Another Mainstream Misunderstanding
Another Mainstream Misunderstanding By Thomas Lambrecht It is instructive to hear how others perceive what one is saying or doing. Having an alternative perspective often sharpens up the message and enables corrections to misunderstandings. Such is the case with the...
Divisions in Africa
Divisions in Africa By Thomas Lambrecht Recent meetings have clarified a developing divide in Africa between some bishops and other leaders who want to remain in The United Methodist Church and other leaders who are seeing the need to disaffiliate. The question will...
Turmoil in New Jersey
By Thomas Lambrecht -- Complaints about bishops exerting autocratic authority are nothing new in Methodism. Such grievances leveled against Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in America, were the cause behind Methodism’s first schism. Rev. James O’Kelly...
Experience vs. Scripture
By Thomas Lambrecht -- Many who affirm the practice of homosexuality in contrast to the teachings of Scripture base their affirmation on human experience. As they would describe it, they see God at work in the transformation of a human life, and it causes them to...
Getting the UM Church Unstuck
By Thomas Lambrecht -- The dust is clearing after an eventful month in The United Methodist Church. General Conference is postponed in-person to August 2022. A special virtual General Conference was scheduled for May 8, 2021, and then cancelled. The new Global...
The Heart of the Gospel
By Thomas Lambrecht -- “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and...
What is Religious Freedom?
By Thomas Lambrecht - Freedom of religion is often called the “first freedom” because it is the first provision mentioned in the United States Bill of Rights. Many scholars believe all the other freedoms depend upon the foundation of religious freedom to establish and...
A Grand Story Line in Harlem
By Steve Beard -- “We don’t have long here, children. Our hopes and aspirations may feel limitless, but our days are finite, our experiences fading in the twinkling of an eye,” observed actress Cicely Tyson in her recent memoir, Just As I Am. “Death is a love note to...
