I was 11 years old and my church league basketball team was playing Immanuel Baptist. Immanuel had this tall kid, Big 33, who I was supposed to guard. We couldn’t stop him. Between the quarters, our coach, let’s call him Coach Rupp, pulled me to the side and laid out a detailed plan that involved […]
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In 1976, I found myself in the summer school reading program. One of the few perks of summer school was representing Lexington Fayette Urban County Public Schools in Lexington’s Fourth of July parade. They asked us to dress as our favorite character from American history. I knew I wanted to dress as a Native American. […]
In college my friend Jim read a little book by a TV preacher and latched onto a single verse, “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened” (Luke 11) […]
I love VBS, I guess the first time I ever taught or preached was for Mrs. Wells’ 4th grade VBS class as a 12 year old Moses with a bathrobe, an elastic banded gray beard, two tablets fashioned from spray painted kickboards and a memorized script! Our scriptures today and next week are the lessons […]
What has nourished you? What has carried you to this place where you now stand? If I was to think of a symbol of what fed me as a child, I could place a mason jar of homegrown green beans on the altar. Every summer, we picked bushel baskets of beans at the family farm, […]
On Tuesday, I was stuck. My Trinity Sunday was bogged down and going nowhere. At our weekly worship planning, I shared this stuckness with Heather, Kate, Emma and Matt. Maybe my mire began with a Trinity Sunday children’s sermon, where a well meaning leader explained the Trinity with the three leaves of the shamrock, only […]
I’ve always loved watching a campfire, how the flames dance up into the night sky. In the Biblical age, fire provided any light at night, made possible every cooked meal, kept people warm, and forged pottery or metal. As a child hearing the Pentecost story, I got lost in the wonder of the tongues of […]
Dear Belmont Friends, Last week, after 52 years of language incompatible with God’s boundless grace and love, our United Methodist Church General Conference removed the harmful language from our Book of Discipline. We no longer name some of God’s beloved children as incompatible. The UMC no longer bars churches or pastors from celebrating same sex […]
Thursday morning, I walked to the Charlotte Convention Center. In the predawn light, you could hear the birds singing their songs of praise. On Wednesday, I was privileged to be on the floor voting as The General Conference of the United Methodist Church made history by removing the harmful exclusionary language. We now properly declare […]
Last weekend, I joined our confirmation retreat along with 14 seventh and eighth graders. Our teens asked great questions like “why is our denomination splitting up?” I felt drawn to the whiteboard and with help from Faith Friend Dr. Michael Stephens I drew a timeline of church splits: Christianity from Judaism 45AD, Roman Catholic […]
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