Allan Bevere on Methodist Identity
In a post related to John Meunier’s, which I linked earlier, Allan Bevere provides some additional form to the question of United Methodist identity.
Seeking Sinless Perfection
Image via Wikipedia Because I have some online watches for names of Energion Publications authors, I found the post In Search of Sinless Perfection, which quotes Alden Thompson. This comes from a Seventh-day Adventist background, but I must mention that I have been surprised by how much from my own SDA background simply translates into…
What is Cutting Edge?
The description of the ICON service at my home church, First United Methodist Church in Pensacola, FL, states that the service is: Cutting Edge Tradition Rich Art Embracing Christ Centered This worship service just celebrated its second anniversary, and I was happy today to see that the sanctuary was largely filled. It has been both…
Converts to Orthodox Churches
… are increasing. I don’t find this all that hard to understand. I personally have been enjoying more reading of the eastern church fathers, and have found much good material in the theology and liturgy of the Orthodox churches. Chron – Houston and Texas News reports on some churches in that area which are largely…
Putting up Barriers to Ministry
I empathize with Alan Knox’s post today, Help or Get Out of the Way. He relates two experiences of church leadership standing in the way because they required people to go through existing church programs. This is not the way to go about Christian ministry. Come to think of it, it’s not even the way…
Greetings from the Religious Arm of Socialism
In a blog post My Dream: No More Methodist Church, Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation fame says that his dream is that there be no more Methodist church. What set him off was a church sign (on a Methodist church, of course) urging passage of the DREAM act. He says that the church is…
Wesleyan-Arminian vs Calvinist Self-Identification
I found this interesting article at Baptist Press via the Methoblog’s Twitter feed. The article discusses an apparent divide between the Southern Baptist Convention and other denominations on how many pastors, particularly young pastors, are identifying themselves as Calvinists. One interesting note is that while identification as Calvinist outside the SBC is not increasing, identification…
UMC Rather than SDA – Again
This was brought to my attention when I read the text of Ted Wilson’s address to the SDA General Conference. (I listened to he first 10 minutes as well, but preferred reading.) Why am I interested in the sermon presented by the new president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists? I am, after all,…
Looking for a UMC Pastor in the West or Northwest
My wife Jody is looking for a pastor in the west or northwest to answer about 5 questions regarding ministry in the UMC, with the interview to be published in the Bible Study Paths WebZine. She’s looking for someone who is currently pastoring a church. Your interview responses will be published in September alongside those…
Christian Perfection – Not So Plain to Me!
One of my early experiences teaching in a United Methodist Church involved giving a series on the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection. That may seem surprising for a new member of a United Methodist congregation, but my background in the Seventh-day Adventist Church involved a good deal of Wesleyan talk (though not the doctrine of…