Remembering: Weigh Well and Consider by Priscilla Hammond

Before people used Enneagram types or extroversion temperaments to describe themselves, personalities were described using ancient medical terms: sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic, and choleric. Maybe you’ve seen the words used as nouns or used descriptively about a person. Sanguines are social butterflies. They can carry on a conversation with anyone, anytime. They’ve never met a stranger, because they’re friends as soon

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The Courage To Be: Conferencing And The Kingdom Of God by Elizabeth Glass Turner

While United Methodists spend a great deal of time, money, and energy attempting to shape potential outcomes of the specially called 2019 General Conference in St. Louis, it is quite possible that the conference most potently rocking the Kingdom of God already took place in St. Louis over the summer. The fate of the United Methodist denomination is not unimportant;

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Evidence Through Action by Kim Reisman

People have different ways of approaching reality. Some are analytical, reasoned, and logical. That’s not me. Not that I can’t be analytical, reasoned and logical. I can, but those are deliberate disciplines that I practice in contrast to my instinctive way of approaching the world, which is through my feelings. I’m just a feeling kind of person. Maybe too much

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Interview: The Advent Mission with Omar Al-Rikabi

Recently Wesleyan Accent spoke with Rev. Omar Al-Rikabi, an occasional Wesleyan Accent contributor and author of The Advent Mission, a new Christmastime devotional from Seedbed Publishing.  Wesleyan Accent:Why the Advent “mission”? Is this about missions? Global missionaries? Do I have to give money? Hey, is this a sneaky way for churches to take an extra offering? Omar Al-Rikabi: I think it

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Is God Our First Look? by Andy Stoddard

It can be frustrating to do right.  It can be hard to be faithful and to follow God, especially when you see so many others that, in your mind, are not.  We see the wickedness. The greed.  All the things that others are doing wrong. It can be easy to give up, to say, “why keep trying?” Why should I

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Deciding, Timing, and Leading by Otis T. McMillan

“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” – Proverbs 11:14 Seek godly counsel; it will provide safety. The wisdom of others can keep you from falling. Decisions made today have the potential to impact many tomorrows. Wisdom instructs us to seek the godly counsel of others. Their insight can provide the

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On Being Lost and Found Again by Michelle Bauer

If you have ever been lost, you know the feeling – one minute you are fine and the next you realize you have no idea where you are or how to get back. The Bible uses the metaphor of being lost to help us to understand what it is like to be far from God. If you are a follower

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Faith-Sharing As A Way of Life by Rob Haynes

The word “relational” gets thrown around a great deal when discussing evangelism. Just what that means deserves a closer examination. Allow me to illustrate one way I have in mind. I had many questions about faith before I made a decision to follow Jesus in my early 20s. One of the things that compelled me to become a disciple of

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Preaching For The Long Haul: How To Find Your Voice by Andy Stoddard

My first appointment out of seminary was the hardest appointment that I’ve ever had.  It wasn’t because the people were hard to pastor: they were some of the sweetest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of serving.  It wasn’t because the church was located in a bad place: it was out in the country, a beautiful church and beautiful parsonage. 

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The Many Ways We Limp by Elizabeth Glass Turner

The bottoms of your shoes tell a tale. Examine them: the soles are worn down on the inside or the outside, at the front or at the back. They show how you walk. They show what you compensate for. They show the way your foot moves as you stride. And as you wear them, the sole of your shoe begins

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Transparency: True Clear by Elizabeth Glass Turner

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by

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The Difficulty Of Simplicity by Jeff Rudy

And so we come to see that living in simplicity goes hand in hand with a life in pursuit of holiness, or sanctifying grace. For if you do a word search of “simplicity” through Wesley’s works, you will quite often find that he speaks of it in relation to Mary’s action of sitting by Jesus feet, drawing deeply from the

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Christian Love: I Forgive You by Cole Bodkin

Many emotions welled up within me as I heard the news of the recent tragedy break. But the one that unexpectedly stood out was awe. Awe? How can you feel a sense of awe after hearing the news of such a heinous and horrendous act of racial dehumanization? Because my brothers and sisters at Emmanuel AME loved their neighbor. Furthermore,

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Honoring The Martyrs Of Emanuel AME by Kevin Murriel

Racial reconciliation calls people to have “out of the ordinary” moments frequently. It challenges our social and spiritual status quo. One response to the tragedy at Mother Emanuel should be for churches to have more “out of the ordinary” moments with people of a different race around conversations that make us uncomfortable. It is the best way forward.

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Imagining Identity: When A Group Is Haunted By Suffering by Elizabeth Glass Turner

The media photographer clicked at just the right moment. The woman’s face is crumpled, crying out, grieving. In fact, the use of the picture almost feels…voyeuristic. How long will morning news shows play subdued tones, proclaiming the latest tragedy, in this case, “Special Edition: Charleston” in a way that reminds us all that every news outlet is for-profit? The photo

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A Fool And His Money by Mark Trotter

Incidentally, the Greek word translated “required of you” can also be translated as “a payment due.” That is the real point of the parable. Not just your possessions, but your life belongs to God. That is the classical, Christian understanding of our lives. We are sojourners here, pilgrims, travelers. In the beautiful words of the Letter to the Hebrews, “Here

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What The Church Can Do During Exile by Timothy Tennent

Jeremiah reminds us that we do not respond with hatred or anger to those who have plotted our demise. We pray for the peace and prosperity of the country. We pray for the well-being of a church which celebrates false prophets (Jeremiah 28). We realize – and this is the real lesson of Jeremiah – that judgement is actually a

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