Preaching Without Notes

Still in Moscow. But posting from Charlotte a week earlier.

I'll be returning on Friday, August 1. And I'll preach on Sunday the 3rd, continuing our series Things Jesus Never Said. Did you know that he never said, "I came to bring peace on earth"??? This Sunday you'll see what he really did say

A lot of you have asked how it is that I give messages like the one coming up without using any notes. Since this is a week that really challenges that process (spending the week either in Russia or on the plane coming home), this is a good time to answer.

Getting up and giving a message without notes involves the following:

• Working way ahead. I am usually working on sermons a month in advance. For example, the next one I need to prepare is for September 7 -- the first one in a cool new series called Heroes.
• Preparing a manuscript. I do actually write it out. I spend a lot of time studying, scribbinng, searching, and then when everything is ready, I type it up on the computer. Nine pages, double spaced. Yes, I'm OCD about it. Remember -- the manuscript I write in a given week is for a sermon that will be delivered about a month later.
• Going over the manuscript for the coming Sunday every morning at home before I come to the office. If my schedule doesn't allow it in the early morning, I'll go over it at some point later in the day. By the time I stand up at 8:30 on Sunday morning, I've already gone over it at least six times, usually making some changes along the way.
• A bizarre memory aid with tiny writing on a note card that people on the staff can let you know about. It's almost like taking notes on my notes. Weird but it works.
• Pray especially hard on Saturday. I have a list of other preachers that I pray for on Saturday but I generally don't forget myself!
• Have a least one thing in that message that I just can't wait to say. Either because it is bold or controversial or a deeply held belief. There has to be that one moment -- and hopefully more -- that gets my adrenaline going.

Hey -- I think the one coming for Sunday has several of those moments. It better, since it will be travelling with me from Russia with love.

Live (Sort Of) From Moscow

Because of the miracle of "post options" -- I wrote this on July 22 but it is published on the 28th -- I am in Moscow, Russia as you read this.

Eight of us from Good Shepherd have joined with Jon and Sonnet Barr, longtime missionaries with United World Mission. You can read about the Barrs and their ministry -- now called "The Exchange" -- here. Way back in 1999-2001, Jon and Sonnet were based in Charlotte and we were happy to have them call Good Shepherd home.

Our Moscow team is one of three GS short term mission teams this summer. Sixteen folks are at the Jubilee Children's Center in Nairobi, Kenya. I went on this trip in both 2004 and 2006. While there, the team will lead the children in Vacation Bible School, train the on-site teachers, and help with light construction projects.

The third team consists of ten people travelling to Bulgaria to partner with our missionaries Tony & Amy Myers. That team will also export GS Vacation Bible School as well as helping with church planting ministries.

So: 34 people from Good Shepherd living out the truth that Authority Sends. Check Matthew 28:18-20 and you'll see what I mean.

I don't know how much web access I'll have in Moscow, so this might be my first light week on the blog. Check back tomorrow!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

Jesus never said keep using the same old wineskins.

He never said that following him would routine, predictable, or safe.

He never said his church would remain the same.

He never wanted us to confuse the form of the faith -- worship style, bible translation, denominational affiliation -- with the faith itself. Forms change and evolve, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That's what we'll explore together on Sunday.

Anjie Carpenter leading in worship and Rebecca Grayson bringing a message. All while I'm in Russia.

8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

The Nicest Thing My Mom Ever Said

I mentioned in a post last week that I am the youngest of eight children. I also explained that I am 23 years younger than the oldest Davis and seven years younger than the #7 child. In other words, an only child with seven brothers and sisters.

Being that much younger than everyone else -- and the fact that my mom was 46 and my dad was 50 when I was born -- led me to assume that I was, um, accidental.

So one time a few years ago I was with my mother in a public setting and we were talking with some acquaintances about the unique circumstances of my birth. I said to this person, "I was a mistake."

My mom quickly answered, "No, not a mistake at all. A pleasant surprise."

And that's the nicest thing she has ever said to me . . . so far.

Do your children or grandchildren know that there is no mistake in their being on this planet and in your life? Do they know they are "pleasant surprises"?

If they don't, they should.

Bishop Making, Bishop Moving

As I mentioned in this post, I spent much of last week at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church, held in Lake Junaluska, NC. I was actually elected as a reserve delegate to the Conference, so it was an honor to go.

