Wednesday morning before we were to consider the Bishops’ proposal of a way forward we did something different.  We prayed together.  No, praying together wasn’t that unusual, in last ten days we prayed more than an unprepared college student taking an Organic Chemistry final. We were asked to pray with folks we don’t usually talk […]

Church Finance

May 20, 2016

Save a church for me to serve

Photo Credit: Sue Zakovec, East Ohio Annual Conference In yesterday’s post I lamented the protests I had seen the day before.  They were, I wrote, unnecessary because General Conference bends over backward to make sure everyone has a chance to have their voice heard. In a world of social media I had enough “likes” and […]

Accountability, Church Leadership

May 18, 2016

A call to conversation

Photo by: Rick Wolcott, East Ohio Annual Conference General Conference has become known for many things:  incredible worship, a diverse audience, the chance to rub elbows with United Methodist thinkers and authors with names like Schnase, Hamilton and Slaughter. And in recent years, protests have been added to this list of things to be expected. […]

Church Finance

May 17, 2016

I protest the protests!

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

Friday afternoon in my Local Church Committee we came across three interesting petitions.  The topic was how the annual conference should deal with the assets of a local church that had closed. The petitions came from GCF&A, GBOD and UMRA.  Oh, wait, I forget that you, my dear reader, have not been immersed in United […]

Church Finance

May 14, 2016

Tearing down silos

Yesterday at General Conference we finally made it to our committee meetings. I’m working with the local church group, responsible for how local congregations operate. This is the section of the Book of Discipline that talks about Charge Conferences, committees, all that good stuff. In our first introductory meeting we (and all of the other […]

Church Finance

May 13, 2016

A local church and a global Discipline