Monthly Archives: June 2005

Over the past couple of years the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has invested much time and energy in defining pastoral effectiveness. By the quality of the handouts they distributed, one can tell this was very important. … Continue reading →

What is one to do if one wants to be a United Methodist Bishop? As I noted before, if one can get a gig leading another Annual Conference in one’s jurisdiction in morning bible study, one can dramatically increase one’s … Continue reading →

Maybe when I grow up I’ll be able to write half as well as Tom Wright. In this piece (link is in the title) Wright summarizes the claim of the Book of Acts as “Jesus is Lord and Caesar Isn’t” … Continue reading →

Apparently the Supreme Court can’t decide if the Ten Commandments are religious or not. Or perhaps they cannot reach consensus on how religious they are. I am interested in your opinion: Are the Ten Commandments inherently and inextricably religious?

Sometimes we church leaders are tempted to treat people like children. We selectively give information, we tell people exactly what to do, we make sure we repeat ourselves frequently – preferably in words of few syllables. Example: When it comes … Continue reading →

In France at least, they’ve found a way to reduce the number of Down Children. Through the miracles of modern science and technology, they can now identify these defective children in the womb and kill them before they ever desecrate … Continue reading →

Since the beginning Christians have been disputing what items are essential to the faith. In the West, current debate centers on homosexuality. The Anglican Consulatitive Council has recently acted to exclude the American and Canadian branches for their refusal to … Continue reading →

I first read Seth Godin’s work years ago in Fast Company. I continue to find his work stimulating and helpful in my role as a church leader. Though his recent post is titled Shark Attack, he only uses the recent … Continue reading →

The United Methodist News Service is trying to figure out the “Emerging Church” movement. In two articles they explore the nature of these churches and discover that they contain quite a bit of variety. Not a great surprise. I’ve done … Continue reading →

Well, it’s not exactly a new ride – just new for me. The Indiana Jones ride was built years ago, and I’ve been to Disneyland at least a couple of times since they’d added it, but I’d never ridden it … Continue reading →