Latest Articles

Happiness vs. Holiness

By Rob Renfroe- If you were to summarize one rather stark section of the Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthians, it might be: God loves you and has a dangerous plan for your life. He reminds the congregation that he has “been in prison more ...

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Overcoming Hatred and Fear

By Bishop Sharma Lewis- Brothers & Sisters: As we continue to process the disturbing events from Charlottesville, Virginia, we need to turn to God for understanding, guidance, and strength in our next steps. As Christians and United ...

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Heroes and Heroines of Our Faith

By Jeff Walton- More than 250 million Christians are suffering persecution of some kind around the world today, according to Baroness Caroline Cox, founder of the U.K.-based Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART). Many live under the oppression of ...

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Is There a Way Forward?

By Walter Fenton- For nearly nine months now the Commission on a Way Forward has been meeting behind closed doors in an attempt to fulfill two almost impossible tasks: producing a plan to definitively resolve the deep disagreement over The United ...

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Poet of the Valiant Heart

By Faith McDonnell- In 1989, People magazine reviewed Ratushinskaya’s prison memoir, Grey is the Color of Hope. The review recounted how the then-exiled-in-the-West poet had been arrested in 1983 at the age of 29 and sentenced to seven years’ hard ...

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The Risk of Renewal

By Riley B. Case- When Charles Keysor wrote his article “Methodism’s Silent Minority” in the Christian Advocate in 1966, an article that basically launched the Good News movement, he spoke about numbers of Methodists who affirmed historic Methodism ...

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Doctrine and the People called Methodist

By James V. Heidinger II- Debate has been renewed in recent months about the role of doctrine for United Methodists. What is the place, for example, of orthodox Christian doctrine in our church? For years we have heard that we are not a creedal ...

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In the News

How “Centrist” Is Uniting Methodists?

By Tom Lmbrecht- The new group Uniting Methodists is in the process of forming to (in their words) give voice to the "broad center" of The United Methodist Church. A recent information session about ...

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What Is Unity?

By Thomas Lambrecht- In the wake of the September meeting of the Commission on a Way Forward in Berlin, I would like to reflect on the balancing act that the Commission is engaged in as it formulates ...

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Another Complaint, No Consequences

By Thomas Lambrecht As has become all too common, another complaint against a pastor for celebrating a same-sex wedding has been resolved without any discipline. In other words, the case has been ...

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New Room Renewal

"Great periods of Christian revival in the U.S. need not be consigned to the church's circuit-rider past," writes Heather Hahn of United Methodist News Service. "Even without the saddle sores and ...

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Uniting Methodists Leaning Left

By Walter Fenton Uniting Methodists is a new caucus group that has entered as a "new voice" in the battle over the United Methodist Church's sexual ethics, teachings on marriage, and its ordination ...

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At the Center of What?

By Walter Fenton- In his recent respectful, but critical appraisal of so-called United Methodist "centrism," Dr. Kevin Watson, Assistant Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at Candler School ...

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The Man Came Around: RIP Johnny Cash

In memory of Johnny Cash who died on this date in 2003, we reprint this obituary. By Steve Beard “We’ve seen the secret things revealed by God/ And we heard what the angels had to say/ Should ...

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