So today we had a planning meeting to lay out the first Sunday morning message series of 2009.And as always happens, more and better ideas emerge out of that group than I could ever come up with on my own. Those meetings are why series like Oddballs and Loved have...

I love the way Galatians 4:4 puts it:"But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law . . . " (NASB).The "fulness of time" is our focus this Christmas season at Good Shepherd.The times we are in are unprecedented....

I bought some reading glasses yesterday.#*@#.I have just gotten tired of moving the morning paper or my current novel or my bible farther and farther away from my face to read.So I gave in and bought a pair of $6 reading glasses.You know what's the worst thing about...

Writing notes or letters by hand is fast becoming a lost art form. Almost a relic, like, well, like this letter signed by Abraham Lincoln. Except I do what I can to make sure that in our church culture at least, hand written notes become a recovered art form. That's...

Judges 17:6 says it this way:"In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."And when people do what is right in their own eyes . . . they usually end up doing wrong.What was the cause of the dilemma in Judges 17? A...

This is a picture of Eben Joseph Whisonant.He's in Vietnam now.Soon he'll be home in the Carolinas. Our very own Cathy Whisonant is there today, deeply involved in the process of adopting him. Shortly, she'll bring him home to his new family at Good Shepherd.Cathy is...

The hymn Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing has this puzzling line: "Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come . . ."What in the world is an Ebenzer? And how do you raise it?The men on our Into The Wild retreat at Camp Harrison found out this past...

I have posted before on the process of preaching without notes.While I wouldn't do it any other way, it does have its pitfalls.This past Sunday, for example, I knew that I was forgetting something late in the sermon. Because I remember things based on where they are...

I like sermons in which I have some things I'm a little bit scared to say.And when I'm giving that sermon in which I have some things I'm a bit scared to say and I am approaching the time in the sermon when it's time to say them, inside I'm like "I can't believe I'm...

Twice last week I posted on the influence of Chip and Dan Heath's Made To Stick on how we do ministry and communication at Good Shepherd. You can read about it here and here. Those posts talked about how effective communication is both simple and unexpected.And it is...