No United Methodist who knows anything about the denomination’s history can feel anything but profound sadness at what’s happening to the American democratic republic. Good and bad, The United Methodist Church and its predecessors have shaped and been shaped by…
Here’s what’s different about clergy sexual abuse claims in UMC
One of the most consequential rulings on clergy sexual abuse in the entire history of American jurisprudence has received virtually no media attention. Its defendant? The United Methodist Church. In a 2024 ruling in Chestnut v. United Methodist Church, the…
Webinars to prepare United Methodists for new direction
United Methodist bishops are seeking to educate and elevate new leadership for the worldwide denomination as it enters 2026 with a new structure and goals after half a decade of turmoil and disaffection. Toward those ends, three webinars are planned…
Methodists caught the car; now what?
As 2026 dawns, The United Methodist Church enters a new era much like a chasing dog that caught a passing car: Now that they’ve got it, what do they do with it? The UMC changed radically on Nov. 5, 2025,…
Churches deliver Christmas to immigrants detained, deported and in hiding
Earlier this month, the Rev. Pilar Pérez, a United Methodist minister in the denomination’s Western North Carolina Conference, called up a parishioner who hadn’t been to worship in a while. The pastor encouraged the congregant to attend Christmas services, even…
What 12 Denominations Tell Us About American Christianity
For the last seven or eight years, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet that has a whole bunch of membership data from every denomination that has a consistent track record of keeping good data and releasing (at least some of it)…
United Methodists ratify new global structure
After a five-year effort that began outside the United States, United Methodists have overwhelmingly approved four constitutional amendments that make the worldwide denomination into a global network of co-equal regions devoted to including all people in the church no matter…
Faith communities unite to fight hunger
Congregations across cultural and theological lines must see hunger as an affront to justice and unite in the struggle to eradicate food insecurity, according to a new campaign launched by Church World Service. The global humanitarian organization released a 2025…
One Holy, Universal, and Apostolic Church—Even Your Weird Denomination
Even as a child, I had an interest in the divided church. Sunday mornings found my family in a United Methodist church, but on Sunday evenings my parents took me to a nearby charismatic church instead.
What’s Truly Mortifying
Growing up as a Methodist, the church calendar oriented my childhood around twin poles of Christmas (and Advent) and Easter (and Lent). Advent was my favored season of the two: Waiting with a pile of presents in view is not…
I just left The United Methodist Church for an Alliance of Baptists congregation
Those of us in the Mainline Protestant traditions who still find community in church settings often feel an allegiance to whichever denomination we were raised in. In my case, I was baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and…
What comes next for the United Methodist Church?
Not even the sainted hymnist of Methodism, Charles Wesley, could sing better of the United Methodist Church’s future than King George III in the musical Hamilton: What comes next? Regrouping after decades-long conflicts over human sexuality, declining membership, decreased revenues…