On Sunday night, I wrapped up Next Steps, a four week membership exploration class at Good Shepherd.It was a large group of people -- attendance hovered around 50 people or so -- who came from a variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds.At various points in...

As some of you know, I've been looking forward to the launch of The Shadow Of A Doubt for a long time.  And I had special anticipation for the first message in the series, "Believe It And Not."  I loved the story in question -- Mark 9:14-27.  I believe...

I am really looking forward to this new series The Shadow Of A Doubt.I like the series title.I like the series graphics.I like the way it follows up on Defining Moments.I like the worship art that we have supporting the sermons.I like the title of this week's...

I spent a couple of hours last evening with a remarkable collection of teenagers.They were part of our HalfWay House ministry, which meets at the Zoar Road Outreach Center each Wednesday night.Under the expert leadership of Devin Tharp, the students opened Scripture,...

Good Shepherd has always been an evangelical church.By that I mean that from its inception, the church has taken a strong stand on the core doctrines of Christianity's good news (that's literally was the evangel is -- good news) such as:* the divinity of...

The rock world is buzzing with U2's new song Invisible, released for free on iTunes on Super Bowl night.  You can read about it here.Do they take themselves too seriously?  Yes.  Does it sometimes take one transcendent song to rescue an otherwise...

I was looking for a way to wrap up yesterday's sermon called Scoreboard.  I was hoping for a compelling and personal way to remind people that "God's not keeping score.  He's saving a place."And then I remembered a testimony one of my friends from our Men's...

I am so grateful for Defining Moments.Which is ironic because I fought with it for the four weeks before it launched.  I'm glad the series won that fight.Because the concept connected.The fasting brought breakthrough.The "Sunday morning at the movies" tickets...

One of the many happy consequences of Stan Wawrinka winning last week's Australian Open was the message contained in the tattoo on the inside of his left forearm.(Before I return to the tattoo, some other of the "many happy consequences" of his win include: ...

Here's what our city looks like today:So what in the world can a preacher blog about on a day like this in Charlotte?Of course, we've certainly got it better than Atlanta where my daughter's commute home took five hours yesterday.Speaking of my daughter, she makes an...