Visits Through The Distance: Pastoral Presence by BJ Funk

Raise your hand if you are a pastor who inwardly rejoiced when hospitals closed their doors for pastoral visits because of Covid-19. If only a fleeting moment, did you whisper a sigh of relief because Covid regulations meant you did not have to (a) make an already long day even longer with an afternoon stop by the hospital before heading

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Language About God: Interview with Dr. Jackson Lashier

Note from the editor: I first met Dr. Jackson Lashier when we were both seminary students. Unlike many of the students who were pursuing degrees to become local church pastors, he and I found ourselves in many of the same classes as we worked toward degrees that prepared us for ministries in academic contexts. At the time, I knew him

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Taking Risks for the Sake of the Gospel

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/15252263/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] Rev. Dr. Jo Anne Lyon is Ambassador and General Superintendent Emerita of the Wesleyan Church. Email her: LyonJA@wesleyan.com World Hope International: www.Worldhope.org Immigrant Connection: https://www.icwelcome.org/ To learn more about World Methodist Evangelism, visit: www.WorldMethodist.org Find us on Social Media: Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/worldmethodistevangelism Twitter here https://twitter.com/worldmethodist Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/worldmethodist/ Check

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Doctors & Dying: Caring For Caretakers by Elizabeth Glass Turner

In the tug of prolonged strain, physicians, like their patients, are vulnerable. Some corners of the United States remain relatively quiet and unaffected by outbreaks of the coronavirus, Covid-19. In these areas, extra sanitizer, virtual appointments, and doctors’ office face coverings are the cue that something is happening elsewhere. But in other regions, despite the summer months, health care systems

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Introduction to Embrace

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/14970350/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] To learn more about Embrace, order your copy, or schedule an Embrace training at: www.WorldMethodist.org Find us on Social Media: Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/worldmethodistevangelism Twitter here https://twitter.com/worldmethodist Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/worldmethodist/ Check out this episode!

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Racism & Bias: We All Suffer by Edgar Bazan

For 400 years, through slavery, lynching, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights movement, and institutionalized racism, people of color (especially within the Black community) have been fighting and crying out for justice and equality. Justice is sought because they have been oppressed and abused for centuries; equality, because that is the underlying cause of their unjust treatment: they have been

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Diversifying Your Congregation

[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/14917307/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] Rev. Kaloma Smith is the pastor of University AMEZ Church in Palo Alto, California. You can reach Rev. Kaloma at: pastor@universityamez.com https://www.facebook.com/kaloma.smith https://www.instagram.com/kalomaasmith Check out this episode!

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Ministry in the Newly Distanced Church (Part 2) by Rob Haynes

In my previous article, I talked about some ways the newly distanced church can think about worship, discipleship, and outreach in the still-developing COVID-19 crisis. Ministry in the Newly Distanced Church Part 1. In this article, I offer some practical steps to consider for discipleship and outreach as churches reopen and move into a new way of doing church. Don’t

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When Calvinism Becomes Dangerous by Carolyn Moore

I have great respect for many colleagues in ministry who espouse a reformed or Calvinist view of the world. That said, it should be no surprise to those who read and listen to me regularly that I am enthusiastically and unapologetically Arminian. I am far too deeply committed to the notion of God’s pure love exercised in his gift of human free

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The Unreached Object by Elizabeth Glass Turner

Protestantism has hit a snag. Catholics have their challenges, but it’s a very different set. The Orthodox church in its various forms has its disputes but remains largely unchanged. North American Protestants have hit hard times, like an ecclesial version of the 2008 economic meltdown. We’ve printed Bible verses on magnets, screen printed t-shirts, run food pantries and epic VBS

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When Your Faith Creates Problems by Andy Stoddard

In 1 John 3: 11-24, we see two truths that are really, really hard to hold together.  We will not always be liked.  But we must always love.  Listen to what we are told today: For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was

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Helicopter Pilots or Farmers? by Cole Bodkin

Hypermobility. Transience. Individualism. Consumerism. Nationalism. Add to those descriptors the second half of the great commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. And what do you get? Helicopter love. Helicopter Love* A helicopter love, or lifestyle, is one in which a person has a place to live (a safe haven), but they hop into a virtual helicopter to fly to the various

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Our Story Is for All Ages by Tammie Grimm

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may

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Outsiders & Underdogs: Interview with Tom Fuerst

Advent reminds us that Christmas is not a sentimental, consumerist, family-friendly holiday, but is a season of radical political subversion, the downfall of the mighty, and an upturning of the hierarchies of the world. Seeing Christmas in fresh perspective begins with participating in the biblical narrative of God’s preferential option for the poor, forgotten, and imperfect.

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Why Can’t We Just Be Humanitarians? by Elizabeth Glass Turner

The brilliance of the World Methodist Conference is still shifting through my mind, light through a suncatcher hanging on a window. The days in Houston were color, sound, faces, laughter, weeping, worship, intensity, frustration, revelation. I met people and forgot names. I met people and remembered names. I saw textiles woven with Methodist patterns, saris shimmering, archbishop caps velvety and

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