New Canaan Society Franklin Podcast

Palm Sunday -- the beginning of Passion Week when we celebrate Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem – is this coming Sunday. Most of us don’t think about the fact that the roots of Passion Week go all the way back to Genesis. This Thursday Matt Davis will show us the Passion Week through Jewish eyes, linking it to the Old Testament. Matt explains, . . .    “It’s like a two-act play. The Jewish p...

If you enjoy golf, you will want to join us this Thursday to meet Scott Lehman.   And if you are not a golfer, you will still be glad you came this Thursday to Puckett’s to meet Scott Lehman.   Scott is founder and president of In His Grip Golf ( www.inhisgripgolf.com/ ), a ministry that builds communities of men who enjoy golf and want to deepen their relationship with Jesus. Think of it as a gro...

You probably know Don best for his book Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, which was made into a movie and named one of the 20 best books of the decade. But that was twenty years ago.   Since then Don has helped people understand the importance of their story and wrote another best-selling book, Building a StoryBrand; Clarify Your Message so Customers will Listen.  ...

No snow this Thursday and high in the low 50s. It sounds like a perfect morning for NCS breakfast at Puckett’s. Mika Edmondson, lead pastor at Koinonia Church in Nashville -- who was scheduled to be with us on January 18 -- will join us this Thursday. Mika was founding pastor of New City Fellowship, an Orthodox Presbyterian congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was called to Nashville a few...

We’re all busy. Life is chaotic. Many of us navigate through tough times thinking we’re stressed from work and family, but some of us actually have something else gnawing away at a little corner of our brain that keeps us off balance. Something from deep in the past. It can affect us in ways we can’t acknowledge or anticipate.    For Steve Gilreath -- who is one of us at Middle Tennessee NCS -- da...

What does it mean to follow Jesus with the explicit purpose of becoming the best version of yourself possible?   Josh Graves -- who, by the way, is the preaching and teaching minister at Otter Creek Church – has given this quite a bit of thought and will share those thoughts with us on Thursday morning. He says he wants to be with like-minded men who want to follow Jesus.   Josh’s most recent book...

You’ve probably read at least one of Henry Cloud’s books. Boundaries (which he wrote with John Townsend) has helped more than 4 million people learn when to say yes and when to know how to say no. He’s written books on leadership, integrity, and his most recent is on Trust – “When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix it When it Gets Broken.”   Dr. Cloud is a psychologist...

Have you ever felt as if the dreams you had for yourself would never be fulfilled? Perhaps you felt your life was spiraling out of control. Most of us have felt that way at one time or another.   Our God is a God of new beginnings. He said, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts. . . . Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the Lord your God, who d...

Lance Villio, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, will be with us at Puckett’s for breakfast. Previously Lance was executive director of I am Second, video taping the stories of people who have overcome struggles by putting Jesus Christ first.   A little history -- In the 1990s faith-based groups had to have a secular affiliate before they could re...

It sounds like a county music song or a story of a politician's early years.   Byron Williamson grew up with his mom in a shack with no electricity or indoor plumbing in a small north Texas farming village.   A few years later Byron became a book publisher and in 2021 the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association presented him with The Chair’s Award for Lifetime Achievement.   Byron has headed...

At 5:30 one morning the doorbell rang at Brad Ketch’s home on his 5-acre estate just outside Portland, Oregon. “I need help,” said a Latino teenager. “My friends stopped the car, hit me on the head, took all my stuff, and threw me in your bushes. Can you drive me home? It’s about three miles from here.” “My friend and I are going to the gym and driving right by your house,” said Brad. “He’s pickin...

“There were days I thought about how to end my alcoholic step dad’s life,” said Matt Blount. “He had physically beat me and one time even ripped my hair out. “When I look back now I can see where God had plans for my life, even though I did not know it at the time. When I had a child of my own I started to seek God because somehow I knew I was not going to be able to be a dad without the Lord.” Sl...

Joe Battaglia is one of the more recent Yankees from the New York City area to move to Franklin and join us at NCS. He has been part of the Bergen County, NJ, New Canaan Society for many years, and he’s been thoroughly vetted and released to live in Tennessee. Although he’s from NYC, Joe is friendly and outgoing.   Joe started the first local Christian magazine in the New York area in 1973, was ge...

