Cumberland Road

Derek Jacks is the pastor of Homewood Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama and the director of graceCONVO, the youth winter gathering of Cumberland Presbyterians in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He is a graduate of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. He is married to his wonderful wife Cindy and they have three children, Ava, Braden, and Drew as well as the Legendary Jonas the Cat. Derek enjoys listening to music, reading theology, and baseball. He actively coaches his sons and their baseball teams each spring and fall.

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
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Rev. Alan Meinzer is the minister at the Barron Fork Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant, Arkansas and teaches at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.  He has been serving Barron Fork for eight years.  Alan says, "I am blessed to be partnered in life and ministry with my wife Beverly.  I am also blessed by my daughter Natalie and her husband Wyatt."

Music is provided by Jason Shaw, Words.
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George C. Ladd:
1) Brief Biography

I was born April 14, 1958 and raised on a farm near Santa Fe, Tennessee, near Columbia. I was educated in the public schools of Columbia. In college I studied accounting and computer science.

Realizing that I was not going to pass the Differential Equations course required for a Computer Science degree, I saw that I could leverage the courses I had taken in Religious Studies to obtain a Degree and graduate quickly. In the late 1970’s at University of Tennessee in Knoxville, you could avoid the requirement of 2 years of a foreign language by studying the culture instead of the language. I was doing that with “Ancient Mediterranean Culture,” an alternative to Greek or Latin, and had taken several courses in Christian and Jewish history. I reasoned I could get a job with a minor in Computer Science, so I changed my major to Religious Studies to graduate as quickly as I could, and stop wasting my parents’ money. 

I reasoned Religious Studies would teach me the collective wisdom of the world. In this, I believe I was correct. I think it did so more effectively and succinctly than Philosophy would have.

I learned the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. I learned the admonition in the Bhagavad Gita to perform what needs to be done, what you are tasked or called to do—your duty, to the best of your ability without attachment to the results. I learned the Eastern concept that suffering is caused by desire, attachment, and craving—an excess of which causes life to be experienced as unsatisfactory. I learned the history of Israel and Christianity from Ivy League professors.

A major influence in my life was my studies with Dr. David Dungan, a graduate of  Harvard Divinity School and author of A History of the Synoptic Problem. In his Images of Jesus course, we studied how the portrayal of Jesus in literature and art changes with changes in culture in society. Jesus changes from ruler King in the late Roman Empire to suffering martyr as Christianity moves to Middle Age England and Germany to the ordered machine universe of the Enlightenment to the Jesus that wants you to get rich in the American “Prosperity Gospel.” We studied how the World Wars brought a decline in religiosity in Europe. We saw Jesus portrayed as a black man by African American artists.

Another course under Dr. Dungan studied the increase in population since the Black Death and the imminent resource shortages projected by The Global 2000 Report produced by the Carter Administration. For various reasons, mainly technology changes, those debilitating shortages such as “peak oil” didn’t happen yet. But these studies and this awareness invested my life with a Malthusian pessimism that infinite growth on a finite planet will one day soon lead to a global train wreck. I thank the Lord that this has been delayed—possibly until after my death. In this context, we studied a Newsweek article from the late 1970’s that asked whether America would be an island of plenty in a global sea of want. I recently read a New York Times article stating that many of the migrants currently at our southern border are fleeing a Central American drought. I am acutely aware of Climate Change. As long as the weather fits what the climate models predict, I will be concerned.

Also, while at UT, I learned “Transcendental Meditation,” which I did off and on all my life, and still do in lieu of a good nap, but now I use a Jewish mantra. I find it an effective means of calming down and refocusing.

My plan to get a job as a computer programmer was frustrated by the 1982 recession. I paid an employment agency who found me a job at the J. C. Bradford and Co. regional brokerage firm. Two and half years later I landed a position as an information systems analyst with the State of Tennessee, and retired after 30 years of service, 26 of those with the Treasury Department. My two main bosses there were devout Christians, active in their churches. It was a wonderful place to work. I was honored the year before I retired with the State (Government) of Tennessee Information Technology Management Association’s Outstanding Information Technology Career Achievement Award for 2013.

In 1982 I met the love of my life, Sherry Whitaker, in a Unity house church in Nashville. We have progressed, spiritually, together.

