Although the byline for today’s blog says “John Cleghorn,” Gail and I have collaborated to write this post, Caldwell. One of the ways that we prepare ourselves and our hearts for worship on Sunday mornings is through the simple exercise of intentionally breathing in and breathing out. We breathe out any anxiety we may be …
Friends, I pray that you all are doing well and feeling well. Honestly, I am feeling some deep exhaustion these days – Covid exhaustion is a real thing. But the comforting presence of our Creator God, our Loving Lord, and God’s Indwelling Spirit, that is even more real and more powerful than my exhaustion. For …
PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT LETTER FROM THE SESSION Dear Caldwell, On June 28, 2020, Pastor John raised a serious matter for the congregation to consider. For years, some of us have known that the Caldwell family, which was memorialized through the name of our church, earned its wealth with the unpaid …
Dear Caldwell, Ever just want to run away and hide? Just tell God and everyone else, “That’s it. I’m out!” Given 2020, I’d wager to say we’ve all had a moment like that, or something close to it. So did the prophet Elijah. He had, by his own description, been “very zealous” for the Lord, …
Dear Caldwell, As you may read in the media, Caldwell has lost another one of its saints – Sarah Belk Gambrell. She died Friday at 102. Sarah was the only daughter of Belk department store co-founder William Henry Belk and grew up with her brothers and parents at Caldwell, then one of the city’s leading …
Dear Caldwell, First, we faced the reality of Covid 19 and went into lockdown. Then we lost our beloved Leroy Stinson to cancer. Now we mourn the tragic death of Wilma Petty – her life cut short by senseless, needless violence. I don’t know about you, but my mind is filled with questions:How can this …
Dear Caldwell, In high school, I was too long and lanky to be much of a wrestler. But I wrestled enough in PE class to get a sense of what it was like. Few athletic contests are quite as pure: person against person, mind and body, strength against strength. Winning required agility, force, smarts, endurance, …
Dear Caldwell, What a blessing it was to just sit in with you in worship on Sunday while I am away for some time off. Taking in Gail’s sermon, hearing Anne, Smitty, Manley, Wilma and Ruby and the choir provide beautiful music, scanning your loving exchanges in the chat box, watching the presentation about Easter’s …
This Week’s Caldwell Buffet: The Widow’s Mite, Easter’s Home, Re-imagining Policing Read More »
Thank you, Caldwell, for the ways in which you have stayed true to your call to do the work of God in the world. You show up with food for McCreesh Place and QC Family Tree. You show up and participate in the Mission and Justice audit conversations. You show up and protest. You show …
Doing the Work and Having Some Fun At the Same Time Read More »
Dear Caldwell, On Sunday, scripture reminded us once again that the Lord is always with us. The Lord sees us and whispers, “My eye is always on you.” So it was with Hagar, maidservant to Sarai and Abram, when she liberated herself from their abuse, as we read Sunday in Genesis 16:1-16. In turn, she …
