Life After Boredom

We feel that way in life, don't we?

And, if we're honest, we feel that way in our faith. What had in an earlier season been both urgent and joyful now many times seems mundane and ritualized.

Boring.

Is there life after that kind of spiritual boredom? Is there hope for such a faith?

Having lived this reality, I think so.

Come experience some solutions.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

A Guideline For Church Meetings

Church meetings are legendary, aren't they?

And not in the way, say, Michael Jordan is legendary in basketball. Or Joe Montana in football. Or even Roger Federer in tennis.

No, church meetings are legendary for the bloodshed -- real and imagined -- that they involve.

Whether it's a contentious assembly of a church board or an angst-filled planning session for church staff or -- worst of all -- an "all church business meeting," few things strike more fear in the heart of a congregation than the phrase "let's meet."

So in trying to navigate all that, I've landed on a guideline that's helpful. Here it is:

Don’t mistake the loudest voice for the greatest wisdom.

Because that's often what we do, isn't it? We believe that simply because someone increases the volume then that person must have additional insight. So we go along with what they say.

Or, more often, we cave into their viewpoint because we don't want to cause a scene in church.

Both reactions are deadly. In my time, I have seen churches take disastrous turns just to appease an influential person who held a strong, loud, and wrong view of a particular issue.

Granted, sometimes wisdom is connected to volume.

But more often, I believe, it resembles the "still small voice" with which God spoke to Elijah.

So in church meetings as in all of life, don't mistake the loudest voice for the greatest wisdom.

Two Terms I Never Thought I'd See In The Same Sentence

As a native of Dallas, I never thought I'd read "Texas Rangers" and "World Series" in the same sentence.

But now I have.

So I'll begin watching the World Series tonight with a bit more interest than usual.

Not that I'm a consistent baseball fan or even a loyal Rangers supporter.

But it's nice when perennial also-rans get on the fast track for success.

Especially when they're from your hometown.

Top Five Tuesday -- Top Five Things Heard At Ginghamsburg UMC

I spent three days in Ohio last week at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church's Change The World Conference. I went as part of the Reynolds Leadership Program which sends 25 pastors from North Carolina to various training events four times per year.

Ginghamsburg is a Methodist miracle. When Michael Slaughter became the senior pastor there in 1979, it averaged 90 people in worship & met in a two room church building. Today, with Slaughter still at the helm, it hosts about 4400 people per weekend meeting in sites throughout the Dayton area. It has long been known for innovation in worship, commitment to small groups, and a focused ministry with and for people on the margins of society.




These days, Slaughter serves as more prophet than pastor; more agitator than chaplain. Because of that, he and his team of speakers delivered some memorable -- and provocative -- one liners. Here are five of my favorite:

1. The church’s job is to bring the resources of heaven down to earth, not to send disembodied souls to heaven.
2. If it’s not good news for the poor, it’s not good news.
3. You don’t have to scream Jesus if you do Jesus.
4. Stop asking ‘how many people do we get in?’ Start asking, ‘how many people who are in are we getting out (into the community)?’
5. If you don’t serve, you’ll feel uncomfortable in this church.

Developing The Core

I recently added two exercises to what I do at the Y.

The first is called the deadlift, which helps strengthen the lower back:



The second is called the squat, which helps primarily with thighs:



(The fact that I can do either is no small miracle, because when I first started at the Y ten years ago I couldn't do anything that had to do with my back. But by God's grace, my degenerated disc has somehow regenerated and my back is good.)

Anyway, both the deadlift and squat develop what fitness people call your "core": the midsection of your body, ranging from your thighs to your stomach. The core is usually the last area people focus on in their fitness, because results are not as immediate or identifiable as what you do with your arms and chest.

But here's the interesting thing: when the core gets stronger, so does the rest of your body. It's paradoxical but true -- one way to build arm strength is to build core strength.

I realize that what is true of physical fitness is true of things of the spirit.

In my life with God, I all too often neglect the core: bible reading, prayer, worship, fasting.

Yet if I really want to have spiritual strength in all areas of my life -- like stronger preaching, for example -- I must go back to develop the core.

The core will never be glamorous. Just essential.

How will your develop yours today?

Life After Launches Sunday

Farewell to Sacred Marriage, hello to Life After.

It's our new series and I believe it will be both hard-hitting and soul-comforting.

