Last night, my wife, Nicole and I had the opportunity to be a part of the Third Grade Bible Exploration last night through serving communion. The Third Grade Bible Exploration is a special event that is a part of the Kids COR ministry at Resurrection. It was a very cool event. The third graders that […]
I recently posted about the the concept of narrative leadership – the interaction between individuals and the story that they find themselves in. I think that one concrete example of that is taking place within the United Methodist Church in Kansas. In both the Kansas East and Kansas West Conferences there has been significant work […]
The title of this post is a quote from Boo Tyson, who spoke this morning at staff chapel. Boo Tyson is the sister to Timothy Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name – a personal story about race relations in North Carolina in 1970. Some quotes from the message by Boo Tyson: What seemed […]
An update from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership brought my attention to: Facts on Growth – A new look at the dynamics of growth and decline in American congregations based on the Faith Communities Today 2005 national survey of congregations. From the Lewis Center: Some findings are: Congregations that change worship format and style […]
Yesterday I met with the Kansas West Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and received a recommendation to the clergy session of the Annual Conference for election to probationary membership and commissioning. This is great news and I am excited! As a United Methodist, this is an important step moving toward ordination as an elder within […]
The Mainline Emergent/s gathering was an encouraging encounter with others seeking to do ministry in a way that is relevant to the surrounding culture and may be different than the way that things have been done within The United Methodist Church. I am considering how the conversations that I have had at this conference will […]
I have posted a review of A New Kind of Christianby Brian McLaren here or on the Documents page of this site. This review is a part of my 2007 Goals. I would love to hear your thoughts, responses and comments on this review. Please comment on this post. Thanks.
A portion of one of my goals for 2007 includes: Reading books on the subject of the emerging movement within the Christian church and writing a two page summary of the book to include: summary of themes, possible applications and relevance to the United Methodist Church and possible applications and relevance to The United Methodist […]
From the final session of the Mainline Emergent/s gathering by Brian McLaren… We must be concerned with the earth and not just the church. The substance of the message that is being presented in a local congregation is important – is the gospel one of escape or transformation?Possible action steps after the gathering: Stop focusing […]
In the final session of the Mainline Emergent/s gathering, Brian McLaren responded to a question about the purpose of middle level judicatories – for example, district superintendents and districts in the United Methodist Church. Some of his response: If we destroyed the denominational structure today, we would start rebuilding it tomorrow, but it might look […]
In the final morning of the Mainline Emergent/s gathering, Karen Ward spoke about some of the practices that they share as a community at Church of the Apostles. They are focused around three core questions, which they find people in their community to be asking: Who is God and does God matter? What is the […]
I originally wrote this on November 30, 2006… During Staff Chapel on November 30, Adam Hamilton spoke on Part IV of Thomas Merton’s Life and Holiness. On page 73 of Life and Holiness, Thomas Merton writes: It is quite possible to “believe in Christ,” in the sense of mentally accepting the truth that he lived […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 