Getting From Written Manuscript To Preached Sermon

Here is "Page 2" from last week's "Shame Off You" sermon from the Bouncebackers series. What?  And what is the deal with all that purple? Well, here goes: each week, after about 12-15 hours of studying, scribbling, and outlining, I write out a nine page, 2,000 word...

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Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Scriptures On Eternal Life

While it can be dangerous to attach too much importance to single verses of Scripture — thereby yanking them out of context — nevertheless there is something so powerful about certain sentences in the bible. Especially those that speak of eternal life. These are the...

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#TBT — Destin, Florida, 1995

In the summer of 1995, Julie and I took Taylor (then five) and Riley (then two) to a beach in Destin, Florida for vacation. We (I) chose the particular vacation property because one of its attractions was grass tennis courts.  If I remember correctly, I found an...

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How One Book Led To Another …

Back in 2014, I led a number of Good Shepherd LifeGroups through Sandy Richter's Epic Of Eden study. And here is a photo of notes I took from the reading assignment of Week 11, Day One: That day's reading involved an overview of the Old Testament book of Judges.  And...

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Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Things I’d Do Differently

As a lot of you know, I'm 55. That means I have 10-12 years left of full-time ministry. (Ironically, I confessed to someone recently that ten years AGO I had befriended a guy who is a corporate speech coach, and somewhere in the back of my mind was the idea that I...

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Guest Musician At Good Shepherd

During Sunday's 11:30 worship gathering, I looked to my left and there saw this little boy, Jacob, along with his mother.   Jacob had to sit on the front row because he had to be able to see the guitarists and play along with them with the axe he brought. So...

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When You Meet The AUTHOR Of The Book You’re Reading

I am currently leading two LifeGroups through The Rewritten Life, a short-term bible study written by Jessica LaGrone. Rev. LaGrone is the Dean Of The Chapel of Asbury Seminary (my alma mater) and has a way of writing that is simultaneously profound and approachable....

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