This picture courtesy of my Charlotte friends. That’s Steph Curry and Cam Newton before the game last week in Charlotte. Notice how much bigger Cam is, and Steph Curry is Six feet Three!!! Of course, it ain’t the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Go Panthers…. go Steph! And BTW, both are good Christian men. Read more

Of course I would never have been in High Point had my father not gotten a job there. This is him in that picture above on the right. He used to take me to Greensboro to see the Greensboro Yankees (including Mel Stottlemyre, Tommy Tresh, Bobby Mercer), but today they are…. wait for it, the Greensboro Grasshoppers! At least they have a nice little minor league park downtown, and you can hop right on the bus to get there or... Read more

Dear Mr. Bear: It has come to my attention that on the 29th day of this month there will be a bear-ram confrontation somewhere near Disney World. Inasmuch as this will be the first such confrontation in living memory, I would point out to you that bears do not fair well against rams with curly horns and a low center of gravity. In fact bears can’t even say “BA Ram U”, or so I am informed. I am also informed... Read more

My home church is Wesley Memorial Methodist, just off Westchester Dr. on the edge of High Point. When I was born, the church was actually downtown right across from another Methodist Church, First Methodist (the old Methodist Protestant Church), so wisely Wesley Memorial decided to move. The move transpired during the heyday of the furniture industry, and was financed to a large degree by the furniture folks of High Point. And they went all out, as you will now see.... Read more

John Coltrane lived his first 17 years of life in High Point, right through High School (he went to William Penn High, the black high school which was closed when the schools were integrated in the late 60s). His father ran a dry cleaning shop in High Point. What precipitated Coltrane moving to Philadelphia was a couple of things: 1) he wanted to further his musical education (having grown up playing the sax and the clarinet, he favored reed instruments);... Read more

High Point is the home town of yours truly, but also of the most famous sax man of all time— John Coltrane. This post and the next will be about him…… It took a lot of arm twisting, but eventually we got High Point to recognize they needed to recognize Coltrane. Here’s two solid citizens of that N.C. town…. Here is his home on Underhill St. which I gather will soon become a city museum. There is still a lady... Read more

There are lots of different kinds of fights that go on in life— mental fights, emotional fights, spiritual battles, family fights, fighting against one’s upbringing or shortcomings, and even when we are talking fights that are physical, like my friend who is currently battling cancer, it doesn’t necessarily involve violence. I’m no fan of violence as a way to solve human problems, indeed I think its unChristian. So, as you might imagine, I’m not much a fan of watching boxers... Read more

Ah the divine swine! While in Greensboro to do lectures at my former doctoral student’s college, Greensboro College (a UMC school, on which see the poster below), we managed to squeeze in some local ‘cue, as it’s called locally. We went to two famous barbecue joints— one in Greensboro, and one in Durham. They are Bullocks (Durham) and Stamey’s (Greensboro) and they both serve eastern N.C. style barbecue, which means hickory smoked chopped pork, with vinegar sauce and pepper (and... Read more

West Market St. UMC, like many churches built near the end of the 19th century has an interesting, rather Victorian structure, as you will now see. The outside has both a bell tower, and and a rounded portion to the right of the front entrance. Here’s some shots of the central portion of the sanctuary. What makes this sanctuary distinctive is that it has an antechamber to the left of the sanctuary that can either be included in, or excluded... Read more

In the next few posts, I’ll be sharing some of my church adventures from the events I did this Fall. I’ll start with West Market St. UMC in Greensboro N.C. where my Mom first joined the Methodist Church. This church has remarkable stained glass windows, which were bought at the Columbus exhibition in Chicago by a representative of the church near the turn of the 20th century. The church itself was built in 1890. This first window is of the... Read more