Faith in a Time of Transition
By Thomas Lambrecht This is the final week of Advent, a season of preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and preparing for his coming again. Advent reminds us that we are in the time “between the times.” We are in the time between Jesus’ first and second...
An Incoherent Judicial Council Decision
By Thomas Lambrecht This week, the United Methodist Judicial Council (the equivalent of our church supreme court) handed down Decision 1451 regarding the processes to govern the 2024 meeting of the General Conference. This decision responded to requests from the...
Means of Grace
By Elaine A. Heath- “The thing is,” my neighbor said conspiratorially, “I really love to iron. I iron everything. I iron every day.” Corrine, a Lutheran, lived across the street and was a faithful member of a neighborhood spiritual formation group that I led. She had...
Royal Faith
Royal Faith By Steve Beard- There is an intriguing scene in Season 2 of the wildly successful historical drama, The Crown, on Netflix. For the uninitiated, the award-winning series revolves around the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the now 91-year-old sovereign of the...
Restoring Our Vision
By Duane Brown- One of life’s great blessing is to have clear vision, and few things are more frightening than the prospect of losing one’s sight. During the summer of 2013, I began losing my vision. For nearly six months I stubbornly ignored the problems. After...
In the Beginning
By B.J. Funk- God and his creation were on good terms. Throughout the first chapter of Genesis we can almost hear nature clapping loud approval after each “God saw that it was good” statement. The Creator masterfully painted the flowers with deep red, gold, and violet...
Big Picture Status of United Methodism – Part III (Europe/Asia)
By Thomas Lambrecht- Over the last several weeks of Perspective, I have been surveying the growth and decline of United Methodism around the globe. The statistical report is available here. The big picture is that most of Methodism around the globe is in decline, with...
What the Bishops’ Meeting Means
By Thomas Lambrecht- Social media is all abuzz in the aftermath of the Council of Bishops meeting that ended Wednesday. The special four-day meeting was called to enable further discussion of the Commission on a Way Forward report - updating and refining two of the...
