This story was in a recent edition of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Insider

It was a kind of classroom that Heidi Phillips hadn’t seen before. There were no walls or ceilings. School ended at noon. Dogs roamed the classroom. If it rained, the room got wet. And teachers’ lessons were done by instinct.
 
Phillips, a second-grade teacher, was one of four Lake Wylie Elementary staff members who traveled to Bijagues, Guatemala, in July with Good Shepherd Church as part of an outreach trip. She traveled with Principal Brooke Hough, literacy facilitator Jennifer Mulherin and school counselor Andrea Heartman.
 
“We have a really strong partnership with Good Shepherd,” said Hough. “They do so many things for our students and families and we were looking for a way to give back.”
 
Hough and the rest of the Lake Wylie team went to Guatemala for a week to share some of their strategies for teaching literacy and math. Each CMS teacher was paired with a Bijagues teacher. Before they left for the trip, each teacher recorded a video for their partner and told their partners what they’d like to learn. read more

In the book of Judges, the story of Deborah (Judges 4 & 5) breaks one stereotype after another:  Deborah is a woman in ancient times who leads, ill-equipped Israel somehow vanquishes iron-clad Canaan, and the mighty Canaanite commander Sisera proves himself to be the worst kind of coward.

Yet there’s one other stereotype that is crushed in Judges 4. In the aftermath of the battle, where Israel routs the iron-clad Canaanite army, Sisera escapes. The commander of the Canaanites gets away and flees to the tent of a woman named Jael. Jael’s husband had signed a peace treaty with Sisera’s people (Judges 4:17). So Sisera figures he’s running to a safe sanctuary. What follows is one of the most vivid scenes in the Bible: read more

On the day after #Eclipse2017, how could I do any except pay brief tribute to a band with a song called Sisters Of The Moon?

For the sake of clarity:  when Fleetwood Mac had its peak popularity with its Rumours album, I was hesitant to like it very much for fear it would detract from the Eagles’ Hotel California. read more

Yesterday’s message …

• Was an example of “biblical theology” in that it took a tour of several places in the biblical library;
• Suggested that perhaps we shouldn’t ask, “who goes to hell?” but instead, gulp, “who DOESN’T?”
• Landed at this bottom line in answering “who the?”:  Every ONE who gets what EVERYONE deserves.

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Years ago now, 1971 in fact, in the Cotton Bowl stadium deep in the heart of Dallas, TX, the U of T was playing Notre Dame in college football.  It was an enormously important game, with National Championship implications, and the UT fans were there, dressed in their burnt orange, waving their cowbells (More Cowbell!), and holding up their “Hook Em Horns” signs (AV).  One fan in particular was particularly enthusiastic.  He happened to be sitting behind a row of nuns dressed in their habits, including their very large, the Flying Nun style “hats.”  Because, after all, ND is a Roman Catholic institution.  As it turned out, ND was winning in this particular game in pretty convincing fashion.  And for every good ND play, the row of nuns would jump up & down and celebrate in most un-nun-like fashion. read more

So far in Hell Or High Water, we’ve seen that . . .

Hell is that awful, final, forever realm in which too late comes too early (that’s the WHAT); and

The well-deserved wrath of God will stand forever in vivid contrast to the undeserved favor of God (that’s the WHY);

but now, perhaps the most important question of them all:  WHO? read more

Here I am with Danny Miller, pastor of Bethesda United Methodist Church near Lexington, NC.

I spent the last four nights preaching at Bethesda’s annual Revival Series.

Along the way, I gave the people a sneak preview of material from Crash Test Dummies and prompted a number of them to pick up their own copies of The Storm Before The Calm, Head Scratchers, Solve, and The Shadow Of A Doubt. read more

Yep.  It’s new.

Some new photos, easier navigation, ministry highlights, books, more books, and soon a place to access recent messages from Good Shepherd.  We wanted to update it in preparation for the September release of Crash Test Dummies. It looks something like this:

Check it out at the page that hosts this blog, www.talbotdavis.com read more

I spent Friday morning tooling around the PGA Championships with both my wife Julie and my father-in-law Ted.

It’s an annual tradition, developed first at the Wachovia, then at the Quail Hollow, and ultimately at the Wells Fargo. This year, of course, “the” course was used for the PGA, golf’s final major championship of the year. read more

Week 2 of Hell Or High Water.

Whew!

Recognizing that our status as relatively comfortable Christians makes us ask very different questions than the persecuted believers asked in Thessalonica, the message landed here:

The well-deserved wrath of God will stand forever in vivid contrast to the undeserved favor of God. read more

Hell Or High Water got off to an excellent start last week.

Minds were opened, hearts were softened, and, praise God, souls were saved.

There’s more of the same this week, I believe.

Why The … ? is a message that asks “why in the world would there be such a realm at all?  Why would God establish or allow or tolerate a domain in which too late comes too early?” read more