My blog is for people like you who enjoy a good conversation, and are looking for someone with some organized thoughts on topics of the day from a Christian perspective.

I’ve been curating a blog for about 10 years now. I made the jump to my own server in 2007 when my wife gave me my own domain for Christmas. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, right?

As a pastor, I am the resident theologian for the church I’m serving. As a United Methodist pastor, I’m not bound by the lines of my city, county or state. As John Wesley said, “The world is my parish.” That means that a Methodist pastor should be right at home on the internet.

And I feel that I am.

The thoughts I share are my own and my opinions don’t necessarily reflect those of my denomination.

I am a staunch moderate. That means that you can expect me to challenge current polarizing thoughts from the far right and the far left. Our traditions can bind our thinking to the point that we refuse to allow God to do a new thing. But we can also get so excited about new things that we fail to focus on the things that God is asking of us.

These are some of the subjects I tend to cover and some of my previous posts to give you an idea of what I do.

Church Leadership

I’m Done “Growing the Church” gets more hits on my off days than any other page on the blog. There were 20,000 hits in the first week alone. I think it’s because this was a raw and honest reaction to some of the church-building ideas that are out there.

I also had some ideas about the relationships between churches and local technology businesses in Why Not Partner With?

In “How Does This Help Us Make Disciples?”, I put a simple question to work and it becomes my gauge for effective ministry ideas.

Discipleship

I have been told that I only preach one sermon, and it’s always on Discipleship. The trick is to preach on a different aspect of Discipleship every week.

I’m a big believer in the power of the congregation. I responded to the very popular video about “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.” There’s a Baby in that Bathwater, Jeff, describes the differences between religion that is embraced and religion that is forced upon people.

I’m a big fan of the Emerging Church. After attending several events to hear people like Phyllis Tickle and Brian McClaren, I wrote Emergence Christianity: A Primer for New Arrivals to give people an idea of what I had learned over the course of that time.

“Would You Know Him If You Saw Him?” is an example of the personal writing that I do, sharing insights that come to me from life experienced.

United Methodism

I’m a member of a flawed organization. The United Methodist Church has done wonderful things across the world. But we’ve also said and done things as a denomination that are simply wrong. Obviously, these thoughts don’t represent my Church, but they do represent my feelings about the way we should be behaving collectively.

In Low Miles, Excellent Condition: Young Leaders in the UMC, I took a look at the rising pool of young talent in the United Methodist Church and some of the problems they are facing.

One of the toughest posts I’ve written was A Vision for the Future. In what became a five part post, I examined the problems we’re facing and some of the potential solutions that our denomination must consider if we hope to survive.

I also addressed the pessimism of some of our leaders in Two Tsunamis. There are better things to come, if we will follow Christ and stop trying to save the Church. That’s not our job. Our task is to serve God to the best of our abilities and embrace grace when we fall short.

What would you like to talk about? I take your comments seriously, sometimes addressing questions and statements I find there in later posts of their own. Dive in and lets shake things up.