Stories & Sermons

Eulogy for Nancy Bennett Written & Delivered by Rev. Brian Combs, 6/16/2021 Adopted at birth, Nancy Bennett grew up with autism in Connecticut before boarding school in Lenoir brought her to Western North Carolina.  Strolling the boardwalk at Myrtle Beach and skiing the Black Diamond at Cataloochee Mountain were her favorite pastimes.  But when life wasn’t an...

I often see Michael from my office window; sitting, smoking, waiting patiently until it is time to pick his two-year-old daughter up from daycare. For our staff, who care tremendously for Michael and his family, it has become painful to ask if they’ve been placed in housing yet. We’ve been asking for four years. The...

Eulogy for Edward Written and presented by Rev. Brian Combs We are decedents of wandering Arameans.  Beginning with Adam and Eve in Genesis through the book of Revelation, salvation history narrates a people who spent much of their lives as homesick itinerants, on the road East of Eden in search of something lost, praying to be...

The Greatest Work Sermon by Father Mike, 11/18/2020 It should have come as no surprise when he said it—a peasant carpenter from Galilee, born amidst straw and dust, enveloped by the bare earth beneath him. From the moment the stable doors swung open to the world, Jesus’ status was abundantly clear—low class, unremarkable, unimportant. So...