Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W. August 22, 2010
Back in June I issued a challenge to the children at our summer day camp to collect a certain amount of money for mission concerns around the world. If they achieved the goal I would get a Mohawk haircut. They did and I “was done!” About five days later Phil, my barber, took the rest of the Mohawk off. Having just “stubble” on top of my head wasn’t a bad thing for the summer months. I didn’t have to worry about my hair being messed up in the morning- it wasn’t there!
Now…two months later I’m looking like a Chia Pet with my hair sticking out and up. It’s still not long enough to use a comb on (I can’t even remember where my comb is!). Half the time I think I look like Dr. Emmett J. Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in Back To The Future. The other half of the time I think I’m sporting a hairstyle that is cool! I can’t think of another word to describe “happening!”
As it is growing back out, however, I’ve noticed something. There’s more gray! I was hoping it was the lighting, but it’s not. It’s gray, as gray as a Fall day in Michigan!
There are two ways of looking at it. The first is the realization that gray is not a phase that comes and goes. My hair isn’t going to turn back to brown…unless I help it.
It’s gray to stay!
The second way of looking at it is that scripture says some good things about “grayness.” I like this one. “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.” (Proverbs 16:31)
“Righteous, brother!” I feel really hip in using that word.
I never really thought about gray hair being a crown. I’m not sure what that says about bald-headed guys.
Then there’s Proverbs 20:29. “The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.” I’m going to use that verse the next time someone asks me to help them move. “See the hair. Ask someone who still has strength.”
I should feel flattered by my increasing grayness, but gray is used to describe so many unimpressive things. Like a lot of unclear decisions, it’s a gray area. A day that few people care about is one with gray skies. Being color-blind, gray is very confusing and frustrating to me, because I can’t tell if it’s green, off-white, or even pink. Gray is non-committal. It gives me no authentic sense of what it really is.
And yet when it comes to hair, the Bible makes it sound desired and honored. It makes the gray-haired person feel appreciated. It’s funny how we try to hide our gray when it starts appearing, like it’s a bad case of teenage acne. Companies makes millions of dollars helping people hide their gray. I wonder what would happen is all the “gray-away” products were suddenly recalled for a few months. Would we be shocked at how we really look?
I’m going to go with the flow on this one. Carol says I look distinguished. If I could just grow some stubble on my face Brett Favre and I could almost be mistaken for twins.

WORDS FROM W.W. August 12, 2010
“Just Above The ‘E’!”
I remember traveling in my Civic up to Casper, Wyoming, about a year ago. My little car gets pretty good gas mileage, but it was getting dangerously close to touching the top of the “E” on the gas gauge. The caution light that is shaped like a gas pump was intensifying. Casper was still about 15 miles away. I prayed that car into a Diamond Shamrock station at the first Casper exit. The fuel tank coughed at me when I opened the fuel cap.
There are many days in our life that are lived just above the “E”. We’re pretty sure how much has gone out of our tank, but we’re uncertain as to how much is left in the tank. We’re just trying to get to the next point, the next moment, the next day. We can super-spiritualize it with how through Christ all things are possible, and how God is the Lord of the impossible, but we often try to tippy-toe around the scriptures that talk about Sabbath rest, and even Jesus getting off by himself for some quiet time.
And I’m guilty as charged! My 22 year old baby said to me last week, “Dad, you work too much!” And I’m trying to do better. I could give all kinds of excuses, but the bottom line is she’s right. I live a lot of my life just above the “E”.
The other factor is that each one of us is different. When we were driving up to British Columbia on our mission trip, the Odyssey van that was pulling a trailer had to be refueled a lot more often than the other vehicle. It was pulling a lot heavier load. The descent to the “E” didn’t take very long.
Each one of us is different as well. When we’re pulling a heavy load in our life it’s a time period when we get to the drained point more quickly. Those “loads” could be family stresses, job difficulties, school deadlines, sicknesses of people close to us, people placing more and more demands and/or expectation on us. The “E” arrives “early.”
Other people have an “E” that could more easily stand for “endurance”. They go like a compact car for longer distances, longer periods of time. Long after others have had to pull to the side, they are like the “Eveready Bunny”- still going. They may not be able to carry heavy loads, but they can steadily proceed with a lighter load. At some time, however, they too come to the point where they are just above the “E”.
Each of us need people in our lives who “encourage” us when we’re reaching the out-of-gas point. Encouragement can sometimes mean “exit here” before it’s too late; and encouragement can sometimes mean “excellence” is taking place.
Just above the “E” is a danger zone where unwise decisions can be made. I was talking to someone recently who was experiencing another “E”- exhausted. I used another “E”- encouraged- to advise him not to make any major decisions for a certain length of time. In other words, pull to the side and pray before going on your way. Although, as my daughter has painfully pointed out, I work too much I’ve learned to recognize when I’m just above the “E”, and hold off on proceeding carelessly.
The same could be said about congregations and ministry teams. Do we recognize our most vulnerable, and often irrational, times, and pull to the side for a while? Do we allow our churches to have periods of rest when moving forward at that moment could bring us to the brink of destructive behavior? Do we recognize that God doesn’t always give us a green light?
Just above the E.”

