A Few Thoughts...

The meeting was boring.  Another attempt by management to rearrange something that would only make us less productive as we spent time on their pet project instead of focussed on our customers.  Did I mention that I was bored out of my mind.  Braking the monotony, I was thrilled as a friend shot me a text on an old Zaurus.  It was 1999 and texting was not very popular yet.  Email had just really caught on and the web was just becoming ubiquitous.  I loved the digital age and was glad to be distracted by this text. But, to my horror, the screen read “OMG DWHTGTTA!!!” What?  Did I miss something?  My first thought was that the message was garbled.  The technology was new and sometimes when email traffic passed through different servers a message could be garbled, maybe texts had a similar issues.  I did not know what to do, so I waited until the break and asked my colleague.  He condescendingly explained that the text was not garbled....

The game had gone horribly wrong.  For that matter, the whole season had been a struggle.  My nine year old daughter Kate’s soccer team were woefully bad.  They were so consistently out played by their opponents that the other teams would try to change up their formations and pass the ball so as to not run up the score (at least the classy ones would).  Her coaches were nice people doing the best they could and I appreciated their dedication to my daughter and our team, but they were not really soccer people.  Losing a soccer game is not the end of the world, but consistently watching girls you care about be beaten ten plus to zero because on goal kicks your team kicks the ball to the center and not the outside is heart wrenching to someone who is a soccer person. However, losing was not the most difficult thing.  Watching Kate become demoralized was the worst part.  In our family, we have a rule that you try and give your best... always.  It is o...

Bishop Huie is inspiring we United Methodists of the Texas Annual Conference to explore our “Why?”  Why is the United Methodist Church, the Texas Annual Conference, and our local church useful to the people of Texas and the world?  I am thrilled that we are asking what I consider to be the right question.  Bishop Huie’s compelling aspiration shares the marketing strategy of Simon Sinek.  Sinek’s insights can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA in a thought provoking TED talk that I recommend also.  This exploration of “why” can potentially be very fruitful within the church.  Answering the why question is not a new innovation in the Christian faith.   Bishop Huie is joining the great chorus of saints asking the why question of the Christian faith in each generation.   Why was essential to the formation of the early church found in the biblical witness.   As protestantism and United Methodism struggle with statist...

We are rapidly approaching one of the great times in the life of United Methodists, Annual Conference.  Annual Conference has a warm collegial spirit.  The Annual Conference focuses on celebrating the ministries of local churches and exploring ways that the Conference gathers together to do more than we would alone.  There are reports, elections, setting the budgets, etc.... but one of the most uplifting events is the services of Ordination and Commissioning where Deacons and Elders give their life to serve Jesus Christ.  These services inspire the whole church while specifically setting aside some in our number for leadership in the tasks of Word, Order, Sacrament, and Service.  Before the celebration, our bishop will examine the candidates for ordination in front of the entire Annual Conference.  This examination is often the completion of a long process over many years which have prepared the candidates for this point.  Having just been there last y...

I was asked for the process of forgiveness contained in my sermon yesterday on Romans 5:1-11  after church and in a few emails.  And then this morning, I read  Just Forgive?  by one of my favorite professors, Dr. Frederick Schmidt (I commend his blog to you) .  So, I took it as a sign (an inside joke for Dr. Schmidt) that I should write about forgiveness this morning. Dr. Schmidt succinctly explains one of the most challenging aspects of pastoral ministry.  Many Christians are living in various states of unforgiveness and pain due to horrible circumstance that should not be trivialized.  As I began my ministry, I did not fully understand how many Christians struggle to forgive others or how many people had experienced tragedy.  It seemed odd to me that so many who claim to be born out of forgiveness are unable to forgive.  I did not realize how these tragic events can harden the hearts of the faithful and make forgiveness difficult for Chris...

The District Leadership Team of the Southeast District of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church had a conversation on Wednesday about the guaranteed appointment that led me to do a little more homework on the subject.  ¶337 of the book of discipline is the primary paragraph in question regarding the “guaranteed” appointment of elders in the United Methodist Church.  The current language is that, “All elders in full connection who are in good standing in an annual conference shall  be continued under appointment by the bishop...”  The source of the legislation on the guaranteed appointment seems to be from the Study of Ministry Committee’s Report and Recommendations.  The Study of Ministry Commission’s Report & Recommendation can be found at http://www.gbhem.org/atf/cf/%7B0bcef929-bdba-4aa0-968f-d1986a8eef80%7D/DOM_STUDYOFMINISTRY2011PROPOSAL.PDF .  Before we consider the changes proposed in the Study of Ministry Report, let’s consid...

 Will the real Jesus please stand up.  The images of Jesus portrayed in Israel and are difficult to follow.  In Nazareth a Muslim banner, obstructing the view of a church, proclaims a quote from the Koran that "God does not beget, nor is he begotten.". While at the same time, the whole community seems to cater to and benefit economically from the pilgrimages.  As Christians, one of our essential claims is that Jesus is eternally begotten.  Human and God in one.  Jesus is still not accepted in his home town. The Jewish guides I've overheard seem to focus on Jesus' role as a Rabbi.  Jesus would have had a prayer shawl.  Jesus taught the Torah.  Jesus' knowledge came from training, not divinity.  Capernaum was the perfect place for Jesus as it was too small for a full Rabbi.  In Capernaum, Jesus would have been a part-time teacher of the youth and able to spread radical ideas into the surrounding areas. Jesus' teaching are simply too c...