Many pastors are asked to relate their call stories—the details of how they became pastors or preachers or ministers or whatever term you wish to describe someone whose vocation is the ministry. To be ordained, you must be able to articulate not only that you...
I am sad to say, the pastormobile had some difficulties last week, and they have carried over to this week. I am no mechanic, but I was pretty sure something important was wrong. When I put the engine into gear, the car wasn’t moving smoothly...
Hello Shoreline! My name is Drew Childers and I am so excited to say that I’m joining the Shoreline family as an intern this year! I will be working closely with Joe and the rest of the staff to learn about what it takes to start...
There are times when I wonder how committed we are to God’s plans for us. I know that sounds weird for a pastor to say. My question does not come from the time I spend with the people of Shoreline or Valdosta. This isn’t a...
I love Christmas! I love the tacky Christmas lights, which we have all over the front lawn. (It actually looks like a Christmas tree threw up on our house.) I love the Christmas music, both what we hear on the radio and the special arrangements...
Time is running out, and there really is not much we can do about that. The next ten days or so are going to fly by for some of us. How we handle the pace of the next several days is up to us. Almost two...
During our current sermon series, we have been journeying together to the manger. We have looked at what coming to Jesus looked like that first Christmas so we can better understand what coming to Jesus looks like for us. We started with the wise men,...
During my recent flight, the captain came over the speaker and shared this message, "We're just gonna go ahead and takeoff now; we've checked with the mechanics and they think we'll be okay." Wait...
Paul, the church planter chosen by Jesus, ended his letters to churches in different ways. Sometimes, Paul just said, With all my love. Most often, he would extend the grace of Jesus as the closing. One time he even told the readers to check out...
It’s not December yet, and I already feel like things have gotten out of control. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I look around and my initial response is not peace. We have done a great deal of our decorating with four...
We blew it!!!! I am so mad at myself! We knew it was coming...
“Joe Buck is doing a great job with the World Series.” Wow…right?! I didn’t know anybody else was even listening to me. To be frank, I have really only watched a few innings of each game, but they have been entertaining games…and I guess I...
I was so excited for worship last Sunday! I knew that God had given me a message that He wanted delivered right now, because we are all facing adversaries. We are dealing with enemies within and without. It was timely for some, and I heard...
I am not the biggest NBA fan around. I will give the playoffs some time, but I don’t normally sit down and watch an entire professional basketball game. I do watch the highlights enough to know which teams are good, and I can appreciate extraordinary...
Sometimes I wonder if the news we consume is worth reading or watching. We see story after story designed to get our attention, and the more shock value there is, the easier it is for the news companies to gain readership and viewership. Whether it...