Light In The Valley

One of the saddest trends in Christianity today is the growing belief that you can thrive as a follower of Jesus while remaining disconnected from a local church. Some have been hurt by churches. Others have watched a few people act in ways that were anything but Christlike. Those wounds are real, and they shouldn’t be dismissed. But the failures of a few believers should never cause us to reject God’s design for His people. Last night, I experienced a beautiful reminder of w

There is a question from Jesus that has challenged me this week. In Luke 11:23, Jesus says: "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters." (NKJV) Notice that Jesus doesn't leave room for neutrality. He doesn't divide people into those who are passionately following Him and those who are simply uninvolved. Instead, He says there are only two directions: gathering or scattering. That has caused me to ask myself a hard question: Is my life ga

This morning it would have been easy to write about the news. The deaths of public officials and the reactions flooding social media would probably be the “softball” topic—the one everyone is already discussing. Instead, my heart is somewhere else. This weekend our church family is gathering for our annual Marriage Retreat, and I couldn’t be more excited. One of the convictions we have at Rocky Valley is that the health of a church is deeply connected to the health of the mar

I was talking with my Uncle Terry the other day about an old table he had just finished restoring. It had belonged to my wife’s great-grandmother. By all appearances, it was headed for the trash pile. Years of use had left it scarred, faded, worn, and forgotten. But he saw something worth saving. With patient hands, he stripped away the old finish, repaired what he could, and brought new life back into that old piece of wood. It is beautiful again. Yet if you look closely, th

The reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision allowing states to require athletes to compete based on their biological sex has been revealing. Much of the public conversation has been framed as though children have somehow been stripped of their rights or forbidden from participating in sports. But perhaps the more heartbreaking question is one we rarely ask: How did we reach the point where we believe telling a child they were wonderfully made is less loving than telling

One of the statements I hear often is this: “As Christians, we must always stand with Israel.” Before we repeat that, we should ask an important question: Which Israel does the Bible mean? I am not writing this because I oppose the modern nation of Israel. Like every nation, Israel has a right to defend its citizens, and like every nation, its government makes political and military decisions based on its own national interests. America does the same. But Christians should be

This week, a group of our Rocky Valley Baptist Church kids loaded up and headed off to church camp. As a pastor, it’s always a special moment. As a dad, it hits a little differently. For the first time, my youngest daughter climbed on that bus and headed away for camp. I’ll admit there was a little nervousness in my heart watching her leave. I know many parents understand that feeling—the excitement for your child mixed with the realization that they’re growing up faster than

Like many pastors across our convention, I don’t get the opportunity to attend the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in person. Being bi-vocational, serving our local church, running a business, and raising four children means I have to be intentional about how I spend my time. While I may not be in the room, I do try to keep my ear to the pulse of what is happening because Rocky Valley Baptist Church is an SBC-affiliated church, and these discussions matter. The iss

The polarization surrounding the Karmelo Anthony trial has been one of the saddest parts of an already heartbreaking situation. A young man lost his life. Another young man now faces the reality of a murder conviction. Families have been forever changed. Parents, siblings, friends, classmates, and entire communities will carry the weight of these events for years to come. There are no winners here. There is only loss. Yet as I have watched many of the conversations unfold, I

As I walked through the church this week during VBS, I passed a small picture sitting on a table near the exit where the kids head outside for recreation. To most people, it may have just looked like another photograph. To me, it stopped me in my tracks. Last year, I lost someone who had become one of my very best friends to a sudden heart attack. This week felt especially different because VBS fell immediately after the annual golf trip he had organized for so many years—a t

Over the last week, I’ve walked through the halls of Rocky Valley and watched classrooms transformed, decorations hung, stages built, props painted, even a life sized igloo from milk jugs, and volunteers pouring their hearts into every detail for Bible School. And every time I see it, my heart rejoices. Not because of the decorations themselves… but because of what they represent. They represent the Bride of Christ joyfully serving for the glory of her King- there is somethin

There’s something powerful about this season of graduation. Caps and gowns. Senior walks. Final games. Graduation parties. College apartments. Job applications. Trade schools. Big decisions. Bigger questions. And somewhere in the middle of all of it is a quiet fear many graduates carry: “What if I fail?” What if the plan changes? What if I choose wrong? What if I’m not good enough? What if I fall short of everyone’s expectations? But here’s the truth I would want every gradua

Last night I sat and watched a group of seniors play what would be the final baseball game of their high school careers. As I watched them walk on and off the field, talk in the dugout, compete pitch by pitch, and soak in every moment, there was a weight to it all that you could almost feel in the air. For my freshman son, it was the end of his first season. For those seniors, it was the end of the journey. And somewhere in between those two realities was a reminder that hit

There are seasons in life where everything seems to happen at once. This season has felt a little like that for our family. Our oldest son is graduating high school and signing the lease on his college apartment. One chapter is closing while another begins. Our other son is in the middle of baseball season, which means 3–5 nights a week at the ball field cheering him on and soaking in moments that we know won’t last forever. Our girls are wrapping up another school year, grow

Lately, I was part of a business conversation about growth, expansion, and how some companies are always adding the next service, the next product, or the next offer. There’s nothing inherently wrong with growth. Sometimes expansion is wise. Sometimes it’s needed. But in our plumbing business, we’ve made a different decision. We’ve chosen not to chase everything. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, we’ve aimed to be excellent at the things we know we’re called an

For many years now, our political conversations have often sounded less like choosing the best path forward and more like debating which candidate is simply the least problematic. Many have even used the phrase, “the lesser of two evils.” That reality should concern us. It speaks not only to frustration with individual candidates, but to a deeper degradation of politics and public discourse in general. At the same time, we live in an age where more information is available at

As news circulates about a ceasefire in the Iran conflict, the conversations have already begun. Some are asking, “Did America win?” Others are just as passionately arguing the opposite. And depending on which side of the political aisle someone stands on, you can find strong opinions in both directions. But maybe the deeper question is this: When war leaves behind loss, grief, and broken families… does anyone truly win? Scripture reminds us of the reality of the world we li

Over the past week here in Lebanon, we’ve seen people gather, voices raised, signs lifted, convictions expressed. From “No Kings” to local political demonstrations, it’s a reminder that people care deeply about the direction of our communities, our nation, and our future. And it’s worth saying clearly—there is a right to peacefully protest. Scripture even shows us moments where voices were raised publicly, where people stood in conviction, where truth was declared in the stre

Last Sunday was one of those mountaintop days. God was moving in our service—people surrendering, responding, stepping into obedience. You could feel it. After weeks of long hours, everything was lined up for a perfect afternoon. The weather was just right. The ball pit was ready. The side-by-side was fueled up. The plan was simple—let the kids play, rest a little, and just enjoy the blessing of the moment. And then… everything changed. My youngest came running in—panic in he

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we are really teaching our kids. In so many ways, our modern education system—though filled with good, hardworking teachers and administrators—can feel like it’s training children to measure their worth by a number. A test score. A benchmark. A percentile. And while assessment has its place, somewhere along the way it can subtly whisper to a child: “You are what you produce.” But Scripture tells a very different story. “So God create