“No scripture can mean that God is not love and that His mercy is not over all His works.” This statement, from John Wesley’s sermon “Free Grace,” forms the foundation for how many United Methodist pastors like me were trained to interpret the Bible. We are burdened with understanding and explaining how God’s mercy and love are at stake in everything He tells us to do in the Bible. Methodists who follow our Wesleyan heritage cannot say with Dan Savage... Read more
For our church’s men’s retreat this weekend, we read sections from 1 Peter. One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 2:17: “It is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.” People have been hating on Christianity since the begin. And Peter is saying that it is our responsibility to silence the haters with the witness of our integrity instead of whining about our “persecution” or media bias. Sadly, far too many Christians... Read more
“All means all.” It’s a battle-cry that is appropriately Wesleyan. Since we believe in prevenient grace rather than predestination, we understand God’s infinite love for all humanity as the underlying truth that explains everything else about Christianity. Prevenient grace is what leads us to slogans like “Open doors, open minds, open hearts” and the concept of inclusivity for all. The question is what inclusivity really entails, because for everyone to have safety and dignity, sinful behaviors that hurt the community... Read more
Tom Berlin, a pastor and clergy delegate from my conference for whom I have a lot of respect, just posted a blog piece called “Facts are our friends,” which seeks to address the elephant in the room at General Conference that’s behind young clergy anxiety: how will a more strictly quantifiable method of evaluation impact our career as pastors over the next 30 years when we will face a diminishing “musical chairs” game of appointments unprecedented in the history of... Read more
First off, I’m aware that I didn’t witness what happened tonight in person. Mark Miller, one of the UMC General Conference worship leaders who is gay, stood up and gave an emotional speech about a climate of bullying that he saw taking place in the legislative sub-committee conversations about homosexuality. He was ruled out of order when he asked other delegates to stand with him by a bishop who then prayed for the situation. Not being privy to what did... Read more
I’ve been following the “Call to Action” debate on the twitter feeds from the Methodist General Conference. I realize that I’m just a scrub barely two years out of seminary. I still believe in theories; I still believe that fasting and prayer is the best approach to discerning God’s will. I’ve never had any training in systems theory or corporate organizational effectiveness. I’m the product of what the pundits malign when they say that seminaries should teach pastors practical managerial... Read more
For the past two years at our church’s confirmation retreat, I’ve shared a message based on Ephesians 4:14-16 that summarizes the way that I understand Christ to save us from sin by incorporating us into His body. I have often described my dissatisfaction with the popular evangelical account of salvation in which sin is understood solely as an offense against God’s honor which is “paid back” by Jesus’ blood on the cross. The problem with this predominant account is that... Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot about John Meunier’s question “What would it take for us to trust each other?” in this final week before our United Methodist General Conference. I have real reservations with what seems like a corporate world attitude about the solutions to our problems as a denomination. I have all sorts of critiques to level against the various proposals being considered. But I was convicted of something this past weekend at a wedding of two dear friends... Read more
Everyone else is writing about the “crisis” of American Christianity so I figured I’d add my own two cents. Andrew Sullivan wants us to cut up our Bibles and follow “Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a simpler, purer, apolitical Christianity.” Ross Douthat writes that the problem is we’ve been overrun by heresies. Christian Piatt claims that young adults are “leaving the church to follow Jesus.” I think that underneath the prosperity gospel, the ideological echo chamber, and the shallow, therapeutic Jesus-as-boyfriend... Read more
When some people talk about taxes and government programs for poor people, they often talk in the abstract about “government handouts” that “create dependency.” Having spent about a decade of my life in various forms of ministry and community with poor people and three years working for the state in the public school system, I scratch my head when I hear this talk about “government handouts.” That phrase just doesn’t describe the interactions that I’ve seen between government agencies and... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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