“Today is the Best Day of My Life” has been the life theme of Kevin Burns ever since he landed on Death Row more than 30 years ago.   Kevin Burns is one of the pastors at Franklin Community Church and the “in-residence” pastor of Riverbend Maximum Security Correctional Facility’s The Church of Life – the only church on a death row anywhere in the United States. Kevin Burns will be with us, via cel...

More than thirty years ago a publisher asked a little-known preacher in western Canada to write a book on how to experience God. The preacher had been challenging his listeners to ask, “What does God want to do through me?” because, he said, “God uses ordinary people to do extra-ordinary things.”   Like many busy preachers, Henry Blackaby did not have time to write a book. And so Claude King helpe...

What does it mean to live a good life? What is true happiness? What are the habits, practices, and dispositions that facilitate human flourishing? You can find the answers – or at least listen to people who have wrestled with the questions -- on “No Small Endeavor,” the theological variety show that used to be called “Tokens.”   Or you can explore the answers at the NCS breakfast this Thursday whe...

Today, we’re going to talk about making a difference in the lives of vulnerable children.   There are 8,500 children in the foster care program in Tennessee. The children who are not with one of Tennessee’s 4,000 foster families have to be housed by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. In Tennessee there are 400 children waiting for adoption. Those are the statistics and there is a lot...

Did you know that our group is one of 45 chapters of the New Canaan Society? It’s named after the town in Connecticut where 28 years ago three men started meeting in the family room of Jim Lane’s house. After twenty years with Goldman Sachs, Jim had realized his life needed to be re-focused through friendship with brothers who wanted to “live pure, speak truth, right wrong, and worship the king” –...

You probably know Michael Card as a musician who has written “El Shaddai,” “Love Crucified Arose,” and Emmanuel.” But his goal in life was not to be a musician, but to follow Christ and teach the Bible. He believes we can know and be known by God and can enrich our lives by asking questions, having meaningful discussion with one another, and acknowledging Christ as the center of our life together.

As the son of a Pentecostal preacher, Nate Larkin spent his childhood in storefront missions, camp meetings, and youth rallies. But after just five years in the pastorate, Nate quit because of an addiction to pornography and commercial sex and a private despair about his moral failures and the fear of public exposure.   After years of praying, fasting, and repenting in private, Nate finally found...

In February, 2020, Hank Erwin told us at NCS that his sons – Andrew and Jon, who had created Woodlawn, I Can Only Imagine, and other movies – were going to open a movie studio in Franklin. They did and a few months ago Kingdom Story Company released the hugely successful film Jesus Revolution.   In this podcast, Hank tells us about plans to bring Greg Laurie and a Harvest Crusade to Nashville in t...

Our community is struggling with unfamiliar emotions. Three weeks ago we experienced the devastating shooting at Covenant School, and that experience will be with us for weeks, months, and for some a lifetime. We are collectively left with more questions than answers and many of us are still experiencing grief.   In this podcast, Anita Pringle, Clinical Director and a grief and trauma therapist at...

In this podcast, you will hear a remarkable story of redemption, of how God brought together two men whose faith carried each of them through both personal and family persecution.    Ulises (Uli) Reyes, was born in Venezuela, immigrated to U.S. through Cuba as young child, and grew up on the streets of East Los Angeles. Today, he owns a successful beauty salon in downtown Franklin and helps an NGO...

If you are concerned about what seems to be a shrinking influence of Christ on our culture, this podcast will be an encouragement.   It’s true that Pew research reports that only 63% of Americans say they are Christians – down from 75% ten years ago. And Barna research reports that Generation Z is the least Christian generation in American history with only 4% of today’s teenagers holding a biblic...

Morgan comes from a family who has served Nashville well. His great grandfather founded the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, his mother helped establish Vanderbilt’s Children’s Hospital, his father has written 28 books on Nashville’s history, and his parents were key to the restoration of the Belle Meade Farm.   Morgan has been president and CEO of Siloam Health, a faith-based, volunt...