Author Archives: Richard Heyduck

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About Richard Heyduck

Pastor of Hardy Memorial Methodist Church, a Global Methodist Congregation. PhD Fuller Seminary MDiv Asbury Seminary BA Southwestern University

Jesus vs. Mammon

Posted on August 18, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Mammon (an ancient god of money/wealth) says, “You are somebody based on on your wealth or capacity for gaining wealth.” Jesus says, “I love you and bought you with my blood.” Though rarely mentioned by name these days, Mammon is … Continue reading →

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Tonight’s Sky

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Richard Heyduck
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Failure of “Liberalism” in Texarkana?

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

I see our town has made the OPED page of the NY Times. I see many scholars quoted (& I’ve read many of their books and value their perspectives), but I don’t see that they talked to anyone in Texarkana, … Continue reading →

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Thinking about BLS Statistical Reports

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

BLS reporting has been in the news lately. I only took one statistics class in college, so I recognize my limitations. Nonetheless, I have some “meta” questions: Are “good” statistical reports ones that clearly “show my team’s policy to be … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas – Beyond “Friendly” Church

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued working through Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community.” (Link to audio) We began with a quick return to the second paragraph which we’d started on last week: That the church has difficulty being … Continue reading →

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Willing Participants?

Posted on August 4, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

God invites people to be willing participants in what he’s doing in the world. Sometimes we join in… sometimes like Jonah, we prove to be unwilling participants. There is great blessing in store for those who join in God’s activity.

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Hauerwas on the Church “Standing against the powers we confront”

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued working through Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community.” You can listen to the audio HERE. Hauerwas is talking about the church of our age (he’s writing in 1991, but it seems still … Continue reading →

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God’s Passion for People

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

In the book of Jonah we see God’s passion for people. That passion is demonstrated not just on behalf of “his own” people Israel, but even on behalf of their enemies in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The … Continue reading →

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Three Simple Rules?

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Since I’m working on a piece on Wesley’s General Rules I reread Rueben Job’s book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living yesterday afternoon. It’s a tiny book –  fewer than 70 pages. It’s easy to read in a … Continue reading →

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Discussion on Hauerwas on Church & Discipleship

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Tomorrow is Stanley Hauerwas’s birthday. Coincidently, we began reading his 1991 essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community” today. This essay from The Christian Century can still be found online HERE. We got through most of page 1 … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Discipleship, Doctrine, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology, United Methodism | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment