In my new role as a coach and consultant, I no longer have a great big office (as I did when I was a pastor). Nowadays my office (well, really my desk) is in the room where our grandson sleeps when he spends the night. Needless to say, I no longer have space for all...

In reading David Browne's Fire And Rain, a musical & cultural exploration of the pivotal-but-overlooked year of 1970, I learned some interesting factoids about Simon & Garfunkel's iconic Bridge Over Troubled Water. For example, did you know that Simon...

Yesterday's message ... Started a series called "The Problem Of God," inspired by Mark Clark's book of the same name; Included one of the few "pulpit" admissions that I went to college at, ahem, Princeton; Talked about the rising influence of atheism; Explored the...

What do you do when your faith raises so many questions that you’re not sure you can even claim it as your own anymore? What do you do when skepticism outweighs belief and doubt overwhelms trust? And what do you if YOUR faith is strong but the people you love can’t...

Earlier this week, I received this email from a Good Shepherd friend: In our class on groups, we discussed mission statements. We discussed how some were too long, not memorable. I volunteered Good Shepherd's as an example of a memorable, concise mission statement...

Earlier this week, I ran into a guy at the Y who upon seeing me said brightly, "hi Talbot." Busted. Because while remembering something of his STORY, I didn't remember his name.  Turns out it's Joe. The STORY I remembered about Joe is that he is a writer for a Muscle...

It's been just over two years ago when, in the euphoria of Roger Federer's sixth Australian Open and 20th grand slam overall, I wrote this piece that essentially declared the era of Djokovic & Nadal to be dead, gone, and buried.  It might have been pretty good...

Yesterday's message ... Contrasted our needs and our wants; Reminded people that God defines love and not the reverse; Suggested that we don't have a "happy problem" or a "money problem" or a "potential" problem, but ultimately a "sin problem"; Landed at this bottom...

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it. This week's sermon is named after a Foreigner song. A bad one at that (though, c'mon, "good Foreigner song" is a bit of an oxymoron). "I Want To Know What Love Is." Bad song.  Yet I think it's a good message.  Because I John is...

This past weekend, over 200 Good Shepherd students and volunteers ventured to nearby Crowder's Ridge Camp for their annual Winter Retreat. The theme was "Called." One of the most significant moments of the weekend included a guided journey through the Prayer Chapel in...