The United Methodist Church staggers toward a twice-delayed global legislative conclave that appears likely to split the 12-million-member denomination. The options available to concerned United Methodists are multiplying at the highest levels, but church life differs greatly at the grassroots…
Coronavirus challenging denominational summer conventions yet again
For the second year, denominational annual meetings are being derailed and reworked due to the coronavirus pandemic. This will have an urgent effect on the United Methodist Church, which already had delayed from last year a critical vote on the…
Some Methodist churches finding greater mission results with simplified governance
If there’s an aspect of church life that United Methodists love more than a potluck supper, it’s structure. After all, John Wesley — who imbibed structure as a means of discipleship from his mother, Susanna — founded the Methodist movement…
How do you say hello to a new congregation when you can’t meet them in person?
Welcoming receptions with cookies and punch. Casual chat in church hallways before Sunday school. After-worship coffee hours topped with doughnuts. Potluck suppers laden with fried chicken and potato salad. Pastors new to their congregations have missed a lot of these…
United Methodists learning more about Christmas Covenant through videos
A tumultuous January is nearing an end, but for many United Methodists the focus is still on Christmas – a proposal for the church’s future named the “Christmas Covenant” that its organizers call “a gift of hope” for the beleaguered…
New denomination declares ‘liberation’ from United Methodist Church
Even before any formal division has been enacted, an ad hoc group of United Methodists say they’ve formed a new denomination based on “radical hospitality” for LGBTQ persons, people of color and anyone who has felt rejected by the church….
2020’s earth-shattering events threaten United Methodist Church’s future
In the movie “Seabiscuit,” an early sequence shows how the fabled racehorse’s owner, Charles Howard, transformed his bicycle-repair business into the San Francisco Bay Area’s most successful automobile dealership in the early age of motoring. Howard met the challenge of…
United Methodists seek both separation and unity because of ‘Catholic Spirit’
If United Methodists were transformed into an animal, they no doubt would be Dr. Doolittle’s famous “pushmi-pullyu.” In other words, they’d like to have their future go two ways at once. Today’s United Methodists come by this tendency honestly, because…
A primer for non-Methodists on the Methodist ties that bind
Divorce is never easy. Even in the most amicable partings, the division of assets causes more contention than any other irreconcilable differences. In the case of United Methodists, breaking up may be even harder to do because of the structural…