I had one of those weekends when apparently divergent messages come together and it all just kind of clicks.  On Saturday my daughter Emily was wearing a t-shirt with the graphic above, the one that encourages us to Believe There is Good in the World and at the same time to Be The Good. Then […]

Missions

July 10, 2017

Be The Good When the World Desperately Needs It

As I went to bed Saturday night I knew I needed to worship Sunday morning.  But I also knew that five days of more than 1,000 United Methodists was at least enough, so Google and I discussed my options.  I found a promising Presbyterian Church half a mile from my hotel. As I got to […]

Missions

May 16, 2016

Reflections on Worship

I had dinner last night with some other members of the East Ohio delegation after we all had a busy and at times frantic day in committees trying to get through our legislation.  They had heard the news about the Trust Clause but they all wanted to know the answer to the same question:  what […]

Church Leadership, Missions

May 15, 2016

The Trust Clause, part II

In a marketing email I received last week, I read the following: Two people pass a beggar on the street. One sees a lazy bum and feels indignant. The other sees a victim of circumstance and feels compassion. Same beggar, same street, different perception.  To each relationship we bring a lifetime of our own experiences, values, […]

Church Finance, Church Leadership, Missions

December 8, 2014

About perceptions

I had a wonderful conversation with an equally wonderful woman a couple of weeks ago.  She has done a great deal of mission work in the last several decades, some here in the U.S. and much of it internationally.  The conversation wound around to accountability in the missions field. Accountability is a big word in […]

Accountability, Church Leadership, Missions

July 10, 2014

Accountability in the Missions Field