Happy New Year! As we enter 2021, Tennessee remains in a very difficult place related to surging cases of Covid-19. In conversation with our Board and out of respect for the wishes of our Mayor and Governor, we have decided to remain virtual for the next two Sundays (Jan 10th & 17th) for worship. We plan to return to the sanctuary on January 24th with our safety protocols in place. We will also continue to offer our online and live-streamed services. Our leadership continues to monitor the Covid situation. We pray for......

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Somebody once said, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”  But this year, we have lost many lives.  Over 330,000 people in our country started 2020 with absolutely no idea that a novel RNA virus would bring their life to an abrupt end.  Whether they died “from” Covid-19 or “with” Covid-19 really doesn’t matter.  They are no longer here.  Their families are left grieving. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that life is fragile, unpredictable, and should not be taken for granted.  Christmas is now over and we only have......

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Christmas is only eight days away but will certainly be different this year. The pandemic is altering the way we usually experience the holidays with our friends and families. In a normal year at this time, churches would be full, parties would be rocking, families and friends would be together. This year, many will not see their loved ones except from a distance or on a digital screen. Yes, this is sad, disappointing, and hard for many of us to accept because Christmas is a time to be together and not apart.......

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Advent is here, but we all know it will be different this year. We are now offering TWO Sunday morning worship services in the sanctuary – 9:15 A.M. and 10:30 A.M. This will allow us to continue our safety protocols and social distancing. We are still offering the pre-recorded service and we are livestreaming the 9:15 service online. Also, nursery and a very scaled back children’s Sunday School is now available up through second grade during the 9:15 service but you must RSVP to have a spot. Only nursery care is available......

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We are about to begin the Advent Season. This is one of the best times of the church year. Our leadership retreat with Susan Beaumont was excellent. She spent time with the Board, Elders, Deacons, and Staff. She is encouraging our church to “lean in” to this time and “reinvent” how we do church. We must keep moving forward responsibly, and let people choose what they are comfortable doing. Beaumont was very clear that this pandemic will last for a while (well into 2021) and things will look different on the other side. Digital church is not......

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The election is over. It appears that Joe Biden has received enough votes to become the 46th President of the United States. Lawsuits are pending in multiple states. Recounts are happening in certain places. We have ongoing accusations of voter fraud, ballot manipulation, and foul play at the polls. The President has not conceded and may never do so. What has become very clear to me in the aftermath of this election is not just that we debate winners and losers, that the pollsters were wrong again, or that there was no......

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We have entered the eighth month of what feels like a pandemic that will not end. Many of us are tired of it and long for life to be “normal” again, whatever normal is. It has disrupted every aspect of our lives including family, work, education, social gatherings, church, community, politics, government, voting, health care and friendship. Silver linings exist but it’s now hard to see them through the high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion. We should heed the advice of Victor Frankl who famously said, “Everything can be taken away......

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Our family just returned from a fall break trip to the beach. It was good to get away and relax for a few days. Of the many hats I get to wear – minister, pastor, preacher, counselor, professor – the most important roles that I have are that of husband and father. On the trip, I started reading an insightful new book by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks titled Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times. Sacks is a well-known British rabbi and a public intellectual. In the fourth chapter, he talks about......

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My undergraduate course this fall at Vanderbilt is called “Faith, Politics, and Polarization in American culture.” We are closely studying the research of NYU’s Jonathan Haidt and Harvard’s Arthur Brooks. Haidt is a social psychologist who has done significant research on morality and the basic moral foundations of liberals and conservatives. In his book The Righteous Mind, Haidt defines moral systems in the following way: “Interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate self-interest and make cooperative societies possible.”......

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