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I met our incoming Bishop while attending the Southeast Jurisdictional Conference held last week at Lake Junaluska, NC. Bishop David Graves has been assigned to the Tennessee-Kentucky Episcopal Area, which will include the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, the Kentucky Conference, and the Central Appalachian Missionary Conference. He officially begins his four-year tenure on September 1st. My [...]

A Good Balance of Confidence and Humility…                                                                                                     This is a story about three people and their packs. Each had two packs, one carried on the front of their chest and the other on their back. When the first person was asked what was in their packs, they said, "In the sack on my back are [...]

All things new, trustworthy and true…                How much new can you handle? In the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church, there is plenty of newness to go around. New Foundation/Development Fund President/CEO. New Conference Treasurer. New Superintendents in several districts and cohort areas of districts. New pastors arriving in numerous churches. New [...]

Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him.  And a large [...]

“A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to [...]

“For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one [...]

“‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’” (Mark 3:28-30)  It would be perfectly understandable if in coming to this passage, one [...]

“One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions [...]

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. [...]