On Thursday I had the privilege of interviewing Rev. Geoffrey Lentz, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, regarding characteristics Bible study in the Wesleyan tradition. Geoffrey and I have known one another for many years, and authored a book, Learning and Living Scripture, which was published, well, a long time ago. As Geoffrey…
This is translated into modern English by Gemini AI, according to my prompts. You can find the original sermon on ResourceUMC.org. Note that this is divided into sections, and following each section there are comments on the updating of the language. Bold text indicates that there is a related note and is not used for emphasis….
This is translated into modern English by Gemini AI, according to my prompts. Note that updates on terminology, especially including references to people groups and faiths that would not be considered courteous today are updated, and mentioned in the notes. This is done in accordance with my prompts and I take responsibility for the use…
The following sermon is translated according to my prompts by Google Gemini AI. Note that the sermon was translated in blocks, and in this case I’m choosing to include those translation notes after each block. All bolding is a reference to these notes and is not for emphasis. I refer to this as “translation,” but…
Testing a modernized version of a sermon by John Wesley, #44, “Original Sin.” The modernization is done by Gemini AI.
Mercy and judgment are much closer allies than we may have realized.
Teachers and pastors frequently avoid talking about sanctification. Some of the reasons include: A Detour on Christian Perfection When I first joined a United Methodist congregation, I had the idea that Methodists would know a great deal about John Wesley. One Sunday night I discovered how wrong I was. I had been invited to teach…
I’ve drawn some questions and produced some amusement (from Calivinist friends) by using the term “total depravity.” Listeners were surprised to hear a Wesleyan use that particular term. “Sinners,” “sinful,” and similar terms, OK, but total depravity? I have previously heard people remark that total depravity isn’t Wesleyan, so as United Methodists we don’t believe that….
There are many days when the United Methodist Church discourages me, and I wrote a post yesterday with that sort of feeling. But there are two things that regularly encourage me: Encountering vital small congregations, and meeting some of our young pastors. Via another young pastor, Geoffrey Lentz, who is doing wonderful things at First…
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…