Cumberland Road

Rev. Paul Tucker is the minister at the Brush Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee.  In our conversation, Paul talks about the strong sense of wanting to serve an intergenerational congregation, Henri Nouwen, and the Church at its best is one of humility. 

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Melinda Reams is a 4th generation Cumberland Presbyterian who attends the Russellville Cumberland Presbyterian Church where she has been a Sunday School teacher, Director of Children's Ministry, and CP Women's Ministry President.  She has also been active at the presbyterial level serving at Camp Peniel in many capacities including Director of Junior Camp and speaking at 3rd Age Retreat and is currently on the Arkansas Presbytery Board of Missions.  Melinda has served on the Missions Ministry Team of the CP Church and is a member of the Ministry Council of the denomination.  Melinda is a retired pharmacist specializing in compounding and her passion ...holistic health helping people live their lives to the fullest.

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Rev. Dr. Fleming is the Adult Ministry Coordinator for the Ministry Council of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He lives in Paducah, Kentucky. He attends the New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He is married to Amy Fleming and has 3 adult children: Alex, Marcus, and Hannah. 

YouTube Encounter Channel: Cumberland Presbyterian Encounter Study - YouTube

Weekly Encounter Newsletter sign-up: encounterhelps – Ministry Council of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (cpcmc.org)

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Denise Adams is a candidate for the ministry under the care of Arkansas Presbytery. She is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Memphis Theological Seminary. She is a church secretary, a church camp volunteer, and an elder. She is the proud mother of Rev. Joshua Murray. Denise enjoys thrift stores, yard sales and hunting Native American artifacts.

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Rev. Mike Wilkinson has been the pastor of Knoxville First Cumberland Presbyterian Church since 2013.  He is also currently serving on our denominational Ministry Council.  Mike has been married to his gracious wife, Joanna, for almost forty years.  They have three wonderful daughters, one of which is a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, and five awesome grandchildren.

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Rev. Rebecca Prenshaw is honored to be an interviewee on the Cumberland Road podcast hosted by Rev. T.J. Malinoski.  A native of Greeneville, Tennessee, she graduated from East Tennessee State University with a BBA in accounting.  While working as a CPA in Chattanooga, she met her future husband, Rick, and they recently celebrated their 40th anniversary. They have three grown sons and visit them and their families as often as they can enjoying their four  grandchildren with another on the way!  For many years, Rebecca shared her musical and teaching gifts in the church through both volunteer and staff roles, but sensed God’s call to attend seminary and pursue ordained ministry as a “later in life” student.  She graduated with her Master of Divinity from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 2010 and became an ordained minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian church in 2014.  She has served two CP churches in the area, served on the Board of Christian Education, and as Moderator of the Presbytery of East Tennessee.  Many people believed in Rebecca and her giftings before she ever did, and she is most grateful to God, and to them for their support and love . . . with a specific shout out to her husband and sons.  She loves music (her instrument of choice is the piano), reading, playing with grandchildren anywhere, and especially while boating on Douglas Lake.

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Pat Pickett is an ordained Cumberland Presbyterian minister currently serving worshiping communities in experimental ways and bringing diverse persons together. She writes, "God and I have been playing hide and seek since I was a child. Glimpses of God came in unexpected places. It was not in church, school, or any other institution where God welcomed me as God has through loving relationships and even failed ones. All the letters after my name might have been a help but where God is most real to me is in tears, laughter, vulnerability of those who trust enough to share their story. These people are my children, teachers, students, friends, those whose friendship I have lost. Most striking was finding God in persons who could not speak at all. Those are the persons I was privileged to serve at Clover Bottom Developmental Center as chaplain, a state institution for persons with intellectual disability. Through art and music we learned to communicate. Through hugs, tantrums, loss and abundance we learned to trust one another. Through the Program of Alternate Studies I am able to share not only academic learning as an instructor but wisdom from years of practical experience as a pastor, wife and mother. Yes, I have degrees and awards for work well done. I have loss where I have failed. Some of those degrees include D.Min., M.Div. (Colgate Rochester Divinity School) M.R.E. (University of San Diego), C.P.E (University of Rochester). Degrees in art gave me entrée to God-speak in theology and awards for Communication from Mayor Bill Purcell (Nashville) and the Trost Memorial Prize for excellence in Ministry(Colgate). I am still a learner and seeker. With COVID God and I am playing hide and seek, once again." 

