Friends: I’m thanking the Lord for the Christian encouragers in my life, and for a good story. See the column below ... Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #957

March 18, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Tie That Binds

By Bob Walters

“I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.” Paul, writing about Timothy’s ministry, Philippians 2:20.

Who are – or who was or is – your closest Christian mentor(s) and friend(s)?

No, I’m serious.  Stop reading and think about and pray with great thanks for the one or for those who have formed, influenced, encouraged, and sustained your Christian faith and life. List them, thank God for them, and pray for those you lead, too.

I’m doing that right now … thinking and praying about the human ties that bind me with other Christians, and with the Lord whose Spirit binds our faith and fellowship.

“Thank you, God, for the those who have led me and shared in the faith.”

Now, the story, seen in a recent video from John Samples about Russ Blowers.

The video link is below, and I obtained John’s approval before posting this.  For many of you, John and Russ are familiar figures.  They are both on my short list of the most influential encouragers of my life in Christ. Others at the top are Dave Faust, George Bebawi, my wife Pam, and my son Eric who first asked, at 13, to go to church.

Russ died in November 2007 after 56 years of ministry in Indianapolis.  I have written often about Russ, and like many at our East 91^st Street Christian Church, I still miss him every day. It was during Russ’s 50^th Anniversary sermon at E91, September 2, 2001 – my first Sunday in any church in decades – that I got it. It was my “Awake Date,” and I grew to know Russ – and Jesus – well. Russ baptized my sons, John and Eric.

John Samples, still a mainstay though retired pastoral presence at E91 “showing a genuine concern for our welfare,” officiated Russ’s funeral, November 15, 2007.

Russ’s funeral is where I met my wife Pam.  We both had arrived early at the service; she was to play tympani (drums) in the brass ensemble, and I was a pall bearer.  Pam and I spoke briefly about a tribute website I had set up for Russ, asking her to share the site info with the E91 orchestra and choir, which Russ very much loved.

A year and a half later, John officiated our wedding at E91, June 22, 2009.

John had arrived on staff at E91 in 1999 at the insistence of his colleague Dave Faust, who had just come aboard as Senior Minister. Dave, by the way, baptized me in November 2001. In September 2004, with Russ’s imprimatur, we convinced E91 to host a Wednesday evening Bible study with retired Cambridge divinity lecturer Dr. George Bebawi. I was secretary/coordinator of that weekly class during its entire 14 year run.

In May of 2007, Russ was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Christian Theological Seminary, near Butler University in Indianapolis. I remember attending the event with Russ, and recall the aforementioned tale John recently told about Russ and a necktie at an E91 “Storytellers” event February 28. Here is the LINK.

John titled his four-minute presentation, “The Tie That Binds,” after several Bible references to the way the faithful are bound together and supportive of each other in Christ. I was blessed to witness and, in many ways, share first-hand in the pastoral love clearly evident between Russ and John. We are all richer in faith for models like them.

The love of Jesus is the tie that binds us, today and forever, in the truth of God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has written often about everyone here mentioned, easily searched on the blog (white box in upper left corner). We thank E91 master-storyteller Gerri Baker for arranging the event.

P.S. – In case you were looking for a St. Patrick’s Day article, here is an oldie but a goodie: (Link) Bars Closed on St. Patrick’s Day #174, 3-16-20-10. Erin go Bragh!

Friends: Seeker Christians will love this video series … if they are serious. Mature Christians will appreciate the series … if they want to help seekers. Blessings! Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #923

July 23, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Starting Well

By Bob Walters

“Now there were many other things that Jesus did …” John 21:25

The Apostle John said it plainly: even the Bible couldn’t contain everything that Jesus did. And learning even the basics of Christianity, Christian life, Christian hope, scripture, history – i.e., developing a competent personal handle on the greatest story ever told – is a daunting task.

