Over the years, I've attended more than a few meetings during which I became . . . disengaged.Usually, but not always, these are denominational affairs.  If it's not Methodist, then it usually covers something I'm not very adept at or familiar with.Sometimes I...

If you have been to Good Shepherd for more than five minutes, you have heard the church's mission statement:Inviting All People Into A Living Relationship With Jesus Christ.Thanks to our friend Will Mancini, we chose every word in that sentence with great care, as...

There is no Fall Bazaar at Good Shepherd.No bake sales.We're not a hot dog church.No barbecues, yard sales, or pumpkin patches. We don't even operate as a consignment store one weekend a year.In fact, not only do we not do extra-curricular fund raisers, I go further...

Preaching at Good Shepherd really is an incredible privilege.Not only because of the size and style and multi-cultural demographics, as great as all those blessings are.An even greater privilege rests in the the freedom the people of the church give me to explore some...

I'm putting all of me into "All Of Me."Meaning:  my most thorough preparation, most serious prayer, and most honest question -- "can I really say these things?"  Of all the Love Song messages, this one more than any other deals with those sections in the...

Here's my family from a 1999 Good Shepherd Pictorial Directory (sorry, Olan Mills, but does anyone even do those anymore?).  We had been here in Charlotte and at this church for about two months when this photo was taken.In the photo our son Riley was seven; he...

Pastor Dave Claassen posted these words back in 2013:There’s been a subtle name change going on with the space where pastors work. What used to be called the pastor’s study is now called simply the pastor’s office. Why?More and more the pastor is called upon to do...

Back in the era of "album rock" (may he rest in peace), they used to call them "album cuts."  More recently, "deep cuts."More plainly, "songs you've never heard of from artists you have."What am I talking about?  Songs that make up the bulk of individual...

As some of you know, I have a Twitter account (@talbotdavis).So on this Monday, I thought it might be helpful to scan through some of my tweets from the previous week and what those particular 140 characters show about my state of mind at the time.  Here goes . ....

 What role does any kind of higher love play in marital love?What place, if any, does shared faith play in strong marriages?And -- here's the most interesting thing -- how can a church have a message about marriage that's geared in many ways to people who are...