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Pat Pickett is an ordained Cumberland Presbyterian minister currently serving worshiping communities in experimental ways and bringing diverse persons together. She writes, "God and I have been playing hide and seek since I was a child. Glimpses of God came in unexpected places. It was not in church, school, or any other institution where God welcomed me as God has through loving relationships and even failed ones. All the letters after my name might have been a help but where God is most real to me is in tears, laughter, vulnerability of those who trust enough to share their story. These people are my children, teachers, students, friends, those whose friendship I have lost. Most striking was finding God in persons who could not speak at all. Those are the persons I was privileged to serve at Clover Bottom Developmental Center as chaplain, a state institution for persons with intellectual disability. Through art and music we learned to communicate. Through hugs, tantrums, loss and abundance we learned to trust one another. Through the Program of Alternate Studies I am able to share not only academic learning as an instructor but wisdom from years of practical experience as a pastor, wife and mother. Yes, I have degrees and awards for work well done. I have loss where I have failed. Some of those degrees include D.Min., M.Div. (Colgate Rochester Divinity School) M.R.E. (University of San Diego), C.P.E (University of Rochester). Degrees in art gave me entrée to God-speak in theology and awards for Communication from Mayor Bill Purcell (Nashville) and the Trost Memorial Prize for excellence in Ministry(Colgate). I am still a learner and seeker. With COVID God and I am playing hide and seek, once again." 

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Mark Davis writes, "I'm a fifth-generation Cumberland Presbyterian, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, though I don't count generational heritage as a quality setting one Cumberland Presbyterian apart from any other Cumberland Presbyterian. My parents, Rev. Dr. Harold Davis (deceased) and Willene Davis, were very active in the denomination, and fortunately, saw to it that I was too. My faith's formative years were spent in the Park Avenue and Whitehaven Churches in Memphis under the guidance of pastors such as Arleigh Matlock and Tom Campbell. My father served the denomination as Director of Youth Work, and later as the Executive Secretary of the Board of Christian Education, while my mother was active in CPW, Church Women United, and other similar service-related organizations. I am an ordained Elder out of West Tennessee Presbytery, and served on the Board of Trustees at Memphis Theological Seminary before taking a position with the Ministry Council as Team Leader for the Communications Ministry Team. I worship remotely with and support the ministries of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Germantown.

My years in higher education were spent at what was then Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), and Vanderbilt University. I'm married to Susan, and we have three children of our own (Jesse, Philip, and Sarah) and one by marriage (Ashley, Jesse's spouse). Stella, a lovable Staffordshire terrier who never met a human she wouldn't go home with in a heartbeat, depends on Susan and me for belly-scratches and leisurely strolls in the mountain forests where we live.

Upon retirement from the Ministry Council in 2018, we built a home on a mountain about 30 miles south of Asheville, North Carolina, just outside Brevard, and within sight of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and moved here in 2019. Pretty well settled in now, I work regularly with Habitat for Humanity of Transylvania County. I also work with Pisgah Legal Services, providing support services for underserved communities (e.g., victims of spousal abuse, undocumented immigrants, and low-income renters) in Western North Carolina. 

In my spare time, I enjoy bicycling, writing, hiking, reading, playing my fiddle, and woodworking--though not necessarily in that order. I also dabble in web development through a new website: https://undoitall.org. I've not been very good at keeping it up, but look for that to change over the coming months."

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Gwen and her husband Mac live in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they are members of the Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church. She has served the denomination on the General Assembly Council, the Ministry Council, and is currently on the Our United Outreach (OUO) committee.  In the Presbytery of East Tennessee, she serves on the Committee on the Ministry.  At Beaver Creek, she teaches Sunday School in the children’s department, plays in the Chancel Handbell Choir, and is an active elder and clerk of the session.  She has been a Coach for Weight Watchers for 40 years.

Music is provided by Pierce Murphy, Caldera Blue. 
Source:  https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Pierce_Murphy/through-the-olive-branches/caldera-blue
Comments: http://freemusicarchive.org/
Additional comments:  modifications made to shorten and loop song for introduction and closing of podcast.
Copyright Attribution and License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/