DEEP // WIDE // LIGHT

Here are some lessons that I am learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine life. It is often assumed that those like me who minister to younger generations prefer technology - its ability to reach more people, and its convenience, and its ability to enhance the presentation of the good news.  However, at the risk of being the only youth leader in all of youth ministry who feels this way, I wholeheartedly do NOT prefer ministry through technology.  Ministry is personal and spiritual. When you minister through a medium or a screen, you dilute the personal nature of ministry. You dilute the ministry to the soul.  One of the lessons that the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching me is that technology is an insufficient format for ministry. Please don’t misunderstand. Technology is a valuable tool. But it is only a tool, and its value is too often overly exaggerated.  How is student ministry changing during the pandemic and forced isolation? We...

To my brothers and sisters in Christ in Philadelphia, Mississippi , After several months of intense prayer, I and Marion and the kids all believe that God is calling us away from Philadelphia. We believe that we have been called to move from Philadelphia to Clinton, Mississippi. We are staying here through the end of the school year, and through all of the graduation ceremonies, and my last day will be Friday, May 27, 2016. I have accepted God’s call to a new ministry opportunity. The church is Wynndale Baptist Church , just south of Jackson in Terry, MS. The ministry is Associate Pastor of Students and Missions. It is exciting to imagine how God might use me (1)in ministry to students and their families, (2)in ministry to this church as an associate pastor, and (3)in ministry in this congregation’s missions efforts as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission. We are also excited about how God might use Marion in her continued work with the STEM Institute at Mississi...

A tribute to God and to Liam Isaac Mooneyham (April 8, 2008 – June 17, 2014) I delivered this talk in a shorter form at Liam’s funeral, Monday, June 23, 2014, at First Baptist Church ofJennings, Louisiana . What you read here is an edited form. Aaron Tucker, Philadelphia, Mississippi email: rev [dot] tucker [at] gmail [dot] com Why? Why is Liam’s six year old grin no longer here? Why were we wearing bright colors at his funeral? Why? I tremble at the thought of trying to devise a simple answer that will meet our satisfaction. If I had a simple answer, it would not satisfy us in our pain. No. Our pain is too deep for simple. And in our search for an answer, we find that the answer is not, in fact, simple at all. The Mooneyham’s know why. They know why Liam is no longer here, and they know why we wore bright colors and released balloons at his service. They want you to know why. The answer is in four parts. And the answer comes straight from God’s Words to us...

“There is no such thing as a perfect parent.”  Whew! That felt good to get off my chest. Our children and students mean the world to us. As we parent them, their entire future feels at stake. It feels like life or death sometimes, does it not? I have good news for you.  You will NOT do it right.  I know, I know… you are wondering how this is good news. But the Bible gives us almost no examples of perfect parents (I am not convinced that Mary and Joseph count, either!). Adam and Eve, after having the distinction of being the first on earth to disobey God, raised a son who would murder his brother. Isaac’s son, Jacob, swindled his brother for the inheritance and fooled dad into giving him the family blessing. This same Jacob would love one of his sons more than the others, leading to jealousy and the sale of his son into slavery. King David’s sin led to the death of one of his children. King Solomon’s family fell apart completely, leading to the divi...

The following is a tribute to one of the greatest women I have ever known - my mamaw, Geraldine Tucker. She went home to be with the Lord on Sunday evening, April 3, 2011. She was 83 years old. But that is not why she was great. The world will not do much more than blink with her passing. The world will stop spinning for some of us for a time, but planet earth will continue moving around us at lightning speeds, and eventually we will go back to our lives with only memories left. She gave us wonderful memories. But those are not why she was great. She married Papaw in 1943, and a day or two later, he left with his Army unit for training, and for eventual deployment for Normandy. By the time he had returned, she had purchased for them a house and 50 acres. They built a life together, and raised a large family. They worked so very hard, but her hard work is not why she was great. She fulfilled God's purpose for her here on Earth. He tasked her with creating and raising a family in the...