I had dinner last night with six friends from Good Shepherd:Seated:  Chris Myers, Jason Handschumacher, and Erica Handschumacher.Standing:  Me, Nicole Jones, Michelle Scullock, and Mike Thompson.Most of the group had not met one another before we gathered...

I spent much of last week at the 2014 Western North Carolina Annual Conference Meeting of the United Methodist Church in scenic Lake Junaluska, NC.It's a yearly event -- think maybe that's why they call it the Annual Conference? -- that gathers about 2000 preachers...

Yesterday's third sermon in the "Head Scratchers" series was a lot of fun.It also served as a reminder of the kind of things we treasure at Good Shepherd.The sermon began, as all of them have in this series, with a innovative way to do the Scripture reading.  I...

Here's the rock in Caesarea Philippi in front of  which Jesus uttered the words:You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not overcome it.So what's all that about?  Peter, a rock, a cave. gates, or...

Thirty-five years ago this week -- June 16, 1979 -- I played the best tennis match of my life in winning the Texas State Championship for Boys' 18-and-under.I was 17 and was not favored to beat my 18-year-old opponent in the finals.  But it was one of those rare...

Just this week, Good Shepherd's very own Amber Carter was named the Valedictorian of Renaissance School Of Olympic High.  Amber has literally grown up in our church, preached for me last November, and this week is serving as a leader in our Vacation Bible...

In honor of the recent passing of Casey Kasem, today's Top Five Tuesday has a uniquely "keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars" feel about it:  Top Five Long Distance Dedications.Except these LDDs have a twist -- they all take place within...

Early Sunday morning, I tweeted out these words:Discovering that the less Methodist a #umc church looks, the more Wesleyan it becomes.A number of my friends in the Twitterverse asked me to "explain" or "unpack" or "elaborate" . . . none of which are you really able to...

Oh, c'mon Jesus.  "Hate your father and mother"?!Why would you use such inflammatory language?And why would a church EVER choose to use such a reading as the basis of its message on Father's Day?And what in the world could any of this have to do with my living...

You're all familiar with how political cartoonists create caricatures of our presidents.  Caricatures have a way of emphasizing the part and thereby obscuring the whole.For example, in the hands of political cartoonists, Richard Nixon became little more than a...