I am one small, lonely, lowly voice in a large mass (mob?) of United Methodists. One person cannot speak for the whole, but I want to engage in just such a thought exercise. I want to “test the house,” as it were. Here is my supposition about what WE ALL […]
Last Day. The End of Times. Don’t count on Jesus coming back any time soon. If he is anything like most of the delegates to this year’s General Conference, it may take him a few days to recover. There has been so much attention (I’m as guilty as anyone) on […]
What outcomes do we expect from General Conference? Among the main, we look for denominational initiatives and priorities, revisions to the Book of Discipline and the Book of Resolutions, and elections of Judicial Council and University Senate, among other denominational governance bodies. We get updates on significant work of the […]
For most people in relationship, the words “we need to talk,” rarely bode well. The “we need to talk” talk generally comes as a “so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye” turning point, and this seems to be where about 11% of United Methodists (and 15% of General Conference delegates) think […]
Early on last week, I wrote that I was appalled by the behaviors I was seeing displayed by my United Methodist brothers and sisters. Some wrote back to say they didn’t know what I was talking about — that no one was behaving badly. Since then, Gere Reist, Secretary of […]
General Conference has taken a nasty turn and an unfortunate direction, with ascribing malice and assuming negative intentions. Civility is at a minimum, and people are now on the attack. My sense is that we are witnessing ineptitude, incompetence and ignorance, not intentional malpractice. We are not being led well, […]
There are very few people here in Portland who would say that The United Methodist Church is in a good, healthy place (no, I don’t mean Portland). We have come to a crisis point, where we cannot say we are united in Christ, or of one mind, heart, soul, and […]
Is a global gathering of thousands of “members” for a two week legislative meeting a community? General Conference does not feel to me like community. It could be. We are baptized to the same faith, confessing the same God and Savior, believing in the Spirit of God to be present […]
We are engaged in a fascinating bog here in Portland. There are strong and many calls to draw a definitive line in the sand to say who is right and who is wrong, who will win and who will lose. We have come to the place where no one can […]
Today is the first day the rumor mills churned out of control. If you skim social media, you might pick up any of a hundred different rumors about what is happening behind the scenes at General Conference. It caused us to change our agenda so that Bishop Bruce Ough could […]
