About

I’m a writer and teacher living in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.

As an instructor in the Department of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), I teach first-year composition and sophomore-level literature surveys. I also serve as webmaster for the department’s site.

More importantly, I’m the husband of Teddie Wall Butcher and the father of three children: Zachary, Isaac, and Anna. Teddie and I met and married (1988) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where we lived until August 2001, when we moved to Birmingham to be a part of Church of the Highlands.

What follows is an overview of my spiritual journey by way of my life in church; you can read it and get some perspective on where I’m coming from, or you can skip past and learn more about the focus of this blog.

a little church history

I grew up in the Churches of Christ, and I value the solid foundation this heritage provided. I learned early that the Bible is the word of God and that it has absolute authority in my life. I learned that doctrine matters and that it is my responsibility to study the Bible for myself. Less importantly, I also learned to read music and sing bass – when all the songs are a capella, being able to sing parts and carry a tune takes on a greater emphasis.

In 1997, God brought us to Bethany World Prayer Center, a mega-church in Baton Rouge (you may have seen Bethany on the national news after Katrina; they housed and fed hundreds of displaced people). If the Church of Christ taught me to read Scripture for doctrine and commands, Bethany taught me to read for God’s character and His promises. Our four years at Bethany were truly life-changing as we moved from rules to relationship. When one of the pastors there decided to plant a church in Birmingham, we followed; it was time for something new.

Bethany was very charismatic — about as far from the Churches of Christ as possible; Highlands is different from both. When we arrived in Alabama in 2001, Highlands was six months old; it had about 500 people and was meeting in a high school. As I write this at the end of 2009, Highlands has a huge main campus, satellite campuses in multiple cities, and an attendance well over 10,000.

We left Highlands in the fall of 2008, in much the same way that we left Bethany back in 2001. I experienced what I’ve heard described as “holy discontent”: there’s no obvious reason to be unhappy with where you are, but you long to be elsewhere, and you finally realize that God is preparing you for a change. We had been an integral part of the the growth at Highlands, but it seemed like the church had moved on, and we — or at least, I — didn’t know where I fit in.

August 2008 brought us to a2 Church, a new church planting. Much as happened at Bethany, I knew I was home after the first visit. The holy discontent was replaced by a clear sense of “this is it” — a “holy contentment,” if you will.

I’m still trying to sort out what I learned from Highlands — the value of friendships is among them; but one thing I know clearly: there is value in both large and small churches. Highlands has had phenomenal, perhaps even miraculous, growth — it’s rare to find a church plant that grows at anything near the rate that Highlands has experienced. There’s a lot to appreciate and enjoy in big: worship with 2000 people in a single service is pretty spectacular, the facilities are spacious, and the financial resources of a mega-church can achieve much good.

That said, smallness is what my family and I have appreciated most about a2. Those 2000 people make for tremendous singing, but they don’t make for much intimacy afterward — especially when your church friends are spread out across three or four different service times and locations. You can truly be surrounded by people and feel alone. And that’s not to knock Highlands — that’s an issue that most larger churches face; it’s easy to get lost in the crowd, even when you don’t want to get lost.

So what am I learning at a2? Chris Goins, my pastor, has shown me that it’s possible to have deep conviction while being open to the possibility that you might just need to adjust your understanding somewhere down the line. And in the midst of holding fast your convictions, you can extend grace to others who might have reached a different conclusion.

Though I don’t care much for the phrase, this truly has been a “faith journey.” And as the Holy Spirit has challenged and enriched my perspective, I have realized there is a whole world of faith that I knew little about. It’s amazing to me that on Sunday morning in any given community, thousands of people gather in churches to honor the same God and read the same Bible yet have such varied expressions of faith and experiences of worship. Even as we all share “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2) in common, I know that no single group has a corner on the truth, and I believe that I can benefit from many different perspectives.

About Charis

This diversity is — I hope — reflected here in my posts. In addition to the Bible, you’ll find me reading and responding to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, Oswald Chambers, Joyce Meyer, Andrew Murray, Neil Anderson, Beth Moore, Madeleine L’Engle, Martin Luther, Anne Graham Lotz, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, George Barna — you get the idea. I also comment from time to time on TV, movies, and other aspects of our culture.

My goal, always, is to be practical, to seek application, to make myself — and you — think. How does this apply to my life, my situation? How does that fit with the way I see God? What do I need to change? I don’t want to present ideas, to write, simply for the sake of seeing words on the screen. I have too little time, and I imagine you do, also, to ponder “angels on the head of a pin” kinds of questions.

Finally, a note about the title: why charis? As a writer and reader, I love words, and one of the pleasures of Bible study for me is learning about the richness of the original languages behind our modern translations of Scripture. As you’ll see at the bottom of every page, the Greek word charis can be translated grace, favor, gift, blessing, and gratitude. Thus, Luke tells us that Mary had found favor with God (Luke 1:30) and John tells us that we have grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Paul blesses his readers with grace at the beginning and end of almost every letter, and he tells the Romans that we are justified as a gift by God’s grace (Rom 3:24). And, of course, we have the related words charisma and Eucharist–there’s a wealth of meaning. I want my life to be characterized by grace, by charis, giving and receiving blessing and favor, having a heart of gratitude, walking in my giftings. This blog is a reflection of that desire and a way for me to think through how to do this practically.

My prayer is that you will be blessed by what you find here, and I invite you to participate in the reflection and thinking by adding your comments to the posts that you read. I look forward to hearing from you!