A Long Journey Nearly Over
On Monday, February 25, I met with members of the Board of Ordained Ministry of the United Methodist Church for a morning of interviews. In preparation for this time, I had written a definitive...
View ArticleEffectiveness and Appointments
The buzz is everywhere for United Methodist Clergy: a commission has declared that the day of the guaranteed appointment is done. Here’s the report. There’s quite a bit of discussion about this on...
View Article"Rev. Schaefer Must Be Punished"
“Rev. Schaefer must be punished.” I just heard those words from the mouth of an NPR reporter quoting a UMC spokesperson concerning the trial of Rev. Frank Scheafer who, nearly seven years ago,...
View ArticleOne Violation and You Are Out: The United Methodist Tragedy
I wish we could just all admit that we simply don’t know. As much as we might claim to know, we don’t know. We don’t know what Jesus would do. We don’t know what real love is about. We don’t know how...
View ArticleOn District Superintendents, Pastoral Care, Condemnation and The General Rules
On Clergy Supervision A little discussed issue in the larger situation with Rev. Schaefer and the church trial: the nature and accountability of clergy supervision in our covenant. Each year, clergy...
View ArticleWhy FaceBook And Robert's Rules of Order Make Holy Conferencing Impossible:...
Yet One More FB Explosion For what seemed like the trillionth time, I watched another clergy Facebook conversation degenerate into frustration, name-calling, shut-off, and despair. The few political...
View ArticleLet’s be fair, UMC, and exclude ALL the unclean, not just the homosexuals
Jesus broke the rules of the holiness code, rendering himself ritually unclean, with great regularity. We want a cheap holiness code, not the one Jesus taught and modeled Sex life examination mandated...
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