Light In The Valley

We have never had more information available to us—and I sometimes wonder if we have ever taken less time deciding what we actually believe. Something happens in the world, and within minutes our phones are filled with opinions. A headline flashes across the screen. A thirty-second reel explains what supposedly happened. An influencer tells us what we should think about it. Someone we respect shares a post. Someone else stitches a video explaining why that person is wrong. An

The Lindsay Clancy case has once again placed an unimaginable tragedy in front of the public, and with it has come debate over mental health, responsibility, justice, and the value of human life. But as I have watched some of the discussion, I keep coming back to a concern much larger than one case: What happens to a culture when we lose a biblical understanding of the value of human life? Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created mankind in His own image. That means human value

I had a realization this week that honestly blew my mind a little bit… Last Tuesday marked our 100th blog post at Rocky Valley. When we started doing these, the goal was pretty simple: find another way to take what God is doing in our church beyond the walls of our building and into the everyday lives of people. Every Tuesday, Echos from the Valley gives us an opportunity to revisit the sermon from the Sunday before. It isn’t meant to simply repeat the message, but to pull ou

I knew this week was coming. I just didn’t realize how hard it would hit when it actually got here. In the span of one week, my first son moved away to college and turned 18. And as proud as I am of him, there’s a part of this dad that doesn’t like it one bit. For 17 birthdays, he was here. I could walk into his room, hug him, tell him happy birthday face to face, aggravate him a little, and remind him how proud I am to be his dad. This year, he’s in Cookeville. I keep thinki

This morning, I was sitting with my coffee when my in-laws’ dog, Henry, came to see me. Henry is a great dog. He’s fun, full of energy, and always ready to play. But there’s one thing you need to know about Henry: He loves to play ball. Not just occasionally. Not just when you feel like it. Henry believes that if there is a ball nearby, somebody ought to be throwing it. He will bring it over and drop it right in your lap. You can ignore it. You can leave it sitting there. You

As election season has picked up, my phone has too. Calls. Texts. Voicemails. Mailers. Candidate after candidate wanting me to know who they are, what they believe, and why I should support them. If I’m honest, I’ve hung up on more than a few before they ever finished their pitch. But here’s the interesting thing—I still learned who some of those candidates were and what they stood for. Their message made it through, even when I wasn’t particularly interested in hearing it. T

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