This is an unusual preaching week, which means it is also an unusual blogging week. Sunday's message in the Wait For It series was called Worth The Wait and I was delighted to see the impact it at on so many lives in our church. Then for Christmas Eve the series went...
“Wait For It” Week 4 — The “Worth The Wait” Sermon Rewind
Yesterday's message ... Came from Galatians 4:1-7, not a section of Scripture normally associated with Christmas; Celebrated how Paul reveals that family as much as forgiveness is at the heart of faith; Led to this bottom line: You can stop fighting for approval and...
Merry Christmas From Us 2018
HOW JOHN THE EVANGELIST WAS LIKE JOHN THE NOVELIST
One of my favorite novelists is John Irving. He's the author of books that are both critically acclaimed and wildly popular, such as The Word According To Garp, A Prayer For Owen Meany, and The Cider House Rules. Most Irving novels blend high hilarity, deep pathos,...
A Christmas Tree Ornament From Someone Who GETS Me
I found this ornament on my desk this week. And I thought: "There's someone who understands what makes me tick." It's an ornament based on the Wait For It Series. And it has my Sunday morning Breakfast Of Champions. What more could I want?
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Things I’d Want To Do If I Didn’t Preach
When I went to college, ministry was not on my mind. I had headed up north for school, recognizing that pro tennis was likely not going to work out, and therefore I should get a top notch education. After that? Law school is what I figured. My father had been a law...
Wait For It, Week 2 — “The Waiting Game” Sermon Rewind
Yesterday's message was ORIGINALLY supposed to be delivered last Sunday, December 9, but we of course were snowed out. Yet I knew we HAD to present this one. Why? Well, I liked the exegetical work on Jeremiah 33. I liked the metaphor of wood. I liked the bottom...
Wait For It, Week 2 — “The Waiting Game”
Many years ago while I was pastoring in Monroe, I had a UMC preacher friend who chose the most interesting time to pump her fist and say "Yeah!" When there was a snow-out. In those days, that meant that the sermon you prepared for this Sunday could be delivered next...
#TBT — This Was Us, 2002
This was us in 2002. Wonder what the card will be like sixteen years later?
How A 1993 Cassette Sermon Paved The Way For A 2018 Digital Church
Some dear friends from Good Shepherd handed me this cassette tape on a recent Sunday morning. When I was a young preacher in Monroe, North Carolina, the ministry of Lenny Stadler at Weddington United Methodist Church almost defied belief. Throughout the decade...