Here are the subjects we'll look at together:

October 24: Life After Jesus
October 31: Life After Boredom
November 7: Life After Loss
November 14: Life After Success
November 21: Life After Death
November 28: Life After Church

This week, it's Life After Jesus. To get read, take a look at 2 Corinthians 5:12-21.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

A Strange Preaching Day

This past Sunday -- the final Sunday in Sacred Marriage -- was a bit strange for me.

As many of you know, I actually write my messages, then spend time "living" with them, and on Sunday deliver them without any notes. I've been doing it that way as long as I've been preaching. The "no notes" is usually one of the first things people notice about Good Shepherd Church in general and my sermons in particular.

The message for this past Sunday was called Sexual Saints. And as I "lived" with it over the past week, getting to know it in preparation for preaching it on Sunday, I got more and more excited. I actually thought to myself, "as a written sermon, this might be the best work I've ever done!" I liked the way it built and I felt God had given me several good turns of phrase.

And then on Sunday ... I kept forgetting key pieces. That's a helpless feeling. It was most pronounced at 8:30 but still evident at the last two services.

Why did my memory have such gaps? I'm not sure. Maybe it's the fast-approaching 49th birthday. Or perhaps I was a bit too excited about the talk.

Or ... possibly it's the fact that preaching is a spoken art while sermon writing is of course a literary one. Just because something is "good" on paper doesn't always mean it will be a powerful experience in person.

So I felt good about the Sunday message but also believe that there were some missed opportunities. It had potential to be better.

If you like "reading" sermons, here's what I prepared for last Sunday even though it's not exactly what I delivered (and the REFRAIN is Boundaries Elevate Experience):



I remember the times that Julie and I ate a whole bag of Circus Peanuts (show). We’d been married awhile by then and when we were kids both our parents had always said NO to our requests for CPs. Well we were now grown and could do whatever we pleased. So we were like: “We’ve always wanted them and never could have them so let’s eat THE WHOLE BAG!” So we did. So sweet & chewy & forbidden & delicious.

Until like 30 minutes later. Then . . . ugh. Just gross. The after-taste and after-effects of the Circus Peanuts left us sickened and cranky. (It made me think of the time my college roommates at all the crunchberries out of my box of Capn Crunch cereal and they got sick! Served them right!) It’s like Gary Thomas says, junk food holds this promise of satisfaction but ultimately fails to deliver. Instead of getting satisfied, you get sick.

As we plunge deeper into Sacred Marriage, I want you to know that what is true of junk food is true of so much of what passes for sexual intimacy & expression these days. There is this allure, this appeal for extra-marital sex and it looks to be enticing and sweet but the after-effects are downright poisonous. You may not notice those after-effects immediately but you will encounter them ultimately.

I really don’t think I’m telling you anything you don’t know. Some of you who are single or single again bear the emotional and even physical scars of promiscuity. Sexual adventures way back when have made it hard to maintain healthy relationships in the here and now. Some of you have had relationships that started out hot and sexual but then fizzled out because the sex prevented you from really knowing the person – and when you got to know them their personalities didn’t match their sexuality. Bummer.

For others of you, those scars are more overt. Listen to this from the Charlotte Observer: My point is if you’ve ever had sex, you could be me. I am no one special. I am 29 years old, a Republican, a non-denominational Christian who has a graduate education, a home, a loving husband, two cats, a dog, an who loves eating pepperoni pizza. And I have to live every day of the rest of my life with two incurable STDs.

I daresay some of you in here could have written that just as easily as the woman who actually did. And then I know that others of you have wrecked or you are in the middle of wrecking a marriage because you found the constraints of that covenant too much and you strayed. And you’ve discovered that hell really does have no fury like a woman – or man – scorned. It’s sad but it’s true and the church is not immune. Yeah, what passes for sex these days has all the nutritional and relational value of a bag full of Circus Peanuts.

Now: before I move on, I want to say this. Most times when a preachers stands and delivers a message about sex, it’s all anti. Don’t! NOT! NEVER! There’s a long history to that kind of sermon. Did you know that in the Middle Ages the church taught that married couples could not have sex for the forty days before and eight days after Easter? Thus giving rise to the phenomenon of Easter being by far the highest attended Sunday of the church year? But beyond Easter, the medieval church declared that couples were not to be intimate during the 8 days after Pentecost, on Sundays in honor of the resurrection, on Wednesdays in honor of Ash Wed and on Fridays to bring to mind the crucifixion and for five days before you take communion?! Altogether, 252 days of the year were automatically excluded from sexual intimacy between husbands and wives! No wonder Protestants started the Reformation!

