Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
One of the books we read before writing our theology papers for ordination was Mainline or Methodist?: Rediscovering Our Evangelistic Mission by Scott Kisker, who teaches at Wesley Theological Seminary. We both loved the book. As the title suggests, the book addresses an identity problem in the UMC. In the foreword, Bishop Timothy Whitaker writes: … Read more
We just returned from New York City where we participated in a seminar at the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), whose motto is “Connecting the Church in mission.” We survived the storm; more on that in the next post. The three days were pretty intense, including two days at GBGM and one day visiting … Read more
Three months ago, I wrote that I started using Twitter (click here for my Twitter stream). I also wrote about Twitter Web Apps shortly after that (which probably needs updating). Over the last few months, I’ve marked a number of tweets as “favorites.” Periodically, I’ll blog some of my favorite favorites—statements that inspire and challenge … Read more
One of the main reasons I went all out in the Health Flex HealthMiles Challenge was simply to see what I could do and to put myself to the (physical and mental) test. Going all out every day required me to push through some challenges along the way, including … Getting up 29 mornings between … Read more
I am grateful for my time at Asbury Theological Seminary for the doctor of ministry program (2004-2008). It was certainly worthwhile … and formational. One of the statements that has shaped me the most came out of one of the three required courses, “Theology of Ministry,” taught by Dr. Stephen Seamands (author of Wounds That … Read more
Picking up where we left off five months ago (due to parental leaves), our Covenant Groups resumed last night (see Simple Church 1.0). Our Covenant Groups (a requirement of our ordination process) are discussing Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s book, Simple Church. Since we had only read chapter one for our September 2009 meeting, we … Read more
New Year’s is one of my favorite times of the year, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s — the last week of the calendar year — tends to be a time of reflection (looking back) and refocusing (looking ahead). And the fact that it’s our first week back after family leaves, makes it … Read more
Today, I connected my laptop to the TV and Ethan (wearing his backpack, at the time) helped us choose some gifts. As we’ve written about before recently, we’re enjoying involving our kids (mainly Ethan, at this point) in our mission giving. We usually do some extra giving at the end of the year and one … Read more
In the days and weeks leading up to our first trip to Korea — and to becoming parents — we wrote about the kind of culture we wanted to create in our home and family life. Part of that included Shaping a Servant Culture. To help our children become servants and givers, we want to … Read more
Several years ago, the “Herding Cats” commercial (for EDS) caught my attention as a great description of leadership. The one-minute commercial is jam-packed with language and imagery about leadership and mission (see complete transcript below). Transcript: This man right here is my great grandfather. He’s the first cat herder in our family. Herdin’ cats … … Read more