Lowlife is not just a Sunday series.It's Monday through Saturday as well.It's why we've had Lowlife Serving Options each Saturday of September as a way of being the message rather than just hearing the messages.This Saturday, for example, you can help either with a...
Look Intently At WHAT?
Think of all the things that get our double takes:Beautiful people.Sunsets on the beach.Sunrise on the beach.Mist rising from the mountains.The colors in a kaleidoscope.A city skyline at night.Beautiful people.And James throws in this line early in his sermon: ...
Lifting The Bible
It happened again.Just this week a woman who was reluctant to come to a Methodist church because she had heard how theologically liberal the denomination has become . . . told me she decided Good Shepherd was the church for her when we lifted...
Top Five Tuesday — My Top Five Rules For A Good Football Helmet Design And What It Tells Us About Church
This past Saturday I watched a bit of the game between South Carolina and new-SEC-member Missouri.Along with new conference membership, Missouri has a new helmet design. And it is just plain awful.My first thought was "what in the world is THAT on the...
Clubhouse, BigHouse, Our House
Last night our new Clubhouse ministry got off to a roaring start.Fifty-three fourth and fifth graders plus nine volunteers equaled eighteen pre-teens making professions of faith in Christ for the first time.Along the way, they shared dinner together, heard from Ryan...
Lowlife Week Three — Keeping It On The DownLOW
I'm eager to give this, my first message in the Lowlife series.It's called Keeping It On The DownLOW, it comes from Philippians 2:1-11, and I think you'll learn something new in it. I know I did in preparing it.What is unique about Lowlife is the fact that we...
Of Maps And Men
Julie and I had a recent conversation about her time as a high school sophomore in Southbury, Connecticut.But I realized during our talk that I had no concept of where within Connecticut you could actually find Southbury.(Even worse, I realized I couldn't place the...
What’s The Purpose Of A Song?
In preparation for the December 2, 2012 launch of our fourth worship gathering -- this one all in Spanish -- Sammy Gonzalez and I visited another Latino service in our area.We wanted to see what this particular Spanish-speaking congregation does well, where it...
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Eric Clapton Songs
In honor of one of my favorite people on earth, I give this Tuesday's list to Eric Clapton.Julie and I actually saw him in concert in Madison Square Garden back in 1986. In other words, shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs and before the invention of...
Lowlifes On Film
Here's the video John Pavlovitz used to wind up his message yesterday.The story actually began a month before the video was shot, when our Student Ministry went to Eastern North Carolina on its U-Haullelujah mission trip.While ministering in the hamlet of Cameron, NC,...