The 21st Century American church -- and in particular, the United Methodist tribe of which I am a part -- has become all-too-adept at hand-wringing. We hear an anecdote, read a survey, or watch a television show in which the message of ancient, creedal Christianity is...

Every Sunday, Good Shepherd includes space for "Prayer requests and answered prayers" on the back of its Connection Card. This Sunday we received one of the best ever: What an amazing praise I have to report.  I attended the Healing Service on Monday and was prayed...

Most of you have never heard of them. They enjoyed a brief run of minor popularity in the mid-80s, had Bono sing on one of their songs in the early 90s, and then gave another tune to Al Gore to use in his presidential race of 2000.  And then, with barely a whimper,...

The best part of yesterday's message was this video story from Rebecca Dinkins. I'm glad to be able to go to church with people like her.  

As we move to Sunday's culmination of Beyond, complete with first-fruits giving and three year promised giving, I want to share a note I received from someone in our church who has been impacted by the entire movement. In particular, she had a response to last week's...

  Not long ago, I had a chance encounter and random conversation with a Charlottean Muslim of Pakistani descent. He knows what I do for a living, and was more than eager to talk about the bible and Islam -- all of it in a conversational and not confrontational...

So last night we had our monthly Healing Service at Good Shepherd. And in this particular season of our church's life -- reaching the culmination of our Beyond Capital Project -- it was tempting to call it off.  Or at least postpone it. But we didn't.  We had our...

The sermon on the Sunday BEFORE the "big give" day of a Capital Campaign is typically the most important one of the lot.  It's the final opportunity a preacher has before people write their checks and make their pledges to get the project underway. And yesterday was...