Author Archives

Dan R. Dick

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 seventeen 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.

Taking a Pause – Vermont

Barbara and I have been in Vermont for the past week, soaking in the gorgeous colors (leaves), enjoying unseasonably mild temperatures, glorious lake views, breathtaking mountain views, and getting to know the land we purchased for retirement. I worked really hard to leave everything behind and to attend only to […]

Cognegative Discrepancies

I have been reading a number of articles that all point to a common occurrence — those who are the greatest opponents to a variety of issues are those who know and understand the least about them. Really good research has been done around a variety of controversial topics and […]

Nerdiness and Neediness

I always love the subtle, but significant shift that can come in the meaning of words by simply substituting one letter for another. A horse can become a house, a mower can mow lower, while you may lack the luck to lick a lock (whatever that might mean…) This morning […]

Somebody Special

I got this great email a few weeks ago from someone in the congregation I am serving now. She has gotten more involved in the ministries of the denomination, and she attended a Zoom webinar for racial justice recently, After the presentation she sent me an email that tickled and […]

The Difficulty of Truth

In a culture where more and more “truth” is subjective and we politicize everything, it becomes harder and harder to talk about anything. Take the names of Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and Nancy Pelosi out of the conversation and simply look at statements and behaviors – rational people […]

Faith-Filled Fruit Flies

This is a response to some very good questions raised by Dave Werner and others pressing me for a little more “how” and a little less “what” concerning civil conversation and navigating the current cultural context of conflict, polarization, and division. There is wide agreement that we should be able […]

Straining at Gnats; Swallowing Camels

Two recent conversations have been troubling me lately, and I finally figured out why. A colleague called me recently to complain about something I wrote. He said, “You know, we didn’t appreciate your criticism.” “What criticism?” I asked. “You wrote in your blog that we weren’t critical thinkers, that we […]

Try-or-ities

In my 35+ years of consultation work (as well as the dozen+ years in parish ministry) I have witnessed one consistent and undermining practice again and again. Examples: “Our Conference is currently working on these six top priorities,” and “we determined that every aspect of disciple making is our top […]

Rarefied Air

As more and more people die from COVID-19D, as more and more children are infected, as more and more lives are changed forever in a negative way, I hear more and more people ask one or more of the following: what is wrong with people that they won’t get vaccinated, […]