Timothy Larsen has a great reflection on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the danger of self-importance. It centers around this wonderful, yet challenging quote from Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, The second service that one should perform for another in a Christian community is that of active helpfulness. This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is … Continue reading »
Filed under Practical Theology …
Kevin Watson on Social Holiness
Kevin Watson is a personal friend and colleague currently working on his PhD at SMU. We met each other when we were roommates getting our pastoral licenses at OCU, and this has ended up been a true blessing in my life. If you are a United Methodist (or just curious), please, please, please go read … Continue reading »
Open Call for God-Called Preachers
My two oldest kids stayed overnight with my mother back in southeastern Oklahoma, so I drove down and picked them up in Henryetta today. On the way back to Oklahoma City, I decided to take a different route. We ventured through downtown and made a stop by an older United Methodist Church off the beaten … Continue reading »
What are United Methodists Known For?
Craig Groeschel wrote this in a recent short blog post: I’m thankful for the: Social conscious of the United Methodists. Emphasis on being born again from the Baptists. Focus on holiness from the Nazarenes. Power of the Holy Spirit in the Charismatics. Evangelistic hearts of the seeker sensitive leaders. Message of grace from the Lutherans. … Continue reading »
Joe the Saint
You’ve heard about Joe the Plumber, now hear about Joe the Saint. This is from a sermon I once preached and an old post here on the blog – just in time for All Saints Sunday! There is a classic story about one of these saints told by Tony Campolo. There was a man named … Continue reading »
Hitting the Ground Running
I’m settling into my new position, but I’m also still learning something new everday. Right I’ve taken over several of the major teaching duties that I’ll do each week. For instance every Tuesday morning I am teaching through Romans. It’s interesting because I took on this mid-stream, so I am starting with the men’s group … Continue reading »
Minister of Discipleship
My official title is “Minister of Discipleship,” and when I share this with friends, family, and colleagues I am often asked, “So what do you do?” I try to explain by saying I’m sort of like a teaching pastor crossed with a missions pastor. As a staff, we are reading Len Sweet’s Aquachurch 2.0: Piloting … Continue reading »
Clear-Paned Missiology
At one of the congregations I serve, there are huge windows lining each side of the sanctuary. Without fail, every time we have guests come and speak from across the conference, they mention these windows. You see, they aren’t stained-glass. They are simply huge panes of clear glass, and they are indeed beautiful. Out the … Continue reading »
Holy Serendipity!
I love the word serendipity and the concept of unexpectedly stumbling across something even though you weren’t really trying to find it. Back when I worked in a research lab, I always said, “If we don’t leave our work benches messy, we don’t leave room for serendipity. After all, we wouldn’t have penicillin if Alexander … Continue reading »
Smaller Committees and Life-Changing Discipleship
For some strange reason, I have been paying closer attention to some of the United Methodist megachurches. I just ran across this article on Emergent Village by Michael Slaughter. It’s an excerpt from the new edition of his book UnLearning Church. Two things in this article stood out in my mind. First, some folks might … Continue reading »
