Ministry Bound: Confessions of a Cottonpatch Theologian

This immensely stirring work depicts the life, struggles, and hopes of a young African- American migrant worker. Bud grew up in a small Southern town with a vision to one day attend theological school and do Christian ministry in postmodern culture. History being partial to irony and surprise, this riveting story involves Bud and a close posse of friends, June Bug Anderson, Baby Junior Robinson, Thomas Conners, and Charles Lambert. Ministry Bound also describes the amazing true story of a Southern white man who saved Bud while swimming in a creek, when the laws of segregation prevented Black children from swimming with White children in the same pool. On the confessional level, the testimonies of the real people in this book reveal the extraordinary power and grace of God, poured into the lives of ordinary people of faith and prayer. On the socio-economic level, the stories also document some of the devastating disparities that African Americans and other minorities continue to face in the so-called land of the free and home of the brave.
Bud’s journey as a migrant worker led him from the toils of the cotton and tomato fields to critical reflection on university and seminary campuses as a professor of social ethics in the global community. This book is appropriate for readers interested in African-American history, Christian ministry, and religious education.