I post these problems not to gloat, i have learned that that does not work out for me. I serve a God who humbles His servants! I post this because the Catholic church around my area has one problem after another.
My imagination is disturbed enough to think that I could have been sitting in a service watching a Power Point on the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, and have the Chippendales or worse put on the screen. It is almost humorous, except that my imagination is also fertile enough to imagine myself putting on the presentation. Ouch. It must make this guy feel a bit better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IymxMidkyI4
The one that really concerns me is Bob Timchak. I was a regular reader of his faith column. He wrote some great stuff on several congregations that I like. He seemed to me to be a really good guy. I am hoping that this is some sort of rig. Seriously, I am that jaded. The tip to the authorities came from the diocese. We have had all sorts of molestation cases, a case where a priest was charged with perjury to a grand jury looking into a mobster friend of his, stories of mis managed money and DUI payoffs by a bishop, but the diocese drops a dime on Timchak. If they are going to rat people out, they could start on some more pressing examples! Well, I will follow the trial with interest. I pray God will allow our legal system to bring justice. Here is an article on Bob, I found. I will keep you posted.
Timchak has served in the diocese since 1992, starting in Wilkes-Barre at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
After stints directing religious formation at Seton Catholic High School in Pittston and Bishop Hoban High School in Wilkes-Barre, Timchak was assigned to Hazleton, where he became a controversial figure in 2006.
As pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Parish, and Transfiguration Parish in West Hazleton, Timchak was outspoken about his disillusionment with the diocese’s closure of Transfiguration School.
“Jesus said you cannot serve both God and money, and when the church puts money before everything else, it really is going against the message of Jesus,” Timchak in 2006 told the Times Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, for which he wrote a regular faith column.
“Father Bob,” as known in his newspaper column, subsequently took a yearlong leave of absence before being assigned to Pike County. During his leave, the diocese said, he worked for the Luzerne County Probation Office.
Robert Timchak
Filed under: Church wrongs | Tags: depression, Evangelism, Pastors, preacher, sermon
National Publishing and Jones Brothers, 187[?] Willohroots family bible from my ‘s dad’s side.![New Illustrated Devotional and Practical Polyglot Bible [Cincinnati]: National Publishing and Jones Brothers, 187[?] The Willohroots family bible on my father's side.](https://willohroots.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bible.jpg?w=420 "bible")
Monday started off with rank disappointment, so instead of getting all down and blue, I thought I would listen to Jeofurry sermon. I like to hear Jeff preach, and thought that would be uplifting. Just to continue the downward spiral of the day, I could not get any of his sermons to load. At least the day was consistent.
I popped over to the church site of a friend of mine, someone I had not checked in on in a long time. I found an eight part series on The Beatitudes, at least that was the title, but they really weren’t. A little googling and I found out that they were Rick Warren sermons, from one of Rick Warren’s sermon series. I listened to most of them. Now I was really depressed.
I heard a good man, a man with a loving servant’s heart become a shadow. His sermon illustrations were not from his own life, they were from Rick Warrens life, and so the message I was getting was like a fax of a fax, a bit blurry, lacking the crisp detail needed to bring a message. Seeing some one attempting to imitate anyone but Christ, well it just isn’t Christian.
Armed with a cynical attitude and already filled with negatives, by the power granted to me by Google, I set out to check out other web sermons. I found way too many cheap imitations of the same thing. Now I imitated Warren at a fancy dress party, but never in the pulpit. There are so many people going to Hell, so many of the saved that need the guidance of Holy Writ, and the exhorting that comes only from the Word, that I take my post very seriously. I can imitate no one. I do not need to. My God has worked in my life, He continues to do so, He does this so that I may share His Glory and point to Him.
To fight the Great War we are given the words of Moses and the Prophets, the Apostles, and even the words of the Messiah Yeshua! These words have Power!
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edgedsword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Ephesians 6:17
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
I am afraid some of my brothers are using imperfect swords. The power is not there, because instead of reaching up to God for power in preaching, they are reaching out laterally to other preachers who have had success in their area. They must forget that the success they are viewing came from God, not from the preacher whose church they are observing. Instead of getting the message from the source, they are sitting in the shadow of a man, not the light of the Son. If you attempt to copy Warren, or Piper, or Keller, or MacArthur you will be such a shadow, wielding a shadow sword. Reach High! Attempt the unattainable, and seek to copy Christ, as did James, and Peter, and Paul, and all the rest. You will fail, as I am sure they did, but it is a glorious failure, as the attempt is a victory, and fail to reach that hight the highest worship that we have. The sword from this armory will have little effect in real war.
