By Andy Langford
As we look toward the future, major financial and governance issues lurk just below the surface. How are general church funds raised and spent, and who makes those decisions? I increasingly question the financial support by thousands of local congregations in the United States of our dysfunctional denominational agencies. The emperor has no clothes. Is it time to stop contributing to the emperor’s clothing allowance?

On Thursday, May 3, delegates to the 2012 General Conference in Tampa rejected two amendments to the United Methodist Social Principles that would have declared that the global denomination holds two different views regarding “whether homosexual practice is contrary to the will of God.” (Photo: The Revs. Mike Slaughter (front) and Adam Hamilton speak at the [...]

By Rob Renfroe

United Methodists have reaffirmed 2000 years of Christian teaching regarding sexuality. This is the same view held by the most rapidly growing parts of the church today. And it is the only view that will hold The United Methodist Church together.

This entire first week has been marked by colorful plenary worship services, a well-funded and extravagant lobbying effort to change United Methodism’s view on marriage and sexuality, and stacks and stacks of petitions being worked through in 13 legislative groups. The Renewal and Reform Coalition has observers in each of these legislative committees and we [...]

The 2012 General Conference of The United Methodist Church is underway in Tampa. There will be much to share over the next several days and we want to make sure that you are kept up to date on all the important developments.  Every morning of General Conference, Good News publishes a daily Focus newsletter that [...]

The Renewal and Reform Coalition It’s that time again. General Conference will soon be here and all of us are hoping and praying for a Conference that will “major on the majors” and propel The United Methodist Church toward a vital, growing, and faithful future. Of course, the issue that has divided us for over [...]

By Rob Renfroe
As you can imagine, everyone has their concerns. The boards are worried that they will lose much of their autonomy (and their budgets). Others are hesitant because they suspect that with a smaller board of directors there will not be proportional ethnic and gender representation. Others fear that having a bishop as the denomination’s “CEO” will put too much power in the hands of the Episcopacy. Pardon me, if I repeat Mr. Chesterton. “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem.”

By William H. Willimon
This summer our church will elect bishops, those who will lead our church in the ministry of oversight. Everyone agrees that we currently suffer a “crisis of leadership.” Our numbers indicate that we have been under led, or led in the wrong sorts of ways. Our indicators of institutional health say that we need to do some things differently. But I remind you that the first and most enduring “crisis of leadership” is named “Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ not only assaulted our definitions of “God” and “Messiah,” but also disrupted and challenged our notions of leadership. From the first he predicted that the people in charge would reject him. Those early predictions are quickly validated by the response of the authorities to Jesus.

By Thomas Edward Frank
The approach of General Conference, with many proposals on the table for significant change in the church and reform of our practices, brings to the forefront again our responsibility as faithful United Methodists to ask questions — good, searching, critical questions — that will help advance our church in directions we want it to go. So I want to pose two kinds of questions for conversation about plans for restructuring the general church, arising out of my teaching and research about UM traditions and polity and more broadly in the field of church leadership and administration.

By Liza Kittle
United Methodist Women (UMW) membership has continued its decades-long annual decline, according to 2010 local church statistics just released by the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA). UMW lost 24,608 individual members and 509 local units in one year. The previous year (2009) saw a 54,000 member decline.