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.
Well, it took me over two hours and frequent stops to do it, but I made my five miles in spite of the deep tissue trauma in my lower back! I also had to walk closer to home, not knowing how well I would hold up, but I fulfilled my […]
I have never done this before, and promise not to do it often, but I will be walking this Saturday — World Malaria Day — to raise funds for Imagine No Malaria. The United Methodist Church made a commitment to work with other groups (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the […]
I love hearing good news about the church I love, and the best news I have received in years is the return of Vance P. Ross to the leadership of Discipleship Ministries (formerly the GBOD, formerly General Board of Discipleship). Vance is one of the brightest, deepest, truly compassionate, and […]
My heart breaks as I see more and more statements about who “matters.” Oh, I understand the intention to stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters who find themselves on an unpublished endangered species list because of the hidden -isms of our US culture (racism, classism, fascism, etc.). My concern […]
Take a few minutes and watch this video Children Shall Lead Them. The image of the four young people walking down the hall hand-in-hand — two Hispanic/Latino, one African-American, one with Downs Syndrome — is incredibly powerful for me. It illustrates the world we need to be living in — not […]
I get dozens of requests to use this every year, so here it is with authorization to use it any and every way you find helpful — my version of the money autobiography! Writing a Money Autobiography Introduction Writing a money autobiography is a challenging and illuminating process that can […]
If God is unity and totality, and all things come from God and all things are under the command and control of God (God the ground of ALL being), then how many sides does God have? An infinite number or one? And if infinite — including all sides with no […]
As Epiphany closes the Christmastide once more, a few incidents stand out in my mind as symbolic of the current state of the church and our faith in the present day: At a hotel where I stayed this week, a manager was giving instruction to her maintenance crew — at […]
Happy Boxing Day, everyone! Christmas is OVER. It used to be that Christmas Day heralded the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas — or, Christmastide, if you prefer — leading to the arrival of the magi for Epiphany. At the very least, the eight days following Christmas held special […]
I wonder which Jesus we are hoping for this year? Your initial reaction may be, “hold on, there’s just one Jesus!” to which I would reply “you haven’t been paying attention.” Even in scripture we have no fewer than four accounts (canonical) as well as dozens (non-canonical) that offer us […]
