Surf City Disaffiliation or Eviction?
Surf City Disaffiliation or Eviction? -- The Los Angeles Times recently published a comprehensive 2,000 word piece about the excessively costly disaffiliation process for traditionalist United Methodist congregations in Southern California. It is worth reading...
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...
General Conference 2020 Postponed
By Heather Hahn - With the coronavirus disrupting lives worldwide, General Conference organizers determined they have no choice but to postpone The United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly. The Minneapolis Convention Center – scheduled to host the 2020...
Tenor’s Prayer
By Steve Beard - Perhaps no singular image better captured Easter under the treacherous cruelty of the coronavirus than Andrea Bocelli performing a solitary sacred concert in the spectacularly cavernous Duomo di Milano, the cathedral in Milan, Italy. By the time...
The Church in a Storm
By Omar Al-Rikabi- “A terrible screaming began among the English,” John Wesley wrote in his journal, “But the Germans calmly sang on.” Sailing aboard The Simmons from England to the American Colonies in 1736, Wesley found his ship overtaken by storm after storm....
Chaplains Comfort and Grieve During COVID-19
By Jim Patterson - Flexibility is key for United Methodist chaplains as they cope with families who can’t see their loved ones – sometimes even dying loved ones – because of the coronavirus that has killed thousands as it spreads around the world. United Methodist...
Take Away our Pride: The Lordship of Jesus
By David F. Watson - The year 1906 marked the publication of G.K. Chesterton’s poem, “O God of Earth And Altar.” It subsequently was put to haunting music and adapted as a hymn. Although it was written over a century ago, it is nevertheless a song for our times. O God...
Depending on God When it Doesn’t Make Sense
By Elizabeth Glass Turner - Sanctification is fun when it’s under our control. Out of the corner of our eye, we have peripheral awareness of how close to being faith consumers we really are. We choose to go to a conference so we can grow spiritually. We choose to show...
