Wesleyan Accent Archive | World Methodist Evangelism

How Your Local Church Can Engage Immigrants: Interview with Rev. Zach Szmara

Zach Szmara June 26, 2017

Recently Wesleyan Accent Editor Elizabeth Glass Turner chatted with Rev. Zach Szmara, the founder of one of the first immigration legal clinics within a church building, about sanctuary, immigration law, and cross-cultural ministry at home. Rev. Szmara is the Lead Pastor of The Bridge in Logansport, Indiana, a congregation within The Wesleyan Church. He is the National Director of Immigrant Connection – a growing

Nothing Sacred: Sacrilege In The Public Square by Elizabeth Glass Turner

elizabeth.turner June 22, 2017

It’s happened again and again. Do they give out “Webby Awards” for“Best Social Networking Campaign Aimed at Disenfranchised Young Men Searching for Meaning and Manhood in a Post-Religious Context”? In the 90’s, radicalization looked like bored, angry, white, oddball suburban teenagers shooting up their classmates as they latched onto whatever Nihilistic philosophy made sense of their bullied, middle-class ennui. Now

The Difference Between Evangelism and Conversion by Kim Reisman

Kim Reisman June 21, 2017

It is better to stop worrying about the results of our evangelizing and instead worry about whether we have truly made the gospel known in our relationships with others.

Your Cross to Bear by Kim Reisman

Kim Reisman June 21, 2017

Deep and authentic faith is meaningful; but can be costly, challenging, even frightening.

What to Do with Your Shortcomings by Kim Reisman

Kim Reisman June 19, 2017

If you reflect on your spiritual walk, how do Peter’s various responses to Jesus resonate with your experience?

A Better Place (Part 2) by Cole Bodkin

Cole Bodkin June 19, 2017

What is the better place? As seen in the last post, the three most popular sketches of the Christian “better place”—heaven-centered, human-centered, and world-centered—have been various soteriological attempts to depict both our hope and mission. (Soteriology, as you may remember, refers in theology to the theology of salvation.) However, as John C. Nugent argues in his book Endangered Gospel: How Fixing the World

Christian Community: Why I Can’t Give Up on Church by James Petticrew

James Petticrew June 15, 2017

There are some things that I know I should believe with my head, but I struggle because I don’t experience them in my heart.

Let Your Longings Work for You by Carolyn Moore

Carolyn Moore June 14, 2017

Go to the Limits of Your Longing -Rainer Maria Rilke God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows

The Risk of Following Closely by Kim Reisman

Kim Reisman June 14, 2017

Yet, for our faith to be real, for it to be authentic, we must risk moving out of the shadows. So the question is, how close to the fire will we get?

The Value Of Godly Grief by Andy Stoddard

Andy Stoddard June 12, 2017

Have you ever felt really badly about something you’ve done wrong?  Have you ever in some way harmed another person or harmed your walk with God?  Have you ever done something that you just know you should not have done, and then you realize it.  And wow.  You feel terrible.  You just feel awful.  You want to make it right.

It’s Always Abuse, Not Just When It Involves A Child by Tom Fuerst

Tom Fuerst June 23, 2014

But what we also fail to realize and consistently communicate is that anytime a clergy member has sex with a parishioner who is not their spouse, it is abuse. The emotional, spiritual, and even societal power granted to a pastor is intertwined and inseparable from all their relations within the church. We cannot, therefore, pretend that infidelity between pastors and

What’s The Alternative? by Talbot Davis

Talbot Davis June 21, 2014

To whom shall we go? Ask yourself what’s the alternative BEFORE you leave and see all the options for the empty promises they are. And then fasten yourself to the eternal WHO towering over all the pretending WHATS.

The Donut/Bread of Life by Michael Smith

Michael Smith June 19, 2014

God is in the midst of the normal – not just the fantastic, chocolate and sprinkled covered parts of life. God’s presence is made real when we take simple elements, like bread, and share it. This is why we should stick to what He invites us to do – offer the bread.

Jesus, The Name High Over All by Ellsworth Kalas

Ellsworth Kalas June 18, 2014

We ought to sing it more! Sing it, indeed, until we re-discover the power of this Name. Sing it until, as Charles Wesley urged, “Happy, if with my latest breath/ I may but gasp his name, / preach him to all and cry in death, / ‘Behold, behold the Lamb!’”

questions

Learning To Live The Questions by Carolyn Moore

Carolyn Moore June 16, 2014

For some, it looks like gathering clouds. For others, a black hole. For some, it feels like dread or fear or hopelessness. For others, it feels more like guilt — the kind that won’t go away. It may feel like shame, or like anxiety that never eases up. It can leave one with questions, unable to function, and another unable

The Strong Name Of The Trinity by Kim Reisman

Kim Reisman June 12, 2014

I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, the Three in One and One in Three – the space-maker who is the source of my freedom, the one who empowers me to defy the forces that seek to restrict me to unbending characterizations or rigid roles.

Catechesis, Worship, And The Hymnal by Matt Sigler

Matthew Sigler June 9, 2014

If contemporary Methodists are serious about robust catechesis, we must broaden our concept of the term. We must understand that baptism is a moment that shapes our entire life—a journey in holiness. We must break free from an approach to catechesis that is merely didactic and understand that the process of catechesis is anchored in the worshipping community. And we

Doctrine and Renewal (Part 1) by Ken Loyer

Ken Loyer June 5, 2014

I believe that Wesley can help us steer clear of the problem of moralistic therapeutic deism, as well as other barriers to renewal, so we stay on track in providing solid biblical teaching and preaching. He can do this with his robust vision of the Christian life, at once grace-filled and rigorous, communal and personal, leading to the goal of

The Character Of Discipleship

Tammie Grimm June 2, 2014

When you hear the term “discipleship” what comes to mind? An educational program for adults in your church? The reflective / debriefing group sessions during a mission trip? A moment to promote a given ministry or event during the worship service? A particular pastor who serves at a multi-staffed church? Each one of us can probably come up with three

When Is It Time? by Carolyn Moore

Carolyn Moore May 31, 2014

When is it time for ______? I googled that question and my search engine finished the question in these ways: When is it time for a divorce? When is it time for a nursing home? When is it time for hospice care? To buy a new car? To break up? To let go? To move on? When is it time

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