The Sacred Sandwich
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  • June11th

    Pastor Rick Warren, well-known for creating memorable acrostics to convey his groundbreaking church initiatives like PEACE, SHAPE and CHURCH, has unveiled his latest teaching on Christian humility called the RICK Plan. Says Warren, “As Christians who have received greater spiritual insight than people of other religions, we can easily fall into the trap of acting superior. But Jesus said we need to humbly serve others without concern for our preeminence in the world, and that’s what my new RICK Plan is all about.”

    RICK stands for: Remember others first; Imitate Christ; Create opportunities for service; and Keep your ego in check.

    Warren believes his new strategy is essential for the success of the Church and plans to implement it throughout his Purpose Driven network until RICK covers the globe. “I’ve come to realize how important humility is, and I want other Christians to understand it, too,” Warren explained. “In fact, just the other day I was telling Bono how I practically created another Pentecost at Saddleback’s last membership drive. All of a sudden the phone rings and it’s a call from the White House. It was Barry wanting some pastoral advice. This is the kind of humbling situation that I hope others can learn to experience someday, too.”

    When asked about the critics who charge that his new global humility plan is just a veiled marketing campaign to force his personal agenda on the Church, Warren responded, “Hey, the RICK Plan isn’t about me.”

  • May18th

    In an attempt to combat a severe drop in attendance every time their popular preacher goes on vacation, Marina Bay Community Church made the shocking announcement that they have cloned their longtime pastor, Rev. Spencer Klagg. To make this possible, Marina Bay enlisted the help of RevClone, a new Christian cloning facility in Southern California dedicated to multiplying the current pool of dynamic preaching celebrities.

    “As a cutting-edge mega church, we’re always looking for innovative ways to grow our church, and DNA duplication just seemed like a no-brainer,” explained church spokesman and elder, Clarence Ambrose. “Statistically our lowest Sunday attendance is when Pastor Klagg is on vacation and our associate pastor, Raymond Elliot, fills in. No offense to Raymond, but the people think Pastor Klagg’s monologue jokes are just plain funnier than Raymond’s prop comedy.”

    By cloning their pastor, Marina Bay hopes to fill their 3,000 seat auditorium every Sunday, whether the original Pastor Klagg is in the pulpit or not. During those times when Klagg is taking time off, his clone will perform the pastoral duties in his stead, assuring the congregation of no interruption in enjoying their pastor’s unique spiritual gifts. “Not to mention keeping the weekly offering at the same high level as the attendance,” Ambrose added.

    Not all church members, however, are pleased with the cloning of Pastor Klagg. Herm Tayback, a deacon for twenty years, is a vocal critic of the RevClone project. “Am I the only one creeping out over this? Last week the pastor was performing a wedding while his clone was back home mowing his lawn. I mean, are we gaining a spare pastor or giving Mrs. Klagg another husband to take out the garbage?”

    Tayback also worries about possible theological ramifications. “Hey, I’ve seen those science fiction movies where the clone slowly goes insane because of a missing chromosome. What happens if Klagg’s twin loses his mind and starts preaching on sin and repentance? Good grief, we could lose half the congregation! In fact, I’ve shared these concerns with Pastor Klagg. At least I think I was talking to Pastor Klagg…  Ooo, did anyone else just get a chill down their back?”

    Regardless of the criticism, RevClone’s head scientist Farnsworth Diddle is quite proud of his work with Marina Bay, and he envisions a wide application for this new cloning technology. “Just think… churches won’t just use Rick Warren’s teachings, now they can hire a Rick Warren clone as their pastor.”

    Deacon Tayback disagrees. “Don’t we have enough Rick Warren clones in churches already?”

    All in all, Ambrose says Marina Bay is very pleased with the initial reaction to their new genetically-created pastor. “Attendance has never been better,” he reported happily. “But if we ever start losing folks, we’re not worried. Our contingency plan is to start cloning the congregation, too. Doesn’t science work in mysterious ways?”

