Blog

Ancient-Future and Blended Worship: What Are They and What’s the Difference?

Note: The genesis of this blog post was as a response to a comment on GBOD’s Facebook Group, UMC Worship. The original question was: I am intensely passionate about "Ancient-Future...

Differences Congregations Don't Make... and What to Do about It

Congregations Make Little if Any Difference in People's Lives...

The Differences Congregational Worship Makes... and Doesn't

Congregational Worship May not Be "All That" for Many...

MLK, The Church, and Poor People

January 16, 2012 Today we honor the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today countless people will read and listen to his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, deliver...

Disciples or Consumers?

Alan Hirsch discusses why a church cannot be built by appealing to consumers or consumer culture....

The Meaning of Membership in The United Methodist Church

Following are paragraphs from The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2008 pertaining to membership. On Sunday, January 8, many United Methodist congregations will ...

What Brings People to Church? The Survey Says...

"Personal invitation from someone you know" is by far the most cited reason people first heard about and then started attending a United Methodist Church, according to findings abo...

Small Group Ministry podcast

On Friday, December 9, 2011, I recorded a podcast for the Baltimore-Washington Conference. The topic was "Small Groups." Here's a link to the podcast: http://www.bwcumc.org/resourc...

Advent, Christmas, & Covenant Discipleship

Advent and Christmas help us understand discipleship.Advent In Advent the church reflects on the need to be prepared for Christ’s return to consummate his reign on earth. How do Ch...

When You MUST Cancel Christmas

Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. Just like the last time this happened, there are a number of congregations choosing to cancel Sunday worship services. Willow Creek got the m...

Dr. Elaine Heath on A New Vision for Wesleyan Community

The second annual Wesleyan Leadership Conference was held in Nashville October 13-15, 2011. Dr. Elaine Heath was the featured speaker. She presented her vision for new Wesleyan com...

Pondering the "Purple Seasons"

As most of us begin this "purple" season of Advent, I find myself pulled into contemplating the other purple season: Lent. It's an occupational hazard, partly. As someone who works...

Holiness: The United Methodist Way

Pursue peace with everyone,and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14 This is a passage John Wesley frequently cites in his journal. Given his life-long...

Can We Still Talk about... Salvation? (Part 4 of the Series)

Salvation....

Dispatches from the 2011 Wesleyan Leadership Conference

The second annual Wesleyan Leadership Conference adjourned at noon today (October 15th). It was a Spirit-filled event. One of the participants has blogged about her experience. She...

ReThink Christmastide for 2010/2011

Discipleship and the Church

I am currently reading an excellent book by Mike Breen and Steve Cockram titled, Building a Discipling Culture. Early in the introduction readers see the following quote printed in...

Ua Tsaug Rua Yexus Rooj Mov (The Great Thanksgiving in Hmong)

(A first draft, released for testing, developed by the Hmong Writing Group of the Open Source Liturgy Project, meeting 9/10/2011 in St. Paul, Minnesota) Nyob zoo ib tsoom kwvtij ne...

Celebrating an Extended Advent at Epworth UMC, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

In an article by Taylor Burton-Edwards, Safiyah Fosua, and Dean McIntyre it was proposed that we worship leaders and pastors might want to consider trying something different for A...

Disciple-Making

This is the final installment of a series of articles based on Bible study sessions I lead during the 2011 South Georgia Annual Conference held at Tifton, Georgia in June. This art...