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Martin Methodist Foundation Awards Scholarships!

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 [...]

By |2025-12-22T15:09:14+00:00December 22nd, 2025|Foundation News, United Methodist General News|0 Comments

True Light that enlightens all humanity

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, [...]

By |2025-12-22T15:01:53+00:00December 22nd, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Living as People of the First and Second Advents…

 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 [...]

By |2025-12-17T20:03:37+00:00December 17th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Empty Spaces Can Help Fill a Great Future…

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 [...]

By |2025-12-08T16:38:54+00:00December 8th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Plant the seed…Harvest the rewards…Bear good fruit!

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 [...]

By |2025-12-01T19:33:17+00:00December 1st, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Gratitude in the Midst of Change…

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 [...]

By |2025-11-19T19:25:48+00:00November 19th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Agape Love from “Man’s Best Friend”…

     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, [...]

By |2025-11-10T16:20:20+00:00November 10th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

For All the Saints…

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 [...]

By |2025-11-03T16:31:37+00:00November 3rd, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Maintaining Fellowship & Engaging Followship…

This week the Annual Meeting of the National Association of United Methodist Foundations took place at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Representatives from nearly all 47 UM Foundations were present for three days of worship, prayer, plenary addresses, jurisdictional conversations, focus group sessions, creative networking, and collegial communion. NAUMF is a network of United Methodist Foundations across the [...]

By |2025-10-27T17:51:10+00:00October 27th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments