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renewing the church united methodist church

Starting New Churches – An Interesting Story

Thanks to Tim Stevens for bringing this story to my attention via this post – One Church Becomes Two… Without Splitting. Beach United Methodist Church, in Jacksonville, Florida will be launching one of their worship venues, Eleven 22, as a new non denominational church in 12 to 18 months. You can read more about it at […]

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leadership

Kansas Leadership Center

Earlier this week I was part of a team from Resurrection West that started the Leadership and Faith: Transforming Communities program from the Kansas Leadership Center. Here is a summary from the website: “This unique program is designed for United Methodist congregations in Kansas and is a collaborative effort of the Kansas Health Foundation, United […]

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blog

A Year Ago on Thoughts of Resurrection

Here are a few posts from a year ago, I hope that you might take a look at two or three and add your comments. Enjoy! Looking Forward to the Dad Life Institute: What’s the Point? (5 of 5) What to Do with Ineffective United Methodist Clergy What to Do with Unhealthy United Methodist Congregations My Advice on Cohabitation

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changing lives life

Start and Stop in the Appointive Year

This appointive year I am going to work on starting and stopping things to be more healthy, faithful and balanced. Start Creating deeper connections with colleagues in the United Methodist Church More regular exercise Gardening Puttering about the house a bit more Stop Worrying about things that I cannot decide about or avoid Caffeine (This […]

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leadership united methodist church

Healthy Pastoral Ambition?

At times, I wonder about ambition as a pastor in the United Methodist Church. On one hand, I am appointed and sent to serve at a local church by the bishop. It can be unhealthy to always “live in the next appointment” – looking forward to what might be. On the other hand, God has […]

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annual conference leadership

Mission and Vision: Local Church + Annual Conference + Denomination = ? (3 of 3)

  It is important for organizations to have mission and vision statements to guide the future of the organization. I currently am serving as part of an organization that has three different mission statements. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection where I am currently serving has as a mission (or purpose) statement: Building a Christian […]

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leadership ministry united methodist church

Beginning A New Appointive Year – My Sixth

Today I officially begin my sixth year under appointment as a pastor in The United Methodist Church. I have served in two roles as an associate pastor at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. 2006 – The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection July 1, 2006 – Pastor of Congregational Care: Caring for those […]

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communications renewing the church

Resurrection Online Story from NBC Action News

I was glad to be able to share the story of Resurrection Online with Beth and Brandon from NBC Action News yesterday morning. They put together a great story. You can find the entire story at http://bit.ly/jf3zYr and see the segment that played on the 5:00 PM news. Will you please share the story with […]

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ministry renewing the church united methodist church

Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for The United Methodist Church

Summary I recently received a copy of Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for the United Methodist Church from Abingdon Press to review. I finished reading it yesterday on my day off after Easter Sunday. The book consists of  12 chapters written by different authors, who are all members of Generation X and The United Methodist […]

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blog communications

Top Posts from 2010

Here are the top posts for the past 365 days that were written in 2010: Church Growth = Increased Pastor Salary? Top 8 Reasons to end Guaranteed Appointments in the UMC Ordination Paperwork in the UMC: A Provocative Proposal Do I have to believe all the beliefs in Methodism to be a Methodist? What to Do with […]

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church leadership renewing the church

Living in the Resurrection Bubble

Last week, I suggested that if a church is not growing, it is dying and I wanted to take a moment to respond to a comment from my friend, Jimmy Taylor. He pointed out that I am a young pastor serving at a high energy church with significant leadership. He is absolutely right. My pastoral identity […]

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church renewing the church

Church Conference via Skype

As Pastor of Resurrection Online, I hope to help build a Christian community online where non religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians. A key to this purpose is building community. There has been a good deal of conversation about whether there can be authentic Christian community online, so how about a […]