A Peculiar Prophet

On Christmas Eve we read a story about how a poor couple named Mary and Joseph were forced by imperial political decrees to pack up, to jour...

John 1:6-9, 19-23. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might beli...

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” John 1...

After my first Advent/Christmas at the university Chapel where I used to preach, I noted that sermons during this season frequently received...

As we begin the Christian season of Advent I am reminded of one of my heroes, Pastor Alfred Depp, courageous Lutheran who was eventually hun...

In 1994, a commission convened by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, with Joseph A. Califano, Jr. as chair,...

Recently I led a group of pastors in a discussion about our preaching. When I asked the pastors, "What areas would you like help with i...

In our Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Abingdon, 1990), Stanley Hauerwas and I said that there was much a-theism in the cont...

A comment raised about the emerging church: "I'm not a minister, but just your ordinary lay Methodist who has just now been made aw...

A few years ago, John McClure had a good idea for a useful book for us preachers. Professor McClure interviewed a group of master preachers ...

Our Bishop’s Convocation takes place this week when the pastors of our Conference will be focusing on the ministry of Preaching. Dr. Thomas ...

Our thoughts on United Methodist Believing continue with these thoughts about Jesus Christ as our way to God. The way Scripture tells the st...

John Wesley often spoke of preaching as “offering Christ.” For Wesley, preaching was more than a string of interesting ideas, even interesti...

Early next year we will be having a Conference wide celebration on the Joy of Wesleyan Believing. Our Lay Ministry Team will be asking every...

Kirk Hadaway is a veteran church observer of mainline church growth and decline. Recently, Hadaway released the results of a study he comple...

This year’s Annual Conference had as its them “New!” It is a great challenge truly to “make all things new” as Scripture enjoins us to do. B...

The majority of United Methodist Churches in North Alabama are small churches and they are in precipitous decline. All indications are that...

Last week, I delivered the keynote address for the Oxford Institute of Wesley Studies at Christ College, Oxford University. A copy of my rem...

I’ve said it before, I say it again. Few writers are as tough on us clergy as Soren Kierkegaard, that melancholy Dane. However, few writers...