People grappling with how to make their churches more productive often look at the wrong things. They may look at the church budget, for instance, and wonder why their putting more money in this program or that staff position doesn’t make things measurably better. Or they may grill the pastor over his use of time, trying to make sure he isn’t ( Read more... )

A friend posted the following meme:I want to learn to play golf, and the public course is offering free lessons.
I want a more exclusive experience, though, so I want to learn at a private country club.
I also want the public course to pay for my membership.
Now you understand how school vouchers work.
So what's wrong with this analogy? Well, aside ( Read more... )

Passion is the hot commodity in religious circles. And passion is a good thing. "Bring the fire!" God has a way of blowing the lid off the soul in direct, personal ways, and when that happens in a time of worship, profound things happen. There appear to have been several passionate moments at our ongoing Convening General Conference which ( Read more... )

Now and then I find myself trying to explain to laity what it means to be a clergyperson. This is more difficult than it seems; after all, there are very few things (other than the sacraments) that clergy can do that laypersons can’t. Laypersons can preach, they can run things, they can bring others to Christ; they are called to give all of ( Read more... )

Modernism began in German universities in the 19th Century. The faculty of Arts and Sciences got tired of the Divinity faculty stopping every argument by saying, "The Bible says . . ." So they took up the subject of the Bible itself, subjecting it to the disciplines of literary criticism and science. Except the starting point of modernism is ( Read more... )

The Order of the Arrow is cutting off American Indian-related programming beyond the local level, lest they offend native groups by their cultural appropriation. Not all Native Americans are offended by Scouting’s use of native culture, and many tribes have worked with Councils over the years. No doubt some Native Americans are offended, but I ( Read more... )

This is one of the most intriguing tales of sound change I know: the tale of W.( Read more... )

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in history.  Endless discussion of the concepts he presented has followed ever since.  What is not widely acknowledged is how Lincoln used the inherent word music of the English language to marshal his argument ( Read more... )

The last Annual Meeting of the Indiana UM Pathfinder, Inc., will take place at 11:00 a.m. October 20, 2024, at Maumee Scout Reservation. The meeting’s primary purpose is to vote to dissolve the corporation ( Read more... )

I read an article today on clergy educational standards, an issue that will no doubt come before the Convening General Conference this month. And it is something I have discussed many times with other leaders in the Great Lakes Conference of the GMC. In this post, I don't want to outline any particular course of study or path to ordination. But ( Read more... )