A Thank You to Brother Tom

Easter and Christmas are the two times of the year when I find myself really missing "old Brady." A big reason for this is because I was a part of the choir and drama team and every year we would stage these elaborate Easter and Christmas productions which were offered as a free gift to the neighborhood. It was a lot of work but it was so worth it!

Another reason why these productions were so special was that our pastor, "Bro Tom" would get really excited about them too. His enthusiasm was infectious.

I don't really remember the first time I met Bro. Tom. I know it must have happened sometime during my sophomore year in high school but unfortunately, I don't remember most of what happened during my high school years. The reason for this is that my mother died unexpectedly in October, 1978. I was 15 years old; just a month and a half away from what should have been my "sweet sixteen" birthday.

My memories of this time in my life are fuzzy and imprecise (I realize now that I must have been suffering from deep shock) but I do have one vague memory: I remember seeing someone I had never met before crying with my father. That man was Bro. Tom.

After my mother's death, my sister and I began to attend the high school group at the Church on Brady in East Los Angeles. It was very different from our old church group and gave us a lot of new friends and new activities to distract our grieving minds. To this day, my sister and I still maintain close ties with many of the friends we made in the Brady high school ministry.

I remember one particular summer we got these t-shirts with the anagram Brady C.O.O.L emblazoned on them. The letters stood for "Christians Offering Others Life." I think that was the first "christian" t-shirt I ever wore.

On Sundays, we would sit with our father in the sanctuary and listen to Bro. Tom preach. Bro. Tom's sermons were always deep and full of surprises; sometimes he would do funny sound effects or slip into different "voices" as he read narratives passages from the Bible and sometimes he would use unusual "props" to get a point across. I remember taking A LOT of notes during his talks, it was the first time I'd ever wanted to do that during a sermon and often I'd look over my neighbor's shoulder to catch a key phrase or quote that I'd missed because he was speaking too fast.

Bro. Tom had a habit of being a bit, uh, "long-winded" in his sermons! Still, most of the time his talks were so interesting it wasn't that hard to sit through them.

One of the things I appreciated the most about Bro. Tom back then was his accessibility. When I went off to college, I encountered many situations where my faith was challenged but whenever I had questions, I knew I could just walk up to Bro. Tom and get his take on how I should handle them.

An example of one of these situations was the time a college professor said some disparaging things about Jesus Christ. It happened during class time, this professor ranted on about how he had "gone to seminary" so he knew that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. The professor said a lot of other things too that I knew were misrepresenting christianity. The very next Sunday I walked up to Bro. Tom and asked for his help in refuting the claims the teacher had made. Bro. Tom loaded me up with scripture verses and coached me on what to say. The next time my college class met, I was very nervous but plucked up the courage to ask the teacher, right there in front of the whole class, if I could please respond to the remarks he had made about my faith. When he reluctantly agreed, I shared with the teacher and my fellow classmates what Bro. Tom had told me.

It was hard to speak up in front of so many people but I knew I had to say something for the sake of my fellow classmates. For the rest of the semester, the teacher stayed on topic and refrained from sharing anymore of his insights about Christianity.

Now that another Easter season has ended, I just wanted to take the time to say:

"Thank you Bro. Tom. You helped me develop the strength of my convictions, gave me tools I needed to effectively handle the Word of God and by your example you showed me how to politely but firmly stand up for my beliefs."

With much affection,

Yvonne W.



For those of you unfamiliar with Bro. Tom, here are some other places on the net that offer up tributes and/or complimentary comments about him:




Blogs:

Andrew Jones, Tall Skinny Kiwi, "Hooked on Wolf" Be sure to read through the many comments on this page.
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2005/03/hooked_on_wolf.html

Seth Barnes, Radical Living in a Comfortable World, "Statistics show that seminaries are counterproductive"
http://www.sethbarnes.com/index.asp?filename=statistics-show-that-seminaries-are-counterproductive

Albert Reyes, Pan Dulce, "Universal Discipleship Pattern Available Online"
http://pandulce.typepad.com/pan_dulce/2007/11/universal-disci.html

Rich Swansn, Rich's Blog, "A Threshold to the Gospel"
http://www.downshoredrift.com/downshoredrift/2006/10/thom_wolf_and_t.html#more

"Soundchick", A Voice of Hope, "Mosaic - A Conversation"
http://soundchick.typepad.com/blog/2004/12/mosaic_a_conver.html

Randy, Postmodern Areopagus, "Thom Wolf"
http://postmodernareopagus.blogspot.com/2005/03/thom-wolf.html



Web Pages:

"Biblical 'Man of Peace' Approach is Key to Effective Outreach"By Erich Bridges, Baptist Press
http://www.ethnicharvest.org/links/articles/bridges_man_of_peace.htm

"What would your church be like if . . .", Bob Roberts, Jr., Glocalnet
http://www.glocal.net/enews/2005/may/may2005.htm This page contains the following information on Bro. Tom:

The Decision

During that time, I revisited something Thom Wolf and Carol Davis had said. Thom is the former pastor of Church on Brady that has planted many churches and sent out many missionaries (and is now a missionary himself). Carol served on staff with Thom and now heads up her own missions organization. These two individuals began to teach me what I wasn't ready to hear—they began to plant seeds inside of me about what it meant to grow the Church, Capital C, not just my church. Those are two different things altogether. Sometimes, what's good for my church isn't always what's good for the Church. And sometimes, frankly, what's good for the Church may actually be bad for my church. In the following agonizing months, I made a decision. Instead of being the biggest church in the area, we were going to church the area.

"Reaching Lindsay", OnMission
http://www.onmission.com/site/c.cnKHIPNuEoG/b.830465/k.99AB/Reaching_Lindsay.htm Footnote from article above:

1 Thom Wolf in his oral presentation, Postmodernity and the Urban Church Agenda, at the American Society for Church Growth Annual Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 1997, made the case for asking the lost person to consider the possibility of the resurrection and then the implications for their life, if true.

"Discipleship 101", International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention
http://www.teamcef.com/stuff.htm

A simple, effective and reproducible discipleship track for new believers seeking to grow in the Word and grow in obedience. This tool was developed by one of our IMB teams in Central Europe and is an adaptation of Thom Wolf's universal disciple.

The article above also includes this special thanks to Bro. Tom:

"Special Thanks. A special word of thanks and appreciation is due to Dr. Thom Wolf for his dedication to true indigenous, Biblical and reproducible methods in Bible training and fulfillment of the Great Commission among all peoples. The graphic is by and large a result of his ingenuity and research."November 2003

At last! Bro. Tom finally has his own website!


Bro. Tom's website:

http://www.drthomwolf.com/