Blog
Life After Cable
Like all Baby Boomers, I grew up with television. I cut my teeth on "Captain Kangaroo" and "Sesame Street." I graduated to sitcoms: "The Andy Griffith Show," "Bewitched," "Gilligan's Island," "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," "Happy Days," "All in the Family," "The...
A Liberian Roadmap to Heal a Broken Land
Johnnette Jallah, a teenager from Lofa County, said her favorite thing about Passport Camp Liberia was making new friends. Approximately one-hundred and fifty campers from across Liberia had such an opportunity when they traveled to Ricks Institute, a boarding school...
Pastors Are Itinerant, But What?
A pastor friend of mine recently died after living to age 85. He pastored the same church for nearly 30 years. Well, there was that two-week stint that he pastored another church in Florida. Yes, two weeks. This large-steeple church lured this pastor to their...
Why I Visit Alzheimer’s Patients
As a pastor, I make calls on members in various kinds of care home facilities because these people are cut off from their church community. It is important for the church community to continue to minister to these people, including those who will not remember our...
Dr. Ches Smith The Johnny Appleseed of Happy Clubs
If the Baptist churches had Cardinals, Dr. Ches Smith would have been one. He might have gotten a few votes for Pope, if Baptists had one of those, but that's one of the great differences between us and our Catholic friends. We don't need a Pope but we still need...
Down by the Altamaha- A Lesson from the Swampland
Brad Yoman has been navigating the swamps around the Altamaha River for over 30 years. He captains a 12-foot aluminum Jon boat with a 15hp two-stroke engine. It's a small boat with a small motor but small is what you need when you are moving through the swamp. Many...
What if Churches Were More Like Rotary?
I've been a Rotarian now since 1996. Rotary is an international service organization. Our motto is a "Service Above Self." In most cities around the world, you can find Rotarians meeting once a week, all seeking to make the world a better place to live. We strive...
The Cost of Doing What is Right
In August 1956, Judge Julian Bennett, in his first case as a judge, handed down this sentence in the Jackson County Courthouse to James Foster for the murder of Jefferson businessman Charlie Drake, one of the town's most popular citizens: "You will be put to death...
Sobriety Starts with One Step
We had an interesting visitor to our church office not long ago. A man fresh out of jail because of a DUI arrest stopped to ask for help. His truck was impounded and he needed a ride to his home, which was in a nearby city. Later that afternoon, I drove him to his...
60 Dolls for 60 Orphans
According to UNICEF, as of 2009, there were a total of 340,000 Liberian orphans; this out of a total child population of some 1,878,000 and a country of just three and a half million people. If you do the math, that's about one orphan out of every nine people in...
Determining Value in Life’s Daily Auction
It's not every day that an old home with all its contents is sold at auction. Most of the time, family members have made their way through the belongings of the deceased, picking the valuables clean, like a cotton picker plucking cotton from a field, leaving little...
Taking Digital Sabbaths in 2013
We live in an age of technology where we are accessible at any time and at almost any place. Look at the Verizon and the AT & T Coverage Maps and you will not see a lot of white spaces. Towers have connected us to each other through our mobile phones to the...