Family

Protecting Your Family Online with Circle
A growing problem in many families is learning how to monitor your children’s usage of mobile devices. Between cell phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming systems, it seems like our children are constantly being tempted to spend more and more time online. So as a parent, how can we monitor and protect our children? We need to ask ourselves if we are

FamilyLife: A Weekend to Remember
Jennifer and I just got back from a great weekend. We spent the weekend in Chattanooga, Tennessee at the FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Getaway. I’ve got to be honest, I was a little skeptical about going. I had envisioned awkward conversations with couples I had never met, but the conference really surprised me in a good way. There were about

The Problem With How We Teach Missions
I recently read an article that just reinforces my belief that most churches are missing the mark when it comes to how we educate students about mission work. Here’s the quote that caught my attention “Quit entertaining your children and your young people. Drive them to study God’s Word. Expose them to the field for the depth of understanding that will

Celebrating 20 Years
Jennifer and I were able to sneak away for a few days this week to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We have always said we wanted to take a big trip to the islands, so for this trip, we ended up camping in a tent on Bear Island at Hammocks Island State Park in North Carolina. We had an awesome time, and

My Favorite Blog
I have a new favorite blog. My 16 year old daughter has started writing and sharing her thoughts through her new blog. She writes about her journey of faith and issues of self-identity, relationships, struggles, and temptations. Emma has a gift with words, and she has a great outlook on life. She is a very special young woman, and I

ShadowGrass – The Future of Bluegrass is in Good Hands
My 14 year old son plays in a bluegrass band called ShadowGrass. We were in Nashville last week for the SPBGMA bluegrass convention. It was a great experience and Luke’s band was able to do a lot of late night jamming. They also were able to play a showcase for the group Tomorrow’s Bluegrass Stars. One of the attenders posted

What I’ve Been Doing This Week
I started a month long sabbatical this week (I’ll be posting thoughts on it here on the blog as well) This week I have been reading, relaxing, and enjoying a lot of old-time and bluegrass music. Our town hosts the oldest and largest fiddlers convention in the world each year. It’s a huge event, with people camping all week long

The New City Catechism
Growing up Southern Baptist, I never really heard about or knew about catechisms. A friend shared The New City Catechism with me and I started reading more about it. First, what is a catechism. Here’s the dictionary definition. For students of church history, New City Catechism is based on and adapted from Calvin’s Geneva Catechism, the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, and especially the Heidelberg Catechism. It

A Tough Eight Weeks
I feel such a relief after finishing up another eight-week seminary class. I’ve been putting off taking Systematic Theology as long as I could, but I finally jumped in and finished it. I have to say, that it’s been the roughest 8-weeks of the last few years for me. The amount of reading and coursework were overwhelming, and it was

A Great Day at the River
What a great weekend. We had a Cornerstone baptism service at Camp Dickenson on the New River and we saw 17 people demonstrate their commitment to Christ through baptism. And the best part was that I had the opportunity to baptize my youngest son Drew. I’m thankful to be part of a church where lives are being changed!

Bluegrass With My Son
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aJ2UHv3tzw I played backup for my son Luke at the Fiddler’s Convention this week while he played the mandolin on youth night. I was definitely a lot more nervous than he was. Here’s a little Foggy Mountain Breakdown. I enjoy making these special memories with the kids. The Old Fiddler’s Convention in our hometown of Galax is the largest and