saturday night service, serves gourmet coffee, and has a paid professionally staffed praise band. We’re drawing from the same percentage of the pie…the 40% piece. In essence, the church’s addiction for being attractive to our culture has made it, ironic as it sounds, more unattractive to many of the people who need to be introduced to Jesus the most.
In going back to Acts 2 in recent weeks, and looking at the beginnings of the first church, I’m struck by the fact that they were Christ-centered. That might sound like a simplistic statement, but it might also be what churches today are missing. We’ve focused so much on what the wrapping paper looks like that we’ve smothered the Christ-child on the inside. The early church was willing to risk being unattractive to the culture if that’s where God was leading them to go.
I agree with this statement that Hirsch makes:
“ I was trained in a formal liturgical tradition, where I got the impression that we were meant to be helping people make life decisions and telling them how to live their lives. It’s exhausting if you make decisions for everyone. I really sense God is saying, “You’re not meant to tell people how to live. That’s my job. Your job is to introduce people to Jesus and a true understanding of who Jesus is. You don’t have to control their lives.” And I find that incredibly liberating. When I play Holy Spirit, I usually do a very, very bad job.”
The Cross will never be known for its attractiveness, but it will always be a sign that points to a true understanding of Jesus. If we don’t wrap it up in that thin department store tissue-like paper that results in both hiding it and protecting it, but rather let it speak the truth it holds…our purpose, individually and collectively, will be fulfilled.

WORDS FROM W.W. September 16, 2010
There is a time when we seem to seek the focused attention of God.
It has been said that God wants our attention, and that he may put something in our life to get it. I don’t totally agree with that. Sometimes in the Bible it happened that way…like with Paul’s Damascus Road experience, or numerous prophecies from Old Testament prophets (like a bleached-out Jonah).
But sometimes we use that “line” as a way of keeping us “in line.”
I think more often than not we experience a crisis moment that has us seeking the attention of God. It’s that moment in the ER when a loved one is wavering between life and death. It’s the journey in a car through an icy winter storm. It’s the point in the month when there is nothing left in the check book, but there are still “past due” notices in a pile on the desk.
It’s a math test!
It’s the birth point of a new child.
It’s the parents of a teenager who has not come home one night.
It’s the scene of an elderly uncle who has suddenly slumped over in his chair.
It’s the call from someone related to you, and it’s originating from the police station.
It’s the denial of a follower of Christ that there really is a God.
It’s the long trip back home in response to a dying grandparent, and the urgency of making it back to say one last goodbye, and “I love you.”
This moment of focused prayer came center stage for me today as our oldest daughter, Kecia, eighteen weeks pregnant, had to go to the emergency room after an unfortunate series of events occurred at her grade school. She spent many anxious and emotional moments lying on a gurney waiting to hear that the baby was okay.
For me it was moments filled with focused prayer. “God, let’s get focused on this child!”
Thank God, he isn’t ADD. God doesn’t need me to tell him to focus more. He’s focused all the time on each one of his created. He understands the finger nail biting habits of anxious parents and grandparents. He knows the situation before we even realize it.
Bad things sometimes do happen. That’s not because God is off playing Play Station 3 for a few hours, and as a result the whole universe is in chaos. Bad things happen because Eden disappeared a long time ago. Bad things happen because evil is alive and often seems to be prospering.
Too often we end up judging God (ironic as that sounds) on the basis of which way the weigh scale is tipping…experiencing happiness or experiencing sadness. When it seems that the negative is winning we wonder what God is doing!
Bud God desires the best for us, and he desires a life that is filled with joy and peace…and even happiness. If I believed in a God who desired less than that I would become increasingly cynical and suspicious…and, over time, bitter.
As Carol and I waited with our daughter today I knew that God knew every detail, and I thanked him for it!

WORDS FROM W.W. September 9, 2010
This week has seen a Florida pastor make national news with the threat of his church burning copies of the Quran on September 11. He backed off of that today, but the damage has been done…another blow has been received…another hit to the image…of what Christians are all about and what the church stands for.
I realize that the media is quick to look for a front page story that makes people shake their heads in disbelief. That’s the communications culture we live in. Herbie can post a YouTube video of a senator caught picking his nose. Text messaging is now used by thieves to successfully pull off a heist. Everything is quickly communicated these days, which also means “the story” really has be to a bizarre story.
“Lunacy” is what comes from Florida, but lest we think that is an isolated example, it also comes out of Kansas with the Westboro Baptist Church protesters. And lest we think that is just another isolated example from the middle point of the nation remember that a pro-lifer recently murdered a physician who performed abortions, and the pro-life advocate killed him in church. I’ve had a few sermons that should have been put to rest, but no one has ever died in the midst of a Sunday worship service.
In other words, our culture has seen too many media-blitzed examples of Christians and churches doing incredibly bizarre acts in the name of Christ.
And now there’s the other side!
In the Thursday, September 09, 2010 edition of the Colorado Springs Gazette there is a story about a group of a dozen churches on the south-side of Colorado Springs that plan to raise $125,000 to operate the Meadows Park Community Center in 2011. Because of budget cuts the city has been actively looking for partners to help them keep community centers open, which provide multiple services to the people who live around them. The dozen churches are all in close proximity to the community center. It’s a match made in heaven! It’s the people of God coming together in service and action, and, best of all, their funds!
But another community organization that has the same vision for the community center is opposing the churches help.
Here’s where it gets interesting…and disturbing!
The President of the Community Partnership Project, Eric Phillips, says that the churches being involved in the community center will keep people who need the services of the center the most away because of the “stigma” that churches carry. Phillips goes on to say, “There’s nothing wrong with churches. They are doing their best. But that stigma might have stuck with them.”
Lunacy and stigmatized. On one hand the actions of a few get planted on every Christian’s forehead; and on the other the offer to help, to make a positive difference, gets viewed with suspicion.
It’s easy for us to stay uninvolved, ineffective, uncaring, and apathetic…in the middle!
Which is exactly where the Deceiver wants us to contentedly stay!

