Coordinator for Emerging Leadership

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

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Yet God Is Always There by Kim Reisman

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

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Vicarious Faith In Community by Brian Yeich

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

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Subversion: Christ the King Sunday by James Petticrew

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.

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Where Unity Begins by Rob Haynes

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

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How Is Community Possible? by Henri Nouwen

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

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Our Place In The Cloud (or Six Degrees of Separation) by Kim Reisman

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

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Stop Doing, Start Listening: What Peter, Paul, and Elijah Knew About Silence by Kim Reisman

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

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From Rejection to Redirection by Kim Reisman

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

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Lost Relationships by Talbot Davis

Because of a stand he took and a truth he spoke, Elijah is suddenly cut off from his family. From his hometown. From his kosher diet. From everything and everyone. And this is at a time in human history when there was no “you” apart from your group. In his exile the loss of relationships for Elijah was all-encompassing –

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Stolen: How Much Do You Own? by Elizabeth Glass Turner

How much do you own? If you’re well-established (in whatever cultural context you find yourself), you likely have a general idea of your net worth: the sum total of assets in your possession. If you’re a Sophomore in college, you’d likely have to tally for a while: student debt vs. the worth of a ten-year-old Buick and a dorm room

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Knowing What We Have: The Methodist Liturgical Heritage (Part III) by Matt Sigler

“The efforts at Methodist liturgical revision that culminated in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal and 1992 Book of Worship were often disregarded by those seeking to make their worship services more “contemporary.” As “contemporary worship” became an increasingly viable option for Methodists, many completely rejected the hymnal or anything that appeared to be rooted in the past. While Methodist “contemporary”

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Christian Perfection: Problem Or Promise? by Kevin Watson

“Sanctification is not about something that I either have to do to make myself better, or for which I have to feel guilty about not being good enough. It is a ‘work of God’s grace.’ Entire sanctification is really nothing more than
God’s grace freeing us from everything that has kept us chained to sin and death. The Triune

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Maxie Dunnam ~ Prayer and Fasting: Embracing Voluntary Weakness

Fasting is more than denying ourselves food. It is choosing to act out, by temporarily denying ourselves food, that we do not live by bread alone. We are completely dependent upon God, and we deliberately choose voluntary weakness. We become identifiably humble in the face of the problems with which we are dealing. We admit to each other, and primarily

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Holy Communion: Celebrating God With Us (Part 1) by Ken Loyer

The more Christians link Communion with spiritual formation and daily faith practice, the more likely the church will be invigorated and empowered to carry out its missional mandate to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Through the service of Communion, the church remembers and celebrates the presence of God with us.

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Truth, Beauty & Tragedy: How To Be Happy by Elizabeth Glass Turner

“Jack, take your hands off of your ears.” “But I don’t want to hear what you are saying!” This is what shoppers strolling down store aisles could overhear recently. Alas, the four year old had acted up; alas, Mama had to intervene with a reminder of behavior expectations. But the child had realized that with hearing comes accountability. If I

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Knowing What We Have: The Methodist Liturgical Heritage (Part II) by Matthew Sigler

At issue was the question of what made Methodist worship distinctly Methodist. Drawing from Wesley’s example, Summers argued that form and freedom should go hand in hand in Methodist worship. Even today these disagreements over what makes Methodist worship “Methodist” continue. For all the talk over “high” and “low” church; “spirit-led” and “ordered;” or “contemporary” and “traditional”—whatever the current iteration

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The Parable-Life by Cole Bodkin

Do you ever find yourself struggling with bridging the horizons from ancient to modern? Recently, I was allotted the task to preach the Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32). Realizing that this passage is difficult to understand apart from its context, I decided to expand the sermon to Matthew 21:23-32. As I was drawing things together and preparing for

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Birthing A Church by Michael Smith

As pastors we have to understand that as we serve our church, it will begin to look like us. Our shared life will rub off on each other. We will take on the DNA of that local church body and always carry it with us. And part of who we are will always stay with them. We are related after

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