At General Conference Friday evening, we celebrated (if celebrate is an even moderately appropriate word…) “An Act of Repentance toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples.” The people I’ve spoken with about the service (before it began) were of three minds: 1) what was done to Native Americans was horrendous, but […]
We all want to be a vital, growing, spiritually focused, Biblically based church, right? The consensus is strong. Yes, this is exactly what we want — we just disagree on the definition of practically every term we share in common. Vitality is the current buzzword in the church. I take […]
It is interesting to watch the tensions mount and see a large gathering of competent, mostly-professional, self-possessed people get all flustered and fall all over themselves when someone raises an uncomfortable issue. It won’t be surprising to anyone to know that the gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/transgender relationship to the church was raised — […]
General Conference is amazing. I wish everyone could experience the best of conference — without necessarily sitting through the tedious and trying parts. But it is glorious to work side-by-side with men and women from around the globe. Even though we may not all agree (on much of anything) we […]
I’m too tired to come up with a title for tonight’s blog. It is getting harder and harder to keep up with everything that is going on. Let me just say, in my opinion Bishop James King is one of the great treasures of The United Methodist Church. He preached […]
Greeting me this morning at my assembly table was a slick, polished piece of propaganda for A Call to Action. Signed by 80 pastors of our largest churches — note no endorsements from laity or congregations, just senior pastors of big number churches — it regurgitates the rhetoric of why […]
We are about to launch into our opening plenary session to be instructed and guided and oriented and introduced and all the wonderful things that have to be put in place to get us started. There is a LOT of getting started at GC. We moved through an opening worship […]
Tampa Convention Center — they get an A+ for hospitality and organization. They are ready for the hoard of United Methodists. And the UMC is ready as well. It is impossible not to be impressed by the pageantry and preparation. But it is also a little depressing. I just walked through […]
Barbara and I are here in Tampa, all checked in and registered, poring through pounds of paper, reviewing notes on legislation and slogging through piles of reports and recommendations. General Conference is a Dickensian metaphor — the best of times, the worst of times. Gearing up for this GC, I […]
Zero is an interesting concept. Is it the presence of nothing or the absence of anything? Is it a baseline from which to measure or a null point? Is it normal or is it failure? Is it a goal for which to strive or a default by which to reset? […]
United Methodeviations 