So no, I don’t want to give that sermon with those kinds of restrictions. Because I think God has a much more inventive, affirming agenda than Not NEVER DON’T. I believe the bible has a beautiful balance between the Let The Good Times Roll ethic of today and the cold showers of the Middle Ages.

Because here’s something you need to know: God does not hide his eyes in revulsion and shame when a husband and wife have sex. He doesn’t! Why? Because it was all his idea to begin with. He invented it. He designed our bodies, included our erogenous zones. Sexual pleasure belongs to God and not to Satan. God is not offended in the lest by healthy sex between a husband and a wife. So three cheers for God.

I get that from Hebrews 13:4: Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure … And before you dismiss that by saying, “oh, people in bible days were so square and that world can’t possibly speak to this world” know this: the culture in which the book of Hebrews & the rest of the NT was written was every bit as promiscuous as ours. There was just no mass media to record it visually like today. But mistresses were expected. Religious celebrations involved prostitution. Actually, most men believed that wives were for procreation and young girls (and boys) were for recreation. So the 21st Century has invented anything new; we’ve just developed it all to an art form.

But Hebrews 13:4 is vastly different. Keep the marriage bed pure. Now: does it say keep the marriage bed ignored? No. Keep it abused? No. Keep two marriage beds like on the Dick Van Dyke Show? No. Keep it holy, reverent, worshipful . . . and passionate. That actual bed! Yes! What happens on the marriage bed can be God-honoring, Spirit-filling, and Jesus-blessed. Like a worship service! That gives a whole new meaning the next time you turn to your spouse and say, “let’s have church.”

But here’s the heart of Hebrews 13:4: Boundaries elevate experience. Just like football players can play great in bounds but are ineffective out of bounds (AV), just like baseball soars inside the foul lines but not so much outside them (AV), just like your car can work well within the guardrails but not well beyond them (AV of flying car), just like I can work on my grass all I want inside my property line but the moment I step beyond it my neighbor suddenly becomes displeased, sex honors God within the boundary of marriage and dishonors him outside it. The boundary of marriage takes sexual intimacy from a physical act to a spiritual sacrament.

It’s the super glue that bonds husbands and wives together. Man, I’ve had lots of people in my office who are jaded and wounded from seasons of promiscuity earlier in life, but I’ve never had a married couple sit down and say, “We’ve got a real problem here. There’s just too much intimacy and it’s too good.” Hello! Those are the marriages that don’t come here. The God-ordained boundary of marriage of elevates the God-designed experience of sex!!
God’s act – sex – done God’s way – in marriage – brings God honor. Not shame or revulsion. Bring him honor. And I know there’s elbowing going on right now between husbands and wives, saying, “let’s honor God, OK?”

Because here’s my prayer, here’s my heart: I want pure marriages in this place. Which means that the purity of the marriage bed gets protected long before marriage even happens. So for those of you who are single now or single again today can mark a new day. Regardless of your sexual activity before, you can vow: I’m keeping my marriage bed pure from here on. Trust me on this: decisions you make as a single person will have a dramatic effect on your life should you ever marry.

And I’ve done several weddings over the last few years where the couples – due in part to the church’s membership covenant where we ask people to commit to celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage – have told me they were abstaining until their wedding day. Some of them had been married before, others had been sexually active before, but because of what Christ had done for them, they were in a new place. Christ has made them new all over, from the most public of places to the most intimate of spheres. And those folks kept their marriage bed pure by not getting into it. Why would they want a counterfeit from outside the boundaries when they could have the real thing inside? REFRAIN.

It’s why I loved hearing about those Baptist youth in Brazil. They held a community blood drive in conjunction with some teaching at the church called True Love Waits. Well, the blood drive there broke two major records: First, more people than ever before donated. 472 pints. Second, the blood donated from that youth group had not evidence of STDs in it. Pure blood! That’s unheard of in most Brazilian blood drives. It’s called keeping the marriage bed pure by not jumping into it before the marriage happens.

I know. A lot of you who are single or single again have already been outside the boundaries when it comes to this issue. And you’re wondering how to recover. Well, keeping your eyes open to the subtle ways sexual sin from the past can impact you in the present, you nevertheless need to keep this verse in mind: READ 2 Cor 5:17. If you’ve been bought with the ultimate in pure blood – Jesus’! – you are new. The old has gone and the new has come. Live as that new person sexually, knowing REFRAIN.

