Touchdown! Like a full-field kick-off return, United Methodists scored 180,000 pounds of food for hungry people in five states during a Super Bowl food drive challenge. United Methodists in four annual conferences — Great Plains (Kansas and Nebraska), Missouri, Eastern…
Amid the breakup, United Methodists are still serving their communities
United Methodists’ help for others counters gloom and doom predictions of break-up. Most news coverage of The United Methodist Church these days paints a gloomy picture of a doomed denomination. While the institutional turmoil can’t be denied, United Methodists in…
United Methodists talk up reasons to stay in splintering denomination with less than 3% of U.S. churches leaving so far
Life in The United Methodist Church these days is like riding a seesaw: one moment up and the next down. Sometimes the players bump on the dirt; sometimes they slide off the high end. However, United Methodists from bishops through…
In stunning development, United Methodist African bishops repudiate separatist group
Separatist forces suffered a major blow to their political strategy Sept. 8 when a majority of African bishops repudiated a special interest group and its traditionalist sponsor for “working to destroy our United Methodist Church.” The “Statement from Africa Colleges…
Against the odds, the SBC is experiencing a double-digit increase in giving
On the heels of a global pandemic and amid its own multi-faceted schism, the Southern Baptist Convention is experiencing something few could have predicted: Financial gifts to the SBC for the 2021-2022 fiscal year are up — way up. The…
Here’s what you need to know about why United Methodists now appear headed for a nasty divorce
When a marriage becomes irretrievably broken, nasty events can transpire in the dissolution. Such has occurred in the past month as The United Methodist Church faces the launch of a breakaway traditionalist denomination expected to draw an uncounted number of…
Facing schism and decline, United Methodist Women rebrands as United Women in Faith
United Methodist Women, a venerable Methodist women’s mission agency for more than 150 years, announced March 3 that it has rebranded itself United Women in Faith in hopes of attracting new, younger members and surviving the denomination’s decline and fall….
Who will carry on United Methodism’s legacy of service and community?
When I was a young-ish reporter working on a medium-sized daily newspaper in Florida, one of the more dreaded assignments was the Saturday work known as “bits and ‘burbs.” That jargon stood for the oft-scorned task of collecting suburban news…
Will the Coronavirus Omicron variant delay United Methodists’ split for a third time?
Prospects for The United Methodist Church’s twice-delayed General Conference — the only body that can make binding decisions for the entire 12-million-member worldwide denomination — dimmed considerably with the announcement of a new, more infectious variant of coronavirus now labeled…