by jakeowensby | Sep 1, 2023 | Forgiveness, Matthew 18:15-20, Proper 18 A
On August 27, 2020, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Southwest Louisiana with winds of 150 mph. Those winds still exceeded 100 mph as Laura passed through our home in Central Louisiana and traveled north. At dusk the following day, my wife Joy, our daughter Meredith,...
by jakeowensby | Jun 23, 2023 | Matthew 10:40-42
Mack McCarter envisions a world where “every single child, no matter their age, can be safe and loved.”[1] That vision led him in 1994 to leave traditional congregational ministry in Texas and to found Community Renewal International in his hometown of Shreveport,...
by jakeowensby | Sep 17, 2022 | Luke 16:1-13
Friendship, says C. S. Lewis, “is born at the moment when one [person] says to another “What! You too?” You love this thing that I love? And so it was for one of my oldest friendships. In our boyhood and teen years, R- and I shared a love of Tolkien’s Lord of...
by jakeowensby | Oct 14, 2021 | Mark 10:35-45
When I was 23 I underwent a six-hour surgery. The physician harvested skin and muscle from my throat and from the sides of my mouth. He used that tissue to construct what is called a pharyngeal flap, a kind of artificial soft palate. You see, I was born without the...
by jakeowensby | Oct 1, 2021 | Mark 10:2-16
She had endured beatings and intimidation for about a decade and a half. The breaking point came when her husband stuck a pistol in her face. That’s when my mother decided to divorce my father. This happened in the small-town, church-going Deep South of the 1960’s....
