Here I am, second from the left on the front row, as a freshman on the Highland Park High School tennis team in January of 1977. Why the sad face? Three reasons, at least: 1. I was a freshman. 2. The bangs. 3. The racket. I was using a Spalding World Open and, well,...
Our upcoming One Sixty-Seven series (Feb. 11 to March 4) will take place at the intersection of method and materials. Method The method for the series and its supporting LifeGroup project is something called Grab, Gather, Grow or G3. G3, which has been popularized by...
If you have spent any time on this page, or if you are a tennis friend of mine, you know that in recent years I have bemoaned the fact that modern men's tennis had become characterized by wars of attrition. By that I mean long matches, played exclusively from the...
Our Worship Arts Pastor Chris Macedo gave the message yesterday. Drawing on some relatively obscure Scriptures regarding the ark of the covenant, the tent of meeting, and the poles used to transport both, he reminded us that we are all presence carriers ... and yet...
We preachers spend a lot of time crafting the opening moments of our sermons. Or, if we don’t, we should. Because it is in those moments that you either capture your listeners’ attention or lose it. In the opening you either establish common ground with the...
I received this note from a new Good Shepherd Church friend recently. She hand wrote a note to thank me for ... a hand-written note. It's why we do the kinds of things we do at Good Shepherd. Massively small steps, each designed to make a large congregation feel like...
It's Australian Open time of year, which means tennis is on my mind even more than usual. And if you know anything about what I like in tennis, you know that I appreciate aesthetics more than almost anything else. It's why I admire the one handed backhands hit by...
Yesterday's message ... Was actually written in India, on my (relatively new) laptop, in November; Started at a landing point and then meandered through the rest of Psalm 55 to see how it arrived at that landing point; Pointed out that it's not only the verses of...
To get TO something, you have to go THROUGH something else. In the Carolinas, for example, to get TO thaw this week, we've had to go THROUGH storm. For this third week of Practicing The Presence, we are taking one of my favorite bible journeys ever. We'll see how...
Psalm 103:1-5 says this: Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit...