When I was appointed to a local church I dared to believe that on any given Sunday I had crafted a worship service and was ready to preach a sermon that would inspire everyone. What I learned is that despite my best efforts, the results were always going to be mixed. Beautiful music and hymns [...]
Martin Methodist Foundation Awards Scholarships The Martin Methodist Foundation was pleased to award scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year totaling $63,500 to sixteen students attending schools of higher education in Tennessee. Five of these scholarships were awarded to these Wesley Foundation students (below) attending the University of Memphis @ Lambuth. The Martin Methodist Foundation exists [...]
My wife Nancy and I received an unexpected delivery last week. A box of fruit came to our doorstep. We are grateful to be thought of in this generous way. The problem is that the package had no indication who the gift giver is- no name attached to the parcel at all.This is, of course, [...]
Can you imagine what it was like to hear prophet after prophet after prophet tell of the coming of the Messiah…only to have to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait? The waiting was excruciating as day after day passed, turning into months, years, and centuries as generations passed before an Anointed child born from [...]
Growing up in Memphis, I passed by First Baptist Church countless times. FBC is located at East Parkway and Poplar Avenue, a very prominent corner in midtown near Overton Park. Despite all those trips down busy Poplar Ave., I never had a reason to step inside this large, and historically influential church. But for the [...]
Though there are several accounts of the first Thanksgiving meal, most agree that the context for it was a festive celebration for a successful harvest. Growing a much-needed crop was critical in the early 1620’s as the emerging English settlement had limited resources for feeding the growing colony. The bounty they hoped for was flint [...]
This Thursday, before everyone sits down to debate if the glass of life is half full or half empty, remember to first give thanks for the glass... All good gifts around us, are sent from Heaven above. So thank the Lord for family and friends, and the love that holds us together. May you and yours be especially blessed [...]
The saying in Tennessee is “if you don’t like today’s weather, just wait a couple of days.” The accompanying pictures were taken of the same azaleas in my yard this week, two days apart. One was taken on a magnificent, shirtsleeve November day with the flowers looking glorious. The other was taken when I was [...]
One of the best but most often overlooked writings of C.S. Lewis is The Four Loves. In this work Lewis explores four streams of love, framing each by using ancient Greek keywords: storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (romantic love), and agape (charity). How these forms of love are expressed are as different as what they represent…love that bonds a family, [...]
I am writing this on Friday, October 31…aka Halloween. Over the years it has been called Samhain, after a Celtic autumn festival, and All Hallows’ Eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. Church history records that we have our Catholic brothers and sisters to thank for All Saints’ Day. Pope Gregory III is credited with establishing November 1 as [...]
