New Canaan Society Franklin Podcast

Our community is struggling with unfamiliar emotions. Three weeks ago we experienced the devastating shooting at Covenant School, and that experience will be with us for weeks, months, and for some a lifetime. We are collectively left with more questions than answers and many of us are still experiencing grief. In this podcast, Anita Pringle, Clinical Director and a grief and trauma therapist at the Refuge Center in Franklin, will give us some insight into how to care for our own grief and how to love on the people who are hurting. She will share some thoughts on how to explain things to children in your life and when it is best to say nothing. Sometimes it's best to listen and be aware. Anita will talk with us for ten minutes or so and then give you a chance to ask her whatever is on your heart. Our prayer is that this content will be one small step in helping us to heal.

In this podcast, you will hear a remarkable story of redemption, of how God brought together two men whose faith carried each of them through both personal and family persecution.  Ulises (Uli) Reyes, was born in Venezuela, immigrated to U.S. through Cuba as young child, and grew up on the streets of East Los Angeles. Today, he owns a successful beauty salon in downtown Franklin and helps an NGO that supports children in Nicaragua.  Alvardo (Al) Rivas, grew up as an orphan in Nicaragua and went to Los Angeles as young man. Through Young Life, Al felt God’s call to support orphans like himself in his home country, and so returned to Nicaragua to work with NGOs supporting children. However, he was forced to flee his country, leaving his wife and child, and sought political asylum in the U.S. Al is here in Franklin, awaiting trial to decide if he will be granted political asylum and permitted to stay. His story includes having to go underground to get out of Nicaragua, spending days in an enclosed container with 150 other people, many of whom died, and finally arriving in the United States.  This is an emotional, very real story of how God cared for Uli and Al, brought them together, and how their friendship is impacting their own lives especially their walk with God.

If you are concerned about what seems to be a shrinking influence of Christ on our culture, this podcast will be an encouragement. It’s true that Pew research reports that only 63% of Americans say they are Christians – down from 75% ten years ago. And Barna research reports that Generation Z is the least Christian generation in American history with only 4% of today’s teenagers holding a biblical worldview. If you think the church is on the ropes because of what you’re seeing in the U.S. and Western Europe, you will be blown away by what the Holy Spirit is doing in other parts of the world – Africa, for instance. This Thursday we will hear from Larry Warren, founder of Leadership International, and Jeremy Johnson, vice president of Oasis International, a book and Bible publisher in Africa. You’ll hear amazing stories of a hunger for the Word of God unlike anything in the U.S. and the tremendous opportunities to satisfy that hunger. “How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of those in China, the Middle East, Latin America, and more.” (adaptation of Hebrews 11:32). Join us on Thursday to be encouraged by a few amazing stories of the work of the Holy Spirit in Africa.

Morgan comes from a family who has served Nashville well. His great grandfather founded the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, his mother helped establish Vanderbilt’s Children’s Hospital, his father has written 28 books on Nashville’s history, and his parents were key to the restoration of the Belle Meade Farm. Morgan has been president and CEO of Siloam Health, a faith-based, volunteer-supported clinic for people with no health insurance and limited resources, primarily immigrants. Siloam serves people from 70 nations who speak 50 languages. Morgan has also received an MA in marketplace theology from Regent College. Siloam does not just meet the physical needs of the people it serves. It provides a place where they can feel safe and loved. It’s called whole-person medicine. This month Morgan is stepping down from his position at Siloam to become an associate professor at the Thomas F. Frist Jr. College of Medicine at Belmont, a school that in April, 2024 will begin training medical providers to treat patients as human beings and not just broken bodies.

Buddy got his start playing with country superstar Jerry Reed’s band. He has played at a Billy Graham crusade before 250,000 people in Central Park, NY, and ten years later played the “William Tell Overture” on harmonica at Carnegie Hall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoauBe465qQ). Buddy feels equally at home playing with Jeff Taylor at Station Inn or reading a book by Reinhold Niebuhr in the back of a tour bus. And as a songwriter, he is best known for having written – with Mark Lowry – the Christmas classic, “Mary, Did You Know.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. . . . You will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. . . . Then the King will say . . . , ‘Come, you blessed of My father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Jesus speaks passionately in Matthew 23, 24, and 25. Last March Chip Arnold, a Nashville actor who has played Paul, Jesus, and King Saul as well as Willy Loman (in “Death of a Salesman”), Henrik Ibsen, Henry Potter (in “It’s a Wonderful Life”), and many others, presented The Sermon on the Mount to us at NCS. This Thursday Chip will present Jesus’s powerful words in three chapters at the end of Matthew. Chip says, “The words I memorized and speak are true. Most important, the words reveal the One who was and is the true source of power and life. I am not the same man.”   By the way, if you want to hear Chip’s presentation of the Sermon on the Mount, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X6LL8ZMghs&t=11s

John Chisum, founder of Nashville Christian Songwriters, says that in spite of a successful career as music business executive and songwriter . . . “At age 58 my life fell apart. I found myself struggling to connect with God, myself, my loved ones, and with meaningful ministry and work. It all just came to a grinding halt. I was hitting rock bottom in almost every area of my life. I fell into a darkness I had never known before. “That was the toughest year of my life, but little did I know that it was all a set up for something much bigger: a new me that was much braver, much bolder, much more fearless and internally successful than ever before. “I want to share what I’ve learned these last few years. I want to share how changing my perspective on faith, God, and myself has allowed me to flourish like never before.”

Chandler Means and his wife have been foster parents to more than 30 children over the last 16 years. Some of those have been from horrific backgrounds and Chandler and his wife have experienced heartache, joy, frustration, and celebration. He is now executive director of Agape, an organization in Nashville that strengthens children and families.
For this breakfast we invited brothers to share their stories with us. Paul Aldrich and Denny Brownlee (part of our leadership team) led us in a few songs and then Chandler told us about his experiences as a foster father.