Episodes
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
#88: Byron Williamson
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
It sounds like a county music song or a story of a politician's early years.
Byron Williamson grew up with his mom in a shack with no electricity or indoor plumbing in a small north Texas farming village.
A few years later Byron became a book publisher and in 2021 the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association presented him with The Chair’s Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Byron has headed Worthy Publishing, Word Publishing, Thomas Nelson books, and Integrity Publishers. He’s published books by Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Billy Graham, Max Lucado, John MacArthur, and Frank Peretti. He worked with Sarah Young to create Jesus Calling, which has sold more than 45 million copies.
As far as we’re concerned, though, Byron’s claim to fame is that he’s usually at the table near the buffet line at Puckett’s on the first and third Thursdays. And this coming Thursday he will tell us how God led him every step of the way, although the path was not always straight or anticipated.
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
#87: Brad Ketch
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
Tuesday Oct 17, 2023
At 5:30 one morning the doorbell rang at Brad Ketch’s home on his 5-acre estate just outside Portland, Oregon. “I need help,” said a Latino teenager. “My friends stopped the car, hit me on the head, took all my stuff, and threw me in your bushes. Can you drive me home? It’s about three miles from here.”
“My friend and I are going to the gym and driving right by your house,” said Brad. “He’s picking me up in a few minutes. We’ll help you out.”
Brad’s friend pulled up in his Mercedes and was silently appalled at the dirty teenager sliding into his back seat.
Brad Ketch had no frame of reference for this kid’s life. At Renaldo’s apartment was a car up on blocks, a Little Mermaid sheet in the living-room window where curtains ought to be, and a dirty, torn screen door. The parking lot was next to a strip club, an hourly motel where people cooked meth, and the hub of a narcotics business.
“I could not get Renaldo out of my mind,” said Brad. “What should I do?”
When he mentioned it to his wife, she said, “Maybe we should just do what Mother Teresa said when rich people came to volunteer in Calcutta: ‘Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely, in your own homes, your own families, in your workplaces and schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world if you have eyes to see.’”
Thursday Oct 05, 2023
#82:Matt Blount
Thursday Oct 05, 2023
Thursday Oct 05, 2023
“There were days I thought about how to end my alcoholic step dad’s life,” said Matt Blount. “He had physically beat me and one time even ripped my hair out.
“When I look back now I can see where God had plans for my life, even though I did not know it at the time. When I had a child of my own I started to seek God because somehow I knew I was not going to be able to be a dad without the Lord.”
Slowly God revealed to Matthew how He would use the abuse and suffering of Matt’s youth to serve kids. And last year God released him from the walls of self-protection he had built around himself and freed him to serve the needs of 150 children in Uganda through a ministry that operates a school and orphanage. There’s more to the story. Be sure to come this Thursday to meet Matt if you don’t already know him.
“I hope my story will inspire you to see God’s work in your life,” said Matthew, “particularly in the area where you may have believed that He was far from you.”
Friday Sep 29, 2023
#86: Joe Battaglie
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Joe Battaglia is one of the more recent Yankees from the New York City area to move to Franklin and join us at NCS. He has been part of the Bergen County, NJ, New Canaan Society for many years, and he’s been thoroughly vetted and released to live in Tennessee. Although he’s from NYC, Joe is friendly and outgoing.
Joe started the first local Christian magazine in the New York area in 1973, was general manager of WWDJ, a Christian radio station there, and founded Renaissance Communications, “a media company whose mission is to provide media platforms for gifted communicators of biblical truth.” He has also been on the board of Gospel Music Association.
When I talked to Joe about how God has led him, he said, “Yes, I have had a number of interesting things happen . . . and people I’ve met. Yet, I never talk about people I know, but the God I know and how I've seen Him work providentially and what I’ve learned through all that.”
Monday Sep 11, 2023
#85: Pastor Kevin Burns & Pastor Kevins Riggs
Monday Sep 11, 2023
Monday Sep 11, 2023
“Today is the Best Day of My Life” has been the life theme of Kevin Burns ever since he landed on Death Row more than 30 years ago.
Kevin Burns is one of the pastors at Franklin Community Church and the “in-residence” pastor of Riverbend Maximum Security Correctional Facility’s The Church of Life – the only church on a death row anywhere in the United States. Kevin Burns will be with us, via cell phone, in this podcast along with Franklin Community Church’s senior pastor, Kevin Riggs.
In 1992 Kevin was caught in a gun fight in Memphis in which two people were killed. Three people, including Kevin, were convicted of felony murder, although Kevin did not actually kill anyone. The other two, who did commit the murders and were convicted, are now out on parole. Kevin is still awaiting his execution. His case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which in April refused to review it in spite of the strong objections of Justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan.
A year after Kevin’s arrest, God called him to become a believer. “God has the ability to change people,” he says. “There is that opportunity for salvation, for reconciliation, for God to restore lives.”
