Hell Or High Water got off to an excellent start last week. Minds were opened, hearts were softened, and, praise God, souls were saved. There's more of the same this week, I believe. Why The ... ? is a message that asks "why in the world would there be such a realm at...
Many of you have heard of Gideon because his name is on the cover of every hotel room bible you've ever seen. But the Gideon inside the pages of the bible is more interesting than the one on the cover. And the inside Gideon found himself bargaining with God in Judges...
In I Kings 19:4-5, in the aftermath of a roller coaster season of spectacular success and stunning betrayal, the prophet Elijah prays this prayer: ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.” It's the worst prayer...
I don’t hear many pastors of churches our size and style talk about funeral ministry. Sometimes I get the impression that if your church is somehow “contemporary” or “large” or even “mega,” then people in the congregation don’t die, so pastors don’t have to devote...
Last Sunday night (July 30), I couldn't wait to get up the next morning. Why? Because I knew I could start going over my first Hell Or High Water sermon, and I knew that I really liked it. The message led to an invitation to say YES to Jesus -- an invitation that we...
Hell. There. We said it. So … is it a swear word? A place? An idea? A threat? A relic? A metaphor? A destination? And if it is in any sense real, who goes there? Why do they go there? And how do we make sure its number never includes any of us? Hell Or High...
We're more than a church "with some LifeGroups." We're less than a church "of LifeGroups" (a claim I've usually taken as somewhat hyperbolic anyway). I guess you could say we are a church whose culture revolves around LifeGroups. (By the way, the term "LifeGroups,"...
Diana Setter has served on our staff in the Student & Family Ministry Department since 2014. Her final day on the job was July 31, as she is moving back home to family and community in Wisconsin. We will miss her greatly. And, unknown to me, Diana...
As you know if you follow this blog, I spent last week as the guest teacher for the Daily Bible Hour at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. This video gives you a sense of that place, its people, its purposes, and its hymnic history:...
Below you will find my sermon from July 23, the final message in the Unhappy Campers series called "Wildwood." Due to Sunday travel, unfamiliarity with a new laptop, and lack of time, I did not post this last week. So, with Ron Dozier preaching at Good Shepherd...