And for those of you who are married, what can I say but stay within the boundaries? Have you noticed that while opportunity only knocks once, temptation bangs at the door constantly? Stay vigilant. Guys: the mind works progressively. It usually goes from images to flirtation to disaster. That’s why it absolutely does matter what movies you watch and internet sites you frequent and what mags you read. Edit your TV. Goodness, in our house we don’t get any of the movie channels. None. No HBO or Showtime or Cinemax or even Sundance. Why? I’d watch them. Not good. The images we see all too easily become the lives we lead. For men, the key to keeping the marriage bed pure is to keep the eyes protected.

And married women: if your husbands need to guard their eyes, you in general need to guard your heart. You know what that means? Please don’t be a listening ear for your male co-worker’s marriage troubles. He may say he needs a friend, you may believe you’re being “friendly,” but he probably has another agenda. An agenda that may be so deep even he doesn’t know it. From your perspective, he needs a confidant other than you.

And for both married men & women: celebrate the fact that your sexual expression within the boundary of marriage is a summit point of creation. Not the summit point, perhaps, but a summit point. Sexuality and spirituality are so connected. The pleasure is God’s idea and God’s design and it is not the property of Satan. He stole it and it’s time for married folk to steal it back! I remember that the pre-marital counselor that Julie and I had told us (because we waited for marriage), “in the early days you’ll be beginners but eventually you’ll make a symphony together.” And 26 years in, that counselor was right. Glad to take back what Satan has stolen.

As we think about boundaries elevating experience, I’ve got to remind you of the perspective of Sacred Marriage. The whole series is about holiness, right? Holiness is the goal and marriage is the venue. Well, knowing that … if God were gauging your holiness by how you treat your mate in the marriage bed, would he say you’re becoming more holy or less? More to the point, is your emphasis on “getting” (an adolescent view if there ever was one) or “giving”? How about we elevate the experience as we grow our holiness by giving in that most private of areas? REFRAIN.

This stat probably won’t startle you. 93% of sexual encounters depicted or alluded to on TV are between unmarried people. The reason for that is the assumption that unmarried sex is hot & spontaneous & life giving while married sex and boring & predictable & routine. How about all the sacred marriages in this place prove TV wrong?

Room In The Inn Begins

Here's a glimpse of Good Shepherd's Room In The Inn Ministry:



It's one of the best things we do.

And it's starting over again this year.

If you'd like to make your life count by living for someone and something beyond yourself, come to the Room In The Inn training event Thursday, October 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the K-Zone.

Top Five Tuesday -- Top Five Things Our "Fresh Eyes" Taught Us

As I posted last week, we've retained the services of Will Mancini to help us with clarity, strategy, and focus.

After touring Steele Creek on Saturday and visiting the GSUMC programs on Sunday, he spent most of Monday with the lead staff.

By Monday afternoon, our heads were spinning. It was both humbling and exciting.

Here are my top five takeaways:

1. We brand our "bullets" but not our "gun." Even though I've never been a gun owner that metaphor has stuck with me. What did Will mean? This: we brand and promote our different series better than we brand and promote our church. He actually held up our Sacred Marriage bulletin and told us, "you all are too creative!" That hyperbole was to remind us to devote the same energy to telling the story of the church as a whole as we do to telling the story of a given series.

2. It's not as easy to find the church as we thought. Since we are on a prominent corner, we assumed "everyone" in the area knows where we are. Not so much. Our signage is small on one side of our intersection and absent on the other. Our parking lot entrance is a bit tricky to find. Most importantly, there's no "popcorn trail" leading to the church -- no combination of "real estate" signs or road signs to let people know of the life that awaits them at the corner of Moss Road and Hwy. 49. Be looking for that to change. Quickly.

3. Our parking lot is . . . forbidding. In order to protect children and ensure traffic flow, we posted several "Do Not Enter" signs in our parking lot. We failed to see what message that communicates to our guests: Not Welcome Here. Woooops! Of course that's the last thing in the world we want to communicate. Course correction to follow. Such is the advantage of fresh eyes.

4. Human welcome needs to extend beyond the building. We've long been excellent at welcoming people into the lobby. Yet prevailing churches take that welcome and that spirit well beyond the doors of the building -- into the parking lot and onto the sidewalks. Our campus is large and not always easy to navigate. There's nothing like a human face -- hopefully one who knows answers to relevant questions -- to make it less intimidating.

