giving thanks

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. 

Psalm 136:1-3

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; 

we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; 

give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; 

His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100:1-6

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 1:3-6

cornbread dressing

Because my mom had to be hospitalized last night due to dehydration - a complication related to chemo side effects - we've had a change in our Thanksgiving plans. Instead of driving to South Carolina today to spend a few days with Paul's family, we have chosen to remain in the Nashville area for the holiday. This is a wise call for several reasons, including the fact that I am still suffering from a bit of post-surgery puniness. Flexibility is the name of the game. 

This will be the first time in over a decade that Paul, Chaney, and I have been at home for Thanksgiving. But every Thanksgiving Day - whether we've been at a beach house on the Gulf Coast, at a log cabin in the Smokies, or at my in-laws' home in Spartanburg - I have been responsible for making the cornbread dressing. Tomorrow will be no different.

As a child, I loved helping Granda and Daddy Bent make the dressing. Daddy Bent and I enjoyed repeatedly sampling the uncooked dressing, in an effort - or so we claimed - to make sure it was properly seasoned. I recall seeing Granda's handwritten recipe for this dish years ago:

Cornbread Dressing

biscuits

cornbread

chopped onions

chopped celery

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cans chicken broth

salt

pepper

sage

Crumble biscuits and cornbread together. Add onions and celery. Stir in soup and broth until moistened. Season with salt, pepper, and sage. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Precise enough for you? I can't wait to taste it tomorrow - before and after it's cooked.

buttermilk chess pie

There is something indescribably wonderful about watching my 18-year-old son bake a buttermilk chess pie. As the smell of this delicacy wafts through my house, I recall all the times I stood in my maternal grandmother's kitchen and helped her prepare this sugary treat. It simply doesn't seem like Thanksgiving to me if I can't have a slice of Granda's chess pie and a double-helping of her cornbread dressing. Although Lucille Baker passed away when I was a teenager, her recipes are now being used by a fourth generation to carry on a tasty family tradition. This recipe even garnered me a blue ribbon when I entered it in the Tennessee State Fair in 2005. Enjoy!

Granda's Buttermilk Chess Pie

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 stick of margarine (softened)

1 Tablespoon cornmeal

1 Tablespoon flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 frozen pie crust

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cream sugar, margarine, cornmeal and flour. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk and vanilla, mixing until well blended. Pour into pie crust and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

lunch with mom

Today I had lunch with my mom at Barbara's Home Cooking (or Barbara's Homecookin' as it says on Barbara's business card), a fabulous meat and three that is located in a small house in Franklin on Old Hillsboro Road. I highly recommend Barbara's fried chicken - I believe it's the best I've ever eaten.

As I was driving to pick my mom up to take her to Barbara's, I recalled the days when I was a student in the kindergarten program at West Jackson Baptist Church, where my mother was a teacher. I only have one distinct memory from my actual kindergarten class - the time when my teacher blindfolded random students and made them taste and identify various foods and I got stuck with a lemon - but I do remember the happy days when my mother would take me to Woolworth's in downtown Jackson after our half-day at school was over so we could share a meal together at the lunch counter. I always ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and a Coke, but it wasn't the meal I was excited about - it was my mother's undivided attention. As the oldest of four children - at that point my sister was 3 years old, one brother was 2, and the other brother was 1 - one-on-one time with either of my parents was obviously hard to come by, so I cherished our Woolworth lunches. 

Too bad there aren't any more Woolworth's in America. In 1997 F. W. Woolworth Company shuttered its classic five and dime stores and the company converted itself into a sporting goods retailer. Today the company is now known as Foot Locker, Inc. It's hard to imagine happy family memories being created in a shoe store.

Baptist Women in Ministry

This morning I had the opportunity to facilitate a panel discussion at Vanderbilt Divinity School about Baptist Women in Ministry. This event was sponsored by the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship with the cooperation of Vanderbilt's Office of Women's Concerns. What a privilege it was for me to hear four of my Baptist sisters share about the joys and challenges associated with their ministries!

• Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed holds degrees from Carson-Newman College, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Vanderbilt University. Campbell-Reed earned her Ph.D. in Religion, Psychology and Culture at Vanderbilt in August 2008, and her dissertation is a study of Baptist clergywomen and the Southern Baptist Convention. Campbell-Reed, who was ordained by her home church in Knoxville in 1996 and served for 5½ years as an associate pastor at a CBF-affiliated church in Georgia, plans to teach in a seminary or divinity school.
• Kim Crawford Sheehan earned her Master of Divinity degree at Vanderbilt in 2005. Sheehan is an ordained Baptist minister who currently serves as Associate Minister at Corinthian Baptist Church and as a full-time chaplain at Baptist Hospital. She is endorsed to chaplaincy through CBF.
• Amy Dodson-Watts earned her Master of Divinity degree from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and was ordained in 1999. Dodson-Watts has been in ministry for the last 11 years, having served as a short-term CBF missionary, Minister to Children and Families, Associate Pastor, and Co-Interim Pastor. She currently serves as the Director of Pastoral Care at Donelson Presbyterian Church.
• Rev. Judy Cummings was ordained by Temple Baptist Church and has been on staff at the historic Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church for six years, where she now serves as Executive Minister. Cummings holds degrees from Tennessee State University School of Nursing, University of St. Francis, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She recently successfully defended her dissertation – “The Stained Glass Ceiling: The Continuing Paradox of Liberation” – to complete her Doctor of Ministry degree in Preaching and Church Leadership from Asbury Theological Seminary.

As I listened to their stories, I marveled at how God has uniquely gifted each one of us to serve Him. I was also reminded of the debt we owe to trailblazing Baptist women like Addie Davis, without whom it is unlikely that such a panel discussion would have even been possible. Two weeks before I was born, Davis became the first woman to be ordained to the pastoral ministry by a Southern Baptist congregation. 

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NASB).

preaching practice

My grandmother, Mutt, was a florist in a small town in northwest Tennessee for nearly four decades. As a child, I loved to visit her at the Hospital Flower Shop for many reasons, not the least of which was that whenever I walked in the door - even if it was only 8:00 a.m. - she insisted that I help myself to a glass bottle of Coke from the antique machine in the front of the store. 

One of the many things that fascinated me in the Hospital Flower Shop was a pegboard on the wall near my grandmother's desk that featured a vast array of keys. These keys provided the shop's employees with access to most of the churches in the area, allowing them to make the weekly delivery of altar flowers at their convenience. My grandmother made many of these deliveries personally at the break of dawn each Sunday morning. I thought Mutt must be one of the most powerful people in town to have access to so many churches!

Early one Sunday morning as Mutt was making her rounds, she made a stop at a small church - the kind where you open the front door and find yourself standing in the sanctuary. After unlocking the front door and stepping inside, she heard a voice. Looking up, Mutt realized the pastor was standing in the pulpit practicing his sermon - while wearing his pajamas! Not wanting to interrupt his rehearsal but needing to complete her delivery, Mutt quickly and quietly walked down the aisle, placed the flowers on the altar, and made a hasty retreat to her car. 

Preachers, practice makes perfect, but it's probably wise to practice in something other than your PJs.

the amazing Mutt

My grandmother, Mutt, is simply amazing. Two weeks from today, she will celebrate her 90th birthday. What do you think she is doing to pass her golden days in Union City, Tennessee? I'll tell you what she's doing - she's coordinating the "Community Feeding of the 5,000," an interdenominational effort to provide a hot Thanksgiving dinner to those in need. (And, yes, they really do feed more than 5,000 people.) The food is donated by local businesses, churches, and individuals - 300 turkeys, 300 gallons of dressing, 100 gallons of giblet gravy, 200 gallons of green beans, 200 gallons of cooked apples, 50 gallons of cranberry sauce, thousands of rolls, and 625 pies - and is prepared by an army of volunteers. Those in need have three options: they can enjoy the fellowship as they dine with other guests at First Baptist Church Union City's Family Life Center on the Monday before Thanksgiving; they can drop by the church that day to pick up carry-out meals for their families; or volunteers can deliver meals to their homes.

