Julie and I spent last weekend in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where our daughter Taylor married Nate Underwood.  After a honeymoon in Cancun, the couple will reside in the Crieve Hall section of Nashville. But here's an illustrated look at a wedding by the numbers. About...

As a lot of you know, I am seldom away from the Good Shepherd pulpit. Yesterday was one of those days. I felt my daughter's wedding in Nashville, Tennessee, was a good reason to miss. So I asked Ron Dozier, our Pastor Of Missions & Community Impact, to open up our...

Here I am as a senior in high school, on the far left of the picture, with Brad Stoffel and his high school tennis coach, Bill Fleming. I'm posting this today because tomorrow, November 2, is Brad's 57th birthday.  (And also because I miss all that blond hair.) Why do...

We've all had it: relational pain. Angry words.  Intentional oversight.  Passive aggression.  Triumphant emails.  Ended friendships. Whether you are naturally wired to pursue confrontation or avoid it, the end result is the same  -- a relationship that had been at the...

I recently finished Michael Corcoran's The Game Of The Century, a behind-the-scenes look at the Nebraska-Oklahoma game played on Thanksgiving Day, 1971. (Side note: I was playing in a tennis tournament called the Oak Cliff Thanksgiving Classic on that day.  I remember...

Yesterday's message ... Was the first time in forever that I pulled out a message on Monday, began the process of rehearsing/internalizing it, realized that I did not like it one bit, and started over almost from scratch.  I can hardly tell you how unusual this was. ...

I saw this among some old photos recently:   Our local micro-newspaper, The Park Cities News, had a series of profiles on local athletes and, as a rising junior in high school, I qualified. I love the accuracy of the hindsight:  the family information is correct,...

We Methodists have an odd phase: "a heart strangely warmed." It comes from a seminal moment in John Wesley's personal journal when he recounts a spiritual experience on Aldersgate Street in London in May of 1738: About a quarter before nine, while [a teacher on the...

Yesterday's message led to this immediate response from a Good Shepherd friend: I love how once again you were talking to me (because it's about me lol) this morning and pulling be back in.  As if you are reaching out for my hand and saying "get back here".  I heard...

This is always been one of my favorite photos, and I brought it back home after my recent Austin trip: I'm on the right, holding the football and not looking at the camera.  To my right (left on the photo) is my best friend at the time, Davie Baird.  He was also the...