Anxiety is a lie. The worst kind of lie. The kind your own mind and body tell you. Mine tells me that people will hate me. Leave me. That things will snowball beyond my control. That an insignificant incident will become an uncontrollable catastrophe. For everybody...
Years ago, I heard a clergy-coaching-type ask a rather provocative question of a group of us: Do you pastor so that you can preach or do you preach so that you can pastor?Meaning: as one who leads a local church, do you provide a ministry of presence in people’s most...
Given that this is US Open time of year, the Charlotte Observer recently ran a story about the rather unusual — OK, bizarre — routines, habits, and superstitions that pro tennis players bring to their games. For example, Andre Agassi went commando in his first match...
As part of its ongoing Leadership Development process, the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church asked five of its preachers to answer five specific questions about the craft. The column released late last week, but may have been overlooked...
I recently picked up Bruce Springsteen’s 510 page memoir, “Born To Run.” While Springsteen is not my absolute favorite rocker, I DID live in New Jersey for seven years and once won a contest that gave us front row center seats for one of his concerts. I count...
Many of you are familiar with the Romans Road, a collection of verses from that signature New Testament book designed to lead people on the “road” to salvation. It starts out with our Problem from Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It...
I have been reading the New Testament for a long time, but I realize that I am only now learning how to read its epistles correctly. And to read the New Testament well, you need to read the epistles (Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, et al) accurately. Here’s...
Way back in the spring of 1984, as I was winding up my English degree in college, I took a class on theories of literary interpretation. It sounds kind of high falutin’, and I suppose it was. The teacher was Louis Menand, who has gone on to a measure of fame as...
Over the past six months or so, I have heard two different one point sermons that caught my attention. The preachers in question delivered well developed, biblically faithful, and rhetorically compelling messages. The one point, once revealed, served as both the...
In speaking with a preacher friend recently, I mentioned that the early part of every sermon needs to surface a problem that needs to be solved or expose an itch that needs to be scratched. Really, then, sermon openings invariably involve predicaments. I want the...