This one was different. Instead of following the ME-WE-GOD-YOU-WE format inspired by Andy Stanley, yesterday's message began with the text itself, Luke 22:47-51.  Actually, it began with the texts before the text, exploring how Luke 22:36-38 and 39-45 put swords and...

We've got . . . Swashbucklin' Sword swingin' Ear choppin' Jesus lovin' all in store for this Sunday. In a story that makes so much more sense when you know the story behind it, we seeing what Jesus "finishes" next as he heads to the ultimate "It is finished" moment....

It's the fall of 1994.  Taylor has just started kindergarten. Riley has just turned two. I like wearing pleated khaki slacks and plaid short sleeve shirts. Julie, apparently, is the photograher. We're in the Mt. Carmel parsonage in what remains one of our family's...

This may be wishful thinking and it is admittedly anecdotal, but I’ve noticed a shift in the kinds of new people coming into the life of Good Shepherd these days. In earlier seasons of this church’s life, we seemed to get a lot of people who were looking for “a better...

I remember that time several years ago when I told a friend I wasn't sure I'd still be in ministry once I turned 55 because I didn't think I'd still have anything of value to contribute to the church or to the world. Wooops.  I'm now 55.  And a half.  55.5 if you're...

I thought I was really going to miss The Path Of Most Resistance. But I guess I don't. This message hit home with a lot of folks, and, coupled with some dynamic musical responses, proved to be an entree for people to enter into a living relationship with Jesus Christ....

Finished Business While hanging on the cross and in the throes of death, Jesus called out: “It is finished.” But just what got “finished” in that moment?  What was completed in the last week of Jesus’ life on earth that could not have been accomplished any other way?...

Some random, disconnected thoughts on the first Thursday of March Madness . . . . At Good Shepherd, we have to take care that we don't "brand the bullets & forget to brand the gun"; which means, as one expert told us, don't spend so much time promoting individual...

I spent the last couple of days in what's called The Triangle of North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill), leading a cadre of students from the Duke Divinity School in a workshop called Sermons That Pop & Series That Stick. Wha-what?! The reason that is...

Time change Sunday. Snow storm Sunday. But not so much snow we'd cancel church; just enough so that attendance would be dramatically impacted (halved). So what do you do? Give the people who show the best you got. And I like the message a lot as it takes Romans...