How's that for a technical blog post? But aside from posts about playing tennis or delivering sermons, this is probably the activity on which I have spent the most time. Because we take our guests seriously at Good Shepherd, and we do what we can to ensure they come....
Oh, what a dilemma. Does God allow pain in our lives or does he cause it? Wesleyan Methodists are traditionally much more comfortable with the former while Calvinists often embrace the latter. But what does the author of Hebrews say? Among other things, that's a topic...
Here we are in the fall of 1998 in the living room of the parsonage at Mt. Carmel Church in Monroe, NC. Riley was then six and Taylor was nine. Julie and I were . . . 19 years younger than we are now!
This post is not likely to make me many friends in United Methodism. But here goes: the current mantra in UMC circles of "clergy self-care" has moved from concern to caricature to idol. Over the last couple of years in my Annual Conference, we have heard lectures,...
What other kind of list could I possibly compile for Valentine's Day? And no, "Feel Like Makin' Love" didn't make the cut. Nor did "Whole Lotta Love." Or even "Love Gun." To make the list, a song has to have at least a little subtlety as well as the recognition...
Oh, what fun it was to deliver this message. I had the multi-faceted privileged of . . . Digging deep into Romans 5:1-5; Showing a clip from a pro tennis match I won in 1984 (yes!); Letting people know that "Jaws" is not a good date movie; Leading a demonstration with...
The Path Of Most Resistance The heaviest weight. The hardest class. The highest mountain. Those difficult challenges are the ones that make us and mature us. The greater the resistance, the stronger the result. And it’s the same with what we call a living...
A lot of you know that I spent they years 1990-1999 pastoring in Monroe, North Carolina, a medium-sized town about 30 miles south and east of Charlotte. As is typical of United Methodist pastors, I served two churches at the same time (called a two-point charge): ...
Not long ago, I received an email from someone who attended Good Shepherd for a season and then had to move to another part of the country. Anyway, part of his email said that he and his family still remember and use the phrase “forgiveness is learned, so teach it...
If you know me at all, you know I like my routines. Actually, I love them. Honestly, I live by them. And so in the middle of all that, there are five things above all others that I just never get tired of. Here they are: 1.Listening to Don Henley's The Boys Of...