Charting a New Direction for the UMC (Part II)
By Thomas Lambrecht With the recent election of thirteen new bishops, the active Council of Bishops will be made up of one-third new members on January 1, 2023. As such, they will play a powerful role in setting the direction of The United Methodist Church into the...
Charting a New Direction for the UMC (Part 1)
By Thomas Lambrecht -- With the recent election of thirteen new bishops, the active Council of Bishops will be made up of one-third new members on January 1, 2023. As such, they will play a powerful role in setting the direction of The United Methodist Church into the...
A Secular Religion: The Challenge We Face
By Tom Lambrecht- A recent article in the journal First Things by Mary Eberstadt entitled The Zealous Faith of Secularism makes the case that the challenge we face in the United States and the Western World is one of competing faiths or competing ideologies....
Tempering Expectations — Dealing with Impatience
By Thomas Lambrecht- It is no surprise that many members of The United Methodist Church are growing impatient. It feels like we have been discussing (if not fighting over) our views regarding the church's ministry with LGBTQ people for a lifetime. Many hoped that the...
Unity or Truth?
By Thomas Lambrecht- Many see the conflict currently raging in The United Methodist Church as a contest between unity and truth. Is it more important to follow what we believe to be the truth or to stay united as a denomination? There are both progressives and...
Unity’s Catcher’s Mitt
By Rob Renfroe- Imagine that there was a package under your Christmas tree with your name on it. The paper was bright and colorful. The bow was beautiful with just enough glitter that it sparkled in the glow of the lights on the tree. With packaging like that, you...
From Party Boy to Water Source
Scott Harrison grew up as a “good Christian kid.” His family was happy, until they weren’t. When a carbon monoxide leak in their home destroyed his mother’s immune system, Scott began to take care of everything around the house. At the age of 18 he escaped into music...
Swimming Against the Stream
The Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers died while traveling in Switzerland on September 29, 2017. She was 85. The obituary from the Minnesota Annual Conference was on target: “Always on the leading edge of historical shifts in culture, Rev. Powers was a global-level advocate...
