A lot of you know this already, but I'll repeat it again: I love the Steele Creek section of Charlotte. We've lived in the same house since our arrival at Good Shepherd in 1999, and I like almost everything about this unique corner of our region. Yet I have been...
A Spontaneous Sermon Rewind
How do you have a "written" sermon rewind of a sermon that you never wrote? How can you recap a message that had a spontaneous delivery, far from the norm of an internalized message stemming for a carefully prepared manuscript? Well, two friends from social media...
#TBT — When We Were Young And They Were Younger
Riley and Taylor, summer, 1995. Sandestin Resort, Destin, Florida. Two tan kids. Very tan. And two grateful parents who in many ways got better than we deserve.
How Me And The Boss Are Bros
Several years ago, I read Peter Ames Carlin’s biography of Bruce Springsteen. And in reading it, I discovered something I share in common with him. Not guitar talent. Not singing voice. Not ability to write lyrics. Not even time in New Jersey — my seven years pale in...
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five “I Want To Preach Like …”
Occasionally I will hear or see or read people in other disciplines of either art or communication or sports and think to myself: "That's the way I'd like to preach ..." So here are five. One. I'd like to preach like Jason Isbell writes songs. Personal,...
I Pity The Fool, Week 2 — The “Now Or Later” Sermon Rewind
Yesterday's message ... Acknowledged that most of us are NOW people, not LATER people; Dug into Proverbs' strange command to "consider the ant"; Gave a not-so-friendly shout out to state lotteries; Landed at this bottom line: Fools want to be DELIVERED while the...
#TBT — May 1980 Which Makes It FORTY YEARS AGO
The school was Highland Park High School and our nickname was the Scots. That's why the school newspaper was called The Bagpipe. My best friend was the co-editor our senior year and so maybe he's the one who wrote the caption. I think I was pretty skillful in...
Saved By Works
Wait, what? Why would I, a preacher in the Christian, Protestant, Methodist tradition, title a blog post "Saved By Works"? Is not our faith defined this way:"by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by...
Why Use Words When You Can Smith Them?
Some preachers use words. Other preachers smith them. One of my growing edges in ministry over the last decade or so has been to abandon the former and embrace the latter. Smithing words is especially important when, in a one point sermon, you craft the bottom...
A Mother’s Day Gift Birthed On Easter
This Mother's Day gift is one of my favorite things ever. Here's why. During my Easter Sunday message, I lamented how difficult it is to represent the empty tomb artistically. The cross is much easier and as a result we have crosses that adorn our churches and...