Category: Personal

  • Remembering Tony

    One of my heroes, Tony Campolo passed away recently and I’m so grateful that I got to be alive during the same time he was. I’ll never forget the first time we (Youth Specialties) booked him to speak at one of our National Youth Worker’s Conventions. It was in Atlanta, 1974. He told a gripping…

  • Daddy Was a Preacher

    When I was in the band Brush Arbor, our lead singer at the time was Kenny Munds, a great songwriter with powerful vocal chops. After joining my brothers and I, he heard enough stories about our father to write a song called “Daddy Was a Preacher” which we recorded as the B side of a…

  • We Had a Good Run!

    After more than 2300 radio shows, the Bluegrass Special on KSON has come to an end. My last show was heard on Sunday night, September 13th which coincidentally was Bill Monroe’s birthday. I’m glad that I was able to go out with a show paying tribute to the Father of Bluegrass Music, whose song “Uncle…

  • Writing Through a Pandemic

    Since March, when the lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic began in our country, I have used most of my newfound time at home to work on my autobiography. This may sound rather presumptuous or egotistical to some, but I am not doing this for publication.  Perhaps my grandchildren may someday read it as a way…

  • The Cross of Christ

    This time of year I usually try to observe Lent by engaging in a spiritual discipline of some kind that will help me to focus on the events leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This year I decided to re-read John R.W. Stott’s The Cross of Christ, which I first read some…

  • Post-Conference Recovery

    It has been one week today since we put a wrap on this year’s Legacy Grandparenting Summit conferencei in Fullerton, which went very well. By all accounts, this was the best conference of the three that we (The Legacy Coalition) have produced so far. Certainly it was the best attended, with about 1200 registered for…

  • MexiGO 2017

    So, when you only post one blog per year, I guess you have no right to call yourself a blogger. It’s not that I don’t have anything to write about. I do … but I just don’t have the time, or at least I don’t make the time. And in recent years I have become…

  • Another Great Week in Mexico

    Last week I led a group from College Avenue Baptist Church to Ensenada, B.C. Mexico to build a house for a family living in poverty and to conduct a VBS (Vacation Bible School) program for neighborhood children. There were 36 of us in all who went, ranging in age from 4 to 70 (or so).…

  • Remembering Merle

    Merle Haggard turned 79 today and then died. He had been ill for a good while although he was planning to fulfill some concert dates in the near future. Today was also my father’s birthday, who would have turned 95 had he lived this long. Dad loved to hear Merle Haggard sing and so it…

  • The Legacy Coalition

    When I resigned my position as Pastor to Generations at College Avenue Baptist Church last year, I had to keep telling myself (and everybody else as well) that I was NOT retiring. I was simply taking time off from ministry to get our home ready to sell, sell it, find a new home, buy it,…