I am the Assistant to the Bishop in the Wisconsin Conference of The United Methodist Church, husband of my beautiful wife, Barbara, dad to my fantastic son, Josh, step-dad to my phenomenal son, Greg, author of fourteen 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.
As I get older, memory plays tricks, so I may be remembering this wrong, but a favorite Hebrew phrase of mine is hakarat harov, meaning “attending to the good” (I think…). It always comes to mind as I prepare for Thanksgiving, and I sometimes wonder what life is like for […]
I unearthed an old file from my GBOD (General Board of Discipleship; now, Discipleship Ministries) days, and I discovered an article I wrote that was never published. It focused on interviews with pastors, district superintendents, bishops, authors, and other key movers-and-shakers in The United Methodist Church, and it raised a […]
I was in conversation with some of my colleagues about the state of The United Methodist Church. We each took a Post-It® Note and wrote what we thought was the most pressing need/critical issue facing the church. Most of the notes were about declining numbers — not enough new members, […]
In all my years, I have yet to meet anyone who is right 100% of the time, or even 100% right at any time. Part of the human condition is that we operate from a partial perspective — we see in a glass darkly, as it were. Yet, we all […]
A young pastor took exception to a recent post of mine that indicated I believe unconditional love should be unconditional. Her question to me confounded and alarmed: “Don’t you think we cheapen the gospel when we love people we shouldn’t love?” I pressed her to identify whom she felt Christians […]
An interesting and somewhat distressing thing happened this morning that gives me cause to pause. I was having coffee at a sidewalk table, sitting near a dozen other people, mostly my own age or older (so, all over 57…). A young, fairly hefty woman with her maybe three-year-old child, sauntered up […]
Warning: This is a vent, a rant, a yawp and a tantrum. I received an email today that had me shaking while I read it and has been a distraction all day. I seek the catharsis of putting my thoughts in writing so I can let it go. The gist […]
I never see it coming. I write something I think is compelling or provocative, and no one seems to care. I toss off something I don’t give much thought or energy to, and it gets 3,000 hits. I posted “Crybaby Christians,” and thought I might get some push-back about it […]
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of […]
I will move this to “best books” in a week or two, but for now, I want to add Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age to my list of books I believe every pastor should read. This book came out in 2007 and I am embarrassed to say that it took […]
