Yesterday's message ... Reiterated that Revelation CAN'T mean to US something that it did not mean to THEM;Assured listeners they don't need to spend any time worrying about the identity of '666' or the look of the 'mark of the beast';Instead pointed out that the...
How's that for the title of a blog post? I am one of twenty-four authors asked to contribute a chapter to a new book about the murky future of the United Methodist Church. Called Where Do We Go From Here?, the book is the brainchild of Kevin Slimp, the President of...
This past Monday evening, we had our monthly healing service at Good Shepherd. And the most interesting thing happened. A woman who is actually a member of another United Methodist Church in Charlotte came and as the service wound down, she made her way to my prayer...
Some years ago, I turned a "Top Five Tuesday space into a confessional of sorts -- I came clean on five of the ways I'm more than a little anal-retentive. In that same vein, I've noticed that as I get older, there are certain things in life that bring me little more...
Yesterday's message .... Hinged on the Lord as "hurler" and Satan as "hurlee" in Revelation 12;Suggested that many times when we claim "the devil made me do it" it is actually avoiding responsibility for things we got into all by ourselves;Landed at a bottom line that...
One of my best preacher friends is starting a new ministry position this week. Claude Kayler, who served as the founding pastor of Good Shepherd from 1991 - 1999, was recently named the Chief Ministry Officer of the Intentional Growth Center in Lake Junaluska, North...
Here I am with Joseph Fulk, the pastor of Good Hope United Methodist Church near Lexington, North Carolina. That church invited me to start their revival series this past Sunday night, so after launching the Brave series here in Charlotte, I journeyed up I-85 and...
Self-awareness prevents self-destruction. And a lack of self-awareness hastens it. I believe that self-awareness contains an essential understanding of how you come across to others -- and it can be a thin line indeed between being appealing and annoying. So here are...
Yesterday's message ... Opened the Brave series, a series that is itself based on the book of Revelation;Explained that the genre of Revelation is more Virtual Reality Tour than it is Crystal Ball Study;Contrasted John's use of "was, is, is to come" and "Alpha and...
Brave One thing is certain: we live in uncertain times. On the inside, our nation is sharply divided along political, religious, and ideological lines. On the outside, wars and rumors of wars form the drumbeat of the nightly news. Outrage is the currency...