Back on December 28, 2019 (the last decade, depending on how you count it), I attended a wedding at which I did not preside. Huh? Eric Matras, a friend from church, married Angie Wiggins, ANOTHER friend from church. It turns out that Eric didn't want me to be there...
Check this out: My preacher friend John Franklin Howard very kindly reached out to me, I agreed, he got the Uwharrie District to support it and VOILA! The same day the book releases, I get to lead a group of preachers ... on the contents of the book. I hope the result...
Back in November, I had a blog about my new favorite Band, Dawes, while listing their top five songs. You can read it here. However, in my Dawes' Naivete at the time, I didn't even know they had two additional albums that I had never heard. Now I have. And they're...
Yesterday's sermon ... Started a series we're very excited about, as it deals with depression, anxiety, and stress; Led to a song Chris Macedo composed, not even knowing my sermon was about the same subject; Resulted in this bottom line: We want peace as a condition...
The first series of any year is important. Churches and pastors have an opportunity to engage with people whose New Year's Resolution includes "trying church again"; we have an opportunity to minister to folks who are IN TOWN all month long; and we can connect with...
When I was a kid, the week between Christmas and New Year’s typically meant the Cotton Bowl. The tennis tournament, not the football game. Huh? That’s right. Dallas was then and is now the host of a holiday-flavored, mostly-indoor tennis tournament. Back in the day,...
I am a Wesleyan today because I was first a Calvinist. Huh? Yeah, my first extended church experience after coming to faith as a teenager was at a lovely church in Dallas called Believer’s Chapel. Though I was very new to the faith and didn’t initially have the...
Sermon map? What about a sermon rewind? Well, yesterday's message was as departure in a few notable ways. First, it was mapped out but never manuscripted. Second, it drew a distinction between the view of time in Eastern religions -- it is endlessly cyclical -- and...
A little known fact about Advent and Christmas: in Christian thinking, Jesus first appearance is designed to heighten our anticipation for his second. What does that mean? What will it look like? What about all the books, charts, and graphs that we can buy that tell...
My message from Tuesday night's Christmas Eve services ... Began with our congregation standing and reading Luke 2:1-7 out loud and together;Pivoted on Paul's affirmation in Philippians 3:12 that Christ Jesus had first grabbed on to him;Was about 2/3 the length of a...