Dr. Dennis and Lori Wilkening traveled to Guam for opening meetings with the Harvest staff. They also spoke with Pastor Walton about discipleship and ministry.
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Episode Transcript
Chris Harper: Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these twenty five minutes together telling you the stories of our church by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. This week, we’re back to two services at Harvest Baptist Church. Sunday mornings, you can join us at either 08:45AM or 10:45AM.
We do have Japanese and Korean translation during that 10:45AM service, and that’s also the service we live stream at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org. This week, Dr. Dennis Wilkening will be preaching in both services on the answer for anxiety from Philippians 4:8-9. Let’s begin today’s harvest time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, Pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey, hafa adai, Chris. It’s good to be talking about fall ministry and, our services going back to to two. We’ve had a great summer. But if you’ve been around at Harvest, you know we have been packed out. And our college students are now back on campus.
We’ve got 70 some freshmen that are, excuse me, 70 some students. Our freshmen are in orientation right now and all the students will be back by this weekend. So they’re coming back in, plus staff are back and everybody’s coming out of vacation. So we’ll be full. And so we are back to two services.
Make sure you tell people that if they’re on their summer mode, 08:45 and 10:45. And I’m really thrilled to have my friend Dennis Wilkening that’s going to be here speaking. And we have Dennis and Lori here in the studio talking to us on Harvest Time. So welcome you guys to Harvest and to Guam. Thank you.
Lori Wilkening: Thank you.
Gary Walton: Really is good to have you here. And Dennis, you and I have been talking about this for a couple of years, trying to figure out how to work it into your schedule and our schedule. So it’s actually been a busy time for you, but you said yes anyway.
Dennis Wilkening: Yeah. Well, wanted to be here. And if we weren’t providentially hindered, we would have done it earlier, right? But we’re glad to be here and we’re looking forward to what the Lord’s doing in through the staff training.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s been great. And you’ll want to be here on Sunday. If you’re listening, this topic of anxiety, of course, it’s very familiar to most people. Actually I’ll ask you this, Dennis.
God’s Word has something to say about it, right?
Dennis Wilkening: It has a lot to say about it, actually. And so thankful for a God who loves us and cares enough for us that he puts in his word and says, Here’s the answer for those worries and how much he cares about us and watches over us. And so I’ll look forward to bringing the word on Sunday.
Gary Walton: Okay. Great. Dr. Dennis Wilkening, Lori. Dennis is the chair of the Biblical Counseling Program at Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa and Director of Student Life.
Lori is the Dean of Women at the school as well. And you guys have poured yourself into that ministry after a lifetime of pastoral ministry. In fact, eighteen years?
Dennis Wilkening: Twenty two.
Gary Walton: twenty two years. How many years in Washington?
Dennis Wilkening: Eleven in Washington at First Baptist Church there in Colville.
Gary Walton: Okay. And as you get a chance to know the Wilkenings, you’re going to hear Pastor Dennis’ heart for the church and his love for the Word and love for the people of God. God did a really good work there and continuing to do it, but through their ministry and saw church grow and thrive. And That spirit rubs off even now as you’re talking with people. So we’re looking forward to your continued ministry with us.
And we love the opportunity to get to know you a little bit. So let’s back up. Tell us where you’re from, family. Dennis, why don’t you start and then we’ll get
Dennis Wilkening: Okay.
Gary Walton: From Lori too.
Dennis Wilkening: So I grew up in Danville, Indiana, which is just West of Indianapolis, about 35 miles. Anybody who’s from the Pittsboro, Brownsburg, Plainfield area knows where Avon is over there, knows where that’s at. And my dad was a mailman in Speedway, Indianapolis, near the 500.
Gary Walton: Oh, wow.
Dennis Wilkening: Yeah. Pretty cool mail route, Sure. So grew up loving Indiana basketball and fast cars. That was just kind of stuff that we liked. It was out in a cornfield.
And now you wouldn’t know it now because when I go back it doesn’t look quite the same. There’s a lot more people there now. But I had a wonderful childhood, an Andy Griffith Mayberry type childhood and loved it. I have three siblings. I have a twin brother, a younger brother, younger sister.
And so thankful for my childhood. My parents are still married to each other in the same house that we grew up in. So when we go home, it is really nostalgic to go back and even stay in my childhood room.
Gary Walton: Oh, really? Same home. That’s cool. That’s great.
I’m interested in your story of how you came together because, Lori, you didn’t grow up in Indiana, right?
Lori Wilkening: No. I grew up in Ohio, Zanesville, Ohio, about East of Columbus about an hour. And my grandparents actually built and owned a golf course. I lived behind the ninth tee all my life with my brother and parents. We just grew up there.
