Pastor Emily’s Blog

Our Homebound Team co-chairs gathering to pore and pray over a list of those beloveds who are home-centered in their daily rhythms, followed immediately by a room full of women who have carefully and creatively crafted notes of encouragement to send out among our...

There is a unique kind of joy found in the gift of colleagues who are willing to bring their full, incarnational selves to this work of Love. And this week has been filled with that joy! Nearly our full staff stepped away from our usual rhythms for awhile this week,...

Walking up those historic steps, I confess that I was more in a hurry and distracted by the sight of familiar faces to fully understand the gravity of that moment. The full weight of the moment just didn’t register until, with hundreds of voices raised singing “Lift...

If ever I’m sure I’ve discovered the movements of God in the world, God finds some way to unmoor me from my expectations in ways that always, always lead to broader trust and abundant transformation. If ever I thought I had the world figured out, I have only to lift...

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” - Acts 2:1-2 For half a day this week, I accompanied Liam’s...

Last spring, our church affirmed four priorities for mission and ministry to guide the shape of our work. These are: Cultivating the well-being of children Becoming a teaching and learning church Mitigating poverty in our community Growing in number and faithfulness...

Sometimes I near the end of the full week and wonder: now what exactly happened this week? It sparks my gratitude for an ever-present phone and camera used to capture moments, stories, glimpses of the movement of God around me. Today’s post stems from those pictures!...

Just outside my office hangs a lovely print, centered upon which is the classic Wendell Berry poem, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” The wisdom of this 84 year-old prophet abounds, and like the stories and teachings of Jesus -- stark, real, timeless --...

This past week has afforded me two distinct and meaningful opportunities to gather with fellow pastors to talk, pray, plan, and listen to the movement of the Spirit of God all around us. The first was on Monday, where some thirty or more pastors were welcomed by the...

Every bit of the service bore her mark. The prayers thoughtfully culled and created. The poetry precisely chosen. The hymns whittled down from a dozen to three which shared her vision (God’s vision!) for ministry in a hurting world. The “charge to the church” that she...

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! What joy we shared together on Sunday, as we met at the tomb to discover that God in Christ has made all things new! Our Holy Week and Easter observances this year were among the most meaningful of any I remember, and I give...

We didn’t spot her until our descent. Eyes focused on the prize, we ascended the sturdy metal beams -- stairs and ladders, one after the other, hard hats protecting us from the low ceilings, some of us (yours truly!) clenching tighter with every set of stairs we...

“Spring is coming…” has been the promise and the invitation we’ve heard this Lenten season. In worship, in self-reflection, in study, and in service, our congregation has yielded to the reminder that in Christ, all things will be made new, life will come from even the...

One of the great gifts of being a Baptist like we are at First on Fifth is our healthy cooperation with other Baptist churches within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It affords us meaningful relationships that stretch across borders of all kinds to weave a new...

This week, thanks to the quick responsiveness of our Mitch Phipps (who I’m convinced has a connection with nearly everyone in this town!), I and a few others of you had a meaningful meeting with John Railey and Chanel Nestor. John is the new Executive Director and...

Some weeks in the life of the church are ones that, if ever I’m feeling down, restore my faith in the church, in the Spirit of God moving through an imperfect-yet-hopeful people who practice bold love of God and neighbor and boundless compassion for all people. This...

A note from Emily: In place of my usual post this week, I share with you the family reflections I offered at my Grandmother Mary’s funeral yesterday. Mary died peacefully at the ripe age of 97 and a half this week, and her service was filled with the love she shared...

Spring is coming… I see it in the daffodils down the street, sprouting thick green stalks and peeks of yellow buds. I see it in the sunlight that finally, finally is cutting through the gray winter’s sky and softening, drying, warming, loosening all the remaining...

I’m only a chapter in, but am immediately resonating with the content and challenge presented in a new book I just started reading called The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul. Author Laura van Dernoot Lipsky is a leading researcher in the field of trauma...

Most mornings as I drive Liam to school and myself to work, we listen to the radio. Sometimes he’s requesting a favorite song or movie soundtrack; other times he acquiesces to my desire to catch several minutes of news as the day begins. He did so this morning, and we...

I found myself looking around at last night’s First Fellowship gathering and feeling the powerful Spirit of God in our midst: refreshing, renewing, and real. Volunteers working tirelessly and faithfully to have hot barbeque and all the fixings ready for hungry folks...

Just a few weeks ago, I attended a heartening gathering of pastors from across Winston-Salem. We were called together amidst all our churches’ diversity of theology, ideology, race, gender, economics, and age by Chuck Spong (Executive Director of Love Out Loud...

Over the past two months, your Personnel Committee has been hard at work, prayerfully discerning the path forward following the departure of John Thornton on our pastoral staff. Anytime there is a staff transition, space opens up to ask again those key questions for...

I was one of many in our Cooperative Baptist Fellowship family who rejoiced yesterday upon the announcement that Dr. Paul Baxley had been named the new Executive Coordinator for our Fellowship, following Rev. Suzii Paynter as the fourth leader of CBF. If you’re...

When I was a young preacher’s kid growing up in church, I generally found our church business meetings to be the pinnacle of boredom. What fell drolly upon my adolescent ears were people droning on about motions and rules, folks getting nitpicky about details, and oh...

When I mentioned a few days ago to my dear friend and fellow pastor that “we did something different on Christmas Eve,” he gave an audible gasp. Something DIFFERENT on Christmas EVE?! But those of you who’ve been around for awhile remember the last few times we...

If you happened upon any one of the many multi-figurine nativity sets in my house right now (from Peanuts to handcrafted around the world to Fontanini!), you’d be met with an unusual sight. Liam helped me set each of these up, you see. Now a curious kindergartener, he...

What exactly makes worship, worship? I pondered that question this week, as is my custom. This time, though, there was a snowstorm-spurred urgency about the query! As our staff wondered together about shifts to our schedule, I shared again the mantra I’d adopted...

Back in the summer of 2008, my immediate family took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe for two months, time granted for dad’s sabbatical and funded by the Lilly Foundation’s Clergy Renewal Program. Before iPhones, or my spouse and children, or my granddad’s ALS...

Between the mall and the mail, and everything in between, the season of Christmas has descended upon us -- and it’s not yet December! For our commercialized landscape, yearning to sell and to draw on the urges the season invites, the holiday is in full swing. And yet,...