Mutt has been coordinating this event since its inception several years ago, doing much of the administrative work via email. (Who says that senior citizens aren't adept at using technology?) She also spends countless hours in advance of the event working with a team of volunteers who cook as much of the food as possible in advance and freeze it, and she will undoubtedly be in the center of the activity at her church's Family Life Center on the day of the Thanksgiving meal. In addition to the meal, she also oversees the collection of canned goods and non-perishable items that local Scouts and other volunteers will sort and bag, allowing needy families to take a grocery sack home with them after they enjoy the Thanksgiving meal. Last year the students at the city's elementary, middle, and high schools collected over 10,000 cans, providing grocery sacks for 600 needy families.

It goes without saying that I feel like a sloth compared to my grandmother! I am just shy of being half her age, but I certainly have less than half her energy, enthusiasm, and ingenuity. When I grow up, I want to be just like Mutt.

college decision

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking in Dr. Wilton Bunch's ethics class at Samford University. This is the fifth straight semester that he has extended an invitation to me to talk about restorative justice - specifically about the creation of The Next Door - but the first time that I have spoken to an undergraduate class. I told the students that it was ironic that I had ended up attending Beeson Divinity School at Samford in 2000, because eighteen years earlier as a high school senior, I faced a choice between attending Samford and the University of Tennessee.

During the fall of my senior year, I made a trip to Birmingham with two objectives: to attend a Barry Manilow concert (yes, I was and am a Manilow fan) and to visit Samford. I had arranged to spend the night on campus with my friend, Jan, who was a freshman. Jan and I had attended Franklin High School together, and we were both active members of our church's youth group - playing in the youth handbell choir, singing in the youth choir and girls' ensemble, and participating in a discipleship group. After the concert - which featured Samford's A Cappella Choir on Manilow's rendition of "One Voice" - as Jan and I drove back to campus, she suddenly panicked. "I don't have a pass!" she moaned.

Until that moment, I had not realized that Samford actually locked its students up on campus at night. If you intended to be out after the gates were locked, you had to have a pass signed in advance by your dorm parent to present to the guard at the gate in order to be allowed back on campus. Jan pulled over, rifled through her glove compartment, and discovered an old pass. After forging a new date, we proceeded down Lakeshore Drive to campus. We held our breath as the guard used a flashlight to inspect the pass, then grabbed a phone and made a quick call. After he opened the gate and waved us on, I asked Jan who he had been calling. She explained that not only were the students locked on campus at night, but the girls were also locked in their dorms. The guard had called Jan's dorm mother, alerting her to our arrival so she could unlock the door for us. 

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "Are you telling me that guys are allowed to roam free on campus at night while the girls are locked in their dorms?" Jan nodded. I was appalled. I believe it was at that moment that the balance tipped and I was destined to be a Tennessee Volunteer. This blatant gender inequality, paired with an already restrictive environment, was not what I was looking for in my undergraduate experience. 

I'm glad that God had a plan for me to eventually be both a Vol and a Bulldog, and perhaps one day I will add a third university to my education resume.

faith and politics

This morning I attended a lecture by Melissa Rogers on "The New President and the Politics of Faith" - one of a series of outstanding lectures Belmont University has offered in conjunction with Debate 08. Rogers, founder and director of Wake Forest University's Center for Religion and Public Affairs and former executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, D.C., reflected on the preliminary lessons we have learned during this election cycle about the intersection of faith and politics. Here's a summary of her observations from my notes:

1. Americans generally support some kind of separation of church and state, but we do not want to divorce personal faith from politics. (Rogers noted that Article VI of the U.S. Constitution mandates that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States," but this does not mean that citizens should not consider issues of faith when they enter the voting booth.)

2. The Republicans aren't the only ones who connect faith and politics.

3. Christians who are conservative in their politics and theology are not the dominant force in politics any more.

4. The challenge that John F. Kennedy faced related to his Catholicism in the 1960s has not gone away, and candidates who are the first in their faith tradition (Mitt Romney in this election cycle) continue to face added scrutiny.

