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

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