We had a houseguest last night: Claude Kayler, Good Shepherd's founding pastor. He was in Charlotte on Sunday evening before catching a Monday flight to Israel.Claude gave birth to the church in 1991 and led it until 1999. Today, he is the...
Defining Moments, Week 3 — Freeze Frame
Third Sundays are almost always the best around here.Why?That's when the raucous Good Shepherd worship choir leads our singing. I love their energy, their precision, even their black shirts and blue jeans.Here's what it looked like in September:...
What I Learned From A Day Of Reading Resumes
I spent a couple of hours on Wednesday going through some resumes & cover letters we received after posting a notice online about a job opening at Good Shepherd.While I have gone through this process several times over the last 15 years, yesterday's experience was...
Body Talk
A friend and I have been trying to read Paul's letter to the Colossians every morning for the last couple of weeks. Since the New Testament epistles were designed to be heard/read/experienced in one sitting, we thought we'd give it try that way.It proves to be...
Top Five Tuesday — The First Steps In A Next Steps
This past Sunday evening, I led Good Shepherd's first Next Steps group of 2014.We bill Next Steps as an "exploring membership" group at our church, and we devote about eight hours over four weeks to plumbing the depths of what it means to be a Christian, a United...
Better Video Than VH-1
We played this piece to open worship on Sunday:That video with those images will be the welcoming centerpiece of our Good Shepherd web site upgrade that we'll unveil over the next month or so.In the meantime, it sure makes me glad to be part of this remarkable...
Defining Moments, Week 2 — What’s At Stake
We want Defining Moments to be a defining moment in the life of this church.And in the lives of the people who go here.Because we believe something highly significant is at stake in what we're talking about.To find out what that is, come on Sunday.8:30. ...
Baptism: From The Tomb To The Womb
Yesterday, I gave some challenges to the Good Shepherd staff regarding baptism. And to lay out the foundation for that challenge, we looked at Romans 6:3-5: 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his...
Does God Interrupt A Blog Schedule?
Last night I wrote a blog to be published this morning.I wasn't crazy about it . . . it was a bit convoluted, could appear as if I was patting myself on the back, and addressed a subject of interest to only the smallest minority of my readers.But I went to the...
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Coldest Times Of My Life
In light of single digit temperatures here in usually-lovely Charlotte, I thought I'd post about the five coldest occasions of my life. Excluding today . . . which would probably make this list otherwise.5. That November snowstorm in Dallas in 1978. ...