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The Wealth in Being Simple
Sermon by Rev. Rachel Luck October 1, 2007 Luke 16:19-31 For several years the FOX Network aired a reality TV series starring two Hollywood socialites named Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The show was called The Simple Life. Paris is the equivalent to an American Princess, an heiress to the Hilton family fortune. Nicole is the socialite daughter of former pop star Lionel Richie; each of them coming from a fair amount of privilege and luxury. And together, these two young twenty something’s provided entertainment for households across the nation as they watched images of Paris and Nicole’s attempt at living the simple life. Something as simple as cleaning a…
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Marty Privette
Baptismal Statement by Marty Privette August 8, 2007 Being a Baptist is awesome! The idea of being able to chose when your ready to take on your religion and make your own choice of what you believe in is the whole idea behind beliefs. People sometimes get carried away in having a religion before they know what they believe in and the good thing about being Baptist is you chose to be baptized to your beliefs that happen to be shared by others. Faith means different things to different people. Some people are born into their beliefs because their parents believe things forcing them to share those beliefs. Other people…
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Clemarie Thomas
Baptismal Statement by Clemarie Thomas May 27, 2007 When the light is green you go. When the light is red you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue, with orange and lavender spots? Okay, that’s a pretty big decision; I mean what would you do? We’re all faced with rally big challenges in our lives. Like choosing to be a Christian; who you hang out with; how you act. Doing what’s right. It’s a pretty confusing world. Life happens to be very tough at times. Then there are the days where one good decision makes the whole day very good. Every day that I wake up is…
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Lessons from Living in a Family with MS
Sermon by Sarah Ferris May 6, 2007 It wasn’t the trips to the hospital or the cries of pain that made me finally realize my life was going to be different. It was the field days at Joyner Elementary School when I saw all the mothers participating in the fun activities planned for the day. The relays, with wet sponges, running from end to end, trying to be the fastest to fill up the buckets, with mothers running along side their children cheering their team on. And the parachute, in which we would shake as fast as we could, then throw it up and hide under it until the parents…
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Laura Kate Ireland
Baptismal Statement by Laura Kate Ireland April 29, 2007 What does baptism mean to me? Baptism to me means thinking of God more and trying out new things. One of the new things I’m doing is helping people a lot more. A person in my class was having trouble with a math problem. I was able to show them how to work the problem out. Why I decided to get baptized is because I felt like I was ready. Sometimes my teacher tells us to pray before a test so we won’t make a bad grade. And I do pray. Sometimes at night before I go to sleep I talk…
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To The Orient… And Beyond!
Sermon by Lin Bunce February 8, 2007 When I was younger, my favorite vacation was an October trip to the Outer Banks. I was guaranteed to miss 2 days of school. We would get up Thursday morning when it was still dark and begin our 6 hr journey to Drum Inlet, by car, ferry boat and then by camper. Once we reached our destination it was non-stop fishing. Grandaddy would have 5 lines cast out into the ocean and I was amazed how he could keep his eye on all of them. On the last night of our trip, dad and granddaddy would fish through the night. I remember one…
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Katy Thomas
Baptismal Statement by Katy Thomas August 13, 2006 Where do I begin? I grew up in the tiny Midwestern town of Marion, Ohio. You may have heard of it if you’re a big fan of cows or corn. I grew up with a very busy Christian mother who rarely went to church, but I did spend a few of my summers visiting Vacation Bible Schools with friends. I grew up knowing that I was a Christian without actually knowing what being a Christian meant. I tried to put together the pieces of the Christianity puzzle at a very young age, sometimes very unsuccessfully. Take for instance, me as a seven…
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Sheila Allred Ingold
A Woman of Her Times, For All Time Memoir By Bill Ingold May 25, 2006 What can I say about Momma that you don’t already know? How do I sum up her life, capturing over seven decades of complex and varied experiences? How can I neatly define a woman who had so many varied and fascinating relationships with those around her? As I fought with this problem over the last few nights, I seemed at a loss of how to find a common thread that defined the essence of Momma’s existence. Finally, I realized that there was no single characteristic that captured who Momma was. Instead, there exists a core…
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A Light Walk
Sermon by Daniel Ingram April 23, 2006 1 John 1:1-2:2 It was about this time last year when I was invited to a bachelor party for one of our church members. Like all other bachelor parties, there were arrangements of transportation and honestly that was remarkable. The party bus was equipped with all modern amenities starting from USB cords to laser light display. The interior of the coach had a hardwood floor and leather seating line for premium comfort. I was so impressed by the vehicle that I enquired more about it. I got to know that a party bus like this could be hired from websites like Dream Limousines…
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On The Road Again
100th Anniversary Celebration Sermon by Peggy Haymes March 12, 2006 Genesis 12:1-3 I have a confession to make…. I see dead people. Oh, not in the Hayley Joel Osmet seeing Bruce Willis Sixth Sense kind of a way. No, sometimes when I’m sitting in the choir loft, I look up into the back balcony, and almost think I can see them, the great cloud of witnesses gathered there… Nannie Leigh…who used to call church members on their birthdays to sing Happy Birthday. Fred Scott…hearing him pray was like listening in on an ongoing conversation.Now he is able to speak face to face, as friend speaks to friend. Atha Raulston…who we used…
