The Pulpit in the Paper: A Pastor’s Coming of Age in Newsprint

(Smyth and Helwys 2020)

I’ve loved telling stories since before I can remember. Part of what is so compelling about stories is their evolution as a narrative. How do stories build and reach a crescendo. Part of my public life has been found at the tip of the pen, especially with my most recent book, A Sin by Any Other Name. I could make up some silly story how I fell into writing that book but to be honest I had always been training for it—I had constantly been preparing for my role on the national stage in a very lackluster place: my local newspaper.

From 2011 (my senior year of high school mind you) until 2018 I served as the religion columnist for the Statesville Record and Landmark. I wrote faithfully for so many Friday mornings that the articles by themselves could be an anthology. But that’s not the story I want to tell. In this book I will chronicle the story of my life in between the lines. I will chronicle it by including news articles from the R&L and yes even some more notable publications, but it’s the journey that is most important to me—why are these articles still resonating in my community? How did they shape me? How did they form me into the public theology I espouse today? These are exciting themes to be covered in the book. I am grateful that Chelsea Clinton contributed a foreword to this book.

Publicity for The Pulpit and the Paper:

The Statesville Record and Landmark’s Feature on the Book Release