  • April8th

    After accepting 2,400 new members into Saddleback Church in one day, Rick Warren attempts his next record-breaking feat: seeing how many people he can stuff into a phone booth.

  • January23rd

    Much to the delight of charismatics everywhere, Rick Warren appears to suddenly speak in tongues during his Inauguration prayer.

  • January14th

    Fuller Theological Seminary announced today that a course in tap dancing will be added to the curriculum of their Master of Divinity program this spring. Don Ohlson, a spokesperson for Fuller, explained the reason behind the new addition: “We believe that in this postmodern climate of tolerance and political civility it is important to train our future pastors to be able to dance around biblical issues when necessary.”

    According to Ohlson, Fuller officials saw a need for the tap dance course after one of their most prominent alumni, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church, lost some of his rhythm over the gay marriage issue in California. “Over the years, Rick has displayed some instinctive dance moves that have made his Christian message light and breezy,” said Ohlson, “but when he openly opposed gay marriage his footwork got a little too heavy and he had to do some serious back-shuffles to stay on Melissa Etheridge’s good side. Experts in the dance field tell us that if Rick had been given proper training and choreography during his seminary education, he could have easily avoided this whole controversy by using jazz hands, smiling real big, and doing a ‘shuffle-hop-tap-spring-tap-step-step’ to the left, and then to the right. He would have been off stage before anyone knew what hit them.”

    Ohlson was quick to point out that Warren, despite his recent stumbles, still managed to make some impressive ballroom moves that swept Barack Obama off his feet and led to his invitation to offer the opening prayer at the Presidential Inauguration. “Even without formal dance training, Rick’s Fuller education undoubtedly provided him with the basic tools to become the theological hoofer that he is today,” said Ohlson. “By offering this new class on tap dance, we believe the next ‘Rick Warren’ that Fuller produces will be even more prepared to make the Gospel as entertaining and non-threatening as possible.”

    The new Fuller class, Pastoral Tap Dance, will be held off-campus at Little Miss Starlet Dance Academy and Tanning Salon, with instruction by former Rockette, Tammi Lynn Marple. Marple, who has taught the academy’s “Beginning Tap for Four Year Olds and Up” class for twenty years, suggests that the Fuller seminary students who enroll should bring a juice box for break time and have their mommies or daddies drop them off five minutes early so they have time to warm up.

  • January13th

    Not to be outdone by the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards, the Biblical Organization Against Selfish Tendencies (BOAST) has announced their nominees for the sixth annual Christian Humility Awards. Dubbed the “Meekys,” these awards will be given to those special evangelicals who have displayed “exceptional humility in their service to God” during the last year. BOAST’s director, Webster Peabody, hopes the Meekys will redefine a growing award industry that places too much emphasis on self-importance and worldly success. “We believe that if the meek are going to inherit the earth, then hey, they ought to inherit some of these awards too.”

    Most notable among the nominees for “Most Humble Christian”: Eula Fay Hornsby of Cambridge, KS, who has served for over fifty years in her church’s nursery by caring for the congregation’s children during worship services. In commending Mrs. Hornsby’s humble efforts, Peabody said, “After a half century of handling thousands of dirty diapers, we believe Eula Fay is well qualified to pick up one of our awards.”

    Among the nominees in other categories:

    • Rick Warren, for “Most Humble Publicity Hound”
    • Miserable Worms Community Church, for “Best Humiliating Church Name”
    • Victoria Osteen, for “Most Humble Pastor’s Wife with a $100,000 Clothes Allowance”
    • The BOAST “Meeky” Awards, which nominated itself for “Most Humble Christian Awards Program”

    Sadly, none of last year’s winners were nominated for any of the awards this year. “Let’s just say that some of them got a little too big for their britches after they won,” Peabody explained.

    Meeky organizers hope this year’s award presentation gala, scheduled for February in Dubuque, IA, will be more successful than last year when most of the winners did not show up to pick up their trophies. “Apparently, they were TOO humble,” Peabody admitted. “However, we feel confident the turnout will be better this year. Not only have we lowered our standards on humility, but we’ve added an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet and an open bar.”