I am the lead pastor at People's United Methodist Church in the Wisconsin Conference of The United Methodist Church, husband of my beautiful wife, Barbara, dad to my fantastic son, Josh and his wife Caroline, step-dad to my phenomenal son, Greg, his wife Hannah and our fabulous/glorious/perfect granddaughter Evie, author of seventeed books on spirituality, stewardship, congregational development, research, and spiritual gifts discovery, and an advocate for a more loving, inclusive church for the 21st century and beyond.
We are engaged in a fascinating bog here in Portland. There are strong and many calls to draw a definitive line in the sand to say who is right and who is wrong, who will win and who will lose. We have come to the place where no one can […]
Today is the first day the rumor mills churned out of control. If you skim social media, you might pick up any of a hundred different rumors about what is happening behind the scenes at General Conference. It caused us to change our agenda so that Bishop Bruce Ough could […]
This General Conference has been a true test of what exactly we mean by “united” in United Methodist Church. What’s in a name? Is the “united” merely a carryover from our Evangelical United Brethren heritage, and therefore not a descriptive term? Is it an appellation that sounds fine, but has […]
This morning I posted a blog entitled Four Unpainted Corners, using a metaphor of four different groups in a large ballroom painting in opposite directions, ending up painted — as far from each other as possible — into the four corners of the space. Well, as we well know, metaphors […]
In critical chain theory, the whole chain is only as strong as the weakest link. There is no “average” strength, but the entire chain rises or falls on the weakest element. In theory of constraints, there is a factor (or factors) which undermines or sub-optimizes the entire process, and by […]
Drawing on the saying “we’ve painted ourselves in a corner,” I want to offer a metaphor/analogy. Imagine if you will a ballroom. Large, open, massive space, with a sizeable floor. Four groups begin in the middle of the room to paint the floor, each moving in different directions toward a […]
Deja vu, all over again. Informally polling people on their feelings about launching into week 2 of General Conference, I am encountering a great deal of ambivalence, frustration, and a “here we go again” vibe. Expectations are very low, fear and anxiety very high, and a wariness that we may […]
Say What, Now? (Based on Romans 12:1-21, NRSV) a dialogue sermon delivered May 15, 2016, Aloha United Methodist Church by Barbara and Dan Dick Barbara: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to […]
A nice thing happened as we were leaving legislative committee last night. Two African men stopped me to thank me for “not treating us like we are mentally defective.” I asked what they meant, and they told me that many people have treated them in patronizing and demeaning ways. I […]
People are perceiving very different lived realities at General Conference. I am writing what I experience and observe, but I admit freely it is only my opinion. Many people are leaving feedback directly on the blog, but I am also receiving emails, tweets, texts, and face-to-face feedback — mostly disagreeing […]
