Our journey through Bragging Rights has taken us from What We Were Like to What Happened, all in order to prepare us for What We Are Like Now.

That’s this coming Sunday, April 22, and it’s a message I can’t wait to give.

Part of my excitement stems from the fact that we’ll be announcing and resourcing another Radical Impact Project … one in which we want to break a record we set way back in 2015. read more

On Wednesday evening, the Young Adult (18-28) LifeGroup that meets in our house explored three of the worst stories in Scripture.

Using Sandy Richter’s Ruth study from the Epic Of Eden, the group learned about these wretched events:

• The incestuous origins of the Moabits & Ammonites from Genesis 19 (as well as the possibility that the story’s conclusion in 19:38 was a calculated laugh line for Israelite culture;
• The gang rape and dismemberment of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19;
• The orgy for Baal in Numbers 25.

So when Richter’s video concluded I asked:  Did you know these stories were in the bible?  (By and large, no).  Does it make you question the authority or value of the bible?  And the answers to that SECOND question were especially enlightening. read more

Mark 4:35-41 contains this fabulous little story whose meaning is wrapped up in its subtle choice of words:

³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” read more

My signature accomplishment in high school was being awarded Third Most Innocent in the senior superlatives edition of our campus newspaper.  Here’s the proof:

Anyway, five moments during a recent Eagles concert showed me just how accurate that “award” was.  Here goes:

1. I did not know what the “warm smell of colitas” was until … last year when I asked on Facebook.
2. I did not know how there could be both “lines on the mirror, lines on her face” until 2013.  And then, not from personal experience.
3. I did not know what “the doctor says he’s coming but you’ve got to pay in cash” referred to until earlier this spring.
4. I still don’t know what “so put me on a highway and show me a sign” refers to.
5. I did, however, know what “spent the last year Rocky Mountain Way” meant.  Again, thankfully, not from personal experience.

Maybe I’ll win FIRST Most Innocent at a future reunion. read more

(No sermon rewind today as Ron Dozier preached at Good Shepherd yesterday.)

I have had seasons where I’ve had somewhere I wanted to go, some things I wanted to do, and at every turn (not that I was seeking it out!) – someone or something stands in opposition. And the more of a solutionist you become the more opposition you can expect. read more

Here I am at 11 losing — badly — to Boyd Bryan in the quarterfinals of the 1973 Texas Sectionals for Boys’ 12-and-under.

I’d estimate the score was 6-1, 6-2, maybe 6-2, 6-3.  Boyd never missed and when I was 11 I had already started serve-and-volleying, and I missed a lot. read more

At Good Shepherd, we talk all the time about inviting all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

But what exactly is a living relationship with Jesus Christ?  What does it look like?

Early on, we narrowed it down to seven “marks” or “measures.”  Here’s what they look like in our Next Step workshop curriculum: read more

You’ve heard of the five stages of grief?  Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance?

Or on a lighter note, the Five Love Languages?  Acts Of Service, Words Of Affirmation, Gifts, Quality Time, and physical touch?

So those cinco-centric lists got me thinking: are there five stages of preparing a Sunday sermon? read more

Yesterday’s message …

• Began with an unusual (for me) exploration of how Julie and I met;
• Continued with an examination of ways in which we are under surveillance;
• Dug into Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 26-31
• Borrowed its title from the AA liturgy which states, “Our stories disclose in a general way, what we were like, what happened, and what we are like now.”  (The next two weeks of the series are called What Happened and What We Are Like Now.);
• Contained an excavation of United Methodist teaching called prevenient grace … without ever using the term;
• Landed at this bottom line:  You were an unsuspecting target of his undeserved love.

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Maybe you’ve seen some of these:  CAUGHT ON CAMERA CLEAN, NON-CRINGY CLIPS read more

An assortment of reflections, observations, confessions, and odds & ends …