A couple of weeks ago the lectionary text was from Genesis when three strangers appeared to Abraham. He offered them hospitality, rest, and retreat. They offered him the assurance that that word he had heard from God was indeed coming. Sarai, his wife, who was by the tent heard the promise that she was going …
I can remember where it started. I was sitting in the back of a classroom at Gardner-Webb School of Divinity. I was in my first year of seminary, and I was hanging tightly to the friendships I had made during orientation. We were far enough into the semester that we had gotten past our surface-level …
When I was approached by a member of our church to perform the wedding to her girlfriend, I wasn’t surprised or shocked. Since I started classes in seminary, I knew that this would be a part of my ministry as a pastor of a church and as a minister. We studied and discussed the LGBTQ …
At the CBF General Assembly this year, I led a breakout session about bivocational ministry. Throughout my time in divinity school, we talked about the future of ministry being bivocational ministry, but I was surprised to find out that when I tell people I am bivocational, they are surprised. The more ministers I meet, the more …
I’ve been told that I (or rather we, since Willie and Waylon are on this journey with me) are only a quarter of a mile from the end of the trail in Columbia that we’ve been running for over a year. Every time we run this particular trail, we don’t reach the end. Those who …
One of the things I hoped for when I graduated from seminary in May was some more time. Time to rest. Time to read. Time to reconcile relationships. The intensity of completing a 90+ hour degree in three years made it impossible not to strain relationships, not only because I was changing professions and my …
I was sitting on our back porch last night watching the puppies sniff the wind and smile knowing that the cool breeze meant that summer was fading away. There was certainly something inside of me that sighed with disappointment that we had to get back to a routine where bedtime had to be stuck to …
A recent ABP article, discussed how women ministers are being received in the moderate baptist world and there is some good news: Opportunities to lead churches are increasing for women in Cooperative Baptist life, but not fast enough to stop the loss of qualified female ministers from the Fellowship, a panel of ministers said during the …
Today, I went running for the first time in a really long time without the pups. After Tuesday’s 3 mile run and a dog yappy hour, Waylon has been limping a little bit. I’ve realized as much as I have been sitting over the past three years each week in class and commuting, I just …
that my experience as a teacher and more specifically as a reading specialist might be a central part of my ministry. Because I was a public school teacher, I had trained myself to show my faith in encouraging families and working hard to provide a quality education to children in poverty and in at risk …
