Ken Carter of Bear Witness to the Love of God in this World
I am a native of Georgia, a graduate of Columbus (Georgia) College, Duke Divinity School, The University of Virginia and Princeton Theological Seminary. My wife, Pam, is an ordained minister as well, and is also an interior designer. We have been blessed with two daughters: Liz, a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, majoring in Asian Studies, and Abby, a rising high school senior in Charlotte. I have served congregations for the past 22 years: a rural four-point charge, an associate pastorate in a large church, the assignment to organize a new church, and I've been the senior pastor of two large churches. All of these have been in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. I have also written three books, on stewardship, spiritual gifts and spiritual practices, and have two books forthcoming in the next two years, one on baptism and the second on intercessory prayer. I am the senior pastor of Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina (www.providenceumc.org).
Why do you blog?
I enjoy writing, and I appreciate creativity and humor. The blog is also a medium where you can enter into a conversation with the culture that is sometimes beyond a local congregation (I have plenty of opportunities to do that). It is fun, and it expands my knowledge of the faith and the world.
What has been your best blogging experience?
For the most part, it is the creative process itself, but occasionally it comes in feedback from someone who appreciates the content or enjoys a surprising link.
What would be your main advice to a novice blogger?
Don't copy what other people are doing. Try to discover your own voice, and put your own perspectives and preferences out there. Don't write purely for a reaction; this is already being done by the commercially-driven media.
If you only had time to read three blogs a day, what would they be?
Locusts and Honey http://locustsandhoney.blogspot.com/
Shane Raynor http://www.wesleyblog.com/
Jonathon Norman http://stphransus.blogspot.com/
Who are your spiritual heroes?
Augustine, Paul, Dostoevsky, John Wesley, Karl Barth, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, and ordinary Christians I have known in my own family and in local churches in the United States and Bolivia.
What are you reading at the moment?
I re-read a portion of Auden's For The Time Being each Advent/Christmas; Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places; The New Yorker's coverage of Iraq and the Bush Administration; Kathleen Cahalan's Projects That Matter. I also glance at a number of books that come to me as book review editor of the Circuit Rider. And, finishing a book on intercession, I have been reading sermons by Rowan Williams and Gordon Cosby on intercession; each is excellent.
What is your favorite hymn and why?
Two favorites: "Be Thou My Vision", which is about guidance, purpose and providence, and for its celtic origin (I also love Van Morrison's version of it on Hymns To The Silence); and "Praise To The Lord, The Almighty", which was sung at our wedding.
Can you name a major moral, political, or intellectual issue on which you've ever changed your mind?
Th primary shift was in becoming a Christian, as a young adult college student, at least in embracing that intellectually for myself, and not worrying about how that was perceived from a scientific or academic perspective. Politically and morally, I am working my way toward a consistent ethic of life, which for me would mean opposition to war, terrorism and torture, but also abortion and therapeutic cloning.
What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to combat?
The idea that the end justifies the means: for example, that torture is allowed because of the harm that is prevented or the good that is gained.
If you could effect one major change in the governing of your country, what would it be?
I would abolish lobbying, or at least put a severe cap on political contributions.
If you could effect one major policy change in the United Methodist Church, what would it be?
Something that would steer the focus on our primary mission: to make disciples. If we don't get this right, the other policy changes will not matter a great deal, as time goes by.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Something I heard from a Palestinian tour guide in Israel year's ago: "In the middle east, things are never as good or as bad as they seem". The advice is to avoid "all or nothing" thinking.
What, if anything, do you worry about?
I am most concerned about the environment and about the next generations of Christians and their relation to the church.
If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything that you'd do differently?
I might have gone to a small Christian college as an undergraduate, but the events that have unfolded have led me to a really blessed place, in terms of family and vocation, so I don't have a great sense of regret.
Where would you most like to live (other than where you do now)?
Nashville, Tennessee (for the music)
Austin, Texas (for the music and food)
Galway, Ireland (for the music and scenery)
Cochabamba, Bolivia (for the sense of community)
What do you like doing in your spare time?
Attending my younger daughter's volleyball matches and basketball games; watching Monk; reading, listening to music, especially http://www.wncw.org/; exercising and walking.
What is your most treasured possession?
Our small house/cabin in the mountains. Living in parsonages, having our own place keeps us rooted, and is a wonderful and restful retreat in which to rest and relax. There is a picture of it on my blog.
What talent would you most like to have?
The ability to write country songs; the ability to play the acoustic bass in a jazz quartet; the ability to make and give away enormous sums of money.
If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner, who would they be?
Moses, Emmylou Harris, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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