Weekly Greeting - July 31, 2026

As I write this, I am sitting on the porch of a (new) friend who lives on Yum Yum Road in Somerville, TN. 

I am here as one of the guest preachers for the annual Joyner’s Campmeeting — part family reunion, part revival, part VBS.  This is the 132nd gathering of Joyner’s Campmeeting and other than the fact that this is the hottest week of the summer, it has been a wonderful experience. 

I grew up going to a camp like this.  The loose association of churches of which I was part as a child, rented a group camp at Montgomery Bell State Park every year.  It was less family reunion and more youth camp, less rustic with more kickball, but the worship was very similar.  Many of the hymns are the same, the tabernacle feels familiar, and there is the same anticipation that worship will be in some way transformational.

 Back when I was going to camp, though, I anticipated that worship would include some variation of the question, “If you died tonight, can you be certain that you would go to heaven?”  There was a focus on the consequences of personal sin and the very real threat of one misstep dooming me to hell.  Every night I left worship rededicating myself to making sure that I did not sin, and confessing my sin in the moment that it happened. 

This week, God has given me the gift of all of the best memories of camp without the anxiety and guilt.  I have been able to sing at the top of my voice all the songs that I loved when I was young — songs that I still know by heart.  I can see myself sitting on the handmade pews that sit atop concrete piers on a dirt floor.  And the miracle of it all is that God has given me the chance to preach a gospel of love, redemption, reconciliation, grace, and God’s abiding presence with us no matter what — all of the things no one preached to me when I was a little girl. I am so grateful. 

Thanks for letting me share this with you,

Mary Beth