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 […]
Tag: united methodist church
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 […]
If I could change one thing in the United Methodist Church today, I would end guaranteed clergy appointments. Here are the top 10 reasons to end this practice: 8. Ineffective clergy will be more easily removed from leading a United Methodist church. 7. Effective clergy will be responsible for a increasing number of churches. 6. […]
The annual conference season has begun in The United Methodist Church. This week I will be attending the Kansas West Annual Conference in Salina, Kansas. I hope to post each day this week about annual conference. According the the 2008 Book of Discipline ¶601, “The purpose of the annual conference is to make disciples of […]
I have enjoyed being involved in #SMCKC, the Social Media Club of Kansas City. I have learned a lot from others, particularly over the past few months in presentations on social media efforts from various local companies. In addition, conversations have proven to be fruitful. So why not #smcumc? A Social Media Club for The […]
Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones released the following statement March 22, 2010 regarding the United Methodist Church’s role in the passage of health care reform over the weekend. Please feel free to share these remarks. Bishop Scott Jones’ statement: The United Methodist Church has had a concern for health care for more than 250 years. We […]
Sometimes history can be found just under our noses. Sometimes in our attics. And every so often we can find it in our local church archives! Such is the discovery of a rare audio recording of the Evangelical United Brethren Declaration of Union worship service of 1946. The recording was made on two transcription disks […]
The debate in the United Methodist Church about homosexuality and whether it is “incompatible with Christian teaching” or if “a self-avowed practicing homosexual” should be ordained has continued for many years. No matter where you stand on these issues, I wholeheartedly recommend listening to the following story from This American Life. The story is “81 Words: […]
I had a conversation several weeks ago with Paul Watson and he talked about a concept which I dug up on reaching the online generation. The concept is Fractal Discipleship. According to Wikipedia, “A fractal is “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size […]
I invite you or someone that you know to apply for a summer internship at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I am looking for a 20 hour / week intern to work with Resurrection Online. Interested in this or the other 10 summer interships at Resurrection this summer? Find out more at http://www.cor.org/about-resurrection/employment/internships/. […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 