A certain woman who jumped from church to church decided that she was not at the right place. She informed her pastor, “Well, I believe it’s time for me to move again.” Mustering a rare forthrightness, he replied, “That’s okay. It does not matter that much when you change labels on an empty bottle.” Of course, there are legitimate times and reasons to move your membership from one church to another. Conscience and conviction may require you to leave a church. In most instances, relocation results in the need to find a new church home. There is a list of...

I'll give you one guess who that handsome young man to the left is. Before I go any further, let me answer your burning question: Is that a Jheri Curl? Answer: Absolutely not! I only use juices and berries on my hair. Bonus Q&A: Yes, those are Gazelle glasses I am wearing. What you know about that?!?! This is a newspaper clip I found recently in a book. It is from local church newspaper in Los Angeles called the A.C.C. (R.I.P.) I was just eighteen-years-old. It is an advertisement for my first pastoral anniversary celebration at the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist...

We were hanging out at the church, waiting for the afternoon service. An unidentified woman pulled up. She was there to pick me up for the service I was schedule to preach at her church that afternoon. My father had told her pastor I would preach the meeting. But he forgot to tell me! So there I was. On my way to preach. Barely in my teens. Scared out of my wits. I preached the story of David and Goliath. This was my introduction to preaching without notes. A baptism by fire. More than twenty-five years later, I am used...

Welcome to my new readers! Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the posts and find them helpful. I write “Notes from Sunday” each week about my day of worship. I reflect on the day and the events around it. I also comment on stuff that caught my attention over the weekend. (Translation: Sports!) I taught Bible Study Fellowship today for the first time in weeks. I called the lesson, “How to Minister to God.” I miss teaching this class. Praise God for those who were baptized this morning. We had a lot of guests in worship today. Way cool....

Let’s face it. We’ve all done it. We have all had those times when we participated in corporate worship services without truly worshiping God in spirit and truth. We have all gone through the motions. We have all sat in services with our minds and hearts being at some distant place. Why does this happen? You love God. You have been looking forward to going to church all week. The worship was uplifting, the music was inspiring, and the sermon was edifying. But, somehow, you missed it all. As the worship flowed, you were fault-finding. As the musical praise was...

I am a loyal Gospel Music fan. For years, I have joyfully collected Gospel CD recordings. More recently, I download music from iTunes. I rarely go anywhere without my iPod. Keys, wallets, cell phone, and iPod - don’t leave home without them! I love Gospel Music. Praise and worship. Traditional. Contemporary. Old school. New school. You name it. I like it all. Even quartet music is starting to grow on me! Ultimately, I love music. But I especially love Gospel Music. However, most of the Gospel Music on my iPod, I would absolutely freak out to hear performed in an...

Today’s post is a guest post by my friend and brother, Pastor Brian Carter. Brian serves as the Senior-Pastor of the Concord Church in Dallas, one of the great congregations in this country. Brian is also the host and leader of the annual E.K. Bailey Expository Preaching Conference, which will meet in Dallas later this month. The late Dr. E.K. Bailey is one of my homiletical heroes. Through his example and this conference, the Lord used him to influence many African-American pastors toward expository preaching. Brian and his team are carrying on this great work and taking it to new...

Happy 236 Birthday to the USA! We are blessed to live in this young democratic experiment called the United States of America. Pray for our president and all those who are in authority over us. Remember those in the armed forces who sacrifice so much that we may live the liberties we enjoy and sometimes take for granted. Have a great day! God bless.

I was ready to quit. For real, this time. I know I was serious, because I went to tell my pastor. I did not (do not) make major life decisions without talking to my pastor about it. How about you? I sat down in Pas' office. And I broke the news to him. I was resigning. I was too young and had too much ahead of me to waste any more time in this extended church conflict, or so I thought. Pas began to warn me about how difficult it is to organize a church from scratch. This warning was...

We have a great day of worship today at Shiloh. We celebrated the Lord’s Table today in both of our morning services. As always, I am grateful for the guests who joined us in worship. “You Are My Strength.” Aborted. Twice. We’ll get it, sooner or later. We also prayed for our group of our youth who are going on a short-term missions trip this week, led by our youth pastor. My two oldest are also participating. They have arrived to their destination safely. We are praying they have a safe, fruitful, and life-changing week. I cheated today. I am...

The pastor left his sermon manuscript in the pulpit. When the janitor found it, he couldn’t resist the urge to read it. He was impressed, until he stumbled over a note in the margin: “Argument weak here. Start yelling!” Old story. Timeless truth: Passion is never a substitute for clarity. If you write yourself clear, you won’t have to yell to cover up a weak argument. I am a manuscript preacher who cheats. Most weeks, I write a complete manuscript. Most weeks, I do not carry anything to the pulpit but my Bible. I believe both practices sharpen the preacher...