By Amy Forbus Proposals for change across the denomination drove the discussion at a November gathering entitled: “How does the Call to Action affect African-American churches?” The Call to Action is an effort initiated by the Council of Bishops and Connectional Table with the charge to help The United Methodist Church better fulfill its mission [...]

“We are saddened by the willingness of pastors within our New York Annual Conference to reject their ordination vows and the teaching of our church that goes back to Jesus and the apostles and to disobey the clear directive of our own bishop” says a group of evangelical United Methodist pastors after hearing that hundreds [...]

By Kathy Gilbert United Methodist Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on women’s rights. Johnson Sirleaf, a member of First United Methodist Church, Monrovia, Liberia, in 2006 was the first woman to be elected a [...]

By Shane Raynor I sometimes hear frustration from those who think that some groups within Christianity aren’t intellectual enough. Others complain that certain groups are too intellectual. There are entire ministries built around Christian apologetics, some attempting to refute evolution, others trying to reconcile Christianity with evolution, some dispelling the notion that Christians aren’t intellectual, [...]

By Chris Kinyon Schutz The word of God is reaching poor and illiterate people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in several ways, thanks to the generosity of Asbury United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The project was born in 2004 when the Rev. Jim Lenderman, then a pastor in Conway, Arkansas, heard an African [...]

By James V. Heidinger II The Good News board has recently lost two persons who served on the ministry’s governing board for many years. The Rev. Dale C. Bittinger, 89, of Bristol, Virginia, died December 8, 2011. Attorney Dale B. Kincaid, 69, of Massillon, Ohio, died November 17, 2010. Both had served with distinction on [...]

Clergy covenant I am writing in response to the Rev. Thomas A. Lambrecht’s article in the November/December issue concerning two recent judicial council decisions. The Rev. Lambrecht and I had a chance to express our views before a trial court in the DeLong trial last June, so it may surprise him to learn that I actually [...]

By Frank Decker Not long ago, I witnessed probably the most inspiring funeral I can recall. It wasn’t due to the order of worship but because of the person who was being remembered. I met first Hugh, a medical doctor, when he would teach our Mission Society personnel in preparation about medical issues overseas. He [...]

By Duffy Robbins There’s no question that eye contact is one of our most powerful tools of non-verbal communication. “In normal conversation people look at each other between 30 and 60 percent of the time,” writes Michael Argyle, author of The Psychology of Interpersonal Behavior. In fact, he states that when two individuals look at [...]

By Rob Renfroe
In Surprised By Joy, C.S. Lewis writes about “chronological snobbery.” It’s the conviction that when matters before us are moral or spiritual or theological in nature, the most modern beliefs are the most correct beliefs. It’s an elitist approach to history and to knowledge, denying the wisdom of the ancients because we are certain that “the latest is always the greatest.”