UMDF Participation Rate
Through 3rd Q 2025
4.1%
Loan rate 5.99%

Blog

Home>>Blog

Celebrating the Fullness of Freedom…

I hope you had a positive, patriotic experience yesterday celebrating the historically recognized birthday of the United States of America. We are 249 years old! It is always a meaningful holiday that provides an opportunity to celebrate the many freedoms which make our country unique and strong. What might we consider the most important freedoms [...]

By |2025-06-30T18:56:34+00:00June 30th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

What Makes Us Absolutely, Positively Important?

On the morning of June 22 the lead headline on the Daily Memphian web page read in a large, bold font: “Most important Memphian of all time has died”. Depending on the era and context of importance, that statement could have applied to any number of people. For music, Elvis Presley. In sports, Larry Finch. [...]

By |2025-06-27T18:16:53+00:00June 27th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Rain Delay

You don’t have to be a golf fan to admire what J.J. Spaun did last Sunday in the final round of the U.S. Open.  Spaun had led or been near the lead in the previous three rounds at Oakmont Country Club, which was proving to be a terribly difficult course, frustrating the world’s best players. [...]

By |2025-06-20T12:01:11+00:00June 20th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Shepherding an Exquisite Life…

There are sooooooo many books that have been written in the collective categories of self-help, finding happiness, or what it takes to be successful that it can be hard for any one of them to stand out. From person to person, it often depends on what we are seeking, how we establish our priorities, what [...]

By |2025-06-13T19:21:14+00:00June 13th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

The Need for Deeper and Wider Imagination…

The annual gathering of United Methodists from the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference concluded in the early afternoon of this past Wednesday. From the opening worship service on Sunday evening to the concluding act of the fixing of clergy appointments, the Holy Spirit was present and evident throughout. There were many high and holy moments, and the [...]

By |2025-06-06T19:39:39+00:00June 6th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Family Time as a Means of Grace…

Do you have special memories of when your family comes together for food, fellowship, and to celebrate or acknowledge something significant…a birthday, anniversary, holiday, wedding, baptism, birth, death, or a milestone moment in someone's life? A variety of traditions often accompany these events, even if the details vary from family to family. As time passes [...]

By |2025-05-29T18:29:24+00:00May 29th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Commencement

It is a season of graduations. Whether it be from kindergarten, elementary school, high school or higher education, graduation is a rite of passage, a move to a new chapter of life experience. Such times are exciting and cause for celebration. They also create new questions for those students and their families. What kinds of [...]

By |2025-05-14T19:40:29+00:00May 14th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Be the gazelle your neighbor needs!

As a local church pastor, I once received a call from a senior living facility that one of their residents, Mary, who was a member of my congregation, had been taken by ambulance to the hospital. Mary had passed out during the evening meal in the common dining area. The person who called said she [...]

By |2025-05-09T23:29:55+00:00May 9th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

Winning isn’t everything…so what is?

If you have followed basketball over the last forty years, you likely remember the time a reporter asked a young Michael Jordan about why he tried to score so much. Jordan’s Chicago Bulls were winning a lot of games, and he was leading the league in points per game. But he was simultaneously criticized for [...]

By |2025-05-02T14:18:10+00:00May 2nd, 2025|Blog|0 Comments

A prayer for our work…

My position with the Foundation and Development Fund for the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference gives me a seat at the table of our Committee on Finance and Administration. At our most recent gathering, we faced the task of finalizing the 2026 budget that will be presented for review and approval at Annual Conference in June. John [...]

By |2025-04-24T19:18:40+00:00April 24th, 2025|Blog|0 Comments