5. What's happening in the different program venues is worth the effort. Will's point is that he wants the experience and vibe outside the church to match what happens inside. From his perspective, BigHouse student ministries, KidVentures children's programs, and our Sunday worship experience are an excellent fit for the spiritual needs of people in the 21st Century. He simply wants Good Shepherd to stop hiding it all under a bushel.

Watch for changes large and small, subtle and overt, to come to the GS experience soon.

Men's Pathfinders TAILGATE

Instead of a conventional "launch" for our Men's Pathfinders on October 25, we're doing a tailgate party. Here's how we promoted it during church yesterday:



We even did a slow motion instant replay of the tackle.

It's going to be a great night.

You can sign up here.

Sacred Marriage Week 6 -- Sexual Saints

The words "sex" and "saints" are rarely in the same country, much less the same sentence.

Or the same sermon title.

Until this Sunday.

And it's one of those message in which I'm going to say some things that I just can't wait to say. I love those days.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

Purity Of Faith

Last night I went with some of our students to an event sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at Fort Mill High.

Four students -- not from Good Shepherd but from the different FCAs in York County -- gave testimonies.

The speaking was not polished.

The biblical interpretation was not always exactly accurate.

The hermeneutics and exegesis were somewhat lacking.

But boy did it speak to me.

There's something about the sheer simplicity of . . .

• "I was broken and Jesus put me back together" and

• "I was lonely and God brought me company" and

• "I was dying and the church changed my life"

. . . that never gets old.

As someone who wrestles with a cynical attitude and a jaded spirit, I need the refreshing perspective of just how profoundly faith can change the lives of people -- especially young people.

So yeah, hermeneutics, exegesis, and context all matter. A lot.

But nothing compares with the raw simplicity of new found faith.

The Verbs Of God

In Exodus 3, God introduces himself to Moses.

Here's what God says as part of the introduction, and I have put the verbs in bold:

7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

What a remarkable list.

God sees, hears, shows concern, comes down, rescues, and brings up. Why is this God so active?

To deliver his people from captivity.

I believe the same is true today. He is still in the releasing business . . . whether the captivity is literal as with so many of our brother and sister Christians around the world or it is figurative as with so many of my friends mired in addiction.

God defines himself by verbs. And he is moving to deliver . . . even you, even today.

Top Five Tuesday -- Top Five Things I'm Learning In My Passage Class

On Sunday nights from 5-7 p.m. this fall, I'm going back to seminary.

At Good Shepherd Church.

Huh?

Yeah, seminary at Good Shepherd. I'm in a class called Living Hope For Shattered Times taught by my friend Steve Klipowicz who is a professor at nearby Gordon-Conwell Seminary.

Living Hope focuses on a small sub-set of Old Testament books known as the post-exilic prophets. We're gleaning history from Ezra and Nehemiah (history books) before diving into the prophecies of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

And I'm learning all kinds of things I never knew before. Or if I knew them, I just plain forgot between my own seminary education in the late 80s and Good Shepherd in 2010. So here are the top five things I'm learning:

5. That the Babylonian Exile (truthfully one of the central events in all the OT) took place in three major waves. All the exiles were not deported from Jerusalem to Babylon in 587 BC as I used to think; some were taken in 609 BC, others in 597, and then the third group in 587-6.

4. That the Babylonians took the Jewish intelligentsia as their captives. That's why we read stories of brave and articulate captives such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in Scripture.

3. That after the exile, the returning captives were no longer called Hebrews or Israelites but Jews.

2. That Ezra was the most likely editor of the section of the Psalms known as the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-135).

1. That Ezra & Nehemiah were originally one book. Ditto for 1 & 2 Chronicles, 1 & 2 Kings, and 1 & 2 Samuel. The division into two books had to do with the length of the scrolls onto which ancient scribes made their copies . . . keeping all the original material in one scroll would have been too weighty for the wooden spools to support. Hardly a consideration in our day of Kindles and iPads.

There is much more I could tell you about my class. But we've only had two sessions and you can still learn from Dr. Klipowicz's experience by emailing me at talbotdavis@gsumc.org.

I have connections, and I can get you in the class.

Fresh Eyes

There is a marvelous pattern in the book of Proverbs:

let the wise listen and add to their learning,

and let the discerning get guidance. (1:5)

The way of a fool seems right to him,

but a wise man listens to advice. (12:15)

He who listens to a life-giving rebuke

will be at home among the wise. (15:31)

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge;

the ears of the wise seek it out. (18:15)

Andy Stanley has summarized this pattern with the teaching "wise people know what they don't know . . . and they aren't afraid to go to those who know."

