No, I don't have a new job.Yes, I did get a one-day gig on Wednesday at Gordon-Conwell Seminary.Steve Klipowicz, a good friend and occasional workout partner of mine, is also a professor there.  So as he was preparing to teach a summer intensive class on pastoral...

This week, forty-seven of Good Shepherd's finest are serving in the mission field.Thirty-four students, staffers, and volunteers are in Moore, Oklahoma, site of the devastating 2013 tornado.  There they are helping Oklahomans rebuild their homes and restore their...

This photo was taken on my family's recent beach vacation:From the left, our 24-year-old daughter Taylor, me, our 21-year-old-son Riley, and then my wife Julie.  We took the trip to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary trip together.Yes, we took our kids on a...

I had a brief Facebook post on Sunday morning about how I love to start a new series.Especially when I believe the Word blends with the visuals and creates something both memorable and compelling.  All that is why I was genuinely excited about the start of Lost...

I hope it's OK that I get truly excited about series we do in July.You know, that month when a lot of churches take it easy and a lot of pastors can be found anywhere but in the pulpit.Last July, it was The Storm Before The Calm (available in e-book!).This year, it's...

Preaching is an intensely solitary activity.Preaching is a thoroughly social exercise.Which is it?  Solitary or social?Yes.My own process of preparation is wholly wrapped in solitude.  I study, I jot, I brainstorm, I fret, I pray, I get excited, I become...

Of all the anthems in rock music, one is just a little more anthemic than all the rest:Weren't the 70s great?Yet there's one line in Stairway that seems to have special relevance these days:"'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings." Yes, they do.  And...

Oh why not?Laser light shows, absurdly long songs, lyrics leading to nowhere, band-on-band smackdown as young rockers became old men . . . all of it is part of the Pink Floyd schtick.And I went through a phase where I listened to them often and liked them a lot. ...

As I have been thinking about sermon design recently, I stumbled across some language that helps me map them out.Journey  --  Discovery -- Destination -- ApplicationThis is probably nothing original with me, but it is some language that makes sense.And...

I am so fortunate to work with a team of people at Good Shepherd who can do things like put weekly, customized, Head Scratchers videos together.Here's the one for this coming Sunday:Upon first hearing and first reading, those are some of Jesus' most polarizing and...