The following post is from April of 2008. In light of the recent goings on at the United Methodist General Conference, I thought this might be a good post to share again. I've been a mainline Protestant for about 16 years. I grew up in the evangelical and black churches and found the mainline churches... Continue Reading →
Repost: In the Middle
The following post is from April of 2008. In light of the recent goings on at the United Methodist General Conference, I thought this might be a good post to share again.I've been a mainline Protestant for about 16 years. I grew up in the evangelical and black churches and found the mainline churches a... Continue Reading →
Leviticus Revisited
Methodist Blogger Morgan Guyton gives the best understanding of what Leviticus 18:22 meant and what it might mean for us today. Here's a snippet:In 1956, United Methodists decided that Paul’s admonition in 1 Timothy 2:12 not to “permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man” had an appropriate application in the... Continue Reading →
Repost: Notes from a Reluctant Liberal Christian
This was originally posted in January 2011.A few years ago, a dear friend of mine described me as an evangelical turned liberal Protestant. I remember blanching at that definition. Politically, I tend to lean more center-right/libertarian. Theologically, I'm pretty orthodox.But the fact is, I am a liberal Protestant these days. I'm ordained into a mainline... Continue Reading →
Jesus is a Cat Person
One of the more common understandings of Christianity that I've found in Mainline churches is that God is all about love. I struggle with that belief. I know that God is a loving God, and as expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we get to see a God that really did love those... Continue Reading →
What Does It Mean to Be Prophetic?
I stumbled across a post by Methodist blogger Allan Bevere on the prophetic nature of the church. He ends to post like this:As I continue to say-- when Christians hear the word "politics" they should not think state; they should think church. For Christians, our politic is church. But that clearly is not what it... Continue Reading →
Planned Parenthod vs. Susan G. Komen: Same S*%!, Different Day
I'm not going to get into the specifics of the whole Komen controversy because its been done ad nausem. But I do have one question: where should the Church be in all this? The whole mess concerning the two groups was one more annoying incident in the culture wars. Each side, including many a Christian,... Continue Reading →
Epic Fail
I love the fact that there is a conference called Epic Fail Pastor's Conference. I am tempted to go to it.This gets me thinking about how pastors are loathe to admit failure. We don't like to look like a complete ass in front of others. We feel that we always have to have an answer... Continue Reading →
Epic Fail
I love the fact that there is a conference called Epic Fail Pastor's Conference. I am tempted to go to it. This gets me thinking about how pastors are loathe to admit failure. We don't like to look like a complete ass in front of others. We feel that we always have to have an... Continue Reading →
How I Totally Failed in Planting a New Church (And Why I’d Do It Again)
Presbyterian pastor and blogger Landon Whitsitt shares two ways that a church plant can fail. The second one is trying to do it like you would staring a business. The first one kind of takes a motto from a certain athletic company as gospel: For folks in the circles I typically run in (read: postmodern... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 