Monthly Archives: April 2008

Cross Cultural Ministry in the US

Guy Williams has been blogging lately about ministry in the United Methodist Church, particularly on itineracy and matching churches and pastors. David Brooks’ column today sheds some light on the phenomena we’re seeing, particularly the gap between urban, suburban and … Continue reading

Posted in Leadership, Local church, Ministry, United Methodism | 4 Comments

Stress and Conversion

My brother has been blogging about conversion lately. Today he posted on conversion and stress. Here are my initial thoughts: Part of the difficulty is assuming we know what we’re talking about, when what we have are, in fact, abstractions. … Continue reading

Posted in Evangelism, Ministry | Leave a comment

Misery loves company?

The United Methodist Church has been in at least numerical decline for a generation. Here in the South we look at Baptist churches with envy, since they’re usually bigger, richer, and more powerful than ours. When we hear about denominational … Continue reading

Posted in church growth, Evangelism | 5 Comments

The Price of Success?

Is it our national ECDD program (“Every Child Dumbed Down,” more commonly known as “No Child Left Behind”) that has warped our children to equate success with getting the right answers on a test? Or did the attitude precede that … Continue reading

Posted in Education | 2 Comments

Criticizing My Baby

My children range in age from almost teenage to over twenty. My baby, however, was conceived in the early 1980s, first came to light in 1998, and went public in 2002. Here’s a picture of my baby: Haven’t seen many … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Theology | Leave a comment

Stepping Out

I’ve taught on spiritual gifts many times over the past twenty years. One of the tools commonly used in such teaching is what we call a “Spiritual Gifts Inventory.”(Here’s a sample of an online inventory.) The theory is that by … Continue reading

Posted in Ministry, Spirituality | 1 Comment