Grief is a solitary road. Even if we are fortunate enough to have people alongside us during the journey, (as I have been), no one can really travel all the way with us. Our pain and our path are as individual as the relationship we share with the person we’ve lost. When my father died suddenly back in September of 2013, I began doing what I always do: I started writing. I did it to somehow make sense of my own grief, and to keep moving through the place I now call The Grief Valley. These seven short chapters, (the first one written just three days after his passing) are some of the most personal things I've ever shared. They're also some of the writings I'm most proud of. I've collected them here, in the hopes that they will be an encouragement and source of comfort for those experiencing loss of someone they love dearly, though I know each path will be a completely different one. This work represents a real-time processing of my first year without my Dad. It’s not a “how-to” book by any means, but maybe in my story, you’ll find something that you yourself can own; something to make your personal road through the Grief Valley a little more bearable. Be encouraged. Keep walking.

A year in the grief valley: 365 days of love and loss

John Pavlovitz

Parsons Porch Books

Christian people deserve to hear good sermons when we gather for worship (or when we download something from the internet). We don’t need great sermons, except once in a long while. We hear too many poor or mediocre sermons, and this discourages many people. The church of Jesus Christ is in urgent need of better preaching—and I suspect that has always been the case! When people in the pew are given the opportunity to comment on their experience at worship, the quality of preaching always receives the most attention. This is true of both Catholic and Protestant preaching. Christians in both traditions testify that preaching is the one element of the worship service most likely to impact both their attendance at the service and their engagement with the worship. Time after time, Christian people report that better preaching is their number one desire when it comes to public worship. It is no surprise to anyone when I assert that the preaching of the good news about Jesus Christ and the teaching of the Bible are as needed today as ever. When done with competence, preparation, inspiration, and passion, sermons have power to motivate people to faith in God and love toward one another. Good preaching connects people with a power that transforms life. Good preaching shapes personal behavior and public values. Good preaching moves nations to endure hardship, resist evil, and establish justice. Good preaching converts the unbeliever, consoles the burdened, and instructs the eager. Good preaching triggers an exploration of vocation that is at the heart of the call to gospel preaching itself—good preaching begets good preaching!

Nine Marks of a Good Sermon: A Guide for Young Preachers

Dwight Lyman Moody

As a young man growing up in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, having no conscious knowledge of a Southern Blues Band, “The Allman Brothers Band”, a Capricorn Records act managed by the president of the company, Phil Walden, from Macon, Georgia, I was about to embark on a journey through time and people I otherwise never would have met leaving me with many fond memories and thanks for having lived a life in that era place and time. This is my story!      My first recollection of Duane Allman came too late to appreciate his musical career while he was still alive, it took his untimely death (October 29th, 1971). Twiggs Lyndon was Duane Allman’s most devoted advocate, also the first Road Manager of the Allman Brothers Band.

Remembering Twiggs Lyndon

Ron Cosentino

Life is a holy adventure in which our lives emerge from our relationships and the institutions that have shaped us. In this second edition, I want to give thanks to the institutions that have most shaped me spiritually and professionally: Claremont School of Theology, Claremont Graduate School, and the Disciples Seminary Foundation in Claremont; the United Church of Christ; and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This book is an embodiment of the United Church of Christ’s affirmation: “God is still speaking.” I give thanks daily for my wife and partner in life, ministry, parenting, and grand parenting, Kate Epperly. Life is always an adventure with Kate: her Myers-Briggs “P” (perceiving) spirit keeps my “J” (judging) on my toes and challenges me to modify my plans at a moment’s notice. Her “E” (extroversion) has energized my “I” (introversion) personally and professionally. I am grateful for the impact of being a father on my personal and professional life. My son Matt has awakened me to the meaning of unconditional love and has expanded the circle of love to include his wife Ingrid and two very adventurous young boys. This book is an affirmation of God’s holy adventure in every season of life from childhood to eldership, and my two grandsons have deepened my commitment to be God’s companion in healing the world for their generation and their children’s children. I am thankful for the “cloud of witness” and “creative companions” who have inspired my adventures. In that cloud of adventurers, journeying in God’s realm of adventurous shalom, I give thanks for my mom and dad, Loretta and Everett Epperly, my brother Bill, and for mentors – Bernie Loomer, Shorty Collins, Marie Fox, and Howard Thurman. I give thanks for living adventurers whose mentoring and teaching still shapes my life – John Cobb, David Ray Griffin, and John Akers. This text reflects the encouragement of dear friends, many of whom regularly repeat back to me my own words – “it’s a holy adventure” – when I am tempted to shrink from making great plans or embarking on journeys to new places – Anna Rollins, Patricia Adams Farmer, Suzanne Schmidt, Monica Coleman, Kathy Harvey Nelson, Jay McDaniel, and Edwin David Aponte. Two churches have shaped the writing of this text – Disciples United Community Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whose open-spirit and partnership encouraged theological, spiritual, and worship adventures, and South Congregational United Church of Christ, Centerville, Massachusetts, whose faithful ministry on Cape Cod lures me forward to new and creative adventures. Finally, this second edition emerged through an invitation from David Tullock, Publisher of Parson’s Porch Books, who joins publication with social concern and healing. Publishing, for David, is more about prophets than profits, in his quest to bring sustenance and joy to vulnerable persons so that they might have the freedom to see their lives as adventurous and holy. Pentecost 2013

Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living

Bruce G. Epperly

101 Cartoons

Joe McKeever

Steady Dash: A Treasure of Hidden Diaries

T. N. Gordy

This is a book of reflections on wandering. It could be said that if you stick to a trail you are less likely to wander, but even on a trail one can happily wander. The only trails I knew about growing up were the ones worn deep by the dairy cows sauntering across the pasture. In spite of having acres of broad pastures to meander across, cows inevitably take the same singular path leading them to and from the dairy barn. In fact, if a cow ever wandered off the beaten path, so to speak, it most always meant something was wrong. This collection of writings is a simple attempt to share my own marks and experiences along the way as well as an invitation to meander alongside my own thoughts, musings, and reflections. Like trails, some of the pieces will take you places with a specific destination or point. Others are winding walkabouts where I am just thinking out loud to no one in particular. The stories themselves are not connected, other than the threads of grace weaving throughout. And while they are organized along four main sections, they can be read in any order the reader likes, or in no particular order at all. I hope you enjoy Wanderings, and I hope you share your stories of faith, doubt, and pilgrimage on this good earth. ___________ Greg DeLoach grew up right in the heart of rural Georgia on a dairy farm outside the small town of Eatonton. DeLoach has earned a Doctor of Ministry in Old Testament Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary and has served several congregations throughout Georgia, including pastorates in Mansfield, Chickamauga, Marietta and Augusta. Currently he is a Development Officer for Mercer University and is the Teaching Pastor of First Baptist Church of Monroe. His love of the outdoors began at an early age walking the pastures and woods of the dairy farm, and looks for any chance he can find to pitch a tent in the Smoky Mountains and find a new trail to hike.

Wanderings

Greg Deloach

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