New Canaan Society Franklin Podcast

Buddy got his start playing with country superstar Jerry Reed’s band. He has played at a Billy Graham crusade before 250,000 people in Central Park, NY, and ten years later played the “William Tell Overture” on harmonica at Carnegie Hall ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoauBe465qQ ). Buddy feels equally at home playing with Jeff Taylor at Station Inn or reading a book by Reinhold Niebuhr in the...

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. . . . You will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. . . . Then the King will say . . . , ‘Come, you blessed of My father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Jesus speaks passionately in Matthew 23...

John Chisum, founder of Nashville Christian Songwriters, says that in spite of a successful career as music business executive and songwriter . . .   “At age 58 my life fell apart. I found myself struggling to connect with God, myself, my loved ones, and with meaningful ministry and work. It all just came to a grinding halt. I was hitting rock bottom in almost every area of my life. I fell into a...

Chandler Means and his wife have been foster parents to more than 30 children over the last 16 years. Some of those have been from horrific backgrounds and Chandler and his wife have experienced heartache, joy, frustration, and celebration. He is now executive director of Agape, an organization in Nashville that strengthens children and families. For this breakfast we invited brothers to share the...

Last summer my wife, Lois, heard a radio interview with Barbara Miller Juliani, who told about growing up in a Christian family, rejecting her parents’ Christianity, and joyfully reconciling with her parents and with the Lord. Lois bought the book that Barbara wrote with her father – Come Back, Barbara. When I realized that Barbara’s father was Jack Miller – professor at Westminster Theological Se...

Jeff Allen combines clean and hilarious humor with inspiration.   He’s performed for American troops, twice at the National Prayer Breakfast, starred in specials on Comedy Central, and been featured on Bill Gaither’s Homecoming Tours.   And although “Jeff is a class act and true gentleman,” (according to the CEO of BlueCreek Investment Partners), he’s going to be with us this Thursday, December 15...

Have you heard this story before?   A real estate appraiser in Austin quits his job and moves to Nashville to pursue his career as a songwriter. He supports himself by parking cars and working in a warehouse.   Remember that your next valet parking attendant may become another Allen Shamblin. Allen has written hit songs for Randy Travis, Bonnie Raitt, Miranda Lambert, and others and is a member of...

Rob Touchstone, our speaker this Thursday, is passionate about helping students at Lipscomb (where he just founded the Center for Vocational Discovery) discover who they are and what they are living for and how their vocation fits into God’s plan for their lives.   Young people wrestle with this. Then they settle into their vocation and many of us — men especially — find our identity in our jobs....

Casey Beathard seemed to lead a charmed life.   His father was an NFL general manager and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Casey was a high school football star and then played in college. He moved to Nashville where he was named Songwriter of the Year in 2004 and 2008. One son is a quarterback with the Jacksonville Jaguars and another is a recording artist with Dot Records. No problems,...

This Thursday Wes and some of our leadership group are going to explore with us why our NCS breakfasts are so important and why we need to tell our own stories to each other. I was trying to think of a way of making this sound “exciting,” when I received a story from Chip Arnold (who spoke last Spring) about Barry Scott (who spoke 2-1/2 years ago). This story is a bit long, but it’s worth reading.

Dennis Parker is a banjo picker with an amazing story of God’s grace.   You may remember Dennis from last April at NCS when Paul Aldrich hosted a few musicians from Music City Fathers.   Dennis won a bluegrass contest at age 7, played with Ricky Skaggs, and began drinking. “I wasn’t a good drunk,” Dennis says. “I was like a blackout drunk.” That landed him in jail five times, where a friend told h...

Franklin is the third best place to live in the United States, according to Money. When a company or town is doing something right, much of the credit goes to the head person – the CEO or the mayor.   This Thursday we’re going to meet Ken Moore who has been mayor of Franklin since 2011. During his tenure the population of Franklin has grown by 1/3, businesses have been added, and yet Franklin has...

God does not depend only on people older than 50 to accomplish His purposes.   He is working through a lot of people younger than most of us and many of those “younger people” are following God’s leading to Middle Tennessee.   Who are these young entrepreneurs? This Thursday you will meet three who have recently moved here from southern California and who have been with us at NCS this year.       ...

