Long Live the Zombie Church? #CallToAction

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One of my friends sat in the General Administration committee this past week, which is the committee responsible for the bulk of the Call To Action legislation (the global church restructuring). He emailed out his reflections that I’m posting below with permission. This is from a young clergyperson in the North Central Jurisdiction. ======== I [...]

#Explo2011 Punching Holes in the Darkness

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On the first night of Exploration 2011, Adam Hamilton used a fascinating illustration from Rev. Kyles, a preacher who was standing close to MLK Jr. when he was assassinated. It interested me so I Googled and couldn’t find Stevenson’s original words. But I found the NPR piece that Hamilton heard it from and it has Rev. [...]

#Explo2011.Commitment – Challenging Uncertainty

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So far in this blog series, we’ve acknowledged uncertainty as a part of the grace given to us at baptism. We’ve allowed uncertainty to be a part of our life as we hit the roadblocks in our journeys. Now we come to the point when we challenge uncertainty and make inroads into our call. The [...]

#Explo2011.Photo – Conference Hosts

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I like this photo of our two Explo2011 hosts. These two have been the public face as they hosted the conference and gave us lots o’ information. I really enjoyed this candid shot of them both as they assumed their default positions before going on the altar. On the left is Rev. Juan Huertas, an Elder in [...]

#Explo2011.Blocks – Allowing Uncertainty

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The best thing about life in the Spirit is that it is not scripted. Consider the passage for this morning from Acts 16: Paul and Timothy are STOKED, they are ready to engage Asia, to tell the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them and what? The Spirit prohibits them? What? That doesn’t make a lick [...]

#Explo2011.Baptism – Acknowledging Uncertainty

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I’m a young clergyperson, ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church. Whenever I baptize a child, I do so with a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Who will this child become? Am I baptising a saint or a sinner, the next Mother Theresa or Stalin? What will this child’s relationship be with the church: [...]

10,080 minutes in the life of a pastor

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How do you measure a week? In baptisms, in funerals, in justice, in cups of coffee? My apologies for my meter-minded friends who are cringing over the title… My friend Rev. Becca Clark and I got to participate in a “shadow pastors” project by the United Methodist Reporter. They wanted to know what an average [...]

Why we won’t use Facebook’s new commenting system

Facebook has a new Comments system they are offering. Basically, it links facebook posts and blog posts. So if someone comments on facebook, it will republish that here on this blog. And if anyone comments on the blog, it will republish that on facebook. There’s 4 reasons why we’re being curmudgeons and not using that system here: [...]

Simple Formula for Movie Appropriateness

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For student ministry or youth ministryStill one of my most embarrassing moments in ministry was when I was an intern at a UM church. For youth, I volunteered to choose a movie for movie night. I remembered a movie I watched a year previously that I thought was a great example of dealing with racism. It was [...]

Bullying: You are a beloved child of God.

Please read this. 4 bullying-related suicides in as many weeks? My heart aches. I don’t care if it is a media-created epidemic, there are still people dying because of bullying. And we only know of few of them. I work with teens and cannot help but cry when I think of losing one of them [...]