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Trying to Think Clearly About Abortion
Sermon by Michael Usey March 2006 An old proverb says, “There is no fool like an old fool, unless it’s a young fool.” Being two years shy of 50, I’m not quite ready to say that I’m old, but the aches I have after a day of playing soccer with my 3 kids convince me that I’m not young either. So, being neither an old fool nor a young fool, I guess I am just foolish–as one fellow minister suggested when I said I was preaching on the topic of abortion. He didn’t come out and call me stupid, but he said, “Why ask for trouble? This is such a…
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Samantha Bridges
Baptismal Statement by Samantha Bridges February 19, 2006 When I think about God, the first thing that comes to mind is love, pure love. There are different ways to love, like loving your family or your pets. My relationship with God is a strong family bond. When I think about all the people in my life like family and friends, I realize that God placed them in my life in order for my life to be complete. When I was younger, I didn’t attend church. I didn’t know a lot about God either. When I first started to come to College Park Church, I liked the sermons. I learned from…
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Zachariah Usey
Baptismal Statement by Zachariah Usey January 1, 2006 To me, being a Christian means choosing to follow God, trying to do what’s right, and following God’s call. I can’t remember any specific time I chose to become a Christian, but I have always seen myself as one. I have always felt like one. In a way this time seems no different than when I was 3 or 7 or 9, because I have been raised as one, and always loved and wanted to follow God. In fact, I didn’t know being a Christian meant also being baptized. It just didn’t occur to me for a while. Then I went through…
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Andrew David Russoli
An Unfinished Life: Andrew David Russoli Memoir by Michael Usey November 2, 2005 When my sons were young, they called him “Androot,” as in, “Are we going to Androot’s house for Thanksgiving?” We were often guests at the Russoli’s home, as many of you have been, and my boys loved to be in the presence of Andrew. He was all boy, and had a great collection of toys guns and knives, which he generously let my boys use, as well as a collection of disturbing action figures and skulled-headed monsters. These were treasures to any boy under 12—in fact my sons inherited some of these action figures when Andrew moved…
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Hayley Turner
Baptismal Statement by Hayley Turner May 22, 2005 I am being baptized today because I am deciding that I want to make a commitment to God. I believe that Jesus was the Messiah and that he was crucified on the cross and that he rose from the dead. I think that Jesus was crucified because God loved us so much that he sacrificed his only Son for us to forgive us from our sins. I like to think about God as someone who goes on Earth very often and is everywhere around me when I am sad or angry. What God means to me is someone who is just pure…
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Christian Burkhead
Baptismal Statement by Christian Burkhead April 24, 2005 I have decided to get baptized this spring because I feel I am ready to accept the changes it will bring. To me, baptism means always working towards doing good. I will accept that Jesus will be guiding the rest of my life. I think that God and Jesus will be my guidance when I’m not sure what to do. In my spare time, I can usually be found reading a book. I mainly read fantasy books about slaying a dragon, saving the land from evil, etc. Most of the time it’s a teenage boy who goes on the quest, like the…
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Nathan Usey
Baptismal Statement by Nathan Usey March 27, 2005 As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a follower of God. I can’t remember any time that I didn’t feel loved by God or consider myself a Christian. To me, being a Christian is having a relationship with God. I wanted to be baptized ever since I understood what it symbolized—publicly letting people know you choose to be a Christian. I think I was nine when I first asked if I could be baptized. My dad said to give it a while. I actually asked many times but my dad asked me to wait until I was 12 so…
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Fred William Scott
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Memoir by Michael Usey April 22, 2003 When Fred was a boy on the farm in Yadkin County, he and his brothers got into their share of trouble. He had 3 brothers that lived past infancy: Ray, M.F. [a.k.a. Melvin Fynn], and Charles. One night when the boys were in bed, they had done something to incur their father’s wrath and earn a whipping. They thought they’d get the better of the old man: by holding the sheets ultra tight, the boys reasoned that the taunt sheet would bear the brunt of the blow. They were right: their father spanked them, but it…
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Thu Thi Nguyet Doan
Teach Us to Number Our Days Memoir by Michael Usey April 17, 2003 The purpose of a Christian funeral is to bear witness to the resurrection and to celebrate the way in which a person’s life was a window to God. In my congregation, this is accomplished not by a sermon, which focuses on a passage of scripture, nor by a eulogy, which concentrates on a person’s life, but rather with a memoir, which centers on the way we experienced God’s love through a person’s life. A memoir is a blending of both sermon and eulogy into a celebration of the manner in which God shone through this person’s life. Psalm…
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Ann Elizabeth Pillow
A Shiny Life Memoir by Michael Usey September 21, 2002 Jesus said, let your life be shiny. He said, Let your life so shine before others that they will see your good works and give thanks to God in bright heaven. This is a noble calling, a high and holy vocation to which all Christians aspire. But this is also a tall order, being shiny. The world can be a pretty dark place, and being bright and luminous, reflecting the light of God’s love, can be difficult, even risky. We are all here because of Ann Pillow’s premature and unexpected death. Her sudden death has left us reeling and grief-stricken,…
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