2) My Spiritual Journey

I believe I am what Dr. Tara Isabella Burton in her book, Strange Rites, calls a “religious hybrid.”  I have explored and partaken of many spiritual paths and communities through the years, progressing from my United Methodist upbringing to Unity, Native American spirituality, the Sufi Order of the West, the Episcopal Church, Religious Science, and Zen Buddhism. For eight years, from 1993 until 2002, I did the basic Tibetan Buddhist practices, and was active in a Nashville Tibetan Buddhist group. 

The Science of Mind by Dr. Ernest Holmes has been influential on me. Sherry and I took part in a Religious Science (now the Center for Spiritual Living) study group in Nashville in the late 1980’s studying this book. Its core scripture is Matthew 8:13. What you believe is important and, I believe, has an effect upon what you experience. Prayer with faith is important. This notion is sometime abused these days (you got sick because of poor thinking), but I am convinced that faith and belief are existentially important. I pray regularly, and believe I experience abundant blessings as a result. What I pray about tends to work out well. I feel it is most important to pray about that which is worrying or bothering you the most—whatever is keeping you from peace.

In 2000 I joined my local Masonic Lodge, and my life changed. Motivated to study and deepen my understanding of the Biblical underpinnings of Masonry, I began attending the Santa Fe C. P. Church where Sherry had attended for several years, and where my Grandmother was a member. After two months regular attendance, I joined that Church and discovered, to my surprise, that my wife was called to the ministry. I realized my call to support her call.

Buddhism and the spiritual classics of India contain wisdom. In my view, Ecclesiastes could be a Buddhist text. I realized that Buddhism misses prayer and an active relationship with the Creator via the Holy Spirit. Thus, I “arrived at my destination” and have been an active Cumberland Presbyterian since 2001, doing whatever God has put before me. 

I discovered the Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith, the most eloquent and elegant statement of Christian belief I have seen. Rev. Keith Johnson taught me the importance of the basic practice: “Read the Bible, study the Bible, and pray.”

I enjoyed traveling to various places in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama as Sherry filled pulpits while she was in Seminary. I really enjoyed the Swan C. P. Church in Hickman County the first time we filled in for Robert Heflin. I thought the drive there was so scenic. Robert Heflin took a job with the Denomination and recommended Sherry fill the pulpit at his Churches. Thus, I found my home at Swan Church, where I am now Clerk and Song Leader. Out in the country, it is not close to anywhere but Heaven. I love my ...

Rev. Duawn Mearns is a native of Hector, Arkansas.  He graduated from Bethel College with a degree in Sociology in 1999.  He graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity in 2003 and was ordained by the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination in 2003.  Duawn served the Hopewell and Mt. Zion Cumberland Presbyterian congregations while in seminary and after graduation he served the Burns Flat Church in Oklahoma for 4 years.  He then accepted a call to the Lake Hamilton Church in Arkansas where he was the pastor for 10 years.  Since 2017 he has been the Senior Pastor at the Covenant Church in Ada, Oklahoma.  Duawn currently serves his presbytery as a member of the Board of Missions and serves the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination as an elected member of the Pastoral Development Team.  He has been married to his wife Honey for 18 years and they have 3 daughters.

Music is provided by Punk Rock Opera, I Wanna to be a Machine.  
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Rev. Iwao Satoh is the minister at Louisville Japanese Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.  Iwao can be translated as "Peter" and "Solid Rock" derived from Matthew 16:18.  Iwao was ordained by Japan Presbytery in 2001 and ministered at Sagamino Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky to start a Japanese-speaking congregation in 2010.  Since 2010, he has driven to Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama to organize Japanese faith communities. These communities are currently gathering regularly in the "Koinonia Japanese Online Worship" since the pandemic.  Iwao is married to Tsuruko and they are the parents of a daughter, Fumika and a son, Tabito.

Music is provided by Punk Rock Opera, I Wanna to be a Machine.  
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David Kurtz writes: I was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in the Faith Lutheran Church where I was baptized and confirmed.  After graduating from Frayser High School I went to Savannah College of Art and Design.  After doing quite poorly due to SCAD's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, my father called me home to get a job and grow up.  I came home and soon married my camp sweetheart, Bevin who also grew up Lutheran.  We met at Camp Clark Williamson (CCW), a Cumberland Presbyterian camp, counseling Lutheran children's camp.  Bevin's family joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church while she was in high school.  I, of course, followed her and joined First Cumberland Presbyterian Church Memphis in 1992, just before our wedding.  We quickly became involved with the congregation; especially with the youth group.  It was at First Church where I began to listen to God's call.  Bevin and I then moved to McKenzie, Tennessee in 1997 (I think) and we graduated in 2000.