So, enter an especially competent story teller and video producer, his friend a pastoral authority (and also a great story teller), and the unexpected appearance of a Bethlehem-native Holy Land expert, and out comes a beautifully shot and wonderfully told eight-part video on Christian basics with Bible precision and vivid, on-location Holy Land cinematography.  What one needs to know about Jesus is available right here, with discussion guides and Bible references included.

Whether the edification is for yourself, your small group, your Sunday school class, or other Bible study gathering, it is at its base a primer not just for the beginning Bible student, but also a “how-to” course for the rest of us on explaining the Bible and the story of Jesus Christ.  

To see it, click this link: Basic Christianity Video Series (or biblestudyvideos.org).  The series is free, online only, and it is a modern day video trip to Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, Bethany, Nazareth, Bethlehem and other areas where Jesus was born, lived, talked, taught, performed miracles, died, and rose again nearly 2,000 years ago.

A seasoned Christian will know the stories and have heard of the places. The series focuses on the Bible as it happened around Jerusalem, heavily covering the landmarks of Jesus. The video is straight-ahead, careful, care-taking reporting of the greatest story ever told.

Let me tell you about my friends who produced it.

Storyteller: Ken Nelson, the series’ creator, producer, videographer, and master story teller, traveled to the Holy Land in 2017 with a church group led by our friend and retired minister John Samples and his son, John W. Samples, onetime executive director of the Christian HolyLand Foundation.  “Just a tourist” at that point, Ken shot some video with his phone and, upon adding some production and voiceovers, put together a “rough” Holy Land presentation he showed to various Indianapolis area church groups. 

Ken knew he was on to something.

Pastoral Expert: That nascent, impromptu video played so well that Ken enlisted minister and former Christian college professor and president Dave Faust (the former E91 senior minister who baptized me back in 2001) to answer both basic and difficult Bible questions in the new video series.

Ken was once a TV news field reporter for WRTV in Indianapolis, and then enjoyed success with both his own video production company and a corporate personnel communications consultancy based in Indianapolis.  In late 2017 he focused his considerable talents and life-long faith on his newly-awakened passion for shooting a Bible explanation series in the Holy Land, and began gathering resources for this professional and clearly taught eight part series, approximately 35 minutes per episode.

Bethlehem Native: Any serious video production in the Holy Land requires numerous permits, and Ken’s request to shoot Jesus’s birthplace in Bethlehem was initially met with a bureaucratic “no.” But Dr. Fadi Alzoughbi (ZOG-bee), who worked at the “Garden of Nativity” (birthplace of Jesus) permitting office, saw the request and contacted Ken, saying he would help work things out.  And he did.

Fadi, a Palestinian Christian and pastor at House of Bread Church, www.hobc.info, lives two blocks from the site of the Nativity. He coordinated permits for and tours of the Bible venues Christians know. Nelson made several more trips to Israel, finished the production, and essentially gifted his efforts and this superb Bible Basics Video Series to those seeking Jesus or those leading others to Jesus.

Since Covid, and now the Hamas war since last October, Israel, Palestine, and all these Christian landmarks are not open to visitors.  But this free and extremely well done video series is every Christian’s visa to see these holiest of places where Jesus joined humanity and brought to earth God’s promise of our redemption from sin and mankind’s restoration to divine relationship with the Father. 

It is a video trip to a land currently not taking visitors, but where Jesus once “did many things.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has worked with Nelson on various church communications projects for fund raisers and church celebrations, and admires the clarity of his Christian witness. Dave Faust’s new book, “Not Too Old, Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years,” on graciously aging in a Christian life, is available HERE CollegePress or HERE Amazon, or Sundays 10-Noon at the E91 Resource Room. And, interestingly, Bethlehem is in Palestine, not Israel. I didn’t know that.

Spirituality Column #765

July 13, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘That Summer Before He Died…’

By Bob Walters

When John Samples said he could marry us either “tomorrow” or not for another month (see last week’s column), Pam and I prepared for a wedding “tomorrow,” June 22, 2009.

