I had been formally excused from attendance at the North Texas Annual Conference this year because of my sabbatical leave, but decided to watch as much of it as I could by livestream and to keep up otherwise by twitter and blog posts. Powerful reports filtered in of great worship, strong youth leadership, renewed energy, hope, connection and collegiality. The Nehemiah team did a great job presenting options for new delivery models as they held to the essential mission of... Read more
Two weeks ago, Bishop Bledsoe invited the clergy of the North Texas Conference into dialogue. Yesterday, he announced his retirement. With Annual Conference starting tomorrow, I find myself deep, deep in prayer for all of us in the NTAC. I am in London on a three month Sabbatical that is also a journey of healing, both physical and spiritual, as I work on a project I am calling The Sustainable Church. I have learned this from my time in London:... Read more
Note: this is part of an ongoing series. Mystery Worship One is here; Mystery Worship Two is here; Mystery Worship Three is here. Sunday, May 20, 2012, brought me to the Chiltern Church,described on their website as an independent, evangelical church with a heritage from the Plymouth Brethren Church. I chose this church for one simple reason: I could walk there. Nearly every other church in the area is a good two mile hike over very hilly streets. This one was a simple 1/2... Read more
Rev. Tom Griffith recently wrote an article about the structure of The United Methodist Church where he states that the core business of the church is NOT “making disciples of Jesus Christ.” He writes, If we truly believe in the Wesleyan concept of God working through God’s prevenient grace that brings a penitent to the point where s/he is ready to accept God’s saving grace, we must admit that we are not the ones who are doing the “saving” or creating... Read more
Note: this is part of an ongoing series. Mystery Worship One is here and Mystery Worship Two is here. For Sunday, May 13, my first Sunday in the UK, I had intended to go to Trinity Church Sutton, but discovered that they were combining services with Sutton Baptist Church, and the Anglican St. Nicholas Church. The three churches, all located almost next to each other, have combined services monthly in the evenings, and yearly during the main service time (10:30)... Read more
Here is a good, and a little bit funny, article on the nature of “biblical” marriages. If you don’t want to read the whole article, here’s how the author sums up the nature of “traditional” marriages with a biblical foundation: Traditional marriage is one man with multiple wives, multiple concubines, wives conquered in war and wives acquired in levirate marriage, possibly including girls under the age of ten, but definitely not including anyone of a different ethnic group, in an... Read more
Here is a good, and a little bit funny, article on the nature of “biblical” marriages. If you don’t want to read the whole article, here’s how the author sums up the nature of “traditional” marriages with a biblical foundation: Traditional marriage is one man with multiple wives, multiple concubines, wives conquered in war and wives acquired in levirate marriage, possibly including girls under the age of ten, but definitely not including anyone of a different ethnic group, in an... Read more
Forty years ago, I would have called the present “me” a heretic and demanded that the present “me” recant or be expelled. Forty years ago, I would have burned the present “me” at the stake. Forty years ago, I would have gone to holy war over those details because I just knew that I was right. Most of us can agree on major goals. For the church, it is “Love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul and... Read more
For Mystery Worship Number Two, I picked the Sunday Evening Contemporary Worship service at Park Avenue United Methodist Church on the upper east side of New York City, After an afternoon near midtown, I arrived by taxi about 6:15 pm for 6:30 worship. I found the doors of the church wide open with a greeter there ready to say hi and offer me a simple order of worship. The bulletin was simple, one/half sheet, printed in color. Like many churches in... Read more
I received a comment recently on this post where the writer, in defending special privileges for Bishops that are denied other clergy, wrote in explanation of why Bishops do little pastoring of the pastors under their care: “they spend so much time troubleshooting the problem-children of the clergy that there is little time left over for hand-holding.” Now, look at this situation: Bishops blame the ineffective clergy for the reasons they can’t do their job and clergy blame bad or dead... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In