The Southeastern Jurisdiction of the UMC covers the states from Kentucky over to Virginia, down through Florida, over to Mississippi and then back up through Tennessee to Kentucky again. You can read more about the jurisdiction here. The SEJ Conference meets every four years and its primary role is to elect and assign bishops.

What is a bishop in the United Methodist Church? They are specially consecrated pastors who are given oversight responsibility for a large region of Methodist churches. Once elected, a bishop no longer serves a local church but becomes the pastor to all the pastors in a given region.

The bishop for the Western North Carolina Conference, for example, has spiritual responsibility for the 1100 UMCs in the western half of our state as well as the 1500 or so pastors who serve them. Bishops are -- in theory at least -- responsible for teaching, guarding, and promoting the core doctrines of our faith.

At this year's Jurisdictional Conference, we in Western North Carolina received a new bishop, Rev. Larry Goodpaster. That's "Goodpaster," not "GoodPastor." You can read about him here. For the last eight years he has been the Bishop in the Alabama-West Florida region of our church. By all accounts, he did an excellent job there. He describes some of that conference's accomplishments in his recent book, There's Power In The Connection.

It seems like all of us who represented Western North Carolina were happy with this assignment. I'm not sure what direct impact this will have on Good Shepherd itself, but I sense that this new bishop is the right person at the right time for Methodists in our area.

Stay tuned.

Names

So we started Things Jesus Never Said yesterday. To find out more about the series, check here.

The best moment in our gathering was at the very end. And not because it was time to leave.

We had asked the people of the church to email us the names of those people who had been instrumental in leading them to faith. As soon as we sent out the emails, names began pouring in.

Our video friend Joe Jackson then did an extraordinary job making a video out of all the names we received. So the sermon closed with a visual reminder of the fact that people were sent to us. Jesus' authority sends us with love to other people in the same way people were at some point sent to us. You can listen to the sermon here.

Here's the video, one of the best ones we've ever had around this place.



I love it on Sundays when things turn out exactly as I had envisioned a month before. This was definitely one of those times.

Things Jesus Never Said

Say good-bye to Confessions Of A Pastor.

And hello to Things Jesus Never Said.

For the next six weeks, we'll explore what Jesus really did say by first looking at his words from the perspective of the absurd: what he didn't say.

You know, he never said . . .

Stay right where you are and make disciples of people just like you
Keep using the same wineskins
I've come to bring peace on earth
The harvest is small and the workers are plenty . . . so have a beer and relax!
Store up for yourself treasures on earth
Always give in public and make sure your picture gets taken

Seeing those absurdities will allow us to hone in on what he really said. And really meant.

And this Sunday is going to be so cool. You won't believe what we're going to do with all the names so many of you sent in last week. Just wait. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30

Thrive Alive At Plaza Fiesta

As I mentioned here, our first Thrive Alive outreach event at RiverGate Shopping Center was a roaring success.

This weekend, Thrive Alive is at it again.

On Saturday, July 19 from 6-8 p.m., the band and supporting team will be at the Plaza Fiesta mall near Carowinds. If you've never been, Plaza Fiesta is a lot of fun -- Latin flavored shops and restaurants, hundreds of people milling around, and the largest indoor playground in the Southeast.

They also invite music acts to play each weekend.

This Saturday is our turn. We'll rock the place. And guess what? I am going to give a very brief talk -- in Spanish. Pray for that one, will you?

See you Saturday.

Asbury Fan

I am in Lake Junaluska, NC for a few days this week at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church. You can read about it here.

Any time I am around this many Methodists, I invariably think about Asbury Seminary. Graduating from that school shaped my Methodist identity more than anything else.

There are so many ways that what I learned at that school and what it stands for influences the way we do church at Good Shepherd. Things you might take for granted, like

• lifting the bible before the sermon,
• giving 15% of the church's offerings to missions,
• using modern music to reach people who otherwise might not go to church, and
• putting our very best efforts into funeral ministries.

all stem from the Asbury experience and Asbury's influence.

I can only hope that same experience and influence will help this Conference make good decisions. I'll let you know.

Family Weddings

This past weekend, I met with my nephew (Paul) and his fiance (Sarah Beth).

I get to deliver the homily/sermonette/marriage charge at their wedding in August.

Doing weddings for family members is a job hazard in the ministry. Over the years, I've done weddings for my brother, my brother-in-law, and now my nephew. I guess it doesn't happen quite as often as getting asked to pray before a family or church meal (always), but it happens.