5. The media are not going to ignore religious leaders who campaigns seek out for advice.

6. A candidate's house of worship can become a target for the media. (Rogers asserts that a candidate's house of worship should be a zone of non-interference - a place where the candidate can be challenged and refreshed spiritually without being held responsible for everything his/her pastor says.)

7. When it comes to religion, journalists often go for the sensational rather than substance. (Recalling the moment when debate moderator George Stephanopolus asked the Democratic candidates whether they thought prayer could have prevented the Minnesota bridge collapse, Roger observed that a more appropriate question would have been to ask the candidates what they would do to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure.)

In conclusion, Rogers reminded us of the words of the late Representative Barbara Jordan, who offered this sage advice to those who speak in the public square: “You would do well to pursue your causes with vigor, while remembering that you are a servant of God, not a spokesperson for God — a servant of God, not a spokesperson for God — and remembering that God might well choose to bless an opposing point of view for reasons that have not been revealed to you.”

election day

On this historic election day when voter turnout is widely predicted to be high across the country, I am recalling the student government elections that I took part in when I was a student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. I became involved in UTK's student government early in my collegiate career and was elected at the end of my freshman year to serve as a representative from the College of Liberal Arts on the Academic Council. I was one of a slate of candidates who ran with the Insight Party, and I have to admit that I was not a very good campaigner. I think I was only elected because (a) my last name started with a "B" which meant my name appeared near the top of the ballot and ( b) my first name was unusual. I am an introvert - I know I hadn't made enough friends during my first year on campus to be elected based on personal charisma.

I remember being surprised at how seriously my fellow party members took the election. I remember one fascinating conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing party's campaign logo - what message were they trying to communicating with their choice of font and color combination? Actually, there were three parties involved in that election, but we discounted the third party - Big Al and his Apathy ticket - as being a farce. We figured that truly apathetic voters wouldn't show up at the polls on election day. Boy, were we wrong. Big Al lost the 1983 student body presidency by only 100 votes, and the following spring he won in a landslide. Big Al's campaign was colorful, to say the least, with his proposal of building a chairlift to the hill, his commemorative campaign posters (collect all 12!), and the staged assassination attempt during a campus presidential debate. Big Al's campaign energized the student body, and voter turnout in April 1984 was the highest in a decade, with around 6,000 students casting ballots.

I hope that today Americans will turn out at the polls in droves. Let's set a new record for voter turnout. Now is no time for apathy. Even Big Al knows that.

The Godbearing Life

Although I haven't had much free time lately for leisure reading, I have been making slow but steady progress through an insightful book called The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry. In the chapter titled "Sharing the Mantle: A Community of Colaborers," the authors remind those of us who are student ministry leaders of the importance of partnering with our students. Consider this excerpt: "By and large, adolescence provides a gold mine of leaders waiting to be asked, waiting to be gathered for God and to share the load in God's plan of deliverance. Not only does their inclusion freshen our perspectives and inject vital energy in our undertakings, but it also creates an atmosphere of mutuality in ministry. Godbearing youth ministry does not abandon its responsibility 'to' youth and 'for' youth, but it is always conscious that ministry exists 'with' youth as well. We are Godbearers to youth so that they may become Godbearers in their own right."

Yesterday morning, the seniors and juniors in our youth group who are family group leaders - students who have accepted the mantle of leadership and facilitate student small groups each Wednesday night - taught all of our youth Sunday School classes. For the past four weeks, these dedicated students have stayed late after our Wednesday evening worship services to be trained to teach a lesson on 2 Timothy 3:14-17. The students were enthusiastic - and a little nervous - about their assignment, but they rose to the challenge, and the feedback I have received from students and adult leaders has been overwhelmingly positive. Undoubtedly some of these students will go on to become church leaders as adults - as clergy and layleaders - but in the meantime, they are already leading well in this congregation.

Thanks, family group leaders. You certainly made me proud. "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12).