Blog Article Archives

It is what I do when my lesser nature – my Ego, my fragile, undifferentiated Self – decides to take control. I “other” others. The recent violence in a LGBTQ nightclub, followed three days later with more violence in a Walmart, is happening to others, at least that is...

Annie is pit-boxer-something-or-another mix, and we have a date every evening that includes a walk in our neighborhood. As we often do on these evening strolls, we nosed into the woods along the edge of the neighborhood. I unclipped her leash so she could have more...

It started out, like all oak trees, as a simple acorn. Not all acorns become mighty trees, but this one did. It was celebrated – the acorn – in 1997 as symbolic of the birth of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. The year before, McAfee opened its doors to...

To be remembered holds power and goodness. It can be as simple as being called by name when you were certain “they won’t remember me.” To be remembered is to celebrate worth, value, and life is not wasted. Memorial Day, and the weekend that surrounds it, is largely a...

Yesterday morning I woke up to the news that one senatorial race in my state was called and the other was soon to be settled with a declared winner. After the deluge of political flyers, mailers, text messages and phone calls, it was important for me to offer a simple...

On Election Day this year, I heard an excellent sermon by a recent graduate of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology – the Rev. Kristen Pope. Looking intently into the computer monitor framed by other Zoom participants, Kristen confessed that when she accepted...

I am delighted to share my latest book with you that is now available for purchase. “CATCHING UP WITH GOD: Freeing Ourselves for Divine Engagement,” is a homiletic commentary of sorts based on the book of Exodus. It is intended for preachers, teachers and anyone...

The sign in my front yard is compliments of a person whose name I do not know, who lives several miles from my neighborhood, and who had a stack of them in her front yard for free. I saw the signs while out jogging, and so still grimy in sweat from my run, I drove...

My friend Kristian is a bi-vocational pastor here in Atlanta. Well, he is lots of things. An entrepreneur, a podcaster, a design consultant, and an alumnus of McAfee School of Theology of Mercer University. He is also an African-American and has experienced firsthand...

Not everyone likes to read. I get that. Reading can be difficult and some have physical challenges that compromise reading proficiency. I hasten to add, however, that reading is life. It is good for the brain - literally. It exercises the muscles needed for logic and...

Early this morning, while it was still very dark, I went running. There is not much unusual about that. Most mornings I put on a pair of beat-up shoes and leave my neighborhood and run in and through and out of one subdivision after another. The only thing I have to...

The poet Qoheleth tells us there is a season for everything and a time for every matter under heaven. Fear or anxiety did not make the list in Ecclesiastes chapter three, but wisdom and science confirms that fear has its’ time, its’ season. For the last several...

Hanging on a wall in my office is a piece of paper that today is 32 years old. It is weathered a bit from three decades or so of sunshine and the signatures on it are faded. For that matter, some of those who signed it have faded from this world and entered the next....

I am one of those rare ministerial types that does not play golf – never, not once! Nor am I much of a sports fan at all. My limited attention span often gets in the way of sitting through an entire game of anything without succumbing to boredom.   What gets me...

Let me tell you about Annie. Annie was one of seven sisters picked up from a shelter by the rescue organization “You Lucky Dog.” Part boxer, part pit-bull, part something-or-another, we met Annie when she was just a couple of months old at our local farmer’s market on...

It was a year ago today when our family experienced the tragic death of my nephew Gregory Scott DeLoach, son of my brother David and sister-in-law Stephanie. He was named after my other brother Scott and me and he would have been 24 in a couple of weeks.  His passing...

My first church job was the summer of 1985. I was 19 and was hired by my home church in Eatonton to work as in intern with the youth and children’s ministry. I remember that I felt a bit guilty receiving a check from my church, and for the life of me I cannot remember...

Walking onto the University campus I listened to birds deep in song as the morning emerged from dark night; the sky not quite light and not quite dark. Rounding the corner to the building where my office is located stands one bright tree - a tulip tree full of blossom...

For the Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Jerseys of DeLoach and Sons Dairy, troughs came in all sizes – from concrete cribs to barrels cut in half. There were many muddy December days as a kid that I spent pouring out sacks of grain into these makeshift containers as hungry...

8448 - Oh, how well I remember that number. As a boy in our rural county those were the only four numbers I needed to remember to call home. It was an era of “party lines” and rotary dials and for over fifty years those last four digits helped keep me connected to...