How to Read the Bible, Let’s Go!
I grew up in a world where what the Bible said meant everything. Our approach to reading the Bible was mostly literal. I say “mostly” because we w...
Wherever the Journey May Lead
On my day off last week, I hiked the Grindstone Trail at Pilot Mountain State Park, one of my favorite trails nearby. The trail is physically challenging, but t...
Gathering Round A Table
There is something sacred about gathering around a table. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is often found sharing meals with others — friends, strangers, discipl...
Who Vocational Ministry Looks Like
Dear Beloved Community, A little more than four years ago, I got an email from a young student in her final semester of college. She was working on a final proj...
A Shelter For Each Other’s Living
Dear Beloved Community, I am writing this letter imagining your faces. I can imagine you in your routine place in the sanctuary, with that warm light, rad...
Gratitude and Hope
Gratitude and hope. When I finished defending my dissertation for my Doctorate of Ministry last month, someone asked me how it felt. I had two emotions: gratitu...
Words That Give Us Life
Throughout this season of Lent I have been reminded time and time again of the power of words. Written. Spoken. Sung. Heard. Felt. Words have the power to ...
Crowded Tables
As the Brandi Carlile song goes, “I want a house with a crowded table, And a place by the fire for everyone.” This was exactly the spirit ...
Promotion Sunday
Each year, Promotion Sunday marks an exciting time in the life of our church family — a time when our children and youth officially “move up” to their nex...
Bold and Boundless Love
Three years ago I worked up the courage to attend my first Pride celebration. I wasn’t necessarily nervous about attending so much as before then I’d never ...
Sacramental Thresholds
Do you remember your graduations? Your threshold moments? Your times of transition? Closing one chapter and beginning a new one? That weird liminal space in bet...
Jesus Still Shows Up
On the weekend after Easter many of us gathered at Morrow Mountain State Park for our first church camping weekend. This event was sponsored by the Adult Minist...
Signs of New Life
As we begin the month of April, new life is emerging all around us. Our physical world is teeming with new signs of life. Tree leaves. Flowers. Birdsong. Buzzin...
Free and Faithful
As you are reading this, many First on Fifth folks are in Charlotte for the annual gathering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. Last...
The Long Road
Dear Beloved Community, As I’m writing to you today, I’m flanked with the dearest of friends around me. It’s time for my annual peer learning group retrea...
100th Anniversary Hymnal!
The Apostle Paul instructed the Colossian church that they should “with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” And ...
Finding Belonging
“Do you have siblings?” “Have you been to the beach in the past year?” “Are you a preacher’s kid?” “Have you ever lived overseas?” “Do you e...
Finding the Good Life 2025
Happy new year, Beloved Community! I write this new year’s note to you still in the wiles of 2024, in those final days before we meet the babe in a manger. As...
Holy Gatherings
Hello First on Fifth Friends! I recently came across two headlines that gave me pause: “Is this the end of the dining room as we know it?” and “The Death...
A Big Week For Belonging
Dear Beloved Community, Belonging had a big week around First on Fifth. We belonged with a bunch of Baptists over in Greensboro, as our Cooperative Baptist Fell...
Summer Reading List
Dear Beloved Community, Every so often, I use this space in the newsletter to share with you some recent, non-churchy books I’ve read and loved, or podcasts ...
So Much Good Happening Here!
Dear Beloved Community, If you have felt like this month has been full to the brim with wonderful staff news, I have even more wonderful staff news to share –...
All Things New
Dear Beloved Community, Several days have since passed, but the deep and abiding love I experienced alongside you this Holy Week and Easter will not soon abate....
Collecting Our Tears
In author Sarah Bessey’s new book, Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith, she speaks of the wilderness of lament. Far too often, she...
Tender Care
December's whirlwind of presents and parties and performances and places to go are always peppered with complexity. You know them well, I'm sure. "Oh what fun t...
Welcoming Our New Members
Perhaps you have noticed that we have some new members around here. And not just some – to date, we have welcomed 59 new members into the beloved community of...
Giving Thanks for Abigail Cook
About this time two years ago, Kim Towles pulled me aside after worship to make sure I saw the family that was visiting and happened to sit alongside her and Ch...
Staff Updates this May
I write with several staff bits of news for you today!...