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...

The United Methodist Church's quadrennial General Conference is currently meeting in Tampa, Florida. The gathering of 1,000 or so delegates from around the world began on April 24 and will conclude on Friday, May 4. This body is the only one who can speak officially...

During yesterday's message, I shared these insights on fatherhood from Cal Ripken, Jr.: Growing up “I love you” wasn’t’ spread around too much in our household. Not that it wasn’t meant. I could tell every time my dad told me he loved me without saying it. It’s just...

So far in Courageous, we've seen that . . . .Cowards have good intentions. The courageous take bold action.What you hide in order to have will haunt you.So what will it be this Sunday, April 29 as we dig into Courageous Legacy?I can't wait to tell you. But I will...

James 1:22 is one of the more familiar verses in Scripture.  I love how the King James version translates it:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.We get the "doers of the word" part -- most of us Methodist are more than...

The ministry in India didn't stop just because Chris Thayer, James-Michael Smith, and I came back home. In fact, you could say it's advancing better than ever. Our partners in the Love Your Neighbor Ministry, located in the territory where Christians have been...

I've been to some pretty nice sporting events in my time. I've been to the U.S. Open tennis tournament (of course). I've been to the Cotton Bowl. I've been to the Charlotte Coliseum and then when it became "out of date" at the tender age of 14, I went to Time Warner...

We showed this as a lead in to yesterday's sermon:: The piece was conceived, written, art-directed, and recorded by people from within the Good Shepherd community. It helped reinforce the message's main idea: What you hide in order to have will haunt you. I suspect...

Here's what we have over the next four days, a schedule about which we're not ashamed:Thursday, April 5 from 7 - 9 p.m.: Spring Breakthrough Closing Party at the Corner Campus, complete with surprise guest.Friday, April 6 from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.: Good Friday Prayer...