The Time is Now
By Rob Renfroe -- Over the last few months I have had the privilege of speaking to more than a dozen churches and conferences in six different states and once to brothers and sisters in Europe, the Middle East, and the Philippines via social media. What I enjoy most...
North Georgia Blocks Church Disaffiliation
By Thomas Lambrecht -- In a provocative, year-end proclamation as she was walking out the door to her new assignment in Virginia, Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson defiantly led the North Georgia Conference to stop all local church disaffiliations. The “pause” announced by...
An Unwilling Undertaking: Happy Aldersgate Weekend
By Chappell Temple - I feel for the guy. For he certainly wasn’t the first fellow ever to go rather begrudgingly–or as he put it, “very unwillingly”– to church. After all, in terms of his pastoral career trajectory, it hadn’t gone exactly as he might have hoped it...
Judicial Council Allows Alternative Proposals
By Thomas Lambrecht - In a decision released today, the Judicial Council ruled by an 8-1 margin that “Petitions to the special session of the General Conference 2019 may be filed by any organization, clergy member and lay member of the United Methodist Church as long...
Anti-American Methodism: Bishop Ough vs. We the People
By Jason Vickers - In his 1989 landmark work, The Democratization of American Christianity, Nathan Hatch, Professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, examined the spread of Christianity in early America, arguing that the groups that flourished were the ones...
Leadership or Manipulation?
By Thomas Lambrecht - The bishops have been asked to lead. Apparently, to some bishops that means strong-arming a progressive agenda that has already been rejected by a previous General Conference. In its recent gathering, the Council of Bishops - behind closed doors...
What the Bishops Really Did
By Thomas Lambrecht - Since the Council of Bishops finished their decision-making process on May 4 outlining their proposal for a Way Forward for the church, there has been much confusion. Part of the confusion stems from the careful language used by the bishops in...
Seeing the Future
By Rob Renfroe - I don’t have a crystal ball. I’m not a prophet. And I’m not claiming to have “a word from God.” But I think I can see how the called General Conference may end next February. The bishops have spoken predominantly about two options which they are...