Blades of sponge do not pierce to the heart.
I am not condemning Rich Warren, there are plenty of blogs for that, but I am pleading for us all to use the great weapon we were given, the Sword of the Word. Jeff , get First Baptist Langdon, North Dakota site fixed, and encourage your pastors to be themselves, as God has molded them. My wife has taught me much, but most of all to be me in the pulpit, just me. If God put me there, [and He did] , why try to be someone else? It is best to be a real little guy, standing in the Light of Jesus , wielding the true Sword, than the shadow of a giant, holding a Nerf blade against the Devil. The bible has many stories of God using men and women, but I can only think of one where He used a Shadow.
photo from http://www.mvmc.org.uk/testimonies.html[ I love it!]
Most of you know I never volunteered for this job. I came by the way of Jonah . I fought the call for 30 years, but ended up right where God wanted me, when He wanted me, and where he used me. As we changed from a failed 25 year old mess to a vibrant new church start, I changed from a 47 year old supposed escapee of God’s plan, to a living, new, church Pastor. The church is new, I am too. The church went through two floods, death of the head deacon, an exodus of the old school and a name change. I have experienced change on the same order. There is a joy in watching God do a complete make-over, almost as much joy as being the object His remodeling.
My ideas of what a pastor is, what he does, how he interacts with the people God has given him to love, have always been nebulous. I had no model, no education, no human mentor, no clue. I wish I could point to a pastor who made a difference in my life, but although I searched for such an experience, it was not to be. My years as a lay preacher certainly helped to prepare me, to a degree, with bible study and sermon presentation, but were of no help , and perhaps were a distraction or at best a false start for the role I have today.
I am convicted that “Feed My Sheep” is my main task. Jesus’s commandments to “Love God and Love thy neighbor” are my objectives. I have learned that without the Holy Spirit I can do none of it. There is a lot less of me in me, and praise God a lot more of Him.
What do you think the job entails? What does it exclude? I have learned a lot from the comments of the readers here, but I have much more to learn. Perhaps it is an oversimplification, but so far being a friend to the people in the pews seems to take priority and also be amazingly rewarding.
Tell me, I might not follow your advice, but I will listen.
Filed under: History, roots of Willohroots | Tags: church, dayspring, pastor, preacher, SBC
Dayspring Bible Chapel does not readily fit in to any of the accepted categories. By that I mean, we’re not really an existing work as we have all new people, new name, we’re creating our own new traditions, but then again, we’re not a new start either. The branch that is Dayspring grew from the stump of something called the Wyoming Valley Baptist Church. Let me give you a quick history. In the seventies the SBC looked at a map and decided that Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, really needed a southern baptist work. Now the area had quite a few American Baptist churches and Independent Baptist churches, but was predominantly Roman Catholic with Methodist and Presbyterian presence. What church a person attended was by and large based upon his or her ancestry. Later european immigrants were RC, earlier English and German immigrants were not.
A tent revival was held and I’m told two hundred people walked the aisle. A church was needed to house these people so Wyoming Valley Baptist Church was formed. When the church’s temporary headquarters was leveled to put in a bypass a new building was sought for a permanent home. A fellow named Pacey ran a bar/shoe store on River Road in Plains. I find that an odd combination. Pacey was being charged by the stool (barstool) for his sewer hookup. He told the town fathers that he didn’t like that and for spite would sell his building to a religious organization that would not have to pay taxes just to teach them a lesson. He actually threatened to sell to a black religious organization but there were none in the market for a bar/shoe store at the time. The building was purchased and the SBC went to work.
I love how SBC churches work together when they have a mission, and the mission of destroying a bar, it seems, brought them great glee. They built a really nice meeting hall for approximately 100 people. They gave some donated bibles and hymnals from a church in Flordia that had upgraded, helped them call a pastor, prayed for them with loving hearts and turned them loose. While this was all done with the best of intentions, it didn’t work out. I can safely say that it didn’t work out because they went through twenty two pastors in twenty five years. What really had been built was a meat grinder for pastors, their families, and the believers who loved them. Put the latter into the mix, wait a little while, and watch the bleeding mangled mess that comes out the other side.
Now as all good southern baptists know, right next to the soverignty of God is the autonomy of the local church, so that when some mess like this exists the cure can only come from within. I admire the courage of the men who accepted the call to this work. I am forced to admire their courage else I would have to doubt their sanity. Through all of this a core group of “deacons” and key leaders hung in there. They prayed fervently that God would finally have mercy on them and send them a decent pastor instead of all the fellows they had put up with to date. That’s the origin.
R
Willohroots 