Bubba Watson's tear-filled celebration upon winning this year's Master's sparked an internal question:  what are my favorite "cry" moments in sports?To make the list below, the tears must be those of victory, not of defeat.  They may well contain some...

If you ask most people who are even remotely connected to church life -- Methodist or otherwise -- "what is it that distinguishes the Methodist church from any other church?" you'll get answers that focus on the practices of our denomination as opposed to...

For this final message in Courageous, I'm moving out of the story of Joshua and his leadership of the messy family known as the children of Israel and moving into Paul and his leadership of the messy family known as the church at Colossae. And it's a topic that...

The first 2/3 of James 1:27 brings great comfort to those of us who believe in showing our faith through good deeds:"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from...

I've had a gnawing sense recently that churches in general and this church in particular need to take more care to avoid enabling unhealthy behaviors.With the best of intentions, we can reinforce behaviors and patterns in people that do much more harm than good.For...

Rock & roll and the piano have long had an uneasy relationship. With apologies to Jerry Lee Lewis, the genre has from its beginnings been driven almost exclusively by the combination of guitar and drums. If the piano or keyboard play any role in most rock songs,...

At Good Shepherd, we have a how that goes along with our what.The big what around here is our mission:  Inviting All People Into A Living Relationship With Jesus Christ.   We love those words and that focus.But in developing that mission, we also took...

For the first time ever, the blog is telling you not to come to church Sunday morning. Here's what's going on instead: To download the home worship resources, go to www.gsumc.org.

In the middle of a General Conference week, with all the built-in rancor of that event accelerated by social media commentary, it's easy to be critical of the Methodist family.My previous two posts have even been mild examples of such negativity.Yet something happened...

During our recent trip to India, an eager young theologian handed me a brochure describing his theological seminary.  The material noted with some pride that the school would graduate four students in 2012."Wow, that's small," I thought to myself.  But then...