Joe Evans

'Once I've taken his house from him I will be entering through the front door.' A fox watches Ben and his family through their huge garden windows, just out of sight. Ben has it all - warmth, safety, beautiful shining taps - and yet he's unhappy. The whole family is. The fox thinks he'd do a better job: of being Ben, of being in that house. One fox becomes two and then four - just like the family inside. They give themselves the same names. They come up with a plan. But the closer their dreams become, the clearer it is that something's not quite right. There's something out there, in the shadows. There are strange happenings inside the house, inside their heads. There are things they can't forget. Being a human and staying a human is much more complicated than it seems. Den is an original debut novel about what it takes to make a house into a home and the lengths one must go to in order to defend one's own.

Etsitkö jännitystä, uusia näkökulmia tai rentouttavaa lukuelämystä? Tutustu kirjakategorioihimme ja löydä seuraava suosikkikirjasi.

Um jovem chamado Matteo se v lan ado no tempo at o ano de 1913, onde ele descobre um segredo surpreendente sobre sua linhagem familiar. Ao chegar l

Mark is the shortest Gospel out of the four that we read in our Bibles. Interestingly, despite its brevity, it's full of challenges and insights that can help us to see ourselves, our neighbors, and our God better. I preached these sermons on passages from the Gospel of Mark as the COVID-19 pandemic continued. These sermons were preached on Thursday to just a handful of people who led and recorded the worship services with me. The full service was recorded after lunch. It was edited on Friday or Saturday to smooth out our mistakes, then launched on-line on Sunday mornings. This strange way of leading worship was more like making a TV show than what I had grown used to. It enabled me to stay home on Sundays, but I would have gladly traded that Sabbath rest to avoid preaching to a nearly empty room.

The Summer of 2021 was a strange time, to say the least. Some were rushing to be vaccinated; others were determined not to be. While there was plenty of hope, joy, and excitement, I remember it as a time of division, anxiety, fear, illness, and death as cases of COVID-19 were rising again. Many resolved to live as though everything were back to normal. How would I shepherd this congregation through this once-in-a-century crisis? The pandemic upended our faith practices, transformed our approach to sacraments, and fundamentally altered what it meant to be "gathered" in God's presence. Everything had changed, and yet, our God had not changed. The Rev. Cassie Waits wondered if we might encourage the congregation to find hope in this tumultuous time. She proposed an eight-week sermon series on the "I AM" statements of Jesus. Eight times in the gospel of John, Jesus describes himself by saying, "I am..." This was good enough for me, but Cassie had more. She wanted us to "do something." I'm not really one for creative ideas in worship. I even wear the same shoes every Sunday. Switching out the laces every once in a while is variety enough for me I trust Cassie, though, so we kicked her idea around with a few other wise church staff people (Mary Groves, especially), and a plan was born. Each Sunday would have a different-colored ribbon. On those ribbons, the congregation would write a response to the sermon: a prayer, a word, a challenge. Throughout the summer, the ribbons would be tied to a structure outside, built by Tim Hammond and Howard Swinford. The wind would blow through those ribbons, lifting our prayers to Almighty God. It was the most important sermon series I've ever been a part of. The sermons in this book are the sermons that we preached. Each sermon ends with a prayer and nudge to you to "do something" with them. You might find your own ribbons to write on, or you might write a letter to the person whom the sermon made you remember. Whatever you do, do something so that you be not "hearers of the word only, but doers" (James 1: 22)

The sermons in this book were preached during my second year of ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Marietta, Georgia. This great church, who nurtured me as a child and through adolescence, even supporting me through college and seminary, called me to be their Senior Pastor in the summer of 2017. This call came in the aftermath of division. After our denomination met and approved new standards of marriage equality in 2015, the nearly 200-year-old congregation split. Around 300 members broke ties with First Presbyterian Church to start a new church in a more conservative denomination of Presbyterians, ECO. The three years following this split and preceding my arrival were marked by a genuine determination to survive, great moments of healing, and courageous leadership. The sermons in this book stretch across 2018, one year in the life of this great congregation. This was a year when God moved the congregation beyond survival and healing to growth and celebration. These sermons were easy for me to write and preach because all around me, the Holy Spirit was alive and well, and the Gospel was not confined to the pages of Scripture, for the congregation of First Presbyterian Church was living it.

The sermons in this book were written with so much help from other people that I can hardly claim to be the author. Most every day I am taking notes as I see the Holy Spirit at work in the world, writing down things that I see and what I hear people say. I am very grateful for every person who has allowed me to share part of his or her story from the pulpit. Each of you has made the Gospel come alive to me.

Detailing the fascinating career of Joe Evans, Follow Your Heart chronicles the nearly thirty years that he spent immersed in one of the most exciting times in African American music history. An alto saxophonist who between 1939 and 1965 performed with some of America's greatest musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Charlie Parker, Jay McShann, Andy Kirk, Billie Holiday, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lionel Hampton, and Ivory Joe Hunter, Evans warmly recounts his wide range of experience in the music industry. Readers follow Evans from Pensacola, Florida, where he first learned to play, to such exotic destinations as Tel Aviv and Paris, which he visited while on tour with Lionel Hampton. Evans also comments on popular New York City venues used for shaping and producing black music, such as the Apollo Theater, the Savoy, Minton's Playhouse, and the Rhythm Club. Revealing Evans as a master storyteller, Follow Your Heart describes his stints as a music executive, entrepreneur, and musician. Evans provides rich descriptions of jazz, swing, and rhythm and blues culture by highlighting his experiences promoting tracks to radio deejays under Ray Charles's Tangerine label and later writing, arranging, and producing hits for the Manhattans and the Pretenders. Leading numerous musical ventures that included a publishing company and several labels--Cee Jay Records (with Jack Rags), Revival, and Carnival Records--Evans remained active in the music industry even after he stopped performing regularly. As one of the few who enjoyed success as both performer and entrepreneur, he offers invaluable insight into race relations within the industry, the development of African American music and society from the 1920s to 1970s, and the music scene of the era.