But that's OK. Back in the day, I used to get all stressed over weddings. I'd try and make the couples jump through all kinds of hoops to see if they met my "criteria" for performing the service. All that did was frustrate the couples and create more anxiety for me. I also found out that my criteria had no real relation to the long term success of the marriage anyway.

So no more. These days, I do my best to share the bible's view of marriage with the engaged couple and then simply enjoy the chance to get to know them better. I also try my best to make the wedding as stress-free as possible for all involved.

Having said that, I generally believe that couples ought to spend a lot more time thinking about and planning the marriage than they do thinking about and planning the wedding.

After talking with Paul and Sarah Beth, I believe they'll do just that.

Eight Is Enough

I attended a memorial service on Saturday. The father of someone in our church died, and I believe those are times a pastor gets to show someone in grief that the entire congregation is behind them. So I went as a worshipper but not the funeral leader that day.

You can see my beliefs on funerals and grieving here.

Anyway, I discovered that the man whose life we were remembering had had eight children! That's not something you see every day.

Except I see it every day. Because I am the youngest of eight children. I'm like way younger than everyone else -- our oldest was 23 years older than me and #7 in the family is seven years older than me. When #7 went to college and left home, I was 12.

(Actually, #7 has a name and a career and quite a life; you can meet him here.)

With him (#7, Clayton) leaving home when I was 12, you know what that means? For most of my adolescence and teen years, I was an only child. With seven brothers and sisters.

That explains all my hang ups.

Adjusting My Attitude

Confessions Of A Pastor comes to a close this Sunday. We had so much fun with it that we extended the series a week from its original design!

OK, there were some other reasons as well. But of all series to extend, this seemed like the one.

So my last confession has to do with my attitude. It can be bad. Cynical. Suspicious. Sarcastic (see Wednesday's post). Negative.

Sound familiar? Does it sound like your attitude?

Come for a big attitude adjustment on Sunday. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Thrive Alive

So we had our first Thrive Alive at the Rivergate Shopping Center this past Saturday. We have changed our Saturday Thrive worship service into an outreach event. We're taking the band on the road to four different venues in the Steele Creek area this summer.

Anyway, the debut was was even better than we expected. And we expected it to be good. The good people of Good Shepherd descended on RiverGate, supported the band, bought tons of Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, and used the time and space to invite new people into the life of the church. At any given time on Saturday night, there were about 400 people surrounding the band and central water fountain.

And the best thing . . . some of the folks who had their first exposure to the church through Thrive Alive were in church the next morning.

Here are some images, courtesy of Amy Hutchinson:

The Band from behind, giving you a small slice of the crowds gathered 'round:




And the Band from the front:


People of all ages enjoyed the show:



The next Thrive Alive is on Saturday, July 19 from 6-8 p.m. at the Plaza Fiesta Center near Carowinds.

The Spiritual Gift Of Sarcasm

One of my favorite people once said in a sermon, "Sarcasm is a spiritual gift and I have it."

I do, too.

It's been part of the way I talk and the way I laugh for years. I vividly remember a whole group of us in middle school who used "opposite talk" for everything.

But through the years in ministry, there have been several occasions in which my sarcasm has wounded people. What I have thought was light-hearted or funny others have interpreted as painful or insulting. Sarcasm quickly becomes a weapon . . . even when it's not meant that way.

So I have been trying to live out a principle: if there is any question of how someone will take a comment I think is funny, I probably shouldn't say anything at all.

Because in the big picture, I want my words to heal and not to hurt.

Something For Nothing For Something

Back in June, I had a couple of posts (here and here) about why we don't do fund raisers at Good Shepherd Church.

But I neglected to include what is perhaps the most important reason why churches should do no fund raisers other than the weekend offering.

Here it is. Ready?

When we use fund raisers to generate income for the church, we are teaching people that they give in order to get something in return. It's like "I'll give some money to the church and in return I'll get a barbecue dinner, a halloween pumpkin, and some pine straw to boot!"

That's the opposite of biblical giving. When we give according to the Scriptural pattern, we give something with the expectation of getting nothing in return. Nothing tangible, that is.

Because didn't Jesus say something about the intangibles of giving? "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 12:20)

Wimbledon & Life

You know something extraordinary happened when tennis was the lead story on SportsCenter.

