ThanksLiving Launch — “Thunderstruck”

Thanksgiving.  It’s what we do.  We travel, we gather, we pray, we eat, we watch football, we sleep, and then we prepare for Christmas.  It’s the same year after year. But ThanksLiving?  It’s not what we do.  It’s who we are.  Or, in the case of Good Shepherd Church,...

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Look Intently At WHAT?!

Think of all the things that get our double takes: Beautiful people. Sunsets on the beach. Sunrise on the beach. Mist rising from the mountains. The colors in a kaleidoscope. A city skyline at night. Beautiful people. And James throws in this line early in his...

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Sing To The King …

Matthew Bates' Salvation By Allegiance Alone has been a mind-bending, soul-shaping, and preacher-salivating read for me over the last few weeks. Here's the thesis in a nutshell: It's a Gospel that starts with Jesus instead of me and culminates more with a Savior who...

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Bringing The Tangible To An Increasingly Intangible World

I still buy books and CDs.  Books you can touch and CDs you place in a player. My children (28 and 25) consider it almost inconceivable that I buy music in CD format and books in bound format.  To them, music & books are what you download, and I’m wasting time,...

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“I Felt Like A Pastor Today … “

Throughout the years, I have told a number of Good Shepherd staffers that as much as I love planning and preparing sermons as well as leading LifeGroup conversations, there come times when I simply have "to feel like a pastor today." By that I mean the urgency to...

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Pastoring To Preach Or Preaching To Pastor?

Years ago, I heard a clergy-coaching-type ask a rather provocative question of a group of us: Do you pastor so that you can preach or do you preach so that you can pastor? Meaning:  as one who leads a local church, do you provide a ministry of presence in people's...

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