When I was in seminary I was required as part of my ordination process in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to serve in a church in what the seminary called, “Field Education.” Pastor Ray and Pastor Jan were two of the coolest pastors in the world who loved Jesus and who were by all means the best of the best in making sure that I received what I needed in fulfilling my field education requirement at the seminary and helping me prepare in becoming a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church. I watched these two cats from afar and up close. I watched how they led worship and how they proclaimed God’s Word each and every week. Each had their own style in preaching. One used a manuscript and the other spoke from the heart without notes. One was introverted and the other was more of an extrovert. Both had a heart for the people of the church and were living examples of Christ’s love. Both preached God’s grace and were visionaries. They allowed me to preach and to lead one of their adult education classes during my internship. They allowed me to run their youth ministry alongside some wonderful people.
I recall on one occasion hearing a church member praise Pastor Ray and his ability to remember names. Pastor Jan and his wife were two of the kindest people Debbie and I ever met and made sure that our family was ministered to and cared for while we were living in Princeton during seminary and the entire church surrounded us with love and prayer when I graduated and we moved back to California for my first call as an Associate Pastor at a wonderful church in Sacramento. Pastor Jan was an Army Chaplain as well as one of the Pastors of the church and had a wonderful pastors heart and provided much of the pastoral care for the church. I got to watch Jan and Ray both interact with church members at the best and worst of times in a persons life. Pastor Ray and Pastor Jan blessed me in so many ways and I’m so grateful to have had served alongside them while in seminary. I learned more about pastoral care from these two guys than I did in seminary in my pastoral care class.
Over the last nine months I have had the honor of supervising a very good friend. He’s been a blessing in so many ways and I’ve enjoyed being able to be his supervisor while he’s attended Fuller Seminary and helping him, along with my church, fulfill his Field Education requirement in preparation for ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA. When James and I first got acquainted I made sure he knew that if he were to do his “Field Education” at our church, he’d get as much as I got in my field education and even more. James has assisted me in leading worship, he’s preached almost monthly, and has served alongside me and our church leaders. We’ve had the opportunity in watching James grow in his ministry and in his internship. I have know doubt the Lord will continue to use James as he discerns where it is that God is calling him to serve when he is ready to receive a call. I’ve enjoyed also learning from James and what he has to offer the church.
James will continue serving at our church as our pastoral intern until he finishes the ordination process. I look forward in continuing to being able to give to James and others in the future what Pastor Ray and Pastor Jan gave to me as I prepared for becoming a pastor. James has recently entered the blogosphere. If you’d like to catch a glimpse of James heart and his passion for ministry visit his new blog elpisandshalom.com.
A friend of mine recently gave me a book by John Wooden, “Wooden on Leadership,” that I’ve started reading. I’ve become overwhelmingly convinced that as a pastors we spend too much time focusing on the other church in the neighborhood and what they’re doing right and spend way too much time focusing on what we’re doing wrong as a church. This quote from the Coach’s book caught my eye in the introduction:
Compete only Against Yourself
“Remember my father’s advice: Set your standards high; namely, do the absolute best of which you are capable. Focus on running the race rather than winning it. Do those thing necessary to bring forth your personal best and don’t lose sleep worrying about the competition. Let the competition lose sleep worrying about you. Teach your organization to do the same.” (Coach John Wooden on Leadership Pg. 9)
I find myself worrying a lot about what we’re not doing well at as a church. I’m always keeping my ear to the ground on the latest and greatest thing. What I should be doing is helping my team focus on what it is that God has called us to be and to do it well.
Our focus the last couple of years as a small community church has been on finding what it is that God has called us to be in a community that doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of a thriving metropolis. We’ve determined that one of the things that we do well is caring for kids in our community. We’ve added a class room and a nursery for babies. We know that there are young families in our neighborhood who might be looking for a church that ministers to children and youth.
We’ve recently started searching for a part-time youth coordinator to help us start a youth ministry. Again, something that we feel as a church we can provide and do well at. We’ve continued with the vision of serving those in the community who are hungry. We operate a local foodbank on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month where we receive support from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
These are just a few things that we do as a faith community in our efforts to set our standards high for Christ and to do our absolute best, not as a way to receive the accolades and the high fives from the world, but to be obedient to what Christ has called us to be and to do in the kingdom and in our own neighborhood.
Here’s a standard I know that we all can better at as the church universal in reaching our neighborhoods for Christ and something that obviously Wooden did well at in his own life:
1 Thessalonians 2:8, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”
If you’ve been paying attention to the world of Baseball you know there has been some talk about a bad call an umpire made during yesterdays Detroit Tigers game. Jim Joyce, a veteran umpire, did something today that should make many of us rethink what it means to truly own our mistakes. When I watched the video of Armando Galarraga bringing the Tigers lineup to Joyce who was obviously upset, I couldn’t help but appreciate this mans integrity and honesty in letting the world know that he owns his mistakes. Praise God that the Tigers organization and Armando are being reciprocal and appreciating Joyce’s heartfelt reconciliation. I only pray that we in the church universal would begin modeling what this man modeled for us today. Risky yet true. Of course it starts with those of us who are in leadership, making the occasional bad call. Pastors never make bad calls. Right?
A couple of Sundays ago during the kids message, one of the tiny munchkins of the congregation walked up to where Walter usually sits next to the church organ. As the kids message was taking place, this little one walks up to Walter and climbs up on his lap. She sat on his lap until the kids message was over and until Grandma walked up and took the sweet child to the church nursery. I happened to have my blackberry handy at the time and grabbed this shot of Walter and this sweet child. The picture setting at the time I took this was set to Black & White. If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see Walter smiling down on the child.
Walter is originally from the east coast where he was born and raised in New Jersey. He moved to California with his parents in 1954 and resided in the City of San Fernando for a number of years. He has a Bachelors Degree in Art and recorded his first radio recording at the age of 18 for a local radio station.
Walter came to the Lord as a young child and was baptized at the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles at the age of 6. Walter is a lover of music and has a wonderful gift in singing and in playing the church organ and piano. His first piano lesson was at the age of 7. At the age of 14 Walter started playing the organ at St. Phillips Lutheran Church in Pacoima. Years later in the mid 1980’s he would assist in the praise band at the Shadow Hills Presbyterian Church because of his ability to play the piano and his unique sound as a gospel singer.
Walter Bolen has been part of our church for close to 20 years. He first moved to Littlerock in 1988. It was in 1991 when he first attended our church here in Littlerock looking for a new church home for him and his family. Upon his arrival, literally on the first day, Pastor Bob Frisbee learned of Walter’s talent in playing the piano and organ and put him right to work on the piano playing alongside one of our church members who at the time was the church organist. He hasn’t stopped playing the piano and organ in church ever since.
In 2002 and with the encouragement of Pastor Krin Van Tatenhove and friends in the Littlerock church, Walter made his first CD. In 2003 Walter was diagnosed with kidney failure followed by congestive heart failure and was put on dialysis. Blindness in one eye along with Glaucoma began immediately, but he still sees well enough to get around and because of his God given gifts in playing the organ and the piano he is still able to help lead our church in worship each and every Sunday. Walter is currently on a list to receive a kidney transplant at UCLA, but is unable to receive one until he finds an appropriate support team that will help him during recovery.
On many of occasion Walter for our special music time, right after the message and being led by the Holy Spirit will pick the most appropriate song that he’s either written or has in his repertoire of music that relates with the message for the morning. Walter is loved by many and has a wonderful heart for people and most of all a pastors’ heart. Walter has served as an Elder in our church and continues to have a love for our church and the community God has placed the church in.
I recently talked with Walter and he shared that our church has been one “big family” who has walked with him through his kidney failure and through a divorce. What I love about Walter is his ability to listen and his honesty. He’s not afraid to tell you the truth and something that frustrates him most about Christians is the hypocrisy as Christ followers that we all struggle with sometimes. Just the mere fact that he is able to take one of the sermons I preach and come up with a song that continues with the proclamation of God’s love until we disperse is an amazing gift and I know many pastors who would love to have someone like Walter.
Walter has an amazing testimony and I know that I am not alone in saying that, “Walter we love you brother and thank God for you and your heart for worship.”
If you’d like to hear some of Walt’s music, visit his website. I know he’d appreciate it if you’d listen to what God has blessed him with. In each song you’ll hear his testimony loudly and sense his heart for loving Jesus.
I recently took a class with Eddie Gibbs at Fuller Theological Seminary and grabbed this quote from a lecture he gave on church and culture that he cited from Os Guinness:
“Most of the newly reached “unchurched” are really spiritual refugees from the collapse of three groups–legalistic fundamentalism, watered-down liberalism, and over-ritualistic traditionalism. The United States has yet to see the real unchurched as European Christians have experienced them.” Os Guinness, Dining with the Devil, p. 81
I haven’t read the book yet and I don’t know what’s before and after the quote. I have to admit though the quote kind of scares me.
If anything it means as a pastor I need to wake up and smell the coffee. Although the church I pastor is by no means a “Mega Church” it means I need to become someone who is willing to reconsider ways in reaching the “unchurched.” And if anything I need start helping folks in the church consider new ways of taking Jesus back into the world and into their neighborhoods. Unashamedly and in ways in which the spirit of God can begin the work of transformation of hearts and minds to truly consider what it would mean to follow Jesus.
Here is the best definition, simple, and very explainable to folks in the church on what it means to be sent out into the world and yes…to be missional.
I laughed and I wanted to cry after I watched this. We work so hard at making sure that we’re meeting everyones needs in worship, we forget what really matters most on a Sunday morning.
I smile at this as a person who grew up in the City. I remember in the late 70′s growing up in Hollywood. My mom and I would often walk to the local Safeway market. It was about a 5 min drive and a 20 min walk. (I had small legs) There were two privately owned neighborhood markets that were both in walking distance, maybe a 5-10 min walk. The church I attended as a kid was a 30 min walk. The park we practically lived at as kids was a 5 min drive by skateboard or bike. The schools we attended as kids were all in walking distance. The beach was about an hour on the city bus.The local YMCA was a 10 min bike ride and the local boulevard was a 10 min walk from our apartment where we’d go and see a movie or hang out. The boulevard was our playground as kids. And we took the bus everywhere we went.
