Celebrating Your Service
I thought she had fallen. I couldn’t see her torso or her face. She had lurched over the side of the electric cart/scooter. But as I got closer I realized her eyes were open and her hands were moving
I thought she had fallen. I couldn’t see her torso or her face. She had lurched over the side of the electric cart/scooter. But as I got closer I realized her eyes were open and her hands were moving
“Look, I found a huge one, this one will be mine... oh look at this little one here, this can be for my little sister.” This was the running monologue of my 5-year-old grandson during our recent blackberry picking adventure. We learned to bypass the red ones which are too tart and Read More...
https://youtu.be/lMBg9b-gw0M Senior Minister, Rev. Carla Aday provides an update on summer worship plans.
Earlier this week one of my friends was scheduled to have major surgery to repair an injury from a serious tumble she’d taken over the weekend. The morning of the surgery the doctor came in and told her the insurance company had not finished approving the procedure so they would have to Read More...
“Everything looks like a failure in the middle. Everyone loves inspiring beginnings and happy endings; it is just the middles that involve hard work.” - Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business Review 2009 Back in March, we thought we needed to hunker down for a few weeks or maybe even a few months Read More...
The Fourth of July was spent one of two place for the first 25 years of my life: in the swimming pool in my Aunt Millie’s back yard in Dallas or at the Faught Farm where dozens of kids spent the day in team olympics that began with volleyball and culminated with Read More...
What to do? Many of you have asked me in the last several weeks, “So what are we going to do?” What I hear in your question is that you feel moved by God to create a different kind of world, where all people, regardless of skin color, experience dignity, justice, freedom Read More...
I was taught that there were five senses: taste, touch, sight, smell, sound. All ways of knowing the world around us, of taking in the beauty of a hibiscus blossom or the sumptuousness of the first summer tomato. Something resonates in the heart when we hear a loved one’s voice on the other end of the telephone. Our senses do not just make us safe. They seem like a passageway to the soul.
Clarence Jordan was a farmer. Clarence Jordan was a New Testament Greek scholar. Clarence Jordan was a Southern Baptist minister and social activist. Clearly, he was not your ordinary kind of farmer.
A year ago, I visited for the first time in my life, the place where Jesus likely hung on a cross to die. We sat in lush green garden with sweet smelling flowers and looked out a dusty red earthen hillside on the edge of a rugged curved road. We sat in Read More...
Last week, some of us worshipped together with others demonstrating and speaking out against racist violence and injustice in our country. On Friday night, a group of youth and young adults joined together at the Nelson-Atkins Museum to walk over to a peaceable demonstration at the Plaza. Wearing masks and keeping our distance from each other, we marched, led by a minister at Unity Southeast Church and kneeling for a few minutes in honor of George Floyd.
It has been a heavy week. After spending 13 weeks worried about a pandemic, we added a worry about the fabric of our community. Would the fibers hold or fray? It would be easy to give in to despair. Perhaps like you, I began to relive moments of my own narrative where Read More...
As our community is beginning to lift some of the restrictions on public gatherings I want to share with you an update on our plans as a church community. I have been in conversation with other area faith leaders, congregations of our size across the country, our church board and staff. We Read More...
A young father recently told me, “I am realizing that our family doesn’t need more vacations, we just need to spend time at home hanging out together and enjoying each other.” And my son drove home from Nashville last night and at our dinner table he proclaimed, “Wow, it’s so good to Read More...
My dear friend and former co-presenter Dr. Gloria Thomas Anderson and I recently enjoyed a conversation on “Loving Life Choices: Looking at Your Life and How You Want to Be Remembered.” The interview aired on Sun., May 17 and can be viewed below: