I have a confession.

Not that kind, silly.

No, my confession is that I had very low expectations for Boundaries With Kids. In fact, I didn't even want to do it at this time.

My original "series schedule" had us doing something else during August followed by a parenting emphasis in September and October. Yet due to some larger scale schedule changes around here -- changes to which I agreed only reluctantly -- we ended up doing Boundaries in August.

And even then, I only felt "OK" about the message and service preparation.

But like the title of the post says, God knows better than I do what is good. And what is needed.

The response to what we've talked about on Sunday mornings in this series has been overwhelming. Our crowds have been large, interest has been high, and families are being changed.

Add to that, the communities we are building through the BWK Discussion Groups have helped new friendships form and new disciples grow.

All in all, as many people are telling me, "one of our best series ever."

Hmmm. Maybe we should do more series that I don't want to do.

We played this video near the end of my message yesterday as living proof that fellowship happens most truthfully in the midst of acts of service and not during covered dish dinners:




A remarkable way to capture a remarkable day.

It also helped me to "preach the announcements" . . . it was much more effective to put that video in the message itself as a main point of emphasis rather than simply to stand up at the beginning of church and drone on about 30,000 meals and $57,000.

Thanks to Joe Jackson for producing the spot and the staff team here at Good Shepherd for dreaming it up.

And how bout them hair nets!

Yesterday, the one point in my sermon ran counter to the understanding most people bring to church and bring to money. I told the church to "Love your money MORE."

Of course, this seemed to go against what even casual observers of Christianity know that the bible says in I Timothy 6:10: "for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil . . . " So right from the start, I had people's attention. "Is he going to contradict the bible?!"

Well, no. I simply said that when we like our money, we spend it on things that are trivial and temporary. When we love our money and recognize its power, we invest it in things of eternity and substance. Love your money enough to sow it into God's work.

The message was inspired by James Howell, who is the senior pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church here in Charlotte. James is both interesting and articulate, and his sermons are seamless and provocative. I heard through the preacher grapevine that he'd given a talk in which he said the problem with Christians isn't that they love their money too much, it's that they don't love it enough to do something significant with it. I thought, "that will preach!" and then crafted my own sense of what that thought means and gave the message yesterday. You can listen to it here.

We supported the sermon with a video testimony from Spencer & Karla Stubbs, a couple who have been around this church even longer than I have. Here it is:



So do you just like your money? Or do you love it enough to do something eternal with it?