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Rescuing Hope: And Other Lessons From the Cave
Tuesday the news was filled with the spectacle of reporters crying. They weren’t alone. Maybe you shed a few tears yourself when you heard that 12 boys and their coach had made their way out of a cave in Thailand. “We can take a breath now,” a Miami diving instructor said on CNN before choking →
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Who is This ‘We’?: Poetry for the ‘Families Belong Together’ Rally
I’m not going to make the ‘Families Belong Together’ Rally in Onancock today (Saturday, June 30) from 11-12:30. And when asked for a statement, I couldn’t find the words. So I contributed this poem to be read. May we find the ‘we’ that is truly ‘us.’ Who is this ‘we’ into which I am enlisted? →
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Jeff Sessions and the Things Church Trials Can’t Do
Church trials don’t create community; they create tribes. And that’s got me concerned for The United Methodist Church. Some 640 United Methodists recently lodged a formal complaint against the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions, who is a United Methodist with membership in a Mobile, Alabama church. Though it is almost so rare →
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A Quick Reminder of Why Wesley Still Matters
John Wesley has been claimed by so many different heirs and used to so many and varied ends that it is refreshing to have someone like Hal Knight come along and point us back to the source. John Wesley: Optimist of Grace, his new entry in the Cascade Companions series designed for nonspecialist readers, comes →
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Trusting God (or What To Do When You’re Just Not Feeling It)
There are mornings when I’m just not feeling it. During my prayer time, as I review the plan for the day, I say to God, (out loud sometimes), “Remind me again, why me?” Those are the days I write it out. I turn to a fresh page in my journal and continue the conversation. For →
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Jarena Lee and the Day the Preacher Stumbled: Exhortation and the Methodist Future
The preacher was in trouble. It’s hard to take the life out of the story of Jonah, but somehow he had. Struggling preachers are not unusual. We’ve all had a Sunday. Or several. But in early 19th-century Methodism, including the AME branch of Methodism, (of which this preacher was a part), the official preachers had →
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Han Solo and the Myth of the Heroic Leader
There’s no doubt that a charismatic leader can have a big impact on the size of a congregation. It’s what most churches ask for when I go around doing consultations about the missional needs of the congregation as they prepare for a new pastoral appointment. “If we had somebody who would knock on doors and →
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The UMC & The Which Way Tree
Preacher Dob, the Mexican horse thief, and two young teens were at a standstill. They had lost the trail of the panther they were hunting, the one who had killed the girl’s mother and on whom she had sworn vengeance. Zechariah, their panther dog, had gotten the worse of an encounter with a skunk, and →
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Guest Blogging on Leaving the Herd
Ben Rigbsy, a recent guest blogger on Heartlands, got me thinking about moving and relationships for his site, Leaving the Herd: http://leavingtheherd.com/2018/04/20/7-ways-to-stay-in-love-in-the-midst-of-a-move/ →
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Two Big Reasons for Churches to Talk About Race
These are dangerous days to talk about race. If you try to raise the subject in polite company you’re likely to face some averted glances or rolling eyes. In impolite company, well, who knows? For some, talk of race is a pretext for a political agenda. For others, the failure to talk about race is →
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