truth to Tell

People have called me a lot of things - some of them kind, others not so much. These days, when people ask me, I tend to call myself…

• a Christian (of the free church/ecumenical variety)
• a husband (of the humble and oh-so-new variety)
• a Baptist ministry worker (of the bi-occupational/missional variety)
• a student (of the seminary variety)
• and an aspiring writer (of the freelance, novice variety)

Aside from placing myself in categories based upon social and religious cultural streams, I love to listen country music made prior to 1985 and really just about most everything else. Currently, I live in Durham, North Carolina where I am student at Duke Divinity School working toward the Master of Divinity degree. In the fall, I’ll be leaving Duke to return to Campbell Divinity School to finish my degree in Historical and Theological Studies with a minor in Islamic Studies. I hope, one day, to earn a doctoral degree in Philosophy or History (History of Ideas; Historical Theology; I’m still not sure) with a minor in Islamic Studies. Why Islamic studies? Well, I think it’s obvious that Islam is one of the largest religions in the world today and that any good scholar of religion, history, philosophy, or really anything needs to have a working knowledge of the ideas, movements and history of Islam.

I’m also hoping one day to be an ordained Baptist minister working bi-vocationally in rural churches that haven’t the resources to pay a full-time pastor. The reason for this goal is twofold: first, I’m incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of being paid to do ministry. I know, I know Paul says that ministry workers have rights - but I’m also with Paul in that I am choosing not to use church resources to meet my or my family’s needs. I currently work in a full-time position as a youth minister - an admitted concession - but my goal is to divest myself of any sort of income from a church and to earn my living as a teacher and counselor. For this reason, in addition to earning my M.Div. I’m currently in the process of earning my K-6th grade teacher licensure for the state of North Carolina. When I finish the M.Div., I’d like to serve as an associate pastor, bi-vocational pastor, or church planter while earning the majority of my income by teaching elementary school. Strange, I know — but I’m excited about it.

I’m married to Lydia Pratt-Tatum, a youth minister at Fuquay-Varina Presbyterian Church. Lydia hopes to be a minister and chaplain for persons with various developmental and cognitive disorders, especially autism. We currently live in the big city of Angier, NC (population 3,419).  We hope to have children someday but, for now, we’ve got a wonderfully lazy foxhound named Tucker. I’m glad you’ve stopped by my corner of the web and I hope to hear from you soon.

grace & peace,

A.T.