Good Shepherd Archives - Page 51 of 64

Good Shepherd

Inconvenient

Talbot Davis May 1, 2009 at 6:00 am 1

Think it was convenient for Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees to follow a God he'd never seen and establish a people who didn't yet exist?

Think it was convenient for Moses to lead the children of Israel -- with all their murmuring & complaining -- out of slavery and into freedom?

Think it was convenient for Nehemiah to build a wall around a broken city in only 52 days?

Think it was convenient for Jesus to spend 40 days in the desert?

Think it was convenient for Paul to go through shipwreck, torture, and isolation all for the sake of the gospel?

The Holy Spirit has a way of propelling people into the most unlikely of scenarios and into the most inconvenient of situations.

That's what we'll look at in Week Three of Without Limit 2.0.

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

Good Shepherd

James-Michael Smith

Talbot Davis April 30, 2009 at 6:00 am 2

The man in this picture is James-Michael Smith, who has been the Disicpleship Pastor at Good Shepherd since 2004.

Today is his last day on the job.

Thankfully, it's not his last day as part of the Good Shepherd community.

James-Michael is moving on from the staff so that he can prepare for and then pursue his Ph.D. in biblical theology. We hope that one day he'll be teaching in one of our United Methodist seminaries.

James-Michael arrived in Charlotte back in 2003 and moved in to a townhouse across the street from the church. As he studied for his MDiv. degree at Gordon-Conwell's Charlotte campus, he became involved in the life of our church. When the Discipleship position came open a year later, he was a natural for the job.

He leaves behind a Pathfinder approach to small group life that we all love here. His second legacy is the Passage School Of Theology, a collection of high-level, content-heavy classes that we now offer.

And no one taught those classes better than James-Michael himself.

As a farewell, we made a surprise DVD for him consisting of students in front of the camera telling what they'd learned under his teaching. His influence and reach have been enormous.

He's helped us in our goal not just to be a large church but a deep one as well.

Plus, he's passionate, sarcastic, quick-witted, and committed. All the things I like. I'll miss him around here on a daily basis.

Thanks, JM.

Good Shepherd

Why It’s Fun To Work Here

Talbot Davis April 27, 2009 at 6:00 am 0

We showed this as church opened yesterday:

As you can imagine, people who come up with ideas like that -- and the wherewithal to make those ideas come to pass -- are fun to work with.

I am blessed on this day after Sunday.

Good Shepherd

2,000 Car Deodorizers

Talbot Davis April 24, 2009 at 6:00 am 0

On Easter Sunday, we gave away about 2,000 Without Limit 2.0 Car Deodorizers.

Why in the world would we do such a bizarre thing?

Well, so people would come back.

And so they would use the novelty to invite their friends to come.

But primarily so that each time people would get in their car and smell their car, they'd remember the Holy Spirit.

To paraphrase Jesus in John 3:8, you don't know where the Spirit comes from or where he is going, but you sure can sense his impact. You don't know how he works; you just know that he works.

Just like that thing hanging on your rear view mirror making your car smell good.

Well, if not just like that, a least a little like it. The analogy works. Sort of.

So will the series. Come this Sunday for Week 2: Tables. (To prepare, read Acts 6:1-7).

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

Good Shepherd

Without Limit 2.0

Talbot Davis April 17, 2009 at 9:19 am 0

Back in February we did a series called Without Limit. Based on John 3:34 -- "for God gives the Spirit without limit" -- it was four weeks of focus on the person and power of the Holy Spirit.

In that series, I spoke and taught openly about praying in tongues, about expressive worship, and about the need for Spirit-filling outside of corporate worship gatherings.

The people of Good Shepherd ate it up.

We sensed they wanted more. Wanted to linger in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

So we're expanding and enlarging on the concept: Without Limit 2.0. Here's what it looks like:

We gave out about 2000 Without Limit car deodorizers (really!) on Easter Sunday as a series promotion.

The series will allow us to delve more deeply into the Spirit's role and working and will give us a platform to talk about our new Corner Campus.

Because we really want to be a without limit church made up of without limit people.

Good Shepherd

Talbot Davis

The Heart of the Matter

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