After church we went to the nearby Von Maur store to find a pretty summer dress for Pam, all the while notifying family and close friends of our suddenly pending nuptials.

It was Sunday, and we were to be married late Monday afternoon at East 91^st Street Christian Church in the small chapel next to the Fireside Room where, incidentally, for years there hung a beautiful painting of our beloved late pastor Russ and Marian Blowers.

On totally short notice, Pam’s sister Coleen couldn’t make it down from Detroit.  My brother Joe – a boat captain in far northern Wisconsin – happened to be ashore and jumped in his car for Indianapolis.  Big sister Linda was in Tucson, too far away.  Both of my sons were out of state working summer jobs unable to come back, but Pam’s daughter Lauren was Maid of Honor and son Jason walked his mom down the aisle.  Joe, my life’s wingman, was Best Man.

By early Sunday afternoon Pam’s dress was bought and our very small cast of wedding characters was assembled.  Joe arrived midday Monday and drove Pam and me downtown to get our license. On our way back north we picked up wedding rings, Pam then feverishly made beautiful fresh flower bouquets for herself and Lauren (of course she did), we got cleaned up, and headed to church.

We figured we would have a proper “reception” later on in August (we did), but the wedding, at first, was just us.  Then Pam’s longtime church life group got involved, then my close friends George Bebawi and Stan Naraine and their wives (May and Janie) – plus my old high school pal Sharon Job Hoffman – came along side, and we wound up with about 25 at the actual wedding.  Stan had us all over to his place for an impromptu cookout afterwards.  It was awesome.

But there was a secret Pam withheld from me until we started writing our vows that hectic Sunday afternoon.  It stands not only as one of the greatest surprises of my life but was the centerpiece of our wedding ceremony.  Fancy vows wouldn’t be necessary.

“There’s something I’ve never told you …” Pam said, smiling. Me: (gulp) “Okay ….”

Turns out that summer before Russ Blowers died in November 2007, Pam had run into him one afternoon at the Castleton Christian book store on 82^nd Street.  One-on-one time with Russ was precious and they sat on a bench between rows of books for most of an hour chatting about Pam’s “little family,” church friends, and Russ’s recent June trip with his sons to Normandy.  Russ just naturally added the Lord’s joy, always. He endearingly referred to Pam, who played tympani in the E91 orchestra, as his “drummer girl.”

At our wedding almost exactly two years later, the “homily” was Pam’s daughter Lauren reading aloud this charming story with its surprise ending.  As they parted that summer day in 2007, Russ said to Pam, “I have a special friend I’m going to introduce you to when I think the time is right.”

Pam never so much as hinted that when I approached her at Russ’s funeral, she recognized me as the guy “who always sat with Russ.”  Three days later on Sunday when we spoke, Pam was convinced I was the friend Russ was talking about … but she never let on to me until the day before we were to be married.

Russ knew both our situations, Pam’s and mine, and knew my situation well enough not to prod me, not then, about a new relationship.  But Russ knew when the timing would be right.

I’m convinced meeting Pam at Russ’s funeral was not so random after all.

Russ set us up that summer before he died, and kept his promise in November.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) would have freaked out had he known this earlier.

 Spirituality Column #764

July 6, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘How About Tomorrow?’

By Bob Walters

After meeting Pam at long-time, beloved E91 pastor Russ Blowers’ funeral on a Thursday (see last week’s column #763, scroll below), we next spoke after that Sunday’s church service.

As mentioned last week, our E91 church in 2007 was huge.  Pam and I attended the same weekly service for probably five years but had never met.  Needing help informing the music ministry about Russ’s online tribute website (Russ Stories link), I recognized Pam from both the orchestra and the choir; a female drummer who was also a six-foot tall blond alto in the choir line was hard to miss.

