In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, the title character has a dreaded and persistent opponent named Sanballat. And . . . we all have Sanballats in our lives.  Athletically, professionally, spiritually, and personally.  So how to deal with them?  Here are some...

I have been thinking about churches that have a publicly codified Statement Of Belief recently.  I even referred to one such statement on Sunday and had sent a link to ours to a new attender earlier in the week. So I want to devote this space today to explaining why...

I looked forward to the message all week. Now that's true most weeks, of course, but especially so for this past week.  Several staffers who had seen the message in advance told me they liked it, and, buoyed up as I am by words of affirmation, by Sunday I was ready to...

Here it is, our 2016 Christmas card:  

With apologies to my mother who taught me to read when I was four or five, and with all due respect to my undergraduate degree in English, I really did learn how to read in seminary. What I mean is that while at Asbury Seminary, I learned a method of close reading I...

I spent last Thursday and Friday in and around Montvale, New Jersey, a bucolic burg just minutes from the New York state line. Why? Because not only is Julie a preacher's wife, but I am a Vice-President's husband.  She is VP of sales for Pentax Medical USA with...

What do you get when you combine . . . A classic Union County saying, John's epic version of the Christmas story (don't blink or you'll miss it), A "stand up" invitation, and A John Piper (yes, UMCers!) inspired insight that he who had no beginning began everything?...

There have been a handful of mornings in ministry when I have had a strong desire to call in sick. Not on days that I've actually been sick, mind you. But days when the bed felt awfully warm. And there were some things on my schedule that I simply didn’t want to face....

Ann Patchett's novel State Of Wonder opens with this: The news of Ander Eckman’s death came by way of Aerogram, a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both the stationary and, when folded over and sealed along the edges, the envelope.  Who even knew they...

We had a wonderful night serving around Charlotte Sunday night for SRV CLT.  Good Shepherd and Steele Creek Church of Charlotte came together for the effort as we sent out 120 students, 35 adult leaders to 8 ministry locations.  Here are just a few of the things we...