Leaving Home: Fearless
Now solidly into Mid-February, I’m curious how many of us are still feeling the pressure to “make 2026 our year.” What major transformation has cons...
Leaving Home: Follow Me
The irony is not lost on me that months ago, I planned a sermon series called “Leaving Home” … and then we’d spend two weeks stuck in and tucked a...
Leaving Home: Come and See
“Experience the glow!,” all the advertisements read, scattered as they were around the tiny island of Vieques off the coast of Puerto Rico. That glow they d...
Leaving Home: Underwater
Everything looks different underwater. Distended, a bit. Shiny and blurry all at once. Scientists tell us “not only do underwater objects appear larger and cl...
Leaving Home: Pitching Tents
In my memory, I was about 8 or 9 years old, and I’d had enough. I can’t recall what set me off – probably the annoying younger brother, or maybe just gene...
When Home Isn’t Home
There’s just something about the early part of November that codes our national mood, isn’t there? I’m speaking of election day, of course, and all that f...
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 &...
Homekeeping
“Awe came upon everyone,” Luke tells us. The writer of the gospel which bears his name and the storyteller of how the first disciples came to life in the Bo...
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...
Homemaking
You might be wondering, isn’t this a text we normally read at Christmas, and not October? Yes, you’d be right! Every year in our Christmas Lessons and Carol...
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...
Home By Another Way
I grew up next door to my grandparents and needless to say I spent a lot of time with them, including road trips. We would travel from New Bern to their home in...
Home by Another Way: Sent
Today, we conclude our month of talking through the Epiphany passages of Jesus....
Home by Another Way: Called
In the comic strip, Linus had gotten fed up with Lucy. She was up to her self-focused ways again, and he was over it. ...
Home by Another Way: Tempted
“A rich industrialist from the North was horrified to find a Southern fisherman lying leisurely beside his boat. ‘Why aren’t you fishing?’ asked the ind...
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...
Home By Another Way
The visit of the wise men to the manger in Bethlehem is one of the most beloved stories associated with the birth of Jesus. It has been celebrated in art, used ...
Fit for a King
Welcome to the week of seasonal confusion! You know this week – happens every year when the rotting pumpkins on your porch take up residence next to the Chris...
When the Walls Come Tumbling Down
In a recent essay titled An Optimistic Quest in Apocalyptic Times1, writer Nylah Iqbal Muhammad begins with an apocalyptic tone, not too dissimilar from the apo...
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...
Why We Celebrate Anniversaries
Yesterday, I had the distinct honor to officiate the wedding of two of our young adult members, Katie and Cory. Those two are young and in love, such a good, th...
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...
Lessons Along the Way: Blessing
On a warm Sunday morning in May 1911, a group of 13 friends set out by foot and by buggy from Highlands, NC to Whiteside. ...