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...

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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...

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#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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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