Even when Wright is Wrong

Barack Obama has removed his membership from Trinity United Church of Christ, where he had been a member for 20 years.  The primary reason, of course, is to separate himself from the caustic remarks of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the long-time pastor at Trinity.
Here’s what I wonder about all this: who are Hillary Clinton’s and John [...]

Shift

Reggie McNeal says:
The shift that’s got to occur is from looking at the Kingdom through Church lenses to looking at the Church through Kingdom lenses.
HT Think Christian

Goods and Problems

My father-in-law sent me this article from the Boston Globe.  Here is the key paragraph, at least by my judgment:
Poverty and wealth, by this logic, don’t just fall along a continuum the way hot and cold or short and tall do. They are instead fundamentally different experiences, each working on the human psyche in its [...]

Kingdom Rant

So yesterday I am at another Church and see on another church bulletin that famous category “Our Men and Women in the Military.” Sometimes they specify “in Iraq,” or “in the war;” I am pretty sure they all mean about the same thing.
Yes; I pray for the U.S. Military. I pray for soldiers [...]

Making Disciples AND Transforming the World

As I’ve already shared, the United Methodist Church has adopted a new mission statement: “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The decision to adopt this happened Tuesday, April 29th.
At least twice since then, I’ve heard reference made to the “dual purposes” of the church. Sometimes these are [...]

Top Ten

A good friend and colleague asked me for my “top ten books for youth ministry or personal top ten.”
Here’s what I told him:

Christianity for the Rest of Us, by Diana Butler-Bass
Practicing Passion, by Kenda Creasy Dean
Politics of Jesus, by John Howard Yoder
Soul Searching, by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton
Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, by Andrew Root
Postmodern [...]

GC Update

I just heard Brian McLaren cited from the floor of General Conference