I spent both Monday and Wednesday afternoons in Ocean Grove, NJ with this group of student ministry interns. In between their programming, counseling, and shepherding of the teenagers who are part of this Jersey Shore based camp meeting, they gave several hours...
On Tuesday night, I had dinner with David Benjamin, who was my tennis coach at Princeton University from 1980-1984. Here we are at a local Princeton eatery: As I shared in an earlier post, I am in the Garden State this week preaching and teaching at the Ocean Grove...
GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, NJ (well, close enough) A small handful of you will get the rock reference in the post's title. The rest of you will lament your lack of education. I don't normally post "on location" when I am out of town, but this is too much fun. I am at...
John Piper said it this way: “He (Jesus) said more about money than he did about heaven and hell because where your treasure is there will your heart be also. So why do we have money? Money is God’s idea, what’s it for? Here’s the reason we have money: we have money...
TOP FIVE TUESDAY -- Top Five Reflections From A Carolina Cross Connection Inc. Student Mission Trip I spent last week at Camp Loy White in rural Cleveland County, NC as part of a Good Shepherd Church Student Mission Team who in turn joined the larger Carolina Cross...
One of my favorite of the classic Southern Gospel Camp Meetin' Songs is The Church In The Wildwood. Here ya go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpOeU28951g This Sunday, we won't necessarily be that church in the wildwood, but we will explore a wild story from...
Preaching is an intensely solitary activity. Preaching is a thoroughly social exercise. Which is it? Solitary or social? Yes. My own process of preparation is wholly wrapped in solitude. I study, I jot, I brainstorm, I fret, I pray, I get excited, I become...
The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church (that's a mouthful, but that's where I have spent my professional life and that's the denominational entity of which Good Shepherd is a part) recently made and posted a video about our church. The...
If you've been to Good Shepherd more than once or twice, you have not doubt heard some form of this worship ritual: I have heard myself say that a lot. So I want to take a few moments today and discuss why we use that language and what are the benefits from...
A message with ... a title courtesy of Maurice Sendak; a nod to my own fondness for nostalgia; a time of appreciation for the ways Moses chooses God's reputation over his own vindication; a healthy dose of perspective from the recovery community; ... landed at this...