I have been inspired by Kevin Watson’s series of posts about the Methodist Class Meeting. It was part of what made the Methodist movement powerful. I have hoped to use the following series of posts as a guide for leading class meetings when I am the lead pastor at a church one day. The Methodist […]
Category: renewing the church
I am glad that Chris Brogan had a good experience with church online at LifeChurch.tv. Chris is a well known social media practitioner and has a good deal of influence in some circles. He wrote about his experience with worship online at Digital Church. I am glad that more people are spreading the word about church […]
Over the past few weeks, I have been pondering what it means to be part of a faith community. When I am in a group setting I am often aware of what may not make sense to a newcomer. I find this to be true in worship, events, camp, meetings, etc. I believe that this […]
Today is the final day of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. I am attending at Resurrection Leawood. Yesterday, I enjoyed Jim Collins and was proud of Adam Hamilton‘s talk about When Leaders Fall. Today I am particularly looking forward to Terri Kelly speaking about W.L. Gore & Associates, Blake Mycoskie about TOMS Shoes. I am working on compiling […]
Today and tomorrow I am taking part in the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit remotely hosted at Resurrection Leawood. I had not heard of this event before coming to Resurrection. I have enjoyed and found something helpful for ministry each year. It has become part of the rhythm of my year. Today, I am excited […]
I believe remembering who we are as United Methodists is a key to revival within the denomination. I enjoy teaching and I particularly enjoy teaching Methodism 101 – What does it mean to be a United Methodist and what difference does that make in my life? Last month, I had the great opportunity to teach […]
A week ago today, I was at a UMR Communications board of directors meeting. This was my first meeting. There are a great deal of challenges and opportunities that are before UMR Communications. I am excited to see what will be next. Will you please share how you connect with UMR Communications? It may be […]
I appreciate the work to produce the State of the Church Report for The United Methodist Church. You can find it online here or use this link to download a PDF of the entire report. Here are a few tidbits that I found to be of interest: The median age of the population in the […]
I recognize there is debate about how to determine what makes a congregation healthy. What to do with an unhealthy United Methodist congregation is more difficult to determine than what to do with inffective United Methodist clergy. Kick them out of the denomination? In some cases, this might allow the congregation to become healthier. It […]
According to the 2008 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, “Every effective elder in full connection who is in good standing shall be continued under appointment by the bishop…” (¶334.1) There is conversation about changing the “shall” in this paragraph to “may.” This would, in effect, end a guaranteed appointment to serve at […]
A few of the key points in favor of continuing guaranteed appointments include: Guaranteed appointments prevents a congregation from hiring or firing a clergy person based on her or his race, color, national origin, or sex. Guaranteed appointments prevents a congregation from hiring or firing a clergy person in response to their prophetic voice in […]
There are clear indicators of effective clergy that would ensure that she or he would receive an appointment regardless of whether her or his appointment is guaranteed in the United Methodist Church. There are also churches that are more and less healthy. In April, the Connectional Table of the United Methodist Church suggested that there […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 