Creating the menu for the Winter Rendezvous is easy. Expanding the recipes out is where your guesstimation skills are tested. How much of each dish should we make for the Feast ( Read more... )

Along with other sentiments, Christmas is certainly swimming in nostalgia. We long for “an old-fashioned Christmas,” by which we mean one that feels like Christmas did when we were children and first encountering the tradition. So it is a surprise to learn how recent most Christmas traditions are. Santa Claus is a creation of the early 19th ( Read more... )

A lot of people I know are pursuing doctorates these days. Many of these are so-called "professional" doctorates (like a D.Min.) as opposed to the higher status "academic" doctorates (like a Ph.D.). Once upon a time, there were fewer degrees that bore the title, "Doctor," and they were mostly for career academics or research scientists. ( Read more... )

Not too many people still try to use antique English verb endings and pronouns in their prayers, but if you are wondering about what the rules for such things are, or how to pronounce stuff, try this.

Up through Early Modern English (Shakespeare and the KJV), the typical third person singular present ending for verbs was -(e)th. This became -s in ( Read more... )

I like to watch Glenn Loury and John McWhorter on The Glenn Show podcast. They are African-American academics. They talk a lot about race, culture, politics. But Loury is an economist and McWhorter is a linguist, and when they get into the weeds in their respective disciplines they are very much worth listening to ( Read more... )

First preached November 29, 2015Isaiah 11:1-9 ( Read more... )

In the run-up to the big Methodist breakup of 2022-present, there was a lot of talk about being “Wesleyan.” I mostly heard it from progressives, who browbeat traditionalists about not being authentically Wesleyan. Some of this had to do with non-Wesleyan traits that are often prominent among generic evangelicals, such as the Believers Baptism ( Read more... )

One of the features of Protestantism - and evangelicalism especially - is its appeal to feelings. There is a danger here. It is very easy to assume that something I am to believe in - forgiveness, salvation, the efficacy of the sacraments - is real because of how I feel. And the more intensely I feel that something is valid or true, the more ( Read more... )

Continuing in my musing on how to set expectations for members in a Global Methodist Congregation (as now required by BODAD), we come to giving. After attendance, giving is the easiest of the things we vow to support the church with to measure. There is a rich literature on stewardship and church finance. Most experts in the field, and most ( Read more... )

As I go about conducting Charge Conferences in my district of the Great Lakes Annual Conference, I find myself explaining several new mandates given to Charge Conferences by our Book of Doctrines and Discipline. The first of these is that each church will create (and Charge Conference will approve) a document setting forth expectations of members ( Read more... )