What joy- to weep as I helped Rev. Shirley Renee Franklin place a stole over our beloved Jefferson Furtado. Tears welled up as Margaret Williams placed the stole on Nancy Parker: linking us all again to her beloved Rev. Michael Williams, who now dwells with the Great Cloud of Witnesses- no doubt swapping tales with […]
For 47 years, we Methodists have “held the line”: marching in place, as God’s world spins away from us. We linger again- in a critical moment. Will the Methodist church stand in place, trudge backwards, or risk progress? The Cross came as an outside the box move. The Incarnation, Golden Rule, Reformation, Methodist Class […]
Jesus ministry begins with the words, “Change your hearts and lives!” (Matthew 4) The theme of “hearts” has infused my recent reading and preaching. While reviewing my 2017 sermon for the Bishop’s Advisory Committee on uniting the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences, I discovered my insight about hearts did not come from me: “As we wrestled […]
Theses are the answers I provided for the Tennessee Conference Pre-Conference Handbook. Please state in 100 words or less why you feel called to be a delegate to the 2020 General/Jurisdictional Conferences. We are divided. We need new pathways forward. I came to faith inside the evangelical church. During college the Quadrilateral wooed […]
“Why are you standing here looking toward heaven?” What is next church? The universal church is facing huge changes, a deepening exodus, and growing divisions…. American Christianity is slumbering in an other-worldly era. A pastor friend shared how his teenage daughter is rejecting Christianity because it is anti-science. Do you know such stories? Is the […]
Remembering the Jerusalem council, 45 C.E., the Apostle Paul shared, “We didn’t give in… for a single moment, so that the truth of the gospel would continue to be with you (the uncircumcised).” (Galatians 1-2) The Acts of the Apostles, along with Paul’s letters, tells how the church set aside its received traditions to embrace […]
Although, it would have much easier for the UMC Next conceiving team to lay out a detailed statement of faith and set of action plans during our time in Kansas City, we took time to listen. We sought to hear from God and each other before hoisting the seeds of a new methodist movement into […]
