It was around 1974--and I was a newlywed and a new Christian. Just a few years earlier, I was a pot-smoking hippie saying "Peace brother," and a supporter of George McGovern's run for President. Abortion was not on my radar--until I made a flippant remark about it as I stood in the kitchen of our mobile home. The horrified look on my sweet little wife's face, and her blunt words in my face let me know I might ought to study this matter more carefully! I had never seen an ultr

There are numerous things we say as if the Bible teaches them--religious cliches that Scripture does not actually teach. One of those is, "God will not put on you more than you can bear." You will not find that in Scripture. In His providence, God allows crushing burdens to come--that is, if we face them in our own resources. His very purpose is to cause us to cast ourselves on Him for strength. Furthermore, it is to teach us as the Body of Christ how much we need each other.

2026--isn't it hard to believe that it is here already? On January 1, 2021, I began my service as your Associational Mission Strategist. That was also when I did my first interim pastorate at Maggie Valley First Baptist Church, and now I am into #6 at Bethel. 5 years--half a decade--as time races by, and we look back and wonder how much has been accomplished for kingdom work in our Haywood Baptist Churches. I am not satisfied with my job performance. I am not content with w