Jon Stewart got a big laugh recently on “The Daily Show” when he said the United Methodist Church “is like the University of Phoenix of religions”—inferring that being a United Methodist is as easy as getting an online diploma. In other words, you don’t have to show up in person. You don’t have to work very hard at it. And as long as you pay your dues, you stay in good standing.

Each and every day, God sends out invitations, invitations to make a difference in someone’s life. These invitations are delivered in many different ways, but often times we miss them. We’re too busy, too distracted. What if the invitation were more obvious? What if you were reading one now? You Are Cordially invited to save lives today. Could you ignore it?

United Methodist leaders have created a team to put the finishing touches on a plan aimed at increasing the number of vital congregations in the church. The new Interim Operations Team will be an “advisory group on steroids,” said Neil Alexander, president and publisher of the United Methodist Publishing House and co-chairperson of the Call to Action Steering Team, which includes clergy and laity.

The United Methodist mission agency, faced with negative budget projections in the coming decade, is considering substantive cuts in both programmatic and administrative sectors in order to maintain what it regards as its “core competencies.” This year’s GBGM Annual Board Meeting convened in Stamford, Connecticut, to discuss, among other things, the possibility of a dramatic downsizing of the Board from 89 directors to a potential 30, and a revision of its Theology of Mission Statement and its associated Mission and Vision statements.

A United Methodist pastor has the right to determine local church membership, even if the decision is based on whether the potential member is gay or lesbian. Annual (regional) conferences cannot limit that right or ask the church’s top court to set policy, the United Methodist Judicial Council ruled during its October 27-30 meeting.

Hopelessness and Christianity cannot live in the same body, for the first word means we have no hope and the second word means we have all the hope in the world. To be hopeless indicates defeat. However, to be a Christian indicates the acceptance of the Power of the universe into our lives. So, how can we be both? How can we be a Christian and also be hopeless?

In John 14, Jesus talks to his disciples about the Father working through him, including doing miracles, and in verse 12 he tells them: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” Do you think that Jesus meant that even United Methodists who have faith in Jesus today would do what he had been doing? At Aldersgate Renewal Ministries (ARM) we do.

Without question, politics is often a nasty and mean spirited business. Everyone decries the tone and tenor of our local, state, and national politics. “Negative ads,” distortions of opponents’ records, political favors for large cash donations, and the political gerrymandering that strongly tips the scales in favor of incumbents makes for a dispirited, weary, and cynical electorate. Not surprisingly, good church people want none of this in their midst. But in its justifiable aversion to all the more unsavory aspects of politics the church overlooks its necessity and so mistakenly believes it can somehow have a polity without politics. This is naïve at best and disingenuous at worst.

By Priscilla Muzerengwa (UMNS) — They come by the thousands, many leaving their homes for nearly a week to gather on an open patch of ground. There, they will raise their hands above their heads, waving and clapping, singing songs of praise and dancing before the Lord. Many will stay up all night in praise and prayer, climbing nearby mountains for private conversations with God during breaks. And the faithful, such as Emily Makunike, will be revived.

Members of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington D.C. voted 367 to 8 on Sept. 26 to allow same-gender marriages to be performed in its building. Foundry is among many congregations in Washington that have been discussing same-sex marriages since the city passed the Marriage Equality Act last March. The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s [...]