Core Team (Left to Right) Arpit Charan, Augustine Frederick, Nikul Masih, Vijay Bannet (not pictured – Anosh Charan, Amber Massey) One of the joys of my work with World Methodist Evangelism is to be able to see the dramatic way God works in the lives of young people. Surprisingly, the current pandemic has highlighted this joy, reminding me that even
Our Wesleyan tradition holds a rich heritage of understanding the way the whole of our created being functions. We share a long history of encouraging one another to health and wholeness in every way, just as our God designed. We believe that we are responsible for the well-being of not just our souls, but our bodies and our minds as
One of the wonderful things we do at World Methodist Evangelism is training leaders all over the world to show and share the love of Jesus. Pre-pandemic, we have done this through in-person gatherings as well as virtual gatherings. A few years ago, I was in Kenya teaching about Embrace, our faith sharing material that focuses on six essential values
Leaders around the world are feeling the effects of our global crisis on many fronts. Yet, the current situation does not need to be debilitating. Innovative leaders see a crisis as a catalyst, not a cause for despair. Crises are critical junctures that can provide unique opportunities for needed change. This is especially so for the church today. Experts tell
I have found Psalm 1 to be a guiding principle in my life and ministry; it speaks to my theology and character as a pastor. In Psalm 1, we learn that God wants to bless us and to make us fruitful, but it is up to us to make choices that will lead us to God’s blessings. By choosing the
In our particular cultural moment, have you noticed a longing for values or traits that may seem absent in public life? Warren Bennis famously outlined key leadership characteristics, identifying vision, inspiration, empathy, and trustworthiness as essential leadership characteristics. We long for leaders who model them; this longing seems innate in us. In Scripture we quickly see that Jesus modeled these
I am horrible at waiting. I don’t always hate waiting itself, but I have expectations. When something is not done in the timeframe I expect, I get an attitude — and keep waiting. Right now, we are all waiting for the pandemic to pass. Social distancing, quarantining, and staying home are taking a toll on many of us. How do
One of the wonderful things we do at WME is to train leaders all over the world to show and share the love of Jesus. We do this through in-person gatherings as well as through virtual gatherings. A few years ago, I was in Kenya teaching about Embrace, an understanding of faith sharing that focuses on six essential values –
Our 2019-2020 RIM resident, Eliza Edge, has returned to the US after placement in Auckland, NZ. The Residency In Mission (RIM) program provides opportunities for host ministries to strengthen the work in their local contexts, while offering Residents an environment in which to grow in their ministry service. In partnership with ministries in the host church, this program helps aspiring residents
When it comes to sharing the love of Christ with the world, the connection between what we say we believe and how we live out those beliefs is crucial. Our integrity is directly related to the strength of that connection. If there is a gap between what we say we believe and the way we live our lives, we lose
I believe that God wants us to enjoy our everyday lives. John 10:10 says that Jesus came to us so we may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, until it overflows). But it seems that far too many people who say they believe in Jesus are not enjoying their lives. Now, it is not only
Recently, I heard a church leader describe the instinct to “drop Facebook napalm” in an online debate. What a great image. Our cultural currency right now isn’t the American dollar or the speculative Bitcoin: it is outrage. Outrage is addictive, and it’s so easily justified: we sanctify it with the word “prophetic” or the word “faithful.” God calls us to
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…” – Isaiah 61:1 “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He
I’m at just about the halfway point of renewal leave (i.e. Sabbatical). I took my first church job in 1997, and ever since then, I’ve worked in the church. A couple of them were part-time, and then I took my first appointment at a pastor in 1999 to three small United Methodist Churches outside of Cleveland, MS. In other words,
Over the last 75 years, researchers at Harvard have tracked the lives of 724 men.* These men were children when the study began. For 75 years, they’ve been tracking these lives to record the state of their home life, work, health, outlook. Some men in the study became rich and famous. One became President of the United States. Others fared poorly. Boiling
Henry H. Knight III’s John Wesley: Optimist of Grace is a book I would like to get into the hands of as many Wesleyan Methodist pastors and lay leaders as possible. Knight has written a remarkably accessible and concise introduction to John Wesley’s life and theology without sacrificing precision and nuance. As the subtitle suggests, the core theme of this book
Children Adrift: The Old Testament Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed
There is a prayer that I recently discerned to pray: God, may all your plans for me be successful. The rationale behind this prayer is that I want to position myself and do everything that is in my power to let God fulfill his plans in my life. Notice that I did not say “my plans,” but God’s. This is
True faith is demonstrated with obedience: what you cannot see, God does. “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the
There are seven “Woe to you” statements in Matthew 23: Jesus was warning the teachers of the law and the Pharisees not to focus on outward things. Of ten trees we had removed from our property, we knew that one was damaged. An arborist saw the spot where it had been hit by lightning. We hadn’t seen it. Other than
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