Category: Places That Shape Us
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Some Places Become Holy
Series: Places That Shape UsThursday, August 13, 2026 What was your first classroom like? My first school had six grades in one room with a single teacher. That was in 1954. Over the span of my elementary school, high school, college, and seminary education, I have sat in many classrooms. I have been taught by…
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Pull Up a Rocking Chair… Let Me Tell You a Story
There are many famous landmarks around the world—the Pyramids of Egypt, Big Ben in London, and the Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor. Each reminds us of history, perseverance, and the people who came before us. I grew up near a landmark that continues to remind me of life itself. The Biloxi Lighthouse…
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Home Is Where the Heart Is
Friday, July 31, 2026Series: Some Places Become Holy Simply Because We Lived There As a child, home was a simple four-room house on a dirt road in rural Greene County, Mississippi. When people first heard about Jesus, they asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). I have smiled over the years because…
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Some Places Become Holy Simply Because We Lived There
I’ve lived in Springfield, Missouri, for thirteen years now. That may not seem like a long time to some people, but for me, it is the longest I have ever lived in one city. I’ve also lived in the same apartment for ten years, another personal record. For most of my life, I was a…
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Some Places Become Holy Simply Because We Lived There
We all feel disconnected at times. I never met my maternal or paternal grandparents. They had all died before I was born, so I grew up knowing very little about my family’s story. In the 1990s, my oldest sister, Sue, and I began researching our genealogy. The deeper we dug, the more I discovered that…
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Some Places Become Holy Simply Because We Live There
In 2003, I was appointed by the Hattiesburg District Superintendent of the Mississippi Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church to serve as pastor of West Laurel United Methodist Church in Laurel, Mississippi. The appointment felt like coming home. My mother and father were both raised in east Jones County. When I was twelve, our…
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Places That Shape Us: Where History Became Personal
Today our nation marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, the birth of what became the United States of America. Over the years, I have traveled through 46 of the continental United States. Only Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota remain unseen. Every state has offered something worth…
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Farm Life in Greene County, Mississippi
Some places do not just hold memories — they form you. For me, one of those sacred places was our farm in northwest Greene County, Mississippi, in the 1950s. It sat on the Union to Piave Road, a narrow dirt road that ran east to west and crossed Lovewell Road on the other side of…
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What makes a church a church?
Americans think of a building, a denomination, or a place of worship, whether Christian or not. This misconception has been passed down from generation to generation as fact. To change this mindset is a monumental task. Part of the problem stems from the translation of Christian Scriptures into English and other languages. The word translated…
The Curious Pilgrim 