I was speaking with a young woman recently about her upcoming baptism.She had gone through our self-study guide -- a series of questions that takes the candidate through the bible to see what it and not church tradition actually says about baptism.Her answers and...

In honor of tomorrow night's Presidential Debate -- you know about it, right? -- I thought I'd take a trip down my own memory lane for today's Top Five.It's my five most personally memorable presidential elections.  Some of the decisions we made as a nation...

It was an interesting weekend in my family.First, my wife Julie had been given tickets to the Ryder Cup in Chicago.  So she took her father, Ted Munoz, up north where they spent Saturday following the likes of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker around the course at...

Lowlife is not just a Sunday series.It's Monday through Saturday as well.It's why we've had Lowlife Serving Options each Saturday of September as a way of being the message rather than just hearing the messages.This Saturday, for example, you can help either with a...

Think of all the things that get our double takes:Beautiful people.Sunsets on the beach.Sunrise on the beach.Mist rising from the mountains.The colors in a kaleidoscope.A city skyline at night.Beautiful people.And James throws in this line early in his sermon: ...

It happened again.Just this week a woman who was reluctant to come to a Methodist church because she had heard how theologically liberal the denomination has become . . . told me she decided Good Shepherd was the church for her when we lifted...

This past Saturday I watched a bit of the game between South Carolina and new-SEC-member Missouri.Along with new conference membership, Missouri has a new helmet design.  And it is just plain awful.My first thought was "what in the world is THAT on the...

Last night our new Clubhouse ministry got off to a roaring start.Fifty-three fourth and fifth graders plus nine volunteers equaled eighteen pre-teens making professions of faith in Christ for the first time.Along the way, they shared dinner together, heard from Ryan...

I'm eager to give this, my first message in the Lowlife series.It's called Keeping It On The DownLOW, it comes from Philippians 2:1-11, and I think you'll learn something new in it.  I know I did in preparing it.What is unique about Lowlife is the fact that we...

Julie and I had a recent conversation about her time as a high school sophomore in Southbury, Connecticut.But I realized during our talk that I had no concept of where within Connecticut you could actually find Southbury.(Even worse, I realized I couldn't place the...