That was part of our life because we were there. My parents were saved in that area and went to a church and brought us to church. We all, asked the Lord to save us and lived there, all our lives and enjoyed it.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Yeah, I’m interested in that, kind of the spiritual turning point for both of you. Dennis, maybe I’ll start with you. When you look back over your life, what would you say is the defining moment for you that convinced you that, I don’t know the whole story, but Jesus, he wasn’t just true, but he’s worth giving your life to?
Dennis Wilkening: Well, I was eight years old. Pastor preached on hell on a Wednesday night. Felt very convicted. I wasn’t sure if I stepped from this life into the next life, where would I spend eternity? And I’m convinced that everyone been somewhere forever.
And so that night I went home. I shared a room with my twin brother. We had bunk beds. I was on the top bed. Just leaned over and said, Hey, you know, I’m not sure if I died tonight, if I’d spent eternity in heaven.
And I’ve joked when I tell this testimony to my brother, you know, it kinda looks like, I know that you wouldn’t go to heaven, right? He was convinced. And he goes, But you know, I wouldn’t either. And so we actually just walked down the hallway. Dad turned off the basketball game, sat down, explained salvation, and I trusted Jesus Christ as my savior there.
It was a few years later at summer camp that I dedicated my life to serve the Lord in whatever capacity he wanted, not knowing that someday I’d end up in ministry. But I do remember that prayer that week of camp was, Wherever you want me to go and whatever you want me to do, I will volunteer. So just kind of that was my spiritual story. And then how the Lord led us after that, you know, through winding paths, as many people are.
Gary Walton: Lori, you said you grew up in a Christian home?
Lori Wilkening: Yes. My parents were saved a little later in life, but as soon as they got saved and were invited to a church, they took us. And was my first couple years of school I went to a public school and then they changed and moved us to a Christian school and I just heard the gospel and I heard what Jesus did constantly. And one night, I was just also afraid. Didn’t know where my eternity would be.
And I asked my mom. Of course, she was a fairly new Christian. She I remember her pulling out, three by five cards of verses. Wow. But she wasn’t sure exactly how Yeah.
To lead me to to the Lord. So the next Sunday, which was a couple days later, she took me to my pastor’s wife, which I was pretty close to her. I used to sit on the front row with her cause she played the organ and I just she was amazing. Yeah. And so she took me back in the little, library of the church right after the service, gave me a Bible, showed me in God’s word and marked it in my in the Bible so that I could know when I had questions or doubts, so go back to those verses.
And she led me to the Lord that day.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Sweet testimony of God’s goodness in, you know, in working in your lives at young ages, drawing you to himself. How did you guys I’ll ask you this, Lori. How did you guys meet? How did that happen?
Lori Wilkening: Well, we both met our second year of college, second semester, on a Christian campus. And we actually, we had the first ever, ice skating rink built in our area of Florida. Ah. And we were northern kids. Sure.
Midwest. Sure. Knew how to ice skate. So we were out there, and he about ran me over and that’s how we met the first time.
Gary Walton: There you go. Perfect.
Dennis Wilkening: That’s a true story. We often joke that she fell for me.
Lori Wilkening: Very
funny.
Gary Walton: And then you have I’ll ask you again, Lori. You have family. You have children, We right?
Lori Wilkening: Have two boys. Yep. Out of the house, our youngest is married and has our first grandbaby girl.
Gary Walton: Wow, great.
Lori Wilkening: And then our oldest is also and they’re both out in the Northwest still.
Gary Walton: Okay. Great. Dennis, people know that you’re, you know, I talked about you’re chair of the student life, professor, biblical counselor, former pastor. But you’ve got this alternate life is what I’ve heard about, like Hardy Davidsons and outdoors. Really, what have those things taught you about slowing down and enjoying God’s creation?
Or maybe not slowing down.
Dennis Wilkening: Well, no. I do think that having hobbies and doing fun things makes for a healthy spiritual life and longevity in ministry. The Lord didn’t call us to work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Even as pastor, I know that there are pressures and things. So there’s just some outdoor things that I just really enjoy doing that Lori too.
We both like to hike. And so when we were in the Northwest Pastoring, we hiked a lot of the Northwest territory. I love to ride motorcycles. And I didn’t get my first one. I mean, I was out of the house.
My parents didn’t let us have motorcycles when I I was growing was 28 years old before I had my first motorcycle. But I just fell in love with it. And Lori rides with me, so it’s not as if I don’t just get up and go gone all by myself for hours on end. There are days when Lori’s like, Nah, I don’t want to ride today, or whatever. But enjoy having her with me.
And so I currently have a Harley Davidson. That’s what we ride. This is my second Harley. I enjoy that. But I’m not a motorcycle snob, you know?
Sure. When people are like, I only ride this. Or fly fishermen, I like to fly fish. Fishermen are like this sometimes. A purist only fly fish.