Yesterday's Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was the first one I have seen "live" in the 19 years I have been preaching full time. I'm usually at church while "Breakfast At Wimbledon" is on. But this year, rain delays pushed the finish back to the late afternoon, U.S. time. So I was able to finish preaching in the morning and then watch the match live from London when I got home.

If I only get to see something every 19 years, it better be good. And this one was. Even though I wanted Federer to win. There were enough moments of high drama, shifts of momentum, and demonstrations of incomprehensible skill to last me another 19 years.

What is it about sporting events that draws us in like that? After all, I don't like or play golf -- yet I watched most of this year's U.S. Open where Tiger Woods won on a bum knee. Why are we riveted to those kinds of occasions?

I believe it's because sports competition magnifies those qualities that are hidden in most of us: courage and fear, strength and weakness, honor and deceit, innovation and predictability. For better and for worse, athletes' inner selves get put on display when they compete.

Yesterday, there was a whole lot of "better" and not much "worse."

What gets exposed when you enter into competition?

4th of July & Thrive Alive

I still remember the Bicentennial -- July 4, 1976. I was 14 and it was an enormous celebration. You can read about it here.

Since I remember it so well, it means I'm old.

It also means we still have a lot to be thankful for. Primarily for the boldness and courage of those who've come before us.

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One of the freedoms we celebrate today includes the freedom of expression.

That's why I'm so excited about tomorrow night. We take our Thrive ministry "on the road" for the first of its Thrive Alive engagements.

The first one is at RiverGate Shopping Center, in between Cold Stone Creamery and BT's Burger Joint. The band will rock and the people of the church will have chances to make connections with the Steele Creek Community. This is one of the best ways we've come up with yet for "high touch, low threat" evangelism.

You can read more about Thrive Alive here.

Come and be part of something really big and really good.

Confessions Continue

This is Week Five of Confessions Of A Pastor.

This week's confession has to do with despair. I struggle with it.

So do most pastors.

I think there is a connection between the last two weeks. The same kind of people who are obsessed with appearances often wrestle with despair. When things don't look right or go right, the perfectionists among us really have a hard time.

That probably includes you.

This Sunday, see how my confession is your confession. And my hope is your hope.

8:30, 10:00, 11:30.

Grass Court Tennis & The What Ifs

So it's Wimbledon this week. It's hard to be at work when there's grass court tennis going on.

Back in the day, grass courts suited my game better than any other surface. Grass courts tennis rewards hard serves and aggressive play, both of which were my strengths. Grass courts don't favor people who can play consistently and run forever . . . but I never could do either of those anyway.

Well, I remember a match in the National 18-And-Under Grass Court Championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (I know its weird, but there really was a grass court tennis club in the middle of Tuscaloosa, Alabama) in 1979. In the Round of 16, I had a match point on a highly ranked player -- meaning that if I won one more point I'd be in the final eight. On match point, I played a bit defensively, he came to the net, and my attempt to pass him hit the tape and fell back over on my side. An inch or two higher and I would have won.

My chance was gone. My opponent came back and won the match and in fact advanced all the way to the finals. I could have been playing for a national championship!

What if? What if my shot had been an inch higher? What if I'd won? What if I'd been the one in the finals instead of him? What if, what if, what if?

Some leaders spend a lot of time on the "what ifs"? What if I'd made a different decision? What if I was in a different place?

Good leaders, however, move from what if to now what? We can analyze our mistakes so much that we fail to take action to correct them. I'm more of a "what if-fer."

I'm going to start moving to the now what.

Because I'd like to give those grass courts another chance.

"Secular" Music?

Philippians 4:8 says this:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- let your mind dwell on these things."

In studying this verse (for a future message on a different subject!), I found out that Paul is encouraging the Philippian church to appreciate and meditate on the good things in the "non-Christian" culture that surrounds them. Learning that really got me going.

Why?

Because sometimes people ask why we do what they call secular music as part of our worship.

And Philippians 4:8 tells us why: when U2 or Natasha Beddingfield or The Fray or John Mayer or others capture truth in their songs, the bible calls us to "let our mind dwell on these things." The fact that the record companies producing their albums aren't "Christian" is irrelevant. By God's grace, these artists give expression to the truths of the bible and the emotions of the human heart. So we not only "dwell on" those things, we sing them!

When you look at it that way, maybe there's not such a difference between secular and sacred music after all.