Think of a time when you went through a significant transition to something wonderful and new. Maybe it was moving away from home for the first time and getting your own place. Maybe it was starting a new job and moving to a new city. Maybe it was getting married and beginning a new life together. We can celebrate the
We’ve entered the season of Advent, that time of preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ. Because Advent is the beginning of the Church year, I find it interesting that the Gospel readings for the first Sunday always begin with the end – the return of Christ. In my mind those are the kind of passages that should come at
We are excited to announce that João Paulo Lopes has accepted the role of Coordinator for Emerging Leadership at World Methodist Evangelism. Identifying and nurturing emerging leaders has been a significant part of World Methodist Evangelism’s mission and ministry. Since our first gathering in 1980, WME’s Metanoia (ICYCE) young adult conferences have provided significant opportunities for deepening faith and discovering
When our daughter Hannah first began teaching, she taught kindergarten. At one point during that year she was on the playground with her class. It was midday and the children were caught up in their play when one of them noticed the moon, visible despite the daylight. What is that? he asked Hannah. The moon, she answered. The moon?! His
A few years ago, I ran into a friend who was going through some tough family times. I asked him if there was anything I could do; his response caught me off-guard. He said, “I am struggling to have faith, and I just need other people to have faith for me.” I confess that before this, I didn’t really consider
Perhaps this is the real significance of Christ the King Sunday. It is an opportunity to look at what has been ruling over us in every aspect of our lives. It is an opportunity to dethrone the Caesars of today, allowing Christ the King to reign in their stead.
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! –Psalm 133:1 I have heard many people share with me recently their concern over a lack of unity in our world. Nations are deeply divided over politics, the appropriate response to COVID-19, racial and ethnic justice, and many other issues. Not even the church is a safe
In 2,000 years of church history, you will find an ebb and flow of opportunities seized and opportunities lost. While church history is often a study in fracture – who split from whom, when, and why – nevertheless, it remains remarkable that community is found even today among drastically different people. An illustrative moment comes to mind: a few years
In many churches around the world, we marked All Saints Day this past Sunday, taking the time to honor the clouds of witnesses that have gone before us – all those people who have shaped, challenged, and carried us forward on our spiritual journey. As I contemplate the saints in my own life, I’m reminded of two interrelated and intriguing
We’re inclined to activity, to busyness. Quiet contemplation and active listening are challenging endeavors. We may feel that this challenge comes as a by-product of our modern twenty-first century world, but it’s actually the human condition. Peter pursued that inclination as well. In Matthew 17, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him to a mountain top where they have
If we are to hear the voice of God, and thus have an understanding of what it means to follow Jesus in real time, we must surround ourselves with the language and voice of God.
The book is called ”The Book of Everyday Prayer,” and it’s for everyone who, like me, needs more than what comes off the top of their head.
As we rehearse our vision of faith over and over, keeping it ever before us, it strengthens and sustains us, remaining intact as a source of strength during times of crisis and resistance.
Recovery is characterized by relapse. I wish someone had told me this a long time ago, before I lost patience with people who desperately need my patience. Relapse is what happens when people give up a powerfully magnetic addiction only to find themselves at some point giving into the temptation to try it again. It happens. Relapse doesn’t mean a
There is so much that we can learn about God, our life, our calling, by looking at the life of Jesus Christ. He can teach us how to love, how to be faithful, how to be holy, how to see to live out the good news of God’s love each day. And today we see something very significant, and very important to Jesus’ life and his
Through all this, Bono remains rock ‘n’ roll’s most effective spiritual provocateur. He sees every stage as a pulpit and every coliseum as a cathedral.
“Move ON!” a little girl voice shouted from the porch. She’d been watching me weed then went inside. During that time, I’d moved down the flowerbed but doubled back, pulling stray weeds I’d missed the first time in the tangle of morning glory vines. When she came out, she saw me bending at roughly the same spot as when she’d
The church seems to be obsessed with numbers. We account for professions of faith, baptisms, membership and worship attendance, and these statistics for church health point to a crisis in the present and increasingly dismal view of the future. We seem to count everything. Even the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, made sure that every Methodist could be counted. However, it is my conviction
Kingdom-esteem leads to humility, because it involves recognizing that it’s not about us, it’s about what God has done for us.
Scripture doesn’t describe causal prayer anywhere, but always about prayer that is a person emptying his or her heart to God of whatever emotions are there.
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