I wasn’t “looking for her,” specifically.  But when I saw her outside the sanctuary about an hour before the funeral – she was to play tympani with the brass ensemble and I was a pall bearer – I approached, introduced myself, and asked for help passing the word about the Russ tribute site.  It was a quick, concise, and pleasant exchange … but maybe not as random or “chance” as it seemed at the time.

I say we still hadn’t actually “met” because at the funeral there was neither the time nor, understandably, the inclination for small talk.  But Sunday was different. 

After Sunday’s service Pam found me – I always sat near the front a few rows back on the right side, usually with Russ – and said she had emailed the tribute site info to the choir and orchestra members and it was well-received. Mission accomplished.

Chatting in the pews up near the pipe organ console, and in no particular order, we discovered of each other that we both adored Russ, she was an English teacher and I was a writer, that we both had strong (and fond) multi-generational vacation roots in northern Michigan, that we had graduated high school the same year (she near Grand Rapids, Mich., me in Kokomo, Ind.), she was a life-long Christian, a preacher’s kid (PK), and had been at E91 for 27 years, while I was a newbie, baptized at E91 Nov. 18, 2001.

Oh, did I mention that the Sunday when we “met” was Nov. 18, 2007?

We also learned we each had two mostly-grown kids from long-term marriages that had each, ironically enough, ended in May of 2005 with uncontested divorces.  We also learned that each of us had ongoing challenges (family, work, etc.) but we became fast friends and married a year and a half later, Monday, June 22, 2009.

Why a Monday?  Well, we have dear friend and retired pastor John Samples to thank for that one.  I had popped the question to Pam three days earlier on Friday, June 19, just before we headed over to the annual E91 music ministry end-of-season dinner.  Pam had been in the choir and orchestra for nearly 30 years so it became an especially great party for us with dear friends who all cheered, “It’s about time!”   

We were not planning a long engagement, and for logistical reasons marrying “sooner” would be far better than “later.”  Sunday, June 21, at church we approached John about scheduling a time to marry us in the coming weeks.  He pulled out his date book, frowned, and said that starting Tuesday of that week the next several weeks were full of travel and he was otherwise booked.  He just didn’t see how he could work it in.

Then he smiled, looked up at us and said, “How about tomorrow?”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) needs one more week to tell this story properly.  There was still a huge Russ-related and not-random surprise Pam was not telling Bob.  

Spirituality Column #763

June 29, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Our Pastor’s Funeral

By Bob Walters

“My wife Pam and I met at our pastor’s funeral.”

I just love the start of that story, and love even more that it’s our story to tell. 

It was November 2007 – the 15th, a Thursday, to be exact – on a day saddened by loss but buoyed with the hope and love of Jesus that beloved pastor Russ Blowers had instilled in countless Christians during 56 years of ministry at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis.  His funeral mostly filled the 2,200-seat worship hall.

Russ, 83 and retired, had died late Saturday evening the 10th, missing by a mere 10 minutes the symmetry of this proud World War II veteran’s death being marked on a November 11 Veteran’s Day.  His friend and fellow pastor John Samples, who along with Russ’s son’s Phil and Paul had prayed and watched as Russ breathed his last, woke me with a phone call and the not-unexpected news around 1:30 a.m.

A few hours later I arrived for Sunday church early as those of us who knew shared the news of Russ’s death with others, and word spread quickly.  Russ and I had grown close during my first six years as a Christian, which also happened to be his last six years as a minister.  I say “last six years”; I don’t know exactly what a guy like Russ is promoted to upon arrival at the pearly gates, but I doubt “minister” still covers it.

Anyway, in the halls at church later that Sunday morning my cell phone rang and Phil Blowers was calling to ask if I would serve his dad as a pall bearer.  I said yes as the tears I’d held back burst forth, right there in the hallway next to the reception desk.     

E91, as we call it, is a big church. At that time, Sunday mornings saw 4,000 or more worshippers in five services at two different ends of the building.  In the couple of years preceding his death, Russ and I had taken to sitting together in the 9:15 a.m. traditional service in the main sanctuary where the choir and orchestra – yes, a full, wonderful orchestra of extraordinarily talented church members – regularly performed.

