Let me tell you a story…those six words cause our ears to perk up as we anticipate what we’re about to hear. Who among us doesn’t love a good story? Some of the best stories I’ve heard are your

One of the most difficult funerals that I’ve participated in was a funeral of a distant relative of mine. His name was Robert. Robert’s early life was full of promise and hope.  He was a bright young man and was

    One of our Bethel Mileposts is “Every Story is a Redemption Story.” Redemption is one of my favorite words because nestled within this word there is another word, HOPE! Hope that God can take the brokenness and messiness

In his book “All In,” pastor and author Mark Batterson says, “You are only one decision away from a totally different life.” I’d like to expand on his quote and offer this, “You are only one decision away from a

For this month’s newsletter I’d like to introduce you to one of Bethel’s Preschool students, Braxton Kerns.  Braxton is five years old and he  recently organized a food drive for Charlotte’s Food Pantry. I asked his mother, Heather Kerns, “Why

Have you ever heard Zeke Bookman play the piano? One of my fondest memories in my short time at Bethel was when my daughter and I visited Zeke at his home. As he was showing us around I noticed his

“But, what of galaxies, and stars, the biosphere and atoms . . . . For story is all there is. The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”- Muriel Rukeyser. There is a lot of truth in this quote

This month I want to introduce you to Hubbard and Barbara Sprouse. I met the Sprouses when I was the pastor at Fitzgerald Memorial Baptist Church in Cumberland. Hubbard and Barbara live in Cumberland, but they both were raised in

  Have you ever stopped to think of what it takes for the Lord to touch someone’s heart? For Curtis Salyer, the Lord worked through a 5-year old boy’s prayer, a fall from a church steeple, and the return of

For the past few months I’ve been asking us to think about what it means to be a minister and how we’re all called to some form of ministry. The question many of us struggle with is, “What is my

  Have you ever gotten to sit in the cockpit of an Airbus A300? Thanks to Rob Camden, my two children and I got to have that experience. We recently spent a morning at the Richmond International Airport where Rob

One of the scariest moments of my seminary career occurred on my very first day of Seminary, September 12, 2001.  It was a surreal feeling starting seminary on the day after 9/11. This was a fearful time for our nation