I’m heading out today for a contextual immersion trip to Israel and Jordan with a large group of students from United. This trip will also be led by Dr. Lisa Hess, Rev. Brian Maguire, and Rabbi Brad Hirschfield. Oh, and my son Luke is going, too. He’s eleven. Lucky kid, huh? I’ve been to many different…

The website “UM and Global” is offering a series of posts by United Methodist professors on the mission document of The United Methodist Church, Grace Upon Grace. In this post, Dr. Luther Oconer of United Theological Seminary reflects on this document, and particularly on what he calls the “synergistic nature of God’s grace.” I commend…

Young people will not save the church. Bible study will not save the church. Leadership will not save the church. Being missional will not save the church. Being more conservative, progressive, or evangelical will not save the church. Worship we call “contemporary” will not save the church, nor will worship we style as “traditional.” Nothing…

Megyn Kelly of Fox News apparently thinks that Jesus was white. Yes, this is a rather unsophisticated claim, but not particularly surprising. It’s probably the case that all, or almost all, of the images of Jesus she has encountered depict Jesus as having European features. This is the most common representation of Jesus’ ethnicity in…

If you live in the world of social media at all, you are probably aware that about three weeks ago Mark Driscoll was accused of plagiarism. Andy Crouch has written an article in Christianity today called “The Real Problem with Mark Driscoll’s ‘Citation Errors’ (And It Isn’t Plagiarism).” Apparently, he feels the real problem is…

So, I was pretty excited to see that the U.S. Supreme Court is taking up matters related to intellectual disability. Then I realized what was going on. Lawmakers are trying to decide whom we can and cannot execute. According to an article on disabilityscoop.com: In its 6-3 decision in Atkins v. Virginia, authored by Justice…

For decades, process theology dominated United Methodist theological education, and was prominent more broadly in mainline Protestant theological education. It involves a complicated metaphysical system based upon the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (pictured left). Thinkers such as Marcus Borg demonstrate extensive dependence on process thought (see his book, The God I Never Knew). In this…

A reflection taken from a sermon I’m preaching this Sunday:  Sometimes Christians, with all of the best of intentions, tell us that if we are sad, if we lose our joy, it is somehow a lack of faith. This claim is wrong. Sometimes we are sad, angry, or hurting because we are Christians, because we…

Today I’m grateful for the faith of the Church.  I’m grateful for this narrative of salvation in which the God of all creation became human out of love for us, was born of a virgin, and taught us how to live. This very God died on the cross in an act of atonement for the…