I’ve often said going to church at E91 was like going to the Indy 500 … you never see or meet all the people who are there.  A cordial Sunday morning E91 greeting, “Hi, are you new here?” was often met with the response, “No, ‘been here for 30 years.”

One fellow I knew, former E91 member Dale Collie, called early Monday morning – from North Carolina where he now lived – urging me to start an online “Tribute Site” where parishioners and friends could post memories of Russ.  I was a long-time public relations guy and communicating was my business so I picked up the challenge.  We had the site up and running later that day. (see Russ Stories – link is still live.)

The daunting part of the challenge was reaching everyone who knew Russ or might want to post on the site.  Russ, for heaven’s sake, had been the chairman of the Billy Graham crusades in Indianapolis and Channel 8’s “TV Preacher” in the 1960s.  His ministry’s reach far exceeded E91, but my first goal was to gather stories from those who knew him best – and knew each other best – there in our home congregation.

It was obvious from sitting with Russ in Sunday services that the huge music ministry was a particular delight to him, and that he was adored by its many members.  But how to notify them?  An hour or so before the funeral, I recognized the orchestra’s tympanist standing in the hallway and asked her for help.  She said her name was Pam.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) married Pam June 22, 2009.  More next week.

Spirituality Column No. 565

Spirituality Column No. 535
February 14, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column #275
February 14, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Love, Endurance, and Prayer
By Bob Walters

My friends John and Joyce (Estes) Samples have been married 61 years.

Not bad, but this is amazing: Joyce and her six still-living Estes siblings - two brothers and four sisters – have all been married for more than 50 years.

That’s right, seven brothers and sisters from the same family have each celebrated Golden Wedding Anniversaries. Youngest sister Sue’s 50th in February 2008 was the seventh and inspired national news coverage.

The Estes siblings and current years of marriage are Agnes 65, Doug 64, Charles 61, Joyce 61, Eula 58, Sue 53, and Gladys 52. They were born in Kentucky but grew up near Richmond, Ind. Joyce and husband John, a minister, live in Fishers.

Thirteen of the 14 Golden celebrants are still “alive and kicking” today (Gladys’ husband died in 1999). Another brother, Joe, died in 1992 after 48 years of marriage to Ruth, a marriage delayed three years by World War II. So that’s another 50-year-plus commitment. A ninth sibling sister died when she was less than two years old.

As you might expect, their parents C.M. and Minnie Estes marked a long marriage – 59 years before C.M. passed in1975. Minnie died in 1997 at age 99.

Add it all up and that’s 521 years of marriage for these Christian, church-going, prayerful kinfolk who provide a Valentine’s Day reminder that love can indeed endure.

But rather than making this about Christian marriage or a secular holiday (the “Feast of St. Valentine” has been dropped from the official Roman Catholic calendar), let’s talk about love, endurance, and prayer in broader terms.

Most of us, when we pray, pray for deliverance. We pray for God to fix this problem, heal that sickness, smooth life’s rough spots, or calm troubled waters. “Deliver us from evil” we pray, because we think “evil” must be this thing making me crazy either in life or at this particular moment. But what are we doing for God?

Jesus prayed for deliverance, sure, “Take this cup from me …” (Matthew 26:39), but then expressed his faithfulness to God (26:42), “May your will be done.” And when Jesus prayed for Himself, the disciples, and all believers (John 17) in the Garden before His Crucifixion, He prayed for endurance for the sake of God’s glory.

Try praying “for endurance for the sake of God’s glory,” and see what happens.

The proof of love is in our endurance – just ask Jesus. Or an Estes sibling.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) learned that Jay Leno invited the Estes siblings and spouses to fly to Los Angeles and appear on The Tonight Show, but some of the Estes siblings don’t fly – never have, never will. Endurance, evidently, has its limits. Happy Valentine’s Day!