(c) Can Stock Photo / HPW We sat around the table one night, the appointed leaders of the congregation that I served at the time, considering our future. Attendance had dropped from its high point in the 1950’s and while the rate of decline had flattened, we were faced with a church that was rapidly … Continue reading Do we really care about the future?
On April 4, 1968, I was probably watching The Flying Nun when the newscaster interrupted and told of Dr. King's death. I was alone in our apartment as my mom had run downstairs to visit with a friend, and I remember the sense of fear and foreboding that came with that frantic announcement. That night, … Continue reading Fifty Years Later
I would see her walking down the street, using a red wheelchair as a walker . . . a pushcart filled with everything she owned. I would learn her name was Janice, and she'd been on the streets for a while. She was an elderly African American woman, who was full of herself. One day … Continue reading Dying in the streets….
Jerrell "Jerry" Voorhees passed on March 1, 2017 from complications of Alzheimer's/Dementia. For many years Jerry was a fixture in the D.C. jazz scene, both listening and playing his beloved vibraphones with the Annapolis Jazz Trio. Jerry also spent a season in Nashville, playing regularly at the Sunday jams at Windows on the Cumberland, and performing … Continue reading A Celebration of the Life of Jerry Voorhees
Back in May of 2013, I jumped into a partnership with a couple of good friends to take on the task of continuing hundreds of years of tradition through The United Methodist Reporter. At the time we hoped that we could develop a business model that would allow for the addition of some part-time staff, … Continue reading The end of a season…
Father Abraham had many sons Had many sons had Father Abraham I am one of them And so are you So let's just praise the Lord Abraham, the father of three of the major streams of faith in the world, is known in scholarly circles as a patriarch. He was, as the dictionary defines that … Continue reading A Eulogy for Daddy Joe
I think most of the world has seen my Facebook post from yesterday in which I announced that I am being appointed to serve as the Sr. Pastor of the City Road Chapel United Methodist Church in Madison, TN. In that statement, I acknowledged that I had thought at the beginning of the week that … Continue reading A United Methodist pastor’s perspective on a pastoral transition
Last week, my 14 year old and I headed over on Friday night to the local movie mall to catch the opening of Divergent (which, as fans of the books, we enjoyed). In the plethora of previews shown before that movie, we were surprised and excited to catch our first glimpse of Noah. It was clear from … Continue reading A Pastor reviews “Noah”
In 1975, I was 15 years old. Frankly, I fluctuated between nerd and punk on a regular basis – a kid without many bearings. I attended church pretty regularly (the fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church that my mother’s family had been a part of for years) but I was already beginning to know that somehow I … Continue reading Requiem for a Mentor
But the core of the breakthrough is that resolving conflicts among choices is expensive at a cognitive level and can be unpleasant. It causes mental fatigue. via Why Cant More Poor People Escape Poverty? Psychologists Have A Radical New Explanation. | The New Republic. Gavin clued me into this article in the New Republic which … Continue reading Why Rich People Don’t Understand Poor People
Some who have been following a while may have known that I recently won a 16 gig, Wifi only, IPad from the good folks at the United Methodist Publishing House in relation to their new Common English Bible. After a week of waiting with baited breath I finally got the unit yesterday and started on … Continue reading The New IPad Life
Saturday morning I was watching the Twitter stream when the first accounts of the shooting in Arizona began to ring out. The news reports were, as we all know now, all over the map, with various accounts of what happened, and the reported death of Congresswoman Giffords. At the same time, within the first hours … Continue reading The Missing Conversation from Arizona
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I first heard about Glee on Fresh Air, Terry Gross's interview program on NPR. She was interviewing Ryan Murphy, the show's creator and producer in the days leading up to the show premiere, and I was intrigued by what seemed to be a quirky premise. So my family has watched since the first episode, back … Continue reading The Joy is Gone…
I got an email today informing me that Ddani Aguilar died today, his spirit leaving this world and passing on into the other realm. I was privileged to work with Dani for several years during my time at UMCom, and we would occasionally cross paths as we wandered throughout the city. It was during one … Continue reading A Co-Creator With God
One of the mantras that I hear regularly from folks is the need to "take back our country." In fact, I heard two Republican candidates for office make that claim this week in a meeting I attended as the reason they are qualified to hold office. I confess that I am clueless about many things, … Continue reading A Serious Question
I learned this afternoon that Harold Frelix Jr. was killed yesterday in a motorcycle accident on I-24. Harold is a the son of Harold Sr., pastor of the Priest Lake Community Baptist Church, and after a stint in the military, was becoming a leader in the Antioch community. Harold and I were at best acquaintances, … Continue reading Prayer for a Saint Known From Afar
Last week I got a call from Bob Smietana, the religion reporter at the Tennessean. It seems like Bob is always calling looking for some sort of response on the latest study or some political happening, so I wasn't surprised to hear that he was looking for comments on a recent study out of Duke … Continue reading The Travails of a Fat Pastor
There was a time not too long ago when I used to spend time in front of the computer writing about the myriad of things coursing through my brain. But during the past couple of years, I have found those times to be getting further and further apart, to the point where I'm not sure … Continue reading Hello. My name is Jay. I used to be a blogger.
Long ago, back when I was just a kid, in the days when gospel music involved more polyester and pomade than guitars and drums, I stumbled into a place called Fellowship. By day, it pretended to be a bookstore, but on certain nights the books would be pushed aside, the pulsing fluorescent tubes would be … Continue reading A Requiem for Henry
Only Wonder Understands 