Forgive this personal digression, but I just noticed that United Methodeviations passed the 500,000 page views milestone recently. On the one hand, this boggles my mind. I realize that many hits come from “regulars” who check in frequently, so I have no delusions of reaching half a million people. I […]
My thesis: the greatest danger to today’s Christian church in the United States doesn’t come from outside. It isn’t atheists. It isn’t gays or lesbians. It isn’t the liberal media. It isn’t terrorists of other faiths. No, the greatest threat to our church today is us — the silly little […]
I used a hymn at this year’s annual conference that I wrote the words to about 20 years ago when I was charged with merging two congregations that didn’t really want to merge. There was loads of competition and strife, so I wrote this song as a call for unity. […]
I am fast coming to despise email. Not just the quantity, nor the spam — but the high level of miscommunication it engenders. Three examples: you’re not the kind of example I would expect from The United Methodist Church. I have never heard such nonsense about the church before. The […]
Pastors are generally noted for their preaching and teaching — their communication skills. Yet, have you ever noticed how often “expert communicators” have so much difficulty communicating? I have been doing church consultation for almost twenty years, and the number one concern at both congregational and conference levels is often […]
A few years ago I stood up in a meeting at the General Board of Discipleship and asked, “Has anyone else noticed how many deeply angry people we have in The United Methodist Church?” At first, a few puzzled folks asked what I meant, but I didn’t even have to […]
This has been one of those interesting days where one theme keeps recurring no matter where I turn. A gentleman stopped me this evening to tell me how displeased he is with my blog — that he has, in the past, found value in my writing, but that my blog […]
A pastor came up to me with a devilish grin on his face. “Have you seen this?” he asked, shoving a copy of an email under my nose. It seems I irritated a prominent, high profile pastor of one of our premiere large membership congregations with my thoughts on the […]
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