Engaging an African Bishop
Engaging an African Bishop -- By Thomas Lambrecht -- A recent commentary by Bishop Mande Muyombo (North Katanga Area in the Congo Central Conference) sets forth his understanding of where things are and where things are headed for The United Methodist Church in...
Methodist Heritage Archive: Brother Stanley
Methodist Heritage: Brother Stanley -- By Edmund Robb III -- Good News Archive, July-August 1976 -- TIME magazine, Oct. 20, 1948: “A grand old man among U.S. missionaries is a rugged Methodist preacher named Eli Stanley Jones. Baltimore-born Missionary Jones went to...
Focus 3: Living shabbily, praying meagerly
- By E.M. Bounds - I believe that what the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more novel methods. She needs Christians whom the Holy Spirit can use—Christians of prayer, Christians mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not...
Focus 3: Traditional Plan affirmed again
In the first indicator of the direction of the 2019 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, the majority of delegates affirmed the Traditional Plan. In a vote gauging "high priority" vs. "low priority" of various denominational plans, more than 55 percent...
Kulah: Standing on the Promises of God
- By Dr. Jerry Kulah - My dear brothers and sisters of The United Methodist Church from all around the world, I humbly greet you in the strong name of Jesus Christ! We thank God for all who have participated in observing a sacred season of fasting and prayer as we...
Focus 2: Global inequity challenges United Methodism
By Steve Beard - The 2019 General Conference of The United Methodist Church is being simultaneously translated for delegates in French, German, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili. The skilled bank of interpreters illustrate the unique international DNA...
Focus 2: Devotional – Power of the Holy Spirit
By Samuel Chadwick - The church still has a theology of the Holy Spirit but it has no living consciousness of His presence and power. No doctrine of the Christian faith has been so neglected. The blunders and disasters of the church are largely, if not entirely,...
Focus 2: What Makes a Successful General Conference?
By Elizabeth Glass Turner - How can we move toward a common goal successfully together? That endgame may mean significantly different things to various factions in St. Louis. The problem isn't that we can't work together. It's that we're working towards different...
Focus 1: Devotional – A prayer for hope
By Richard Allen (1760-1830) - O, my God, in all my dangers, temporal and spiritual, I will hope in thee who art Almighty power, and therefore able to relieve me; who art infinite goodness, and therefore ready and willing to assist me. O, precious blood of my dear...
Focus 1: Which Way Forward? Modified Traditional Plan
By Thomas Lambrecht “I look upon all the world as my parish,” famously said John Wesley. As we gather in St. Louis, The United Methodist Church – one aspect of Wesley’s spiritual legacy – is in ministry in 60 different nations around the globe. Within the last 20...
Is Mainstream Selling Us Downstream?
By Chappell Temple - I've been getting their emails and letters almost every day, so it seems. In preparation for the upcoming General Conference of The United Methodist Church in St. Louis, a group advocating for one of the plans being proposed has been more than...
Revival and revisiting barrenness
- By Stephen Seamands “Sing, O barren one who did not bear; burst into song and shout you who have not been in labor ... The children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married ... Enlarge the site of your tent ... do not hold back;...
