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The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter is pastor of Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, NC.
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Providence United Methodist Church, Charlotte, NC
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter
United Methodist Church
Providence United Methodist Church, Charlotte, NC
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter is pastor of Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, NC.
Ken's congregation is involved in a range of ministries, from hosting homeless families, to the initiation of an HIV/Aids ministry and the establishment of a school in Haiti, to a significant outreach with young families in the community. The clergy staff of his church includes three men and three women.
Ken is the author of six books and a contributor to twelve others, and he maintains a blog entitled “Bear Witness To The Love of God in This World”. Most recently he contributed to The Wesley Study Bible, The Abingdon Preaching Annual, and the Feasting On The Word commentary series. Ken has spoken to groups across the country, and has preached in congregations ranging in size from very small mountain churches to congregations of more than five thousand members.
He and his wife Pam have two daughters and their family also includes a young man from Haiti who is a student at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. Ken’s hobbies are exercise, listening to music, writing and reading. He and his wife have enjoyed traveling to England, Ireland, Israel, Guatemala, Haiti, Canada and China, and supporting the pursuits of their daughters.
Latest Content by The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter
overwhelmed and undernourished
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter (UMC)At the heart of the biblical story is a meal. Israel tells its story at the Passover meal, one of deliverance from slavery and entrance to the promised land (Exodus 12). Jesus shares this Passover meal with his own disciples (John 13), and commands them to eat this meal in remembrance of him (Matthew 26). Jesus feeds the multitudes (John 6), eats with sinners (Luke 15), and shares a mysterious meal with two of the disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24). The first Christians break bread together with glad and generous hearts (Acts 2). Later, there are abuses in the practice of the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11). One of the most misunderstood concepts in Christian faith and practice, the reference to eating the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, referred to the experiences of gluttony and poverty at the common meal. The Christian hope was also shaped by the expectation of a Messiah who would preside over a great banquet (Luke 14).
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the longings of a crazy heart
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter (UMC)I knew I would want to see Crazy Heart when I learned of T Bone Burnett's association with the music. The idea of a country musician as the main character was also intriguing, and the presence of Robert Duvall in the film took me back to the classic Tender Mercies. I watched Jeff Bridges receive the best actor award from the Screen Actor's Guild, and I had a growing sense that this would be a special movie. It is. One does not have to appreciate roots music to enjoy Crazy Heart, but it helps. Bad Blake has hit bottom, personally and professionally, but the music is a constant, and in T Bone Burnett's hands the sound is pitch perfect. Performing in a bowling alley to a gathering of fans who know the words to every lyric, Bad (Bridges) makes it through the set, but one has the sense that life cannot continue in this way. It gets better--he reconnects with a performer, now a star, whom he had earlier mentored---their relationship personifies the gulf between commercially viable and artistically credible country music, and both sides understand the unfairness of it all. Bad's relationship with a younger woman, a journalist at work on a story about him, is a motivation for his mostly successful attempt at rehabilitation. Without giving away too much of the plot, I loved the ambiguity of their friendship/romance; in this respect Crazy Heart is both like and unlike Tender Mercies. The latter was also about a musician who hits bottom and meets a woman whose influence is redemptive. The outcome, however, is slightly different, and I will allow you to watch the film and reflect on that for yourself. In each film, the ending was appropriate, holding in tension the realities of wounding and healing, loss and love, falling and flying. It is also true that in each film the music not only serves as background music, but carries the narrative thread of the movie. In Crazy Heart, "Hold On You" conveys Bad's inability to grasp what he is most in need of; "Falling and Flying" reflects on our temptation toward self-destruction; and the theme expresses the world weariness of Bad's pilgrimage through the desert. It is a hard life, from beginning to end, and what helps us through to the other side is the music, which voices the longings of a crazy heart. For this reason and many others, I love this movie. Read full article...
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