“Beep, beep. Beep, beep.” It’s not unusual for the doorbell at our front door to intrude into my afternoon thoughts. Frankly, I always cringe a bit that the front door is locked and that we have a doorbell at all, given our hope of being welcoming and inviting, however security issues are an issue here, […]
Jay Voorhees, pastor of Antioch United Methodist Church, transformed a cardboard box used to send bodies to crematoria into an altar. He taped pictures of a crucified Jesus around the rim and placed a big cross atop, surrounding it with candles. The words, “It is finished,” hung to the side. Voorhees put a church pew […]
Rachel posted a comment in my post on the update from the Bishop. This is my response. Rachel,First of all, I am neither the apologist for the Bishop nor the CCOM leadership. When I heard about this situation, I expressed my concerns to the Bishop. He responded to me and allowed me to share his response […]
I just received the following message from Bishop Wills clarifying some of what he told me: I misunderstood Loyd on at least two points and I have written Beth and apologized. First, Beth was not told about this new direction and organization. So, it is unfair me to have told you that she knew 6 […]
…I am going to reply to a couple of comments on the last post here on the front page. Jason wrote: My greater concern is that what is being expressed is that the positions are being eliminated. Maybe it is legalese to get through the removal of staff without a lawsuit. But if the positions […]
Mark Hagewood makes some good points in his comment on my previous post. While I am too tired to give a complete response, I feel like I need to clarify a few things: I absolutely agree the communication has been horrible in regards to this situation and that the correct action in trying to facilitate […]
When I woke this morning I padded sleepily out to the computer to check the weather forecast and to see if I had received any mail. I was surprised to see several messages on Facebook and opened them to hear voices of dismay over the news that two staff members at the Tennessee Conference Council […]
At least one historian thinks not: In fact, it was because he [Jefferson] thought Christianity had been so thoroughly corrupted that he created his own Bible, slicing out the miracles and thereby “rescuing” Jesus and separating the “diamonds” from the “dunghill” that was the rest of the Bible. Imagine the attack ads that could be made […]
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This is a hoot!
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Changes at The MethoBlog
I have spent the past 24 hours or so updating the template at The MethoBlog. Most of the changes are cosmetic, but the addition of some new block areas are allowing me to add a “blog of the week section” and feature the latest UM news. Check it out.
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Ben Stein’s Wisdom
Ben Stein of “Ferris Bueller,” “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” and “America’s Most Smartest Model” is featured this week on American Public Radio’s “Word for Word. It is well worth listening to. http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/wordforword/2008/02/29/wordforword_64.mp3
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Moving beyond repentance…
Yesterday I had the privilege of traveling down to the Pleasant Green Baptist Church on Jefferson Street to hear Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove share reflections from his new book, “Free to Be Bound: Church Beyond The Color Line” (Navpress). Pleasant Green is a historically black congregation located in the heart of what has been traditionally the center […]
Why Eating a Big Mac is Cheaper than Eating a Salad » Celsias
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Bad Poem #52
“Poems bore me,” I said.“I’m a prose man, rooted in the here and now, interested only in information.”Words were not to be played around with, like PlayDough, pushed here and pulled there to be manipulated on a whim and then pushed back together as a ball in a can to sit and slowly dry […]
There are certain persons in our world who have recently been trying to denigrate the importance of words in our world. “Words are fine,” they say, “but what really matters is action.” In the rhetoric against the power of words, this this code that we use to communicate with one another becomes “just words,” as […]
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Only Wonder Understands
It’s been right at five years since I started writing this blog, and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge in that time. When I began I was relatively new to ministry, serving as an associate pastor in a large church in the suburbs. Since then I have made the journey to being […]
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Heading on a Pilgrimage…
I can’t write for long, but I’m in Atlanta at the Emory Conference Center for a pre-gathering for the pilgrimage I am making to Israel this April. I am gathering with 19 other pastoral types from a variety of denominations to think, pray, and prepare ourselves for this trip to our version of Mecca. Be […]
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Resurrection
Snort . . . gag . . . sniffle… I almost never take sick leave. Part of the reason is that I don’t get seriously sick that often. Part of the reason is that my workaholism probably makes me go to the office at times when I shouldn’t. This week was different. I noticed Sunday […]
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Equal Time for John McCain
This is a hoot!
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Yesterday…
Yesterday, I posted a message from Michael Welch, the pastor at Lafayette UMC, on my church web site. It was a gracious note thanking all for their desire to help with the recovery efforts following the tornadoes in that area. He also tactfully called for restraint, for in the zeal to help folks were actually […]
only wonder understands 