It’s not often that we have a speaker at our little breakfast group that is featured in a national television story the same month they are at NCS. We’ll provide more details about an upcoming ABC News story about the inconsistences of felony murder convictions in the United States that features Kevin Burns.
Friday Sep 08, 2023
#84: Claude King
Friday Sep 08, 2023
Friday Sep 08, 2023
More than thirty years ago a publisher asked a little-known preacher in western Canada to write a book on how to experience God. The preacher had been challenging his listeners to ask, “What does God want to do through me?” because, he said, “God uses ordinary people to do extra-ordinary things.”
Like many busy preachers, Henry Blackaby did not have time to write a book. And so Claude King helped him write Experiencing God, a book that has been used since 1990 to transform lives, revive churches, heal marriages, and start ministries. For instance, Paul Van Woudenberg, who told us two months ago about Connect South Central Tennessee, is one person whose life was changed by Experiencing God.
In this presentation, Claude King, who wrote Experiencing God with Henry Blackaby and was Discipleship Specialist for Lifeway and is co-founder of Final Command Ministries, tells us how he learned that his own plans led nowhere. But when he joined God in where God was working, God used him to be a blessing to others. From New Mexico to Africa, from prisons to executive offices, the message of Experiencing God has been transformative and Claude has been in the middle of where God is working.
Saturday Aug 26, 2023
#81: Lee Camp
Saturday Aug 26, 2023
Saturday Aug 26, 2023
What does it mean to live a good life? What is true happiness? What are the habits, practices, and dispositions that facilitate human flourishing? You can find the answers – or at least listen to people who have wrestled with the questions -- on “No Small Endeavor,”the theological variety show that used to be called “Tokens.”
Or you can explore the answers at the NCS breakfast this Thursday when “No Small Endeavor” host Lee Camp will join us.
Lee is an Alabamian by birth, a Tennessean by choice, and has sojourned joyfully in Indiana, Texas, and Nairobi. He likes to think of himself as a radical conservative, or an orthodox liberal; loves teaching college and seminary students at Lipscomb University; delights in flying sailplanes; finds dark chocolate covered almonds with turbinado sea salt to be one of the finest confections of the human species; and gives great thanks for his lovely wife Laura, his three sons, and an abundance of family and friends. Besides teaching full-time and hosting “No Small Endeavor,” Lee has authored three books.
We do not expect either Brother Preacher or the Most Outstanding Horeb Mountain Boys to be with us. If you listen to the “Tokens Show,” that will make sense. If you don’t listen to the “Tokens Show,” it’s not worth explaining.
Friday Aug 25, 2023
#80: Paul van Woudenberg
Friday Aug 25, 2023
Friday Aug 25, 2023
Today, we’re going to talk about making a difference in the lives of vulnerable children.
There are 8,500 children in the foster care program in Tennessee. The children who are not with one of Tennessee’s 4,000 foster families have to be housed by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. In Tennessee there are 400 children waiting for adoption. Those are the statistics and there is a lot we can do to support these vulnerable kids.
This Thursday Paul van Woudenberg will tell his story of how God called him and Rebecca to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children – first by supporting children overseas, then by adopting and hosting children themselves, and finally by forming Connect South Central Tennessee -- a non-profit organization that encourages churches to support their local Department of Children’s Services office and showing God’s love to vulnerable children and the adults who care for them.
Paul’s Linked-in profile says he is a husband, father, and passionate advocate for vulnerable children. The benefit is not one way. Paul says, “I believe God is going to use these kids to wake up the church in Middle Tennessee.”
Friday Aug 25, 2023
#79: Tom Cole
Friday Aug 25, 2023
Friday Aug 25, 2023
Did you know that our group is one of 45 chapters of the New Canaan Society? It’s named after the town in Connecticut where 28 years ago three men started meeting in the family room of Jim Lane’s house. After twenty years with Goldman Sachs, Jim had realized his life needed to be re-focused through friendship with brothers who wanted to “live pure, speak truth, right wrong, and worship the king” – to quote the NCS motto.
This Thursday, June 1, Tom Cole will be with us. Tom had a leadership role in the Manhattan chapter since it was formed in 2008 and served on the Board of Directors of New Canaan Society for the last 11 years.
Tom recently retired from a 37-year career on Wall Street where, during the last twenty years, he financed leveraged buyouts for the world’s largest private equity firms. The first thing he did in retirement was to write The Narrow Gate. After suffering two heart attacks and becoming keenly aware that every day is a gift, he wanted to document life lessons for his family.
Tom will talk about some of these important lessons which he has learned from his own mistakes and adversity.
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
#78: Michael Card
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
You probably know Michael Card as a musician who has written “El Shaddai,” “Love Crucified Arose,” and Emmanuel.” But his goal in life was not to be a musician, but to follow Christ and teach the Bible. He believes we can know and be known by God and can enrich our lives by asking questions, having meaningful discussion with one another, and acknowledging Christ as the center of our life together.