I’m just a guy who likes to be outside, so I’m like, I don’t care if you have a spinning tackle or a bait caster. Just go fishing. That’s all. I just want to go fishing. Same with motorcycles.
I’ve had Suzukis. I’ve had Yamahas. I’ve had BMWs. It just happens to be that I’m riding a Harley right now.
Gary Walton: So it’s about the wind in your face. That is right. Open road. I’m tracking you. I’m hearing what you’re saying.
Yeah. That’s awesome. And you did. You pastored a healthy, growing church for many years before transitioning to training future pastors. I know that’s your heart.
Looking back, what do you think God was doing beneath the surface? I’m not talking about like your specific kind of things that you do, you know, to see a church grow and people come to Christ. But beneath the surface that produced spiritual growth, and not just growing attendance. What was going on there?
Dennis Wilkening: Sure. Well, I think that from the very beginning I was asked this, How many people do you want to see in your church? And I would say, I have no idea. I’ve never put a number to it. I wanna see as many people come to know Jesus Christ as Savior as the Lord will allow.
That’s it. And I was passionate about getting seeing people grow in-depth spiritually more than in numbers. And it’s easy in ministry to be in the numbers game. I was very fortunate that when we concentrated on the most important things, loving God, loving others, we did see numerical growth. But if I had I think if and maybe I’m wrong.
Maybe I’m not a church growth guy. I just didn’t go to those conferences and stuff. But I think if I had concentrated on how do we get as many people here as possible, we would have missed the loving God and loving others. And that was the most important thing. And then I do feel like you attract those who are passionate about the things that you’re passionate about.
And so when it was loving God and deepening our relationship with the Lord, people who wanted that and then loving others was both inside our church but also reaching our local community, being a blessing to our local community. People were like, Hey, this is love. Biblical love works. It does something. And we want that, too.
So we were just very blessed, And I tell people, I could never write a book on this, right? It’s not like one, two, three, grow like me. I don’t know that I could put my finger on everything that the Lord did. But I do know this, we prayed for souls and we loved people. And so we were just very blessed in the ministries that we were able to work in, whether it was in Ohio or in Houston or Texas or in Washington, we just saw the Lord do amazing things. And I would say sometimes in spite of us, not really because of.
Gary Walton: We talk around here about the idea that God really wants his spiritual children to grow to maturity. He wants infants to become toddlers, toddlers to become elementary students become adolescents. And if he can find a church that is really serious about helping believers grow to the next step of their spiritual life, God wants to put his children in places where that will happen. And so we’ve really tried to focus on that part of it. Mean, we’re disciple making church.
That’s what God’s called us to do. And that means seeing people grow from one stage to the next with their spiritual growth. Then God takes care of the rest and that might be a little bit of you guys experience too. Lori, many people are trying to live a faithful, spiritual life serving Christ and raising children, working jobs, caring for family, caring for church family. What have you learned about finding joy just in the everyday life of serving Jesus, whether anybody’s noticing or not?
Lori Wilkening: It is something you have to constantly remind yourself in scripture of what you’re called to do. And you might have a desire to do more or, like, rearing your children and spending so much time. You see other things that you want to do in the future, but concentrating on what does the Lord want me to do right now? What is my job right now? This is going to fulfill me because God has called me to do this right now.
Take care of my children, either or with schooling for my children. I see other things I really desire to do, but what does God want me to focus on right now? And he brings joy in those things. It’s the comparing that gets us into trouble and are also our when we have those desires, the Lord’s obviously put those desires in our heart, waiting for his timing on that and just being content where you are and knowing that the Lord will move in different areas in his time and bring joy throughout even the mundane of taking care of your children or doing schooling every day. He brings the joy if we focus on that and be thankful for what he’s doing right now and keep our eyes on that and what the Lord’s doing instead of what is the Lord doing in somebody else’s life because that’s not where God’s put you right now.
This is where God has placed you, and finding joy in those things is gonna be most fulfilling.
Gary Walton: I’m thankful for that. That’s great. Both of you involved now, you know, a lot of different things, right? I know your job description is named a couple things, but there’s a lot of things happening. One of your roles, well actually, you know, your two main ones is involved with counseling.
You’re teaching counseling classes, but you both are mentoring young people in the dean’s office and so I know that involves a lot of counseling and discipling. As you process that kind of in our current culture climate, Dennis, what are some of the struggles that you see ordinary Christians carrying today?
Dennis Wilkening: I know that modern counselors like to think that these are unique problems that just surfaced for our generation or this generation. They’re the same stuff that we’ve been struggling with in humanity from the Garden of Eden until now. Which is why it’s so wonderful to go to scripture because it has the answers. It’s had the answers all along.
But some of the things that I see, and Ms. Lori sees on a regular basis, we’ll preach out on Sunday anxiety, fear about the future, depression. And I can say, I know that we’re body and spirit. But if you look at the most recent studies, only between four and six percent of those who are prescribed medication for depression and anxiety show pathology. In other words, there’s a physical bodily system that’s malfunctioning.
