One of the Rolling Stones' most clever songs is Respectable from their 1978 gem Some Girls.In it, Mick Jagger sings of the irony that the band is now "respectable" in high society.Yet he quickly points 0ut that they are not so respectable that Canadian Prime Minister...
What is a cardinal sin for Methodist preachers?Re-baptism.It's one of the things that can get us in some ecclesiastical trouble. If we knowingly baptize someone who was baptized as an infant or child, we are likely to hear from Methodist higher ups.The history behind...
It hit me hard during Easter week: we preach on what is invisible.Jesus' resurrected body? These days, invisible. The Holy Spirit? Invisible. The promise of life after life? Invisible.No wonder people often struggle to accept what preachers say and what churches...
Here's what my week was like with the Spring Breakthrough Project:Terrific leadership, motivated students, blessed week.And I got to be part of it.
This closing video is one reason I was so excited about yesterday's worship experience at Good Shepherd:My prayer is that the video and the sermon from John 4:4-26 that preceded it achieved a balance between the exclusivity of Jesus' Lordship and the inclusivity of...
Is it wrong to be more excited about a sermon for the Sunday after Easter than the one given on Easter?I hope not. Because I am.Not that I wasn't excited about Easter's message. I was.It's just that I love what's going to happen this coming Sunday. I believe it's one...
Unsigned notes.Anonymous letters.Correspondence signed simply, "concerned." All preachers have received them. I've had a handful through the years. And believe me, they are never notes of encouragement. What are they then? Honest attempts at constructive criticism?...
So this week I'm helping out John Pavlovitz, Amie Berryhill and the rest of the Student Ministry Team with Spring Breakthrough 2010.What is it?Pretty incredible, actually.It's 100 students from Charlotte, Fort Mill, and Lake Wylie spending their spring break in a most...
We're doing something different this year at Easter.This time, we're starting a new message series on Resurrection Sunday.(Usually, Easter is the culmination of a sermon series and we use that Sunday in part to promote the next collection of messages.)But this year,...
As many of you know, for many years I have been critical of premillenial dispensationalism, the "rapture-centric" view of the end times made most popular in the Left Behind series of novels.For a long list of reasons, I have generally held to the simpler amillenial...