By Walter Fenton March 26, 2019 For the better part of two years United Methodist bishops in the U.S. told the church’s people to pray for the work of a select commission and a special called General Conference. The commission’s members (selected by the bishops) and the special conference (called by the bishops) were to …
March 22, 2019 General Conference is the only body empowered to speak officially on behalf of the whole denomination. It sets the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine, and discipline of the church, and its decisions represent the global connection as it discerns God’s will for the whole church. When individual UM members choose to act contrary …
Responding to Reactions to the Special General Conference Read More »
By Bob Kaylor March 1, 2019 In the aftermath of the General Conference, many people are still wondering about the way forward. As a WCA Council member and traditionalist pastor in the overwhelmingly progressive Mountain Sky Annual Conference and Western Jurisdiction, I was hoping that there would be an opportunity for us to finally break …
A Message to Local UM Churches In Progressive Annual Conferences Read More »
By Keith Boyette February 15, 2019 The journey which began at the 2016 General Conference with the rejection of The Third Way Plan (an earlier version of the One Church Plan) by delegates in legislative committees to the 2019 special General Conference is approaching its conclusion. Petitions now await action by the 864 delegates from …
By Walter Fenton February 12, 2019 According to the Rev Mark Holland, Executive Director of Mainstream UMC, the One Church Plan coming before the special General Conference of the United Methodist Church is the “calm,” “rational,” and “well thought out” plan. In contrast, he claims, “chaos and crisis [is] being ginned up… to divide the …
By Nako Kellum February 5, 2019 “So what is a Christian?” This question came from a student in our young adult group at the Japanese Church in Lexington, Kentucky. I was one of the leaders of the group, and a seminary student at the time. The group of mostly college students, with a few high …
The Importance of the Creeds in the Intersections of Our Lives Read More »
February 1, 2019 In a paper entitled “Gender Matters: Human Sexuality and the Bible Yet Again”, Dr. Ben Witherington, III, writes: “It is no small thing for a church to change its position of what is and isn’t moral when it comes to human sexual behavior, especially when it has been the almost universal and …
How the Church’s Sexual Ethics and Teachings on Marriage are Rooted in Scripture Read More »
By Walter Fenton January 11, 2019 Of the several plans before the special United Methodist Church General Conference (February 23-26) in St. Louis, Missouri, the modified traditional plan is the most faithful, fair, and gracious one. Chiefly, the plan calls the church to reaffirm its sexual ethics, its teachings on marriage, and its ordination standards. …
The Modified Traditional Plan: Faithful, Fair and Gracious Read More »
By Carolyn Moore September 5, 2018 This is the third of three articles by the Rev. Carolyn Moore on women in Scripture and in ministry. You can read the previous articles here and here. Fourteen years ago, my family and I planted a United Methodist congregation in Evans, Georgia. We were what is called in …
By Carolyn Moore August 29th, 2018 This is the second of three articles by the Rev. Carolyn Moore on women in Scripture and in ministry. You can read the prior article here. Women have initiated some of Christianity’s more interesting movements. Aimee Semple McPherson was the founder of the Four Square movement. Myrtle Dorthea Beall …