Analyzing Disaffiliating Churches
By Thomas Lambrecht -- A recent report by Lovett Weems of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership purports to examine the 2,000 or so churches that disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church by the end of 2022. The Weems report was supposedly intended to discover...
Methodist Heritage: Bishop Matthew Simpson
By James V. Heidinger II -- It would not be long before I began hearing much about Matthew Simpson, the renowned son of Cadiz, Ohio. He was a nationally-recognized Methodist bishop and then president of Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University). He was also...
Product of an extraordinary church
By John Southwick
After 14 years in the Research Office of the General Board of Global Ministries, I have come to look at churches through evaluative eyes. I look for fruitfulness and whether a church’s branches are barren or bearing fruit. It is in that light that I look back on the church where I got my call to ministry more than three decades ago. This was a spectacular church led by a remarkable senior pastor, but I was clueless to those things, having just come to a true faith in Christ and being oblivious to church distinctions. As I reflect back after many decades, I can identify several characteristics which may have contributed to the greatness of this church.
UM Men leader clarifies Boy Scouts statement
The following statement from Gilbert Hanke, General Secretary of the General Commission of the United Methodist Men, was issued on January 31, 2013. It is a follow-up clarification to a UM News Service story entitled “2 agencies agree with change in Boy Scout ban.”...
Rethink Christmas – Two books call for making the most of the holiday
By Sam Hodges Hamilton and Slaughter sounds like a law firm one wouldn’t want to mess with, but those are in fact the last names of two well-known United Methodist megachurch pastors. They are good friends and close collaborators on efforts to renew the UMC. And, as...
Why Religious Freedom Must Be A Top Priority
By Peter Marshall Many human rights are neglected, but religious freedom is often strikingly so. The late Abe Rosenthal, looking back over five decades working at the New York Times, wrote: "I realized that in decades of reporting, writing or assigning stories on...
Is the UMC really committed to young people’s ministries?
By Mike Ratliff
Almost every article written or speech given in the leadership arenas of our church includes a statement on the need to engage young people in ministry and leadership.
Beach? Church? Both.
These aren't traditional churches. Instead of stained glass, there are views of emerald surf. Instead of cushioned pews, there are bar stools. The dress code is strictly casual. But the spirit still moves among the sunburned and sandy footed. Warm breezes carry...
Perspective, August 3, 2011
Here We Go Again In the wake of the recent clergy trial in Wisconsin that doled out a 20-day suspension for a United Methodist clergywoman for performing a same-sex union, a United Methodist pastor in Minnesota has already conducted a handful of ceremonies for...
VBS ‘mans up’: Vacation Bible Schools thrive when men pitch in
By Mary Jacobs The Vacation Bible School at Bailey Memorial United Methodist Church in rural Rosemont, W.Va., may be small—38 kids this year—but it’s breaking new ground. Bailey’s program was a test run of Cokesbury’s new VBS curriculum for 2012, entitled Operation...
A love letter to small membership churches
By Donald W. Haynes What a thrill to see a feature on the rural church in the July 1 issue of the United Methodist Reporter! An equal thrill at my own annual conference this year was to see something I had never experienced before—an entire evening devoted to a film...
Story behind “Just As I Am”
By Irene Ting-Ting Lai “Just as I Am, Without One Plea” Charlotte Elliott UM Hymnal, No. 357 Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Charlotte Elliott, a Victorian hymn...
