In this age of moral outrage, polarization, and contempt, how can we strive to live a life of humility that seeks to heal deep pain and division? How can we heed Micah’s timeless words to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God?” How can we keep from developing an overly exalted opinion of ourselves in a culture continuously marked by argument, protest, finger-pointing, and self-righteousness? Former Roxbury Latin headmaster Tony Jarvis once gave a powerful homily in which he identified three meaningful phrases we should all say more often. First,......

Read More

In the spring of 2016, I published a book titled “Preaching Politics: Proclaiming Jesus in an Age of Money, Power, and Partisanship.” The book resulted from significant research on the intersection of faith and politics, paying special attention to the moral foundations of liberals and conservatives, the spiritual challenges of unbridled consumerism, and asking whether the love of Christ has the ability to overcome deep partisan and ideological divides. I concluded that it does because I have seen it happen often, although there are days when I grow discouraged. The current political......

Read More

The tragic murder of George Floyd on Memorial Day while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers set off a firestorm in this country. Truth be told, this storm was already brewing and Floyd’s death blew the lid off. The protests that we are now witnessing locally, nationally, and globally, as well as the violence, looting, and lawlessness, is the direct result of racial tension, economic frustration, a global pandemic, a shutdown economy, and political chaos. There has been a clear differentiation between the peaceful protesters and the bad actors who have......

Read More

The Woodmont Board met on Monday night, June 8, and approved a 2020-21 operating budget that is now being presented to the congregation. The details are in this Inspire. The budget is essentially a flat budget from this current fiscal year. There will be a Congregational Meeting following the drive-in worship service on Sunday, June 21, at 10 AM. At that time, the congregation will vote on both the leadership slate and the operating budget. Please reach out beforehand if you have any questions, concerns, or need clarification. Installation of the new......

Read More

On Memorial Day, May 25, an unarmed African American man named George Floyd was taken into police custody in Minneapolis, MN. We have all now seen the horrific video footage of the officer who did not remove his knee from Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes, causing him to tragically lose his life. This has led to justifiable outrage and anger across our nation. It has led to mass protests, demonstrations, riots, looting, and now the burning of American cities. This is all very sad and hard to watch. I want to......

Read More

In my undergraduate class this past fall at Vanderbilt, I had a number of ambitious seniors who were all looking forward to graduation, law school, moving to larger cities and entering what was then a red hot job market. Times have drastically changed, and they have now graduated into a starkly different reality. I have been thinking about them in recent weeks. What advice and wisdom can we give our young people who are moving on to the next stage of life in the midst of a global health pandemic that has......

Read More

Last week, I found myself on an evening Zoom call with our church’s Board of Directors talking about how to safely allow people to return to the church building for worship in the coming weeks. As many faith leaders have already figured out, this is a very complicated conversation with many challenges. Even with strong guidance from both the Governor and Mayor, questions still remain: How many can worship at once? How far does everybody need to be apart? Are face coverings required in the building? Can there be a nursery and......

Read More

What a few days this has been in Nashville with the storms Sunday and Monday nights on top of ongoing COVID-19 challenges. Many of our church members still do not have power. On Monday night May 4th, the Woodmont Board met via Zoom to talk about how we can slowly begin to safely reopen the Woodmont building to our members keeping the health and well-being of our congregation as a top priority and respecting the guidelines that have been put out for worshiping communities. Given all the different factors, this is a......

Read More