Monday over Coffee: "Saints & Poets"
Posted October 31, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
What if you had died yesterday, but today somehow were granted life again? Think about it. What if you had passed away last night, but this morning were restored to the very circumstances you find yourself in right this minute? With the family you have. With the friends you have. In the community you live. With your health even such as it may be. Restored to the present in all things.…
Monday Over Coffee: "School"
Posted October 24, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
I was thirteen years old, attending middle school at Spring Branch Junior High, and had just gone to see the doctor for a check up. The appointment had gone fine, but when my mother dropped me off at the front of the school, instead of going back in, I waved as she drove away, and I then wandered off, playing hooky for the rest of the day. I don't recall exactly what I did. I wasn't busted,…
Monday Over Coffee: "The Fog"
Posted October 17, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Not too long ago, my wife Kelly and I were in New York and caught a show on Broadway, an impressive staging of Shakespeare's MacBeth. While there are a number of striking lines in the play, one particular passage really resonated with me. Early in the first act, after a victory in battle, the heroic MacBeth and his friend, Banquo, encounter three mysterious witches who foretell that MacBeth…
Monday Over Coffee: "The Line"
Posted October 10, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
My son Charlie was an undersized offensive lineman in high school, but he used a good understanding of leverage and a high football IQ to contribute whenever he got into the game. On a basic running play, the general assignment of any offensive lineman is to push the defense back so his own team might advance the ball beyond the line of scrimmage. However, if the linemen don't do their jobs,…
Monday Over Coffee: "Mercy"
Posted October 3, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
One of my lasting memories of my grandmother, Gertie Warren Funderburk, was how she'd respond when I had done something original—like sink a fish hook in my finger, or carry a bushel of pecans from the yard into her house in my stretched out t-shirt. She'd trill out a deep breath in a weary whistle, and say, "Mercy!" Back then, the only time I reached for the word myself was when gamely…
Monday Over Coffee: "I Wonder..."
Posted September 26, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Growing up, I had a boxful of sleek Hot Wheels and yards and yards of the bright orange tracks along which the little cars zoomed. The loop-the-loop add-on never worked that well, but it did enhance the drama of the crashes. As marshal-general of multiple units of little green plastic soldiers, I strategized over many a pitched battle on the floor of our living room. And I loved my G.I. Joes—…
Monday Over Coffee: "The Dishes"
Posted September 19, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Every so often, while preparing for what I hope will be a well-received lesson at church—perhaps a lesson about humility, patience, presence, or grace—something happens. In deep concentration, I'm briefly diverted by a call from someone with a minor need. Perhaps while I'm writing something arises in the office, and I'm asked to lend some help for just a moment. Or this: I'm at home, making…
Monday over Coffee: "Renegade Goodwill"
Posted September 12, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
I had a couple of friends back in college who got a kick out of telling semi-credible tall tales about each other to unsuspecting acquaintances at parties. For instance, in conversation, one might point across the room to the other and suggest his friend's lifelong dream was to become a professional bowler. At the same time, the other guy might be in deep dialogue with someone else, noting…
Monday over Coffee: "Two Lenses"
Posted August 29, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Recently I listened to a dialogue between two formidably intelligent atheists—one a neuroscientist, author, and podcaster, the other a New Testament scholar and university professor who somewhere in his twenties had lost his faith. They conversed in a generally respectful way about Christianity, but occasionally the guest couldn't help but to chuckle about what he saw as the naivete of his…
Monday Over Coffee: "A Widening Grace"
Posted August 22, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
When I was in elementary school I had to take Speech. Not the class in which you're instructed on how to give a public talk, but the one in which you're taught how to pronounce your letters properly. You see, I had a stormy relationship with the letter R. I was solid when it came to important playground phrases like, "Red Rover, Red Rover" or with the lyrics to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." I was…
Monday over Coffee: "However Healed"
Posted August 15, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
I was having breakfast with a couple of old friends last week. While I wouldn't go so far as to say our conversation was dominated by detailed discussions about our respective medical conditions, let's just say the topic arose more than once. It started to remind me of those commercials warning us about turning into our parents. It's inevitable I guess.
Monday over Coffee: "I Wish I'd Known That About Him"
Posted August 8, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
After memorial services, it's not uncommon to hear someone say, "I wish I'd known that about him" or "I can't believe I never heard that about her." In those moments, it strikes me as most regrettable that we don't have at hand a practical way to more effectively broadcast the unique stories of our lives to a wider audience—while we're still living.
Monday over Coffee: "Observe"
Posted August 1, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
The season I enjoyed coaching little league the most was when my son, Charlie, was ten. I call it the year of the Iron Pigs. I'd drafted a terrific team of kids, and we had really cool navy blue caps emblazoned with a fierce pig, silver rivets bolted formidably to its neck. I'd also assembled a great coaching staff to help me—dads as ridiculously serious about the endeavor as I was, all of…
Monday over Coffee: "Love Songs"
Posted July 25, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
Do you have a favorite love song? A top three or four? Here are some of mine: "Something" (The Beatles), "God Only Knows" (The Beach Boys), "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (The Police), "Tupelo Honey" (Van Morrison). There are lots of others, but what's hard to miss—whether you're listening to Percy Sledge or Hank Williams, Etta James or Taylor Swift, the Beatles or the Beach Boys—is…
Monday over Coffee: "It'll Be That Faint"
Posted July 18, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
This week, I'm traveling with my wife Kelly and our youngest son Charlie to his college orientation. And in the realization that he'll be leaving home soon for good, some deeply etched memories have been triggered within me—trips we took when the kids were little, first days of school, Little League games, and watching old movies together as a family.
Youth Reflection on Peru Trip
Posted July 12, 2022 by Dylan Ballard in Family Ministry, Missions
As a rising college freshman, I found the Peru trip to be truly the capstone of my youth group experience. For me, this trip encompassed every aspect of the youth group most important to me: community, faith, and service. Everything about this trip reinforced the ideas of faith that have been instilled in me throughout my years in the youth group.
Monday Over Coffee: "Remove One"
Posted July 11, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
When you think of Chanel, if you think of Chanel at all, your mind might run to a picture of two interlocking Cs forming a distinctive gold clasp adorning one of the company's stylish black handbags. Perhaps you might conjure up an image of an austere yet iconic black sans serif Chanel No. 5 set against a clean white background elegantly affixed to the front of a perfectly beveled perfume…
Monday Over Coffee: "Not Yet Spent"
Posted July 4, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
The astonishing success of the Broadway musical Hamilton is something to behold. Somewhere between 3 and 4 million people have seen it in New York since it opened in the summer of 2015. At least another 5 to 6 million have seen an off-Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play as touring companies performed the show throughout the world. Another 3 million people saw it on the small…
Monday over Coffee: "You're Doing a Good Job"
Posted June 27, 2022 by Greg Funderburk in Monday Over Coffee
President Truman, age 80, had been out of office for more than a decade. Though he remained opinionated, even fiery at times on public matters, by 1964 he was, for the most part, enjoying his Missouri retirement in peace. Writing about this season of Truman's life, his biographer David McCullough related this about the former president:
2022 Youth Peru Mission Trip
Posted June 26, 2022 by SMBC in Family Ministry, Missions
Members of our rising high school senior class and rising college freshmen are spending this week in Collique, Peru, serving with Operación San Andrés, a Ministry of South Main, as their capstone experience in the Family Ministry.
The Youth are leading the children in the community in games, Bible studies, songs, and small group activities and will also visit Colegio San Andrés, a…
