I was at my wife’s mom’s house visiting, when the caregiver, Carol, told her story. Her son, Daniel, had entered the military and done a three year tour in Afghanistan. Those years had been filled with turmoil and fear for Carol. She had continued to turn to the Lord. Trusting. Praying and Trusting again. Daniel,…
Tag: Faith
Great is Thy Faithfulness
“Dad, did you hear what I chose for my processional music?” “No, I didn’t,” I said, as we stood waiting our cue to walk in for the wedding rehearsal. She named the songs before the processional and then said, “And for the processional, ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness.’ So, we need to walk slowly. I want…
Men who put Skin on Jesus: Ed D. and Dave S.
“I need to nail your feet to the ground,” Ed quipped on the way out of church one Sunday soon after I had arrived at Westside. It became his standing joke. He said it with a twinkle in his eye and a laugh. Ed, a barrel-chested, big guy, almost a decade older than me, has…
Men who put Skin on Jesus: Mike M.
I had been serving Banks 15 years. “Don’t call unless the appointment makes your heart sing,” I had told my District Superintendent (DS), Kate. In my denomination’s vernacular an “appointment” was a church to serve as pastor. In addition, I had told my leadership team what I had heard from my DS, “There were no…
Men who put Skin on Jesus: Iron Sharpens Iron
The “South Banks Project” was a bitter pill for Banks’ residents. Streets and utilities had been completed in what had been a field and construction had begun on the houses, when I arrived at the church. By and large, the predominant attitude about the project in the community was critical. The folk of the Banks…
Men who Put Skin on Jesus: Mark, Dex and Dick
Beginnings are tough, no matter where. I had arrived in Banks straight from the revival in San Jacinto and was full of how much I could offer. I was full of myself. This is never a good start for pastoral ministry. A constant refrain for many years there was, “They just don’t get it.” As…
Men who put Skin on Jesus: Dr. Steve Harper and Dr. Reg Johnson
Called into ordained ministry in the winter of 1983, Karen and I left for the Wilmore, Kentucky campus of Asbury Theological Seminary the following fall, in 1984. I arrived believing I was there to prove I was ready to do the work God had called me to rather than understand I was rather there to…
The Men Who Put Skin on Jesus: “Jack”
(This is a chapter by chapter release of my short memoirs The Men Who Put Skin on Jesus.) The day I turned 13, March 22, 1972, my parents had my birthday party at a local bowling alley. I bowled, ate hotdogs, popcorn, candy, and cake with six friends while my parents orchestrated the moving trucks…
Large Blessings in Small Packages
Our oldest, Anna, wanted to come visit with her two young daughters, reserved two nights at a campsite on the Oregon coast and invited anyone available to come. She drove two days to bring her daughters, 2.5 year old Bridget and 5 year old Josie, out to Oregon. They arrived at our house for a…
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