The nine stories in this collection originated as sermons in Amory, Mississippi. There were seventeen in all, before the congregation had enough and asked me not to do that anymore, but to return to the old comfortable way of telling them what they had already heard, and fully expected to always hear, as a confirmation of all they hoped to be so.
The fact that Jesus told stories and never said anything about doctrine, theology, creeds or catechisms did not deter them in their quest for these things. And so it was that I was led to other ways of shaking up the Just So world of my congregations in Amory and Batesville in Mississippi, and at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Greensboro, North Carolina, and introducing them as I was able to a world waiting for them to live the life that they alone were capable of living, in redeeming, atoning for and transforming their world as those “thus come” to be “the way, the truth and the life” in their time and place as Jesus was in his.
My success rate in achieving that outcome was probably the same as Jesus’ was.
However that may be, here are nine stories for your consideration.
Jim Dollar's Published Works 
Hello Jim, Here is the text in a Facebook post that I posted today as a tribute to you. Anita and I moved to Tampa in 2015 to be near our daughter as we age in place./
“Because I am an elder son, I have always had a resistant feeling (a deplorable feeling I am sure) when listening to the beloved Parable of the Prodigal Son. This story is about a well-to-do family. There are household servants, tenant farmers, and day laborers. They have flocks and employ shepherds and goatherds. Let’s translate the older brother’s complaint into Tennesse Williams Southern: “Daddy, I come in from work to see this barbecue you are putting on for my brother. But for years I’ve been dealing with difficult tenants, finding day labor, recruiting replacements when a goatherd falls ill, getting the fields ditched for drainage. The nanny goats have kids every year, and the males are killed and eaten. But you never gave me a kid to barbecue and enjoy with my friends while we watch Georgia v. Georga Tech on TV.” An unworthy thought arises that the older brother has a legitimate beef. But the story ends with the father’s reproof. What should I do with this? Am I supposed to just flatten out the older brother, like the Kevin Kline character in “A Fish Called Wanda”? Jim Dollar, who was pastor of Presbyterian Church of the Covenant while we lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, gave brilliant sermons in which he chose a saying of Jesus, and showed how the more we think about it, the more it resists a simple dogmatic meaning, often leaving us wondering. Although I haven’t seen Jim in years, I see that he has a web presence. . . .”/
We are members of Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church, a really big congregation, with a 40 member choir. When we joined, we said that, although we were ordained elders and had done hard time on the session and in church offices, that what we needed now is a nice big congregation in which we didn’t have to do these things any more. They have honored that./
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Hi Anita, I don’t remember ever having had a tribute and am grateful for the very idea. I’m not on Facebook and can’t find a link to your post, but I will smile knowing about it. I trust that you and Hugh are getting on well-enough and doing what is called for day-by-day. That’s all it takes, I think. If more is required I’m in trouble. Thanks for the thoughts. — Jim
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Wait, wait, I found your tribute! I’m taken. Thank you!
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