I’m interrupting my normal “Top Five Tuesday” routine — and I love my routines — because an article in Monday’s Charlotte Observer revealed that this past Sunday (October 28) was one of the saddest days for the church in this area in a long, long time. I don’t know if Jesus wept reading it, but Read the full article…
As most of you know, I preach without any notes. And as many of you know, I have a fairly involved process for becoming familiar with the material I have prepared so that I can deliver without any assistance. Except yesterday at both the 8:30 and 10:00 services, I had something that I knew belonged Read the full article…
When I was a young preacher in Monroe, North Carolina, the ministry of Lenny Stadler at Weddington United Methodist Church almost defied belief. Throughout the decade of the 1990s, he led what had been a sleeply little country church into the kind of growth that made it one of Methodism’s superstars. In ten years, that Read the full article…
Here’s one of the questions I recently asked each of our staff to consider: How can my schedule be as full of face-to-face interactions with people as it is full of nose-to-screen interactions with my computer? Answering that question well is one of the great challenges of ministry in the digital age. Yes, we want Read the full article…
The position of District Superintendent (usually called “DS” by insiders) within the United Methodist Church is something to which I have never aspired and for which I am ill-qualified. And yet on Tuesday night that’s exactly what I was. Here’s how and here’s why: Superintendents in our denomination have for years led approximately 65 pastors Read the full article…
