Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
We returned from Annual Conference Saturday evening. It was a long, but good, four days. There was a lot of intense (but respectful) discussion this year. Overall, it was a very good conference. We had great guest speakers, Dr. Tex Sample and Dr. Charles Yrigoyen. Tex is an excellent communicator and storyteller and Chuck did … Read more
The rest of the week is set aside for “holy conferencing.” This evening, we’re heading to Messiah College, where members of the Central Pennsylvania Conference will gather for Annual Conference, Wednesday through Saturday. The theme of Annual Conference will be “Leap of Faith!” Earlier, we wrote a brief preview. John Wesley described these types of … Read more
The amazing story of Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers. We recently watched the movie, Freedom Writers. The movie is based on a true story, involving, Erin Gruwell, a new 21-year-old high school English teacher, who seeks to be a change agent for a group of Black, Latino, and Asian gang members at Woodrow Wilson … Read more
Reflections on the direction of the United Methodist Church. We just read an article describing Bishop Janice Riggle Huie’s address to the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church: Bishops’ President Calls For New Church Movement. Bishop Huie, President of the Council of Bishops, challenged the leaders to reclaim the denomination’s heritage as a … Read more
I have been using mind mapping ever since I read Doug Hall’s book, Jump Start Your Brain several years ago (a great book on creativity). Also, check out this Wikipedia page on mind mapping. Mind mapping is a non-linear approach to brainstorming and note-taking. In other words, instead of starting at the top of the … Read more
Today we mailed our formal application for adoption! You may recall from a previous post, that we had just learned that a formal application for adoption was being mailed to us. Well, we just completed all of the requirements (application, physical exam forms, and various photos of us and our home). It will go out … Read more
The ministry project for Randy’s dissertation. Earlier, we said we’d write more later about our specific ministry projects. In the conversations with Russell West that we wrote about in that post, both of our ministry projects changed. Rather than conducting ministry projects in our local settings, we will now be looking for leaders who are … Read more
Looking forward to graduation one year from today! One year from today, 24 May 2008, is graduation day at Asbury Theological Seminary. As long as we stay on track and complete our dissertations this year, we expect to be in Wilmore, KY one year from today to receive our doctor of ministry degrees! Needless to … Read more
A great life requires great character! Earlier this year (during the season of Lent), I preached a 6-week sermon series was on “Building Blocks,” the building blocks of great character. In this series I talked about humility, trustability, courage, obedience, endurance, and passion. Here’s a brief synopsis of the series’ main points … Humility: Your … Read more
The importance of daily Bible reading. There’s a lot of emphasis on reading Scripture. While there’s not a command in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt read the Bible everyday!” I recently came across a couple portions of Scripture that address the importance of reading the Scriptures consistently. In Deuteronomy 17, Moses is preparing the … Read more