Dan Scott, formerly pastor of Christ Church and now in mental health practice and an Anglican bishop, talks about what pastors are not telling you about their mental health. In 2021 a Barna poll discovered that 51% of the pastors in mainline churches and 34% of the pastors in evangelical churches would like to quit.   Dan says, “I will talk about a crisis of identity in American Evangelicalism tha...

This Thursday we will have a double header at our NCS Breakfast at Puckett’s.   With us live and in-person will be Paul Young, author of The Shack, and friend of many brothers on death row at Riverbend.   With us by cell phone will by Terry King, who, at the age of 22, was sentenced to death for murder and has spent more than 37 years on death row here in Nashville.   During those 37 years, Terry...

You’ve seen pictures, heard reports, lamented over the horrors perpetrated on the Ukrainian people, and prayed for those involved.   Fred Heumann of MusicWorks International has made 18 trips to Ukraine to train church and seminary leaders in worship, theology, and music. One of those seminaries, the Ukraine Evangelical Theological Seminary (UETS), is 15 minutes from Bucha, the city that was savag...

In case you missed Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival last week at the Bluebird Cafe, Station Inn, or Third & Lindsley, you can join us this Thursday when we’re having a morning of pickin’ and prayin’, singin’ and sharin’ at the NCS breakfast at Puckett’s.   Except for the last two Covid-filled years, about 20 singers, songwriters, music producers, and “pastor types” have gathered at a two-day ann...

On December 10, tornadoes traveled 260 miles from Arkansas to Kentucky and pulverized Mayfield, Kentucky, a town of 10,000. The Tennessean headlined, “Tornado reveals strength of Mayfield people” – people who still needed help. “Food, water, heavy equipment, essential physical needs were addressed with hugs, pats, and smiles from total strangers.”   Jason Ellerbrook was on our NCS leadership team...

Chip Arnold is a Nashville actor who has played Paul, Jesus, and King Saul as well as Willy Loman (in “Death of a Salesman”), Henrik Ibsen, Henry Potter (in “It’s A Wonderful Life”), and many others. He was scheduled to be with us on January 6, but that breakfast was cancelled due to snow and ice. This Thursday Chip will present -- as only he can do -- The Sermon on the Mount. Chip explains: “The...

Philip Yancey is author of 25 books, including The Jesus I Never Knew and What’s So Amazing about Grace? His most recent – Where the Light Fell: A Memoir – is his most personal. It’s an amazing book. One reviewer said, “Where the Light Fell could be a Faulkner novel, with racist preachers, off-kilter parenting, tormented siblings, and religious hypocrisy right and left. It’s not an overstatement t...

Becca is a Nashville treasure. The chaplain at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel on Vanderbilt’s campus, she founded Magdalene, a residential program for women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, addiction, and life on the streets. Thistle Farms, a job training program in which women create natural bath and body products and more, grew out of Magdalene and there is also a delightf...

I think Jimmy Sites has had a lot of fun filming nearly twenty years of “Spiritual Outdoor Adventures,” which airs in the US (of course), is popular in Russia, Ukraine, and Ecuador, and is seen in more than 50 other countries.   Jimmy has hunted river bear and giant mountain goats in Alaska, trout in Lake Tahoe, whitetail in Arkansas, Ibex in Spain, and a giant mountain lion in Nevada. He has also...

JT Olson is on his third career . . . and he’s most excited about this one. For 23 years JT was with the Southwestern Company (door-to-door book sales), ten years with an executive search firm he co-founded, and now he is founder of Both Hands, a unique ministry that helps orphans and widows. (See James 1:27 if this sounds vaguely familiar). It’s expensive to adopt a child. Both Hands helps an ado...

Who is Don Finto? On March 5, 2020 (our last time together before the Covid hiatus) Scotty Smith mentioned how “God used the faithfulness of two men who understood the relationship between Word and Spirit to profoundly stir Middle Tennessee. They were so different from each other but they loved the same Jesus” – Cortez Cooper, pastor at First Pres and co-founder of Christ Pres, and Don Finto, past...

Mac got his start at Southwestern Publishing and became, with his wife Susan, “legendary in real estate circles,” owning one of the more successful real estate firms in Middle Tennessee with 125 agents. In the early 2000s God gave him a new direction. Mac caught a vision for a ministry in Belize and, with others from Christ Pres, formed The Belize Project, which works in a variety of ministries –...