Confessions Of A Pastor continues this Sunday.And it's a genuine confession: I feel completely inadequate.I had a friend in high school tell me once that I was a "simmering cauldron of insecurities."Some friend, right? Actually, you can find out more about him...
Back in 2003, we were designing the Worship Center we now use. I remember telling the architect that I wanted space for a portable baptismal pool so that we could do immersion baptisms in church. (The Lake Wylie baptisms in January were never very popular.)Anyway, the...
I have an Encouragement File that I keep in the drawer closest to my chair at the office. That's where I put all the attaboys I receive: cards, letters, and emails from people who have taken the time to tell me I'm doing a good job at one facet of ministry or...
Back on June 9, 1984 . . .Ghostbusters was the #1 movie in America;"Time After Time" was the #1 song in Kasey Kasem's Top 40;The Celtics and Lakers were battling for the NBA title;Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale were campaigning for the presidency;and Julie Munoz and...
I told you last week that I was travelling to Lake Junaluska, NC for the yearly meeting of the Western North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. That's an official sounding mouthful.A couple of conference highlights:Good Shepherd's own Rich...
It's here: Confessions Of A Pastor.It's a series a lot of us are excited about around here. It's based on the book of the same name by Craig Groeschel. You can see more about the book here.Here's the series trailer:This Sunday's installment: Sometimes I Don't Like...
Today I'll be travelling to Lake Junaluska North Carolina for the Western North Carolina Annual Conference. It's a yearly (think that's why they call it "Annual Conference"?) gathering of about 2500 preachers and church members from across the western part of our...
This might sound suprising since I've been preaching a long time and Good Shepherd is a large church, but leadership is probably my weakest area. A lot of you have heard me say that I'm much better at leading a congregation as its pastor than I am at leading a staff...
James-Michael Smith brought NUMB3RS to a fitting conclusion yesterday.Here's the video that led into his own sermon:Trust me, the message itself had more of a point than the video!James-Michael reminded the church that what John sees and what John hears in Revelation...
My wife Julie and I spent the weekend in New Jersey celebrating her 25th reunion from Princeton University. My 25th reunion from the same school will be next year, and I'm trying to decide if we'll go back for that one.Reunions at Princeton almost defy description....