WORDS FROM W.W. September 5, 2010

Dear Friends,
Last Sunday’s celebrating of “No Church Free Sunday” was so well received that we’ve decided to do it again this Sunday. It’s not every week that we hit on a ‘smokin’ hot new idea, but this one lit it up. We received many text message comments from our faithful congregation members encouraging us to do it again. We know that not having the worship service or any classes at the church building last Sunday morning freed a lot of people up to go about doing all kinds of fun things with no guilt strings attached.
And boy, did we learn some things! Here’s a few of the learnings from last week that will help make this Sunday even better.
Offering- If you drop your financial gift off in the mailbox by Monday morning it will arrive at the church by Wednesday. Plus, a lot of you took to heart the additional ways you can give.
• Adding $10- You can sleep as late as you want.
• An Extra $20- Tailgate late morning before the 1:00 abseball or football game.
• Add $15- Enjoy the breakfast buffet at Golden Corral. Stay as long as you want and go back as many times as you desire.
• Add $10- Look at the cover of your bible for a minute and correctly be able to say that “you’ve been in the word.”
• Add $20- Take in the NASCAR cable channel all morning long.
• An Extra $30- Go right from your PJ’s to swimwear as soon as you wake up.
• Adding $100- You can do whatever you want!
Music- Depending on your music preference, here are YouTube videos to spiritually inspire you at home.
• Contemporary Christian- “Bring The Rain” by Mercy Me
• Country Gospel- “There Will Be Peace In the Valley” by Tennessee Ernie Ford
• Christian Heavy Metal- “In God We Trust” by Stryper
• Favorite Hymns- “Great Is They Faithfulness” sung by D.W. Crooner
• Black Gospel- “He’s an On-Time God” by sung by Dottie Peoples
• Christian Rap- Not sure it has a title, but check out Lordside Gangster
• Chanting- “Music for Paradise, Music for the Soul by Stift Heiligenkreuz
All you have to do is go to YouTube and type in the name of the song, and “Praise the Lord”, there it is. No having to listen to someone else’s style of music. And if you like the video you can even have it sung again just for you.
Donuts and Coffee- Starbucks has great mini-donuts, four for $1.95, but, hey!…they’ve got tomake a profit. And the coffee is fresh brewed by paid baristas!
No Volunteers Needed- In not using our building there’s no need for ushers, nursery workers, sound techs, flower arrangers, a praise team, greeters, communion servers, children’s workers, youth leaders, class teachers…whew!…just think of all the manpower hours we’re saving!
Children’s Story- Pop in a Veggie Tales DVD. You can even sit on your couch with your pre-schooler and watch it…or not!
Scripture Reading- The Bible on CD’s is all you need…and think about it…the person reading the scripture will say all of those hard to pronounce biblical names correctly. No more embarrassing moments as the pastor stumbles over “Eliehoenai” and “Shephatiah”.
Create Your Own Sermon- Most people check out when our pastor starts talking anyway, so we suggest putting on ear phones and enjoying twenty to thirty minutes of silence.
Greeting One Another- See Starbucks suggestion above. Take donuts and coffee and sit down at a table.
Now…some might say we’re getting away from Hebrews 10:25 which talks about “…not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…”, but everybody needs a Sunday off, right?
If you feel the need to be in the building this week, we’re having bingo on Friday night. Bring a friend and get half off your card!

WORDS FROM W.W. August 30, 2010
In different venues and in different ways God has been hammering me- okay, how about “vividly teaching me”- about the ongoing need to return to the basics. I teach my basketball players that principle all the time. No matter what level of basketball you are playing at- junior high, high school, college, professional- there is always a need to work on the basics.”
When God reminds me of that in my personal life, my devotional life, my prayer life, and my life as a pastor it is a mixture of “stinging news” and “A…ha” moments. We tend to think we can say farewell to the basics, because we’ve matured and grown.
It seems that the bible is filled with examples of people who had to advance back to the basics. The Israelites had to learn some basic lessons over and over and over again. They seemed to be habitual forgetters about the basic truth that God is the Provider. When they whined about not having meat in their 40 year journey, God radared a flock of quail upon them. God reminded them so much of the fact that he provides that he told them that the quail would start coming out of their nostrils and thay they would loathe it (Numbers 12:20). The journey to the Promised Land was filled with getting back to the basics.
And Jesus’ disciples often had those “children’s story” moments as well. I love the story of the disciple’s discussion about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus takes them back to “Dick, Jane, and Sally’s primer lesson” on “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first…” (Mark 9:35)
Yesterday I was invited to attend an assembly at the middle school I’ve coached at for the past 8 years. The assembly was a presentation of “Rachel’s Challenge”, originating out of the shooting death of Rachel Scott at Columbine High 11 years ago. The students were attentive and engaged in the presentation, and I walked away realizing that “Rachel’s Challenge” is built upon five very basic principles that everyone knows, but forget to follow. Here they are:
• Look for the best in others- Eliminate prejudice.
• Dare to dream- Set goals
• Choose positive influences- Input determines output.
• Kind words and actions= huge results
• Start a chain reaction with family and friends.
Basic principles. They were presented with video and in a variety of ways, but they still came back to basic foundational truths. Not one of us would look at any one of those principles and disagree with any of them, but we are negligent quite often in living by them…even though we know how they important they are.
The people of God have a way of getting so ahead of themselves that we resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa- always in danger of tipping over.
Moving forward always requires that there is firm footing on the foundation. We never grow past that, and, in fact, growth and health is intimately connected to it.