When I first started serving in churches while I was in college, I spent a lot of my time and energy in working with youth. I guess I must have “aged out” of that challenging and exciting work because it has been forty years since that was a primary responsibility of...
Welcome to summer. It’s a strange summer, to be sure, the events of which have already caused us to examine more deeply the wounds and brokenness of our own communities and wider society. For me, this summer is a strange one because it’s the first summer since I was 5...
Thursday night my daughter Sydney and I attended a service of Lament and Repentance on the steps of the FPC Sanctuary. It was crafted by our Batts’ pastoral residents (Nate Sell, Alexandra Mauney, and Keith Dove) and our Director of Discipleship and Young Adult...
Today we join with people of faith and hope all over the world to raise our voices in outrage and sadness over the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. But what is so tragic and deeply troubling is the long litany of many many others who came...
I’ve been thinking a lot about Psalm 133 as my residency at First Presbyterian winds to a close. “Behold how good and pleasant it is for kindred to dwell together in unity,” the Psalm begins. Today I am thinking about the good and pleasant times that I’ve had during...
One of my favorite things about the Revised Common Lectionary is that every three years, the Scripture readings cycle back around again and we hear them in a totally new way. The last time I was reflecting upon the readings of Pentecost (Year A), I was in my first...
This summer I will experiment for eight weeks beginning June 7 with a method or style of preaching that historically has been a venerable and even preferred way of proclaiming the word of God among Presbyterian and Reformed congregations. While some of the early...
In this season of social distancing, I decided to get healthy. There really wasn’t much else to do, if I’m being honest. I’ve eaten more vegetables in the past two months than I probably did all last year. I’ve never bought so much spinach or zucchini or asparagus....
Many of you know that Kate and I are taking care of a family farm in Patrick County, Va., on the NC border and close to Mt. Airy. It is where Kate’s mother Helen grew up. It is over 400 acres of cow pastures, hay fields, forests, springs, streams, and cropland....
On a phone call last week, a friend asked if I’d been cooking or baking anything interesting recently. This was a great question, because judging from my social media feeds, I’m not the only one trying out new recipes during this stay-at-home season! I told my friend...
