Comments for Only Wonder Understands

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by ncastorillo

ncastorillo — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:52:08 +0000

I love our denomination and I’m proud to be a United Methodist clergy but Jay has a point and I agree that there is now a feeling of mistrust even in the highest leadership of our church. I pray for our Bishops and all the pastors of our denomination that we can truly be together in turning our church around. There shouldn’t be insiders and outsiders anymore because we are all one body. I think, the challenge is not to just simply change our system but the willingness to sacrifice. How many pastors, district superintendents, bishops are willing to be appointed to places where salary is not guaranteed?

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by John Leek

John Leek — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:39:56 +0000

Re: “Clubbing the Sheep”

I’d encourage you to read my post titled “In Defense of Will Willimon (and the UMC)” http://www.johnleek.com/2012/05/in-defense-of-william-willimon-and-umc_21.html

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by John Leek

John Leek — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:35:55 +0000

Open Etc. was from “Madison Avenue” too.

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by John Meunier

John Meunier — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:32:42 +0000

Just a dissenting voice on this point. Having a disagreement with your bishop is not the same thing as not trusting him or her. I trust my bishop. I believe he is doing what he feels God is leading him to do in my conference.

That does not mean I agree with every action or decision.

Of course, we want to limit the authority of the people who have power over us. Obedience is hard.

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by I Love our Bishops « Only Wonder Understands

I Love our Bishops « Only Wonder Understands — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:16:38 +0000

[...] Love our Bishops 23 May In my recent letter to Bishop Willimon in response to his United Methodist Reporter commentary I was pretty hard on our bishops in my [...]

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by A Thought on GC2012: It is time to hold hands! « Methodist in-Formation

A Thought on GC2012: It is time to hold hands! « Methodist in-Formation — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:00:34 +0000

[...] Bishop Coyner (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Andy Langford, Dan Dick, Mike Slaughter, Bishop Willimon, Jay Vorhees and others have helped me think critically about General Conference [...]

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by John

John — Sun, 20 May 2012 17:32:38 +0000

I don’t say that to dismiss Willimon … I know him and like him. I was offended that you would dismiss Jay’s wisdom because of “results” you see in his ministry, which is no better than dismissing Bishop Willimon because his experiments did not “work” in actually affecting numbers.

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by John

John — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:31:44 +0000

Concerning Carlton’s comment, I would remind you that Bishop Willimon was not able to “turn around” the North Alabama Conference’s long membership decline with his hard working, dashboards, cracking down on ministerial effectiveness, and other forms of dramatic change as well as this kind of disparaging rhetoric. So if you are looking at “results” to decide who is worth listening to, consider that.

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by Will Willimon

Will Willimon — Sun, 20 May 2012 02:05:49 +0000

Jay
I’m sorry that your experience of bishops has been so negative. I think the best way for you to counter the inadequacy of us bishops, and your mistrust of us, is to do the best you can in your own congregation to make disciples for Jesus Christ. I hesitated giving so much credence to General Conference and whateverr happened or did not happen there. The Holy Spirit, from what I’ve experienced, seems to work best in the local congregation. You seem to spend a great deal of time worrying about the general church and Lord knows the general church needs attention but I hear you have some real challenges at your present congregation, challenges that no bishop, even a bishop better than I, can fix. I hope that you will wisely focus there and to all you can to lead a vital congregation. One of my big problems with the CTA is that it could tempt us to think that the real issues are in the general church. Whatever you do tomorrow (and I’m speaking for about the 300 time in one of my churches tomorrow) is where the real action is at!
Will

Comment on An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon by lee

lee — Sun, 20 May 2012 00:53:05 +0000

“What does it take to restore trust? ”
Doubtful that it can happen.
The denomination is to far apart on “important” and nonessential issues. Many have long left or have an incomplete understanding of our theological father’s teachings, that are apart of our doctrines.