The prevailing wisdom for pastors is longer tenure is better. Sam Rainer believes this principle is generally true. A string of shorter tenures is usually not healthy for churches. But it is possible to stay too long. What are some of the signs?
Resources to prepare Your Worship Team
Josh White brings us some practical advice on making sure our teams are ready for Sunday.
Why are the books of the New Testament ordered the way they are?
The New Testament consists of 27 books. The story of how we got the order we have today is very interesting, and it affects how we engage with it. This is the story....
What About All Those Other Secret or Lost Gospels?
This question is mostly linked to conspiracy theories questioning the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Don’t Waste Your Season
God doesn’t waste the season we’re in, but sometimes we do. The question is this: How can we not waste the current seasons we’re in when we’re so ready to see fruit in our lives? Well, perhaps we start by asking ourselves, What are some ways I might already be wasting my season?
Sin Wants Us Isolated
Sin wants us to itself. We find this heart-stopping line in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic work, Life Together. “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.”
Lesbian UMC bishop laments denomination’s ban on ‘queer clergy’
Karen Oliveto previously claimed Jesus had bigotries, raised concerns about making Him into 'an idol'
Bishop: ‘Love every neighbor’
Bishops at General Conference on April 29 consecrated 26 laypersons, including three central conference members, to a lifetime of service as deaconesses and home missioners.The consecration followed a morning worship message from Mountain Sky Area Bishop Karen Oliveto, who called on attendees to make God’s love visible in all they do and to embody the fullness of God’s love with justice and mercy. Oliveto gave thanks for deaconesses and home missioners who have committed to a lifetime of service and called on attendees to look to the order’s history of serving the marginalized.
United Methodism’s Last Meaningful General Conference
United Methodism’s General Conference started yesterday, April 23, in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will likely be the last important governing convention for United Methodism as the denomination, with the rest of American denominationalism, recedes into almost irrelevance. This General Conference will liberalize United Methodism’s teachings on marriage and sex, over which traditionalists and progressives have fought across fifty years. Between 2019 and 2023, over 7660 traditionalist churches, including up to 1.5 million members, exited the denomination under a temporary policy allowing departure with property.
Church broadens defense of human rights
General Conference delegates approved the first batch of revised Social Principles, including an affirmation of the basic rights of all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This particular group of Social Principles offers the United Methodist social witness on government responsibilities and human rights. More Social Principles are coming up for a vote next week by the full General Conference plenary.
'Frustrating and saddening': Central United Methodist Church in Phoenix to close after 150 years
Billed as Phoenix’s first Protestant church, Central United Methodist Church is shuttering after more than 150 years. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Brandon Gilmore, told The Arizona Republic on Thursday that congregants decided in a 26-4 vote on April 21 to close the house of worship on North Central Avenue near East McDowell Road due to dwindling attendance and lack of funding. "It was frustrating and saddening," Gilmore said of the decision to close the historic church.
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