I earned my Master of Divinity at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth TX in 2005 and I was ordained in the Chico Cumberland Presbyterian Church that year and was soon called to Elmira CPC in Longview, Texas.  I was the Associate Pastor/Youth Director under Rev. Jimmy Cantey until 2008 when I moved back to Fort Worth to Pastor the St. Luke Church.  I left St. Luke in 2017 and began filling the pulpit in Concord later that year.  I fell in love with these people and this community.  God placed me here and if I'm lucky this will be a long and fruitful relationship!

Music is provided by Punk Rock Opera, I Wanna to be a Machine.  
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Dusty Luthy is currently serving as the pastor of Denton First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Denton, Texas. Previously, she was the associate minister at New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Paducah, Kentucky where she began as the youth director in 2013. During this time, she also worked as a clerk at the McCracken County Public Library. Dusty finished her Master of Divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS) in December 2019 and was ordained in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in January 2020. She received the Mary Elliot Miller award at MTS and was also named the 2020 Vanderhaar Symposium Student Peace Laureate through Christian Brothers University. Dusty has an undergraduate degree in journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, and spent six years working as a sports writer at a local newspaper covering Division I college athletics, winning more than a dozen awards for writing, design, and photography. She is a fifth-generation Cumberland Presbyterian, and grew up at the White Oak Pond CP Church in Lebanon, Missouri. In Denton, she lives with her two cats, Baxter von Triptrap and Beatrix, loves riding her bike, traveling, and is an avid Star Wars fan.

Music is provided by Punk Rock Opera, I Wanna to be a Machine.  
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Pam Phillips-Burk has served the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination for the past 18 years. In July 2018, she became the Team Leader for the Pastoral Development Ministry Team. Prior to that time, she served on the Missions Ministry Team in the areas of Women’s Ministry, Leadership Referral Services and Congregational Ministries. Pam earned her Master of Divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary in 1994 and was ordained by Hope Presbytery.  She continued her studies at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago where she earned her Doctor of Ministry degree with a specialization in Religious Education in 2001. Pam served as Associate Pastor in the Dyersburg Cumberland Presbyterian in Dyersburg, Tennessee for 8 years prior to going to work with the denomination. She has also served as a bi-vocational pastor of Christ Church in Huntsville, Alabama from 2009-2013. Pam is married to David and they have one child, Caroline who is 19 years old and has spent her first year as a choral music education major at the University of Memphis in her bedroom taking online classes. You haven’t witnessed technology at use until you see someone take a piano class and voice lesson via Zoom! They have two rescue furbabies that complete their family - a cat named Bella and a sweet puppy named Zoe.

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Rev. Dr. Thomas Dishman Campbell was born in 1939 in Decatur, Texas.  He attended primary and secondary school in McKenzie, Tennessee and graduated from Bethel College (now Bethel University) with a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Divinity from Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary (now Memphis Theological Seminary, and a Master of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry from Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University.  He has served congregations in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi,Texas, Tennessee, with three of those being new church developments and one redevelopment.  He was the Director of the Program of Alternate Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary for sixteen years.  He has served as the moderator of General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination, moderator of Texas Synod and moderator of three different presbyteries.  His writings include Brothers of the Faith, One Family Under God, The Bible and the Calendar and Campbell's Collection.  He was also a contributing writer for the book Beautiful Feet and is a writer for the devotional book These Days.  Dr. Campbell is married to Linda and they have three daughters Kelly, Kimberly and Kristen and three grandchildren. 

Music is provided by Punk Rock Opera, I Wanna to be a Machine.  
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Rev. Abby Cole Keller is a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and is currently serving at Scattered Seeds, an online worshiping community.  She received her Masters of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga in 2006.  Before attending Seminary, she received her BA in Family and Community Services from Berry College in Rome, GA (2002).  Both she and her husband Josh are local Greenevillians.  They are the proud parents of two lovely daughters, Katy (12) and Claire (10) and the most precious cat Xander.  To find out more about the Worshiping Community Scattered Seeds visit: www.scatteredseedsworship.org.

Music is provided by Punk Rock Opera, I Wanna to be a Machine.  
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