As I walk outside these days, I marvel in the (sometimes) cooler temperatures and the beauty around us. If you have a garden, it is likely better kept than ours, but perhaps yours is also a mixture of color and life and browning foliage. The zinnias still provide...
Monday at 1:11 pm my wife and I received a text message from our daughter at UNC-Chapel Hill. The text read, “there’s an armed person on campus, I’m at home, but just in case you saw the alert.” I began to get online and realize the magnitude of what was going on...
For many of our students, today is the first day of school for the new school year. For some, it is the return to the familiar and comfortable while for others it is the start of something new and uncertain. Some students have been looking forward to the start of...
I had the real joy of being with 12 of our high schoolers for the Montreat Youth Conference. Now I know some may say being away for a week with 15 under one roof and going to the grocery store multiple times and coordinating schedules may not sound very joyful, but it...
What does it mean to be Presbyterian today? This is a question Presbyterians and the Presbyterian Church have wrestled with from the beginning. For much of our history going back to the Protestant Reformation, Presbyterians have defined ourselves based on our...
School supplies lists. I remember them. Three of them each Fall, one for each child. All of them long, not only pencils and paper but, hand sanitizer before hand sanitizer was cool, tissues, wipes, erasable markers, highlighters, scissors. Often a new bookbag and a...
An auditorium full of teenagers, each participating in simple choreographed dance moves to various songs. Some youth are all in, some less so, but, boy, is there a lot of energy. If you’ve ever been to a Presbyterian youth conference, you, too, have probably done an...
The photos are one thing, the stories behind them are what matter. Perhaps you saw some of the photos on social media from our time at CROSS Missions in Charlotte? Donna Chase and I were fortunate to have been with these youth. This recap is connected mostly to six...
“Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s accurate. Or that it matters.” This is a quote from Seth Godin’s latest book, The Song of Significance. Godin is arguing for leaders to focus on the right things, rather than on ready distractions. He goes...
I don’t know about you, but I have always loved good children’s books. I marvel at the way authors can creatively communicate so much through a story that we – children of all ages – can enjoy. We recently read Max Lucados’ You Are Special. By the last few pages we...
