Christmas is coming and with it the inevitable family reunions.For a lot of us, that means coming face to face with certain people we don't much care for. We've had a "falling out."So the question is: will anyone make the first move towards reconciliation? Or will all...
Today, I'm taking the Good Shepherd staff on a field trip.To South Park Mall.Not exactly high culture. Nor is it continuing education.It's blatant consumerism.But it's also my expression of thanks at Christmas.I've gotten each of them a gift card they can use anywhere...
If you remember the 70s at all, you have to remember this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lE6Htee0sA Today, I feel about blogging like Air Supply did about love. I got nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Now, I have a lot of stuff I want to blog about. But some of those things...
We dedicated a Habitat For Humanity house on Saturday.We parntered with Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church as well as some corporate sponsors in Charlotte.It took 14 Saturdays of volunteer labor to build a house for and with the Hoover family. The Hoovers worked right...
Notice anything about these two church logos?Neither mention Methodism.Yet these are two of the most influential and effective Methodist churches in the USA -- one of them in Indiana and the other in Houston.There's some interesting conversation in the blogosphere...
I'll be visiting in the hospitals later today.Occasionally I'll hear that pastors of churches the size of Good Shepherd don't do hospital visitation anymore.Now I don't do all of it. I share responsibilities with Rich Tuttle, our Pastor of Congregational Care, who has...
So today we had a planning meeting to lay out the first Sunday morning message series of 2009.And as always happens, more and better ideas emerge out of that group than I could ever come up with on my own. Those meetings are why series like Oddballs and Loved have...
I'm quite fond of telling parents "'No' is a complete sentence." It gives parents a renewed sense of authority and strength.However, I not nearly as good at realizing the same thing is true in church.Most church leaders are like me: someone in the church has an idea...
I love the way Galatians 4:4 puts it:"But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law . . . " (NASB).The "fulness of time" is our focus this Christmas season at Good Shepherd.The times we are in are unprecedented....
In recent weeks, I have been nostalgic for the attitude and spirit I had when pastoring at Mt. Carmel Church in Monroe from 1990-1999.It was a small church tucked in an out-of-the-way location. The only way you drove by the church was if you were going to the church....