New Canaan Society Franklin Podcast

#94 Mika Edmondson

No snow this Thursday and high in the low 50s. It sounds like a perfect morning for NCS breakfast at Puckett’s.

Mika Edmondson, lead pastor at Koinonia Church in Nashville -- who was scheduled to be with us on January 18 -- will join us this Thursday. Mika was founding pastor of New City Fellowship, an Orthodox Presbyterian congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was called to Nashville a few years ago.

#93: Steve Gilreath

We’re all busy. Life is chaotic. Many of us navigate through tough times thinking we’re stressed from work and family, but some of us actually have something else gnawing away at a little corner of our brain that keeps us off balance. Something from deep in the past. It can affect us in ways we can’t acknowledge or anticipate. 
 
For Steve Gilreath -- who is one of us at Middle Tennessee NCS -- dark memories of the past stayed buried for 39 years. The emergence of the memories was a difficult one. What could God’s plan be in a situation like this? 
 
Steve is a producer and director, storyteller, and author. He’s spent time with two presidents (without causing an international incident!) and has been a leader in the men’s ministry and an Elder at Christ Community Church, leader with Young Life in inner-city Chicago, and is currently the Executive Director of On Demand Platforms for K-LOVE.  

#92: Josh Graves

What does it mean to follow Jesus with the explicit purpose of becoming the best version of yourself possible?
 
Josh Graves -- who, by the way, is the preaching and teaching minister at Otter Creek Church – has given this quite a bit of thought and will share those thoughts with us on Thursday morning. He says he wants to be with like-minded men who want to follow Jesus.
 
Josh’s most recent book, The Simple Secret, has a wonderful subtitle: “Choosing Love in a Culture of Hostility.” “According to Jesus,” says Josh, “the purpose of our existence is to love and be loved. . . . The secret of life, it turns out, is no secret at all.”

#91: Henry Cloud

You’ve probably read at least one of Henry Cloud’s books. Boundaries (which he wrote with John Townsend) has helped more than 4 million people learn when to say yes and when to know how to say no. He’s written books on leadership, integrity, and his most recent is on Trust – “When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix it When it Gets Broken.”
 
Dr. Cloud is a psychologist from Southern California where he and John Townsend directed the Minirth-Meier Clinic for many years.

And like one or two others from California, Henry Cloud is thinking about moving to Middle Tennessee. So this Thursday let’s be sure to give him a warm Middle-Tennessee welcome, y’all.

#90: Tom Moucka

Have you ever felt as if the dreams you had for yourself would never be fulfilled? Perhaps you felt your life was spiraling out of control. Most of us have felt that way at one time or another.
 
Our God is a God of new beginnings. He said, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts. . . . Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the Lord your God, who does these miracles for you (Joel 2:25-26).
 
This Thursday Tom Moucka will tell us his story of God’s restoring love and the second chance God gave him.
 
You may know Tom (he is one of us). You may remember him because he told us about the Samson Society last August after Nate Larkin told his story. (Tom is president of the Samson Society).
 
I knew Tom a number of years ago when he felt his life was spiraling out of control. This Thursday is a day I’ve been praying for . . . when Tom can praise the Lord who has done these miracles for him.

#89: Lance Villio

Lance Villio, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, will be with us at Puckett’s for breakfast. Previously Lance was executive director of I am Second, video taping the stories of people who have overcome struggles by putting Jesus Christ first.
 
A little history -- In the 1990s faith-based groups had to have a secular affiliate before they could receive federal funding. Yet faith-based groups did a better job than government agencies at helping those with addictions and homelessness, with child welfare, and with other issues. In the 2000 presidential campaign, both major party candidates called for federal partnerships with faith-based organizations and George W. Bush (#43) issued a series of executive orders requiring equal treatment for religious organizations seeking federal funds to subsidize social programs. This let states open similar programs.
 
In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee created in his first term an office that would work with faith-based groups. He said we are all called to feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned, care for our neighbors, and provide healing to those who are suffering.
 
Lance Villio has been directing that office and will tell us about its work, what the opportunities and challenges are for a believer working in politics, and what we can do to help these organizations.

#88: Byron Williamson

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.

#87: Brad Ketch

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.’”

#82:Matt Blount

“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.”

#86: Joe Battaglie

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.”