Have you noticed that over the last few weeks our world has changed? Not only that, but our language has changed with it. There are five words/phrases that barely existed three weeks ago, and now they govern our conversations. They have their own hashtags. Many of...
Yesterday's message ... Was delivered to a "studio audience" of 10 but a digital one of many more than that; Had a title inspired by something Ron Dozier mentioned during a quick video devotion last week; Was propelled by a lingering question: "what if you don't get...
Since there is no March Madness year, how's this throwback for that time for those of us with an alma mater in New Jersey, March was the maddest of them all. UCLA was the defending national champion, by the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYd9Tqiy-z8
As part of its ongoing Leadership Development process, the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church asked five of its preachers to answer five specific questions about the craft. The column released late last week, but may have been overlooked...
Lost among the upheaval of All Corona All The Time was yesterday's death of one our city's most dignified characters, Ty Boyd. He was 88. Here are five things you should know about this Charlotte legend: One. Boyd was the morning host on WBT radio from 1961 to 1973,...
With the surreality of our current situation which led to Livestream worship only, here's what we did: We recorded two welcomes -- one from April Portrais, our communications director, and one from me. Then we pointed to a sermon originally preached in the summer of...
Preachers: you don't want to walk people through a sermon outline. You want to take them on a sermon adventure. Crafting such an adventure requires tension, uncertainty, and intimacy. It also requires avoiding a couple of very common sermon killers. Let’s make sure...
In the photo below you will see our just-returned India 2020 mission team. From left are PR Misra (Indian host whose brother JR is a long time GSUMCer), James-Michael Smith, Brooke Presley, Linda Land, Anju Misra (PR's wife), Doug Berryhill, and Chris Thayer. Why did...
Yesterday's message ... Began with an anecdote from my father's early years in Akron, Ohio; Depended on the building block of "when it's your time at the judgment seat, no one will ask you what SOMEONE ELSE did with Jesus"; Used "Checkpoint Charlie" at the former...
Good Shepherd Church has been involved in the battle against human trafficking, and in particular what we called the rape-for-profit industry, since 2007. Motivated by what we had heard at a recent conference, we organized a single, stand alone Sunday called Not For...