My sermon from the Thanksgiving Ingathering on November 5 This quadrennium, I have the honor of serving on our General Board of Global Ministries: Tell about opening worship – reading the names of the missionaries who have died. Very white, anglo sounding names. But that evening, I met missionaries who reminded me that the focus…
The Body of Christ
we are the church
Cries for Healing
“I alone am left. “ That was what Elijah had started to believe in his heart, as Trevor shared with our congregation last week. But Elijah was not alone. He was not the last of the faithful prophets. In fact, right there in that very cave, Elijah hears the name of the one who would…
Changing A Child’s Story
One book at a time, we can change the narrative, change, the statistics, change some lives… My church heard the call issued by our conference Poverty Taskforce to make an impact on generational poverty through literacy. All year, some of us have volunteered as reading buddies at Hillis Elementary and we have worked since Christmas…
Reflections a week after General Conference… #umcgc
As Psalm 146 reminds us: human leaders and human institutions aren’t everything. They won’t save us. We are finite and we make mistakes. Only God is forever faithful. Yet, any denomination or tradition comes from God’s followers attempting to live out their faith and their discipleship together. Fully knowing that we are not perfect, we…
Open. #umcgc
I haven’t posted much of substance the past few days. Mostly because there simply isn’t energy to do so. Two mornings ago, the Council of Bishops presented us with a report we asked them to make. We took a break and came back to discuss it and one word expressed how it is with my…
Home. #umcgc
Each evening, when deliberations are done, it’s time to head home. While for most delegates, that has been to a hotel room, sometimes shared with one other person, I am sharing a home with a small group of folks. We found a place through AirBnB not too far from the convention center. It is a…
Empty. #umcgc
So far at this conference I’ve been given a few nicknames. Mama-Pastor. Interloper. Bridge-builder. I feel called to be United Methodist and I have always felt called to hang out in the middle and help various sides hear one another. Maybe that is why my subcommittee experience was so powerful. We connected across cultures. We…
Holy Pockets of Grace #umcgc
As I came out of my subcommittee meeting in Faith and Order tonight, I felt like we were finally doing it. We were finally embodying what it meant to hear one another, to seek understanding, to seek God’s will, and to serve God in this capacity. We were reminded by our vice chair at the…