I'm glad the people of Good Shepherd don't hear only my voice. This past weekend is a good case in point.On Friday night and Saturday morning, we hosted our First Step membership exploration class. About twenty-five hardy souls came out for the experience.Except I had...

Our first service went well at 8:30 yesterday.But the band thought it could have gone better. Part of the praise set included O Praise Him, a richly textured song by David Crowder. Yet Crowder's stuff can be difficult to sing, and our church has just never gotten the...

We have begun to think about much of the ministry at Good Shepherd in terms of making space.Here's how it works: as a church we make space -- other terms include "design experiences" or "craft environments" -- in which the Holy Spirit can then move in powerful ways....

For each of our Sunday series, we put out a roadside banner with the series title, dates, and visuals.They have proven effective at drawing people into the church.For unChristian, our banner looks something like the graphic to the left.And on Sunday night, someone...

Good Shepherd's focus on simplicity is changing how we do serving ministries.We want to give the people of the church a simple, monthly, meaningful serving opportunity through what we call First Serve.The concept is similar to our Pathfinder approach to small group...

Last night I served as a "guide" for our Pathfinder LoveDare group. Fourteen of us met in a private room at a local Chik-Fil-A (who knew CFAs even had private rooms?!).Do you know what was the best thing about the group? The Chicken Sandwich dinner with cole slaw as a...

We have an interesting bunch of pastors and leaders at Good Shepherd. You can see their pictures and read their bios here.Leading a group like this is full of the same kinds of highs and lows you experience with any family. Moments of great inspiration are often...

I've got a tough funeral on Saturday. You can read the obituary here. James Odom was a good man whom I liked and depended on a lot.But we want to do justice to James' memory and bring honor to God with the funeral service. We've got our top music team taking part --...

I want to expand on yesterday's post because the issue of churches, fund raisers, and tithing is something that really gets my mind and my heart going.There are three primary reasons why we don't do fund raisers around here:Community Charles Kyker, a friend who...

This weekend I led a group through our First Step class, which is the vehicle for membership at Good Shepherd Church. It was a fun group, full of people of diverse ages, backgrounds, and expectations.But the group got the most energized when I told them about our...