Imagining no malaria
One of the most exciting ministry initiatives that Methodists in my part of the world are engaged in right now is called Imagine No Malaria. It is a project designed to help eradicate malaria deaths by 2015. This is a worthy project. We don’t think much about malaria in North America, but in sub-Saharan Africa.. read more →
An Exploration into Doctrinal Preaching
What is the value of “doctrinal preaching” in the church today? And how should one go about it? Those were questions I had the opportunity to investigate a few months ago. I was fortunate enough to be asked to serve as the “conference preacher” for the Arkansas Annual Conference session this past summer in Fort.. read more →
Welcome to Arkansas, Bishop Mueller
Following the election of new bishops Cynthia Harvey, Gary Mueller, and Mike McKee, the Episcopacy Committee of the South Central Jurisdiction went to work making assignments of our college of bishops for the next quadrennium. With the retirement of Bishop Charles Crutchfield, the Arkansas Annual Conference is due to receive a new bishop to lead.. read more →
Third SCJ Bishop Elected
On the 23rd ballot of voting, the Rev’d. Michael McKee has been elected as bishop at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference meeting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Rev’d. McKee was an endorsed candidate by the Central Texas Annual Conference. He received 186 votes on the ballot, and 154 were needed for election. Rev’d. McKee is the third bishop elected.. read more →
Second SCJ Bishop Elected
On the 11th ballot of voting, the Rev’d. Gary Mueller has been elected as bishop at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference meeting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Rev’d. Mueller was an endorsed candidate from the North Texas Annual Conference, where he currently serves as the senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Plano, Texas. He received 170.. read more →
First SCJ Bishop Elected
On the fifth ballot of voting, the Rev’d. Cynthia Harvey has been elected as bishop at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference. The Rev’d. Harvey currently serves as the Associate General Secretary at UMCOR (The United Methodist Committee on Relief). She was an endorsed candidate of the Jurisdictional Women’s Leadership Team, as well as the Nebraska.. read more →
2012 South Central Jurisdiction
I am currently at the 2012 session of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Oklahoma City, OK. In the United Methodist Church in America, a jurisdiction is a collection of annual conferences tied together by geography, by common missional ties, and by governance through a college of bishops. (The whole body of bishops in the.. 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 →
General Conference wrap-up: Take Two!
So yesterday afternoon I am sitting in my office, grading papers and taking care of administrative chores related to the end of a semester. I take breaks to read General Conference-related stories and watch bits of the live stream from Tampa. At a certain point, I say to myself: “Self, you’ve devoted a lot of.. read more →
Judicial Council: Plan UMC is unconstitutional
In a shocking development, the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church has ruled that the “Plan UMC” restructuring proposal is unconstitutional. The plan had received preliminary approval by the General Conference earlier in the week. Two main aspects of the ruling: First, that that the plan would “co-mingle” the oversight of the church between.. read more →