A day in the park with Nancy Guthrie

A few weeks ago, our senior content developer, Jeff Forrey, and our video director, Matt Bowman, went to Nashville, TN, to interview Nancy Guthrie. Nancy’s a friend of the CareLeader family as she’s worked with many of us in the development of GriefShare. (Nancy cohosts the series with her husband David.)

Nancy took good care of Jeff and Matt, allowing them to store a truckload of gear in her house the night before the shoot and helping them scout a local park for a segment of the taping. She even fixed them soup and loaded-nachos for lunch, and all of this while working on her book Even Better Than Eden (which is scheduled for a June 2018 release).

Why did we do the interview? We plan to feature Nancy in our upcoming In This Together video series. In This Together equips laypeople to share in the work of pastoral-care ministry by helping them understand how to practice biblical friendships. In addition to capturing each featured experts’ insights on Christ-centered relationships, we also like learning about how they spend time with their own friends.

Watch this short clip to hear why Nancy enjoys spending time in the park with friends and her thoughts on how friends can offer genuine encouragement when their friends are hurting.

Sam Hodges

Managing Editor

Sam leads the CareLeader team. As a seminary-trained, ordained pastor, Sam knows firsthand a pastor’s desire to provide effective care to hurting people in the church and community. He directs and oversees CareLeader’s content, making sure the articles and videos equip pastors with information and ideas that are strategic, do-able, and consistent with Christ-centered, biblical care principles.

Sam also leads Church Initiative’s editorial team and has written and produced a number of Church Initiative’s video-based small group curriculums. They include GriefShare second and third editions (2006, 2014), DivorceCare third edition (2012), and Single & Parenting (2011). Sam is also coauthor of Grieving with Hope: Finding Comfort as You Journey Through Loss.

Sam graduated from Howard University with a bachelor of arts in communications. After that he received a master of divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Christian education. Sam has also served on staff as a discipleship pastor at Infinity Church in Laurel, MD.