WORDS FROM W.W. August 8, 2010

I’m still recovering, but it’s good.
Just a few days ago a team of five adults and five students returned from a mission trip to Rock Nest Ranch in northern British Columbia.
Two thousand miles up and two thousand miles back. The time at the camp was incredible, but the three days on the trip home were rewarding as well. I love conversing with students, especially after we get to that “comfortable” stage with one another. You know that you’ve reached that point when they start mimicking you in your presence, or razz you about your propensity to walk towards any Starbucks you encounter…even when it means running across six lanes of traffic and jumping a fence.
Young people are mostly misunderstood by adults. Part of that is how networked they are to text messaging, Facebook, cell phones, and iPods. It is not unusual to see two students sitting together sharing a set of ear buds with one another (each person having one ear plugged in) listening to a song of an iPod. But part of their being misunderstood is our tendency as adults to not be with them long enough to hear them.
Three days in a van will give you that opportunity…several times!
I find that with a lot of young people, to use a Young Life phrase, you have to earn the right to be heard. That takes time and risk. Even after risking investment in a listening relationship with them there will be setbacks and stepping back.
It seems to me that young people need to know that you’re willing to laugh with them, to authentically enjoy them, and to allow them into your world. Most of us find it hard to carve out the time to allow that to happen.
It was not an accident that Jesus spent three years with his disciples, investing in them, laughing with the, exhorting them, and even shaking his head in disbelief of them. Read the gospels again. The disciples said some off-the-wall things.
Send some time with a group of students in a van for three days and you will hear some off-the-wall things said. It’s part of the spiritual growth experience.
The best youth leaders aren’t necessarily the ones who look like them, but rather the ones who will ride the storms with them, as well as the roller coasters; the ones who will sit down with them with a cone of ice cream and lick away for a while, but also cry with them when they share about the tragedy in a friend’s life.
Kyle, Asher, Erin, Umar, and Ayah allowed me to be share a few days with them. It was awesome…even through Montana and Wyoming, even when I made noises in the middle of the night (Well, maybe just awesome for me on that one!), even when we were all tired, even when I gingerly tip-toed into the lake and they called me a wimp.
Thanks for touching my heart.
Starbucks, anyone?

WORDS FROM W.W. July 23, 2010
“Ready For The Overflow?”

It was inevitable. We scheduled a church outing to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox baseball game this past Tuesday night. Every time we schedule a group from our church to go to a game it rains…or hails…or sleets…or is miserably cold…or all of the aforementioned!
Tuesday night was destined…it was summoned…it was mandated to be rained on. When I say “rained on” I’m being kind. It was “baptized”, and I’m not talking about “in the spirit!”
There was so much rain I passed four arcs being built on my drive home (Just kidding!).
There was so much rain that the sold out baseball game had almost no one there when it actually (I can’t believe it!) did start two hours late. We sat there for two hours watching the grounds crew squeegee the field, and then left 10 minutes before the game started. (What can I say? It was about my bedtime!)
The next day I discovered another place that had been baptized- the church fellowship hall! There was so much water that flowed down the ramps to the entry way by our fellowship hall that the drain couldn’t dispel it fast enough. There was debris residue about two inches high on the outside doors.
Let the waters flow!
“Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.”
Could it be…Could it be…that God doesn’t shower us with blessings because we’re not equipped, ready, or able to handle the volume?
Please, put the water cannon down.
Think about it. What could your church adequately handle right now? How many people are ready and able to disciple and mentor another person who is new to the faith?
For example, our church’s day camp maxed out at 53 kids this summer. That’s all we could adequately and effectively handle with the staff and classes we had. We had to turn several kids away, because we couldn’t handle any more. If we would have taken more, to borrow a phrase used earlier, we would have been flooded!
But we were able to effectively minister to the 53!
Most of the time we long for our congregations to have a kind of “church utopia” where everything is perfect and awesome. The parking lot is crowded, and the baptistery is continually being used. The media send reporters to catch some of the spirit, and people are lining up to experience the moving of the Lord.
We have a picture of the vision, but are seldom ready for it. Disciples need someone able to disciple. Prayer ministry needs prayer warriors. Widows and orphans need people of mercy and compassion.
Could it be that God has a better idea of “how effective our drainage system is” than we do? Could it be he knows what we can currently handle, and what we would end up just soaking the carpet with?
My friend, Greg Davis, went to his family’s farm last weekend for “harvest”. Harvesting the wheat. His grandfather has more sophisticated farm machinery then he used to. The combine is bigger, so it takes less time. The mission is still the same- harvest the wheat- but the way its completed is a little different.
But it still doesn’t magically happen! Someone still needs to run the machinery and gather the harvest. It’s more effective how they get it done, and they get it done.
Could it be that God knows how ready we are, and effective we, to gather in the blessings? Dry periods may have more to say about our readiness than the quality of the harvest.

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.