Homecoming
“There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home” She clicks the heels of those ruby slippers. You know the story &...
Homebreaking
On Thursday night, my younger two kids and I grabbed dinner at one of their favorite spots, Dairy-O. A culinary delight! Josh was out of town, Liam was at baske...
100 Years: Of the City
Early last month on a beautiful Saturday morning, our Deacons and pastors gathered for one of those day-long meetings called a “retreat.” We had several “...
100 Years: In the Heart
It all began on a walk. Well, it was more like a hike. Traversing the Kachkar Mountains just east of the Black Sea between where Turkey and Russia now sit, thei...
100 Years: Home
When Josh and I got married, we received a number of lovely gifts for our house — towels and kitchen utensils and things like that. I remember struggling to k...
Fully Alive
Ten years ago this summer, Josh, Liam, Annabelle, and I loaded up our cars and headed southeast to plant our lives with you, right here in Winston-Salem. But be...
Fully God
I would call myself a sentimental collector. I have the sock monkey one of my great aunts made for me when I was born. I’ve got the Growing Up Girls porcelain...
Free to Belong
Born a slave named Isabella in Ulster County, New York, around 1797, her young enslaved life was lived on her own. Sold for $150 at the age of 11, young Isabell...
Loosed!
Loosed! You know the story, this wild Pentecost narrative, one of breath and fire and tongues, one of innumerable languages and proclamation and hearing, one wh...
How Will I Know? By the Meal
How will I know? How will I know? How will I know that the worst thing isn’t the last thing? How will I know that beginnings are possible when all I see are e...
Looking for the Living
About a half a dozen years ago on the Wednesday night before Easter, my family was leaving the church house with bags full of Easter goodies for our kids. My da...
The Good Life: Leveled
This was one of those weeks in sermon preparation when the plan didn’t unfold as I might have expected, a week where the Spirit didn’t move according to pri...
The Good Life: Fulfilled
Barbara Brown Taylor tells a story about a weekend retreat she once attended with about seventy folks interested in deepening their experience of the Christian ...
The Good Life: Proclaimed
We’re nearing the five year anniversary of one of the most ubiquitous phrases used by the modern American. No, I’m not talking about “we’re living in un...
The Good Life: Delighted
I’m going to let you in on a pastor secret. Every pastor has a wild wedding story. We do. We file them away next to the extra splashy baptism stories and the ...
We Have This Treasure
There once lived a water carrier. Every morning, as soon as the sun rose, she walked from her home to collect water in two earthen pots that hung from a long po...
What is Church For?
I’ve told you before the story from Dr. Fred Craddock, the late pastor and storyteller, who shared about the first church he pastored....
Bread and Circuses
About this time last year, a viral trend caught fire on the social media site, TikTok....
Defying Norms: Prioritizing Humanity
John Buchanan, the great pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, one told a story about his best instruction in sabbath-keeping: “My instructor in Sa...
Coming to Ourselves
Thank you, Emily, for the warm welcome. And thank you to my mom and dad for thinking that this was a good idea. It’s an honor, and frankly a...
Who Sinned?: Transforming Power and Authority
I am truly grateful for the invitation to be with you all this morning and to share Midwives of a Movement with you, if you joined us during the Sunday School h...
Here & There & Everywhere
I had a bit of a chuckle when picking the title for today’s Easter sermon, thinking that perhaps half of you would hear “here and there and everywhere” an...
Tender Care: Living Under Water
As the scene opens, Pete, Delmar, and Everett are seated around a campfire: hungry, scared, and on the run. They’re outlaws you see, having barely escaped a M...
The Resurrection Way of Life
Over the past month or so, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of stories in our news and social media that reflect on the three covid-era years we’ve co...
Home by Another Way: Baptized
If you’ve been following our worship themes this school year, you know we’ve been exploring the language, “On the Way.” After a fall spent unpacking the...