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.
The United Methodist Judicial Council has adjudicated the “homosexuality question” for the denomination by deeming the Baltimore-Washington attempt to reframe and redeem the gay-lesbian-bi-transgender issue “out-of-order.” The claim is that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Okay, fine, I accept that — but only if we’re consistent. The ordination of […]
We’re old. We’re dying. We’re decaying. We’re declining. We’re ineffective. We’re irrelevant. Doesn’t that motivate you to do better? Come on, be honest. Don’t such messages just fill you with energy, vigor, passion and hope? Sure they do, otherwise why would we dwell so constantly upon them? Why waste time […]
There are times when Christians drive me absolutely nuts. One way this happens is when I hear well-meaning and sincere Christians confuse faith and superstition, relying on prayer as a magical talisman or incantation. I listened to a United Methodist colleague share recently that he no longer prays because it […]
Two recent conversations stick with me and stand in stark contrast to my understanding of the church. Now, my understanding may be completely wrong, so take what I say with a grain of salt. My personal belief is that the church exists to serve in the world — that we […]
As I prepare to preach on All Saints day, three things come to mind. First, of course, I think of all those significant people who helped to shape my life and faith. I think of my mother’s simple faith — she didn’t want to think too deeply about it, and […]
It always amazes me when fairly modern interpretations of scripture are represented as “traditional” or “ancient.” Most moralizing uses of scripture are as recent as the Victorian era (1837~1901), and many date back to the Puritan era (1550s~1660s) but almost none have anything to do with their original meaning. Most of our Hebrew […]
I attended a session a few year’s ago at a Christian Educator’s Fellowship meeting where the leader talked about the importance of “good content, good topics, and good technique.” She delivered a very compelling vision of the task of teaching — organized, exacting, and precise. I went to another workshop […]
There is generally a distinct difference between our articulated values — what we say is important — and our lived values — the things we actually do. For example, I say that good diet and exercise is important, but I sit on my butt eating bacon-ranch-cheddar fries and drinking Diet […]
Some of the most fulfilling ministry I’ve been a part of in my thirty+ years has been either ecumenical or inter-faith. Beginning in my own “dark ages” as program director for the religious council at Ball State University, those projects and missional programs drawing from a broad diversity of faith […]
A series of recent events have conspired to make me get back in touch with some of the churches I interviewed and studied during my Vital Signs research. Out of fifteen vital congregations, the good news is that eleven of them are still going as strong as ever. The bad […]
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