I saw this picture and fell in love with it. It's some of our Good Shepherd students praying over the seats in the moments before Sunday night Connect. They touch and pray over every seat in the house, asking God to fill the teenagers who sit in the...
A lot of you know this, but here goes: I am the eighth of eight children. No blending. All biological. All Davis, all the time. I am also quite a bit younger than the rest, as #1 was 23 when I was born and #7 was seven. He (#7) went off to college when I was 12,...
What a day. The soft launch of our Zoar Campus. Meaning, the first day that a sermon of mine would be broadcast to a video venue of Good Shepherd. So I was extra nervous at 8:30, because that's the sermon Zoar will use. But . . . it was also Spring Forward Sunday,...
Solve: Finding God's Solutions In A World Of Problems is coming soon. I know it's coming soon because just yesterday I sent the final edits to Abingdon Press who will then zip them into production and . . . PRESTO! The book itself will be available on May 17, 2016....
On Monday night of this week, our own Devin Tharp asked me to spend some time with the Student Leadership Team of Good Shepherd Student Ministries. He asked me to talk to a group of leaders. About leadership. Now: those of you who know me well know that I don't read...
This past Friday, my 23-year-old son Riley came home to Charlotte so that he and I could attend a Jason Isbell concert at Ovens Auditorium together. Who? In trying to answer that question over the last several days, I realized: Isbell is what Flannery O'Connor would...
After yesterday's message I got a note from a colleague thanking me for "teaching people to understand the narrative through the lens of the narrator." I consider that really high praise. In this case, my friend was remarking on the fact that the questions we bring to...
When is a miracle not a miracle? When one word changes everything. When will you learn what that one word is? Sunday. 8:30. 10. 11:30 in English. 11:30 Latino.
For a couple of isolated yet lengthy chunks of time on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was working on a sermon. (OK, I was working way ahead, on one of the later sermons in the upcoming The Light At The Beginning Of The Tunnel series. This one will be called "Final Light.")...
On two occasions this week, I received vivid reminders that people are always listening -- regardless of age, education, or even apparent interest level. First, I had lengthy phone conversation with a young man who literally grew up in Good Shepherd and is now a...