Well, I don't know if we are "wise" at Good Shepherd or not, but there are some things we don't know.

So today, some of our staff will begin working with a new friend of mine who will help us with strategy, clarity, and structure.

Today's the start of a seven month process that I suspect will be both painful and invigorating.

Sort of like the process of reading the book of Proverbs.

The Curse Of Knowledge

Several years ago, I heard a teaching about the curse of knowledge.

It goes like this:

Once you know something,

you forget what it's like

not to know that thing.

That's so true. And especially applicable to the world of faith and church.

Once you know the bible stories, you forget what it's like not to know them.

Once you know the passion and the logic of the gospel, you forget what it's like not to know it.

Once you know the church's music, rituals, and customs, you forget what it's like not to know them.

Once you know the rhythms and quirks of a specific congregation, you forget what it's like not to know them.

As pastors, one of our jobs is to step outside the curse of knowledge so that we can explain the gospel, the bible, and the church to people who don't know what we know.

As leaders, we need to step outside the curse of knowledge as we orient people to the unique culture of our work places and our congregations.

Breakfast And The Bible

In my on-going attempts to put a little variety into my diet -- limited now because of a gluten allergy -- I came across a container of honey in our pantry.

It had probably been there five years or more. Bleh.

But then I remembered: honey is one food that does not spoil. It doesn't need to be refrigerated, frozen, or even freeze dried. It can stay in the pantry and it will not go bad.

I believe that's why the inspired author of Psalm 119 put it this way in speaking of the word of God:

How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! (119:103)

The word of God revealed in Scripture -- in all of its marvelous complexity and uncomfortable simplicity -- does not spoil. It does not go bad. Its applications, challenges, and comforts are as fresh today as in ancient times.

My breakfast? I used the honey, of course. Sweet to the taste and, thankfully, good for my stomach.

Top Five Tuesday -- Top Five Phobias

There are some things about which I have irrational fears.

These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night or give that sinking feeling in my stomach if I'm already awake.

So here they are:

5. That I'll drive up one Sunday and NO ONE will be at church. Of course.

4. Heights. When I was a kid, I went to the top of the Empire State Building . . . and loved it. Now if I'm in uptown Charlotte and I walk underneath a skyscraper and look up, I almost lose my lunch. Or breakfast.

3. Something in my eye. It's why I've never had Lasik surgery -- the thought of some sharp object near my eye is too much to bear, even under an anasthesia.

2. Rats. One good thing about owning two cats. The only rodents we see at our house these days are already half-eaten.

1. Dogs. A life-long fear. I was blessing houses with a Good Shepherd friend last week when a dog came rushing at us. What did I do? Got behind my friend as fast as I could so the dog would eat him first. Fortunately, the dog in this case really was more bark than bite.

Two Signs Of Grace

Over the past weekend, I saw two small acts of kindness that communicated large measures of grace.

Both of them involved teenagers, and both were reminders that God is still at work in the world.

First, on Friday night as we were watching Riley's football game -- they lost a close, well-played game to their archrival, taking their record to 4-2 -- I looked up and saw a father and son from our church. Now Good Shepherd is on the other side of town from Charlotte Christian, so I rarely see people from church at school.

But the man I saw is Riley's small group leader at our BigHouse Student Ministry. Not a paid pastor, mind you, but a volunteer youth counselor. He took in on himself to drive across town on a Friday night to cheer on a student in his group.

As a parent of that teen, that kind of support is simply priceless. An act of grace.

The second thing I saw happened during the 11:30 service yesterday. We concluded our worship by celebrating Holy Communion. A large group of teenagers sat two rows behind me. In the row between us was a woman with developmental disabilities. She is a regular in worship.

Anyway, one of the teens noticed that the woman was unable to leave her seat to come up and receive communion. So, without being asked to do so, he brought the elements to her.

It was a small gesture with large meaning. It made me feel good to know students with that kind of heart and that level of insight.

To what signs of grace are your eyes open today?

First Serve & Serving First

First Serve is back.

It's one of the best things we do at Good Shepherd as several hundred of us fan out in ministry on the first Saturday of each month. You can see the different ministry options and sign up for the one that stirs your adrenaline here.




And for the men, we're having a breakfast before First Serve. Guys can show up at 7:30 for a full breakfast, a pastoral word, and information about our November Advance called "Taking It To The Streets."

You can sign up for that one here.