We understand in a sin curse world that happens. But that leaves ninety plus percent who really are usually depressed for spiritual reasons either because of active, open, unrepentant sin in their life or mishandling a difficult situation which merely compounds the problems, or the last one sometimes is having an unbiblical standard for what’s happening. So if you believe I’m never supposed to suffer in this life and you suffer, you’re going to struggle, right?
Gary Walton: That doesn’t make any sense, right? How do I process that?
Dennis Wilkening: Yeah. So then we would go to first Peter and say, Don’t think it’s strange that some fiery trial is here to try you. This life is full of trials. And that’s why the Lord has given us his Holy Spirit to help us.
We see not only anxiety and depression, we see identity issues. Because the world is Instagram and social media in general, but just the world is telling you who you’re supposed to be or how you’re supposed to think. And those young people have never been confronted with what the Bible says about what God thinks about them. I know the thoughts I think towards you, right, more than the sand of the sea. You know, Psalm 139 is not just good for him forming us in a womb, but also the overwhelming thoughts he has towards us and the plan he has for our life.
Young people need help being taught to filter their thoughts through scripture because what they’re feeling is real. Okay, their feelings are real. It’s just not true. What you’re feeling is real but it’s not based on truth. And the Bible tells the devils are roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
If he can get to young people early on, I think they struggle for long periods of time as adults. And so we’d really like to see the bondage of those things broken through scripture, the sufficiency of the word of God to address every need of man.
Gary Walton: From the beginning we have the enemy as a deceiver, the father of lies. And the ability to bring truth into a hurting heart is so it’s such a powerful resolution and healing desperately needed. Time flies. If you knew someone’s listening here and they’re feeling spiritually tired, discouraged, stuck, what would you say to encourage them? I actually want to ask both of you.
But Dennis, I’ll start with you. Okay.
Dennis Wilkening: Practically speaking, that’s that’s a not normal thing that happens in a believer’s life. We do get tired. The Lord knows that. He’s given us his word for that. He says that we’re supposed to encourage our self in the Lord.
If you read the Psalms, you’re gonna find multiple times that David starts off and he says, Why is my heart downcast? Why is it disquieted within me? I will hope in God. If I could tell someone, It will not always be like it is today. I know the devil says it’s never going to get any better than this.
That’s just not true.
Gary Walton: And that’s hard to understand in the middle of it,
Lori Wilkening: It is.
Dennis Wilkening: And because I’ve been there, right? It’s hard to see through the clouds. And my pastor in Texas used to say, Never doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light. So we need to get back to the word and prayer. But can I give something practical?
Know that sometimes it gets missed. Did you know that good music can actually revive your soul? Yeah. I know you guys have a radio station here. But just good music.
I find that if I can sing praises to the Lord, it changes my perspective. Music is powerful. It has the ability. You know, we’re here on Guam. I’m walking through a grocery store.
I hear a song I knew when I was a teenager. And it brings me right back to I’m like, Oh, I remember that summer. I remember driving in the car with the windows down listening to that song. When the Lord does something in our lives spiritually and we have a song that we can cling to, it brings us back to that. I would just encourage people, cling to the word and prayer, good Christian music.
It does change our emotions because our emotions are up and down all the time. Yeah.
Gary Walton: Amen. Lori, any encouragement?
Lori Wilkening: I would just say when you are down or just pressed for whatever reason, all the pressures that you have for your day, having that quiet time just to self evaluate as well. Lord, what are you doing in my life right now? Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing? What should I change? And even having, I mean, Dennis and I, we talk about why are we at this spot right now?
What do we need to fix? What do we? So evaluating what you’re going through right now and just spending quiet time. And yes, listening to music really helps as well. Good Christian music.
Gary Walton: Yeah, I don’t know about you guys, and I’m guessing maybe even more so for other people, but there’s not a lot of quiet in our lives anymore. I mean, sometimes I think, man, I just feel every single second with some noise. And a lot of it’s good. You know, I’m trying to input good stuff, but it is constant, you know. And, man, we gotta have some time back up and think.
I’ve been thankful for your ministry here for a lot of reasons, but, you’ve been pushing us, Dennis, to do some thinking, some spiritual inventory. That’s good for us. It’s good health good health for us, and I appreciate that very much. We’re glad that you guys are here. The Wilkening’s are Harvest kind of people.
We can see it early, thankful for your friendship, and, know that God’s gonna use you even as through this next weekend. So thanks for joining
Dennis Wilkening: Thank you.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always wanna personally invite you again to Harvest Baptist Church. You can join us at 08:45AM, 10:45AM on Sunday. We have Japanese and Korean translation during that 10:45AM service. That’s also the service we broadcast live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.