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"BBQ That Tastes Like Home"

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After 32 years away, Dr. Joe B. Martin has returned home to Charlotte, NC as the lead pastor at Sardis Presbyterian Church.   It was about 14 years ago that I first tried being a vegetarian for the season of Lent. I picked that because it seemed like it would be difficult and predictably over the next four Lents I experienced varying degrees of failure. There were at least three reasons I could not pull it off. 1. My body wanted more protein than I was willing to give it via tofu. 2. My meals were so uninteresting that I would just skip them. 3. I had a tough time finding food that involved actual chewing to the point that I began to covet my dog’s toys. In my 5th Lenten attempt, I decided make the practice more sustainable. I added a protein drink and bar to my daily menu, which solved problem 1. I ate seafood a couple times a week to address problem 2. I tend to overcook fish, so this inadvertently addressed problem 3. Success! I made it through Lent with barely a crav
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"Be A Flood of Love"

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After 32 years away, Dr. Joe B. Martin has returned home to Charlotte, NC as the lead pastor at Sardis Presbyterian Church. The last thing that happened in Charlotte before I moved out of town for my first real job in 1989 was Hurricane Hugo. I was leaving in two days, so I made plans to spend the night in the apartment of two of my Davidson classmates because we thought we were having a hurricane party—even though it wasn’t supposed to be a hurricane by the time Hugo got to us. We bought wine and cheese and an emergency radio and we got a football out so that we could see how far we could throw it in the parking lot with a prodigious tailwind. We also were hoping to meet the cute girls in the next apartment. We waited and waited, but the storm was delayed. Without today’s media coverage, we figured we were in the clear and went to bed. I got the hide-a-bed next to the large sliding glass doors to the patio. The internet tells me that it was probably about 3:00 a.m. that t
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"Now I Am Home"

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After 32 years away, Dr. Joe B. Martin has returned home to Charlotte, NC as the lead pastor at Sardis Presbyterian Church.    Sardis Presbyterian is the fourth church to which I have been called as a pastor, so I have a little bit of experience floundering my way around as the new guy. This time has been different. Returning to Charlotte has allowed me to hit the ground running thanks to all of the relationships and connections that come with home. There are my childhood friends, of course, but also their parents who have made the effort to stop by for Sunday morning visits. So many of my Davidson friends who did not grow up in Charlotte have settled here that someone probably should propose some sort of zoning code. I have also been surprised by how many of my Presbyterian minister friends who grew up elsewhere have landed here, though I should not be surprised because the Presbytery of Charlotte is a great place to work and the Queen City is loaded with vital and engaged Presb
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