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.

Biblical Justice

Kim Reisman April 25, 2024

Scripture Focus: I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness. Isaiah 28:17 (NLT) While the classical idea of justice, giving each person their due, is important, it only scratches the surface of what justice actually means. The biblical sense of justice, what we call righteousness, goes much deeper. It’s easy for Christians

When We Are Most Like Christ

Maxie Dunnam April 23, 2024

In my previous article I made the claim saying yes to forgiveness is saying yes to God. I underscore that claim: We are most like Christ when we are doing what he did in his extravagant gift of love on Calvary…forgiving. I have a friend, Mary, a former Roman Catholic nun, who works as a program director for a Methodist

Justice is a Natural Grace Marred by Sin

Kim Reisman April 11, 2024

Scripture Focus: But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will

Saying Yes to Forgiveness

Maxie Dunnam April 10, 2024

Recently This Week magazine reported an amazing story of a Pakistani election commissioner admitting that he had participated in what he called the “rigging” of a parliamentary election. “We converted losers into winners,” said Liaquat. He confessed that he couldn’t sleep after what he called “stabbing the country in the back.” He resigned and was arrested. (March 1,2024, p. 9)

Justice: Giving Each Person Their Due

Kim Reisman April 5, 2024

Scripture Focus: So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no

Hurry Slowly

Maxie Dunnam April 2, 2024

Years ago I came across a phrase that grabbed my attention. It was a season of my life when I was paying close attention to my own “spiritual state,” and as a result, seeking to develop particular spiritual disciplines. The phrase, a long obedience in the same direction, comes from Friedrich Nietzsche. This was his statement: “The essential thing in

Victory Over Death

Maxie Dunnam March 26, 2024

There is no if about death. The question is more accurately put, “When a person dies, shall he or she live again?” Not one line of the New Testament was written… not one sentence was penned apart from the conviction that He of whom these things were being written had conquered death and was alive forever. Death is inevitable, and

Embracing the New Wine: Reflections on the Changing Landscape of Ministry

Larry Frank March 22, 2024

“In the crushing, in the pressing You are making new wine In the soil I now surrender You are breaking new ground…” New Wine by Hillsong Worship My story of crushing and pressing really began in the middle of the pandemic. That’s when I gradually realized that the seminary training I received no longer aligned with reality. The U.S. Church

Courage, Will and Freedom

Kim Reisman March 21, 2024

Scripture Focus: Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of Daniel’s great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire. Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize or

What Happens When Everyone Stops Sinning

Maxie Dunnam March 19, 2024

The preaching must have been powerful. In a recent cartoon, as he leads his parents from worship, Dennis the Menace confronts the preacher. “What happens when everyone stops sinning? What will you do?” While we are not strangers to sin, Dennis stuns us with his statement and questions. We may not reflect or talk much about it. Yet, the great

Subscribe

Get articles delivered directly to your inbox as soon as they come out.

Search:

categories: