Confirmation: What is its role and importance?
My new column in the United Methodist Reporter is on the practice of confirmation. Confirmation is one of those practices that has enormous formative potential for youth. Sometimes churches take confirmation very seriously. When that happens, confirmation does a lot of work in helping to initiate adolescents into a mature form of discipleship. But all.. read more →
“I’m Mary. You’re Joseph.”
The faith of a child is marvelous. My daughter Alice is 2 1/2 years old. We usually leave the house together in the morning — she to daycare and I to work. This morning, Alice walked into the kitchen holding a baby doll wrapped in a little blanket. “Look!” she said. “It’s the baby Jesus.”.. read more →
Sink some roots into Seedbed
In case you haven’t already encountered it, I want to highlight one of the most exciting developments in Wesleyan-related publishing going on today. It’s called Seedbed, and it is a print and online publishing organization that has been developed by Asbury Theological Seminary. Seedbed is a multi-purpose publisher that offers ministry resources and spiritual formation.. read more →
The Danger of a Disappearing Faith
Dissipation. It’s a word that makes one think of mist lifting off a lake in the morning. Or the heat of day gradually giving way to the cool of evening. It’s also a word that John Wesley uses when he wants to talk about the danger of losing a once vital faith, over time, as.. read more →
Renewed writing via ‘Faith in Action’
I took a hiatus from my column writing with the United Methodist Reporter after May of last year. It wasn’t by choice so much as it was out of necessity. I had a number of things pressing on me (including the little matter of needing to finish a dissertation!) that made me have to prioritize and reduce.. read more →
By the teeth of wild beasts
This semester I have been teaching a seminar in the history of the early Christian church, from A.D. 100-547. One of the figures we’ve covered in that seminar is Ignatius of Antioch. St. Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch, one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire at that time and home of one of the.. read more →
Spiritual Gifts
I’m preaching on spiritual gifts tomorrow, which is one of my favorite topics in Scripture. I also think it is one of the most misunderstood topics in Scripture, which is one reason preaching on it generally is so important. For instance, people I’ve talked to throughout my ministry have often thought of spiritual gifts as.. read more →
Duke Youth Academy begins!
Today is the first day of the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation. We are welcoming 44 high school youth to the Duke campus to spend the next two weeks studying, praying, working, worshiping, and living together in Christian community. DYA is a way of introducing high school youth to the riches of the Christian.. read more →
Living in the A.T. era: “After Tampa”
One of the tricky things about writing deadlines is the lag time between when a piece is finished and when it appears in print. When you write for a weekly publication — which I do for the United Methodist Reporter — it means that there will always be a few days between when the last.. read more →
Suffering & Discipleship
I admit that I am often torn between what I believe to be the requirements of a life of authentic Christian discipleship and the reality of life in a free market capitalist society. This is the subject of my current column in the United Methodist Reporter. Of the benefits of the latter there can be.. read more →