Here's the cliché:   But here's the reality:  many of us do a much better job of dwelling on the dark cloud than the silver lining surrounding it. Is that you? Because what interests me most this week is the correlation between our obsessive thoughts and our...

If you are even a casual follower of the sports landscape, you know that the French Open tennis tournament is currently taking place in Paris. In fact, as of this writing, it looks for all the world like Novak Djokovic is on his way to claiming his first title on the...

There are some things in life that, no matter how often you do them, never get old.  It's almost like every time feels like the first time. That's especially true of many facets not only of ministry at Good Shepherd, but life in our little corner where Mecklenburg and...

I am pretty sure I had more fun preaching yesterday's sermon than any I've ever preached before. I had a title I love -- "A Dirty-Minded Church." We sang some of my favorite songs, including "Not To Us" and "Jesus Paid It All." I got to follow an announcement from our...

  It's an understatement to say I'm looking forward to what will happen Sunday. We've got: One of my favorite sermon titles ever, "A Dirty-Minded Church."  And it has nothing to do with what you think it has to do with. My friend Chris Macedo leading us in song...

Earlier this week I learned some thing from my friend Todd McMichen who works with our friends at Auxano. Todd pointed out the similarities -- and differences -- between bumper cars . . . . . . and roller coasters. (By the way, that is the new Fury 325 at Carowinds.)...

Every United Methodist pastor and teacher should read page 140 of Thomas Oden's A Change Of Heart.  I'm not much for "oughts" and "need to" . . . but I really, truly believe all of us in Wesley's tribe ought to read this page of this memoir. Here are some of Oden's...

At one point during the Memorial Day weekend, Julie asked me, "is there any place you've never been that you'd like to see?" And, of course, that question -- asked on Memorial Day -- got me thinking about those national landmarks that for a variety of factors I have...

This sermon's title comes from a man in Monroe, North Carolina named Buster Broome.  Buster died about 10 years ago or so, but before that he was a carpenter with an uncommon level of common sense, and I was his pastor for nine years at Mt. Carmel Church in that small...