"A colloquial translation with a Southern accent"

  
also known as
The Cotton Patch Version of the New Testament

 

Some Workers in the Cotton Patch Field

   

            The following is a list of those who helped to move the Cotton Patch Version from ink on a printed page to a digital online format - scanning or re-typing the text, putting into html.

            In 2002, Tom Holbach was a 49 yr. old father of three daughters, with a "wonderful" wife of 27 years. "As a teenager," he says, "I found in Clarence Jordan's writings an introduction to the New Testament that would encourage me to think about what the scriptures were saying to me. Perhaps, through placing the Cottonpatch versions on the web, some other 16 year old will have an opportunity to read them and likewise begin to think."

            Thanks also goes to Davis Carothers for his work in the "Cotton Patch." When these pages were pulled together, he was pastor of the New Covenant United Methodist Church in Jackson, MS. "I have slept at the Koinonia community farm one night, spent time with Millard Fuller, and was responsible for scheduling him to speak at 8 churches one Sunday *morning* in Tupelo Miss.," he writes.

            Pastor (as of September 2002) of the Springs Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in East Hampton, New York, Joe Hinds was born and raised in Mississippi, and lived in Alabama until moving to Georgia to prepare for ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. He served as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Pelzer, South Carolina before moving to NY to be nearer his sons, Miller and Jack, who live with their mother in New Jersey. His wife, the Rev. Kazy Blocher Hinds also serves in the Presbytery of Long Island. He writes:

         "In my first year of seminary as I studied Bible, Greek, Pastoral Care, and Church History, I experienced the urging of the Holy Spirit to be involved in the works of mercy. Early on, I volunteered at a soup kitchen and Habitat for Humanity. I reflected with a professor and mentor on how this work was connected with academics as I prepared for ministry. At his recommendation, I began reading Clarence Jordan and learned that what I was experiencing had a name, Incarnational Theology. Clarence's work continues to inform me about building community and authenticity of faith. I am a child of the Deep South, Clarence's plain writing in the familiar vernacular rings familiar in my ears. I hear my Grandfather's Mississippi voice when I read Clarence Jordan's words. "Since we have such a great, heaven-sent spiritual leader as Jesus, God's son, let's get on the ball." (Heb. 4:14)

            It was Everett Mishler, of the Union Center Church of the Brethren just outside Nappanee, Indiana, who first introduced Pete Haynes to the wisdom of the Cotton Patch. "I remember sitting with Everett when I was a youth pastor there," he writes, "and stories of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia community would be told. I can't recall how much Everett had been involved, and I can't personally ask him any more since he has since passed on to Glory, but both Everett and Clarence made an impact on my ministry." It was Pete's dream to get the Cotton Patch version online, that it might become available to another generation. He thanks the "scribes" above for the time they put into this project, scanning the text, or typing it out into a word processor format, which Pete placed online as "webservant." Who did what doesn't matter.

            Pete is currently the pastor of the Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren in suburban Baltimore, Maryland. It is in the memory of brother Everett Mishler that Pete dedicates his work in this corner of the Cotton Patch.

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