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.
I had a nice long wait to catch a flight from Phoenix the other day, so I struck up a conversation with an incredibly friendly Southwest Airlines gate attendant named Bob. I was interested in finding out if the change in boarding process (for years Southwest boarding was like a feeding […]
March — in like a lamb, in a like a lion. Zombie Congregations, The Urgency Element and Confirmation Consternation (recent posts) are generating some fun attention. New in “Buzz” is a capsule review of the March Book of the Month — John Nuessle’s, Faithful Witnesses — a fine book on mission and […]
Worship Connection posted an interesting article by Shane Raynor this week, Reinventing Confirmation. As I read it, I experienced a strange ambivalence — agreeing with many of the observations Shane makes while feeling like something was missing. Some of the insightful points in the article challenge the “one size fits […]
Okay, right off the bat let me say, my intention here is not to offend anyone (which means I am pretty sure I will offend someone…) What started me thinking about this was a church sign I passed where, I believe, someone made a rather amusing mistake. The sign read, […]
Meant To Be Seen What are the outward and visible signs of our life of faith? When people look at us, what unmistakable evidence exists that identifies us as members of the body of Christ? Today, as we begin our Lenten observance, we receive a mark of ash and oil that […]
Two major research projects have essentially defined my ministry for the past ten years: congregational vitality and seeker spirituality. A recent job change offered me (forced) a unique opportunity to pore through a veritable mountain of surveys, interviews, and site visit notes to determine what to keep and what to […]
A few years back, I was consulting with a district about revitalizing existing congregations and perhaps launching a new church start or two. Though it may seem obvious, my main question to the leadership of the district was, “Why?” Why do we want to revitalize struggling churches? Why start new […]
Do you have to be stupid to be a Christian? I sometimes wrestle with this very question. It’s reminiscent of the joke poster — “You don’t have to be crazy to work here… but it helps.” One of the most common reasons Christian spiritual seekers outside the church give for […]
Humor is a powerful tool for communication and relationship building. A good sense of humor is an essential element of mental, and even physical, health. Most people like to laugh, they like being around others who laugh, and they are drawn to those who make them laugh. Laughter is good […]
I received three emails today that I call “Chicken Little” messages. You know, the panicky ‘sky-is-falling’ folks who take every apocalyptic message as gospel fact. Somewhere, someone is marching out the old, tired chestnut that the United Methodist Church is dying and won’t be around in thirty or forty years. […]
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