Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Last night, I created a song playlist—songs to listen to on our way to Lewistown, PA where we will have our ordination interviews Tuesday morning, from 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. I included a couple songs from the Songs for Leaders post I wrote a few years ago, and I added a few new ones. … Read more
Tomorrow, Joleen and I are going to Lewistown, PA for interviews with the Board of Ordained Ministry—beginning at 8:45 a.m., ending at 12:45 p.m. The morning will consist of four interviews, each with a different team, probably 3-4 people. Each interview will focus on a different area of work that we submitted in January (see … Read more
Several weeks ago, I posted the historic questions for those being ordained in The United Methodist Church. The cool thing about the list is that these questions (slightly revised over the past 225+ years) have been asked every year of people moving toward (or entering) ordained ministry. But I have been wondering just how much … Read more
One week from today, Joleen and I will be in Lewistown, PA for ordination interviews with the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. If we pass, we will be on track for ordination at annual conference in June. With interviews just around the corner, here are four thoughts on our ordination journey … 1. What a … Read more
In the The United Methodist Church, ordained pastors must commit to the itinerant system. Nearly three years ago, just before we moved to Clearfield to assume new ministry appointments, I reflected on The Itinerant System of the UMC (i.e., pastors are appointed to congregations as opposed to being called by congregations). I love what Bishop … Read more
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
A few days ago while in New York City, I wrote, Bracing for the Storm. A monster storm, which moved across the country, went through New York City dumping snow and ice. There were concerns about how the weather would impact the final day of our seminar, but we were, in act, able to complete … 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
The storm that’s headed this way has been a popular topic of discussion for our group ever since we met in Harrisburg on Sunday for our orientation; in fact, the intensity seems to be increasing as the hours go by. As we go to sleep Monday night, there is a winter storm watch here in … Read more
Today was our first full day in New York City. We are here for the Global Ministries seminar. We spent most of the day at the General Board of Global Ministries learning about what the UMC does around the world. It was a great day (we’ll reflect on what we’re learning later when we have … Read more