Wesley Blog

I've Regained Control...

of the domain wesleyblog.com. Now the archives are intact and easily accessible. In the coming weeks, my writing is going to begin to focus on urban ministry, especially with youth. That material will most likely appear in some other forum, as it doesn't exactly fit the original purpose of Wesley Blog. I'll keep you posted on any new projects. Thanks again for reading Wesley Blog during its (almost) two year run.

It's Great to Be A United Methodist

I've never been more excited about being a United Methodist than I am right now.  Sure, we've got a few problems. The political stuff never seems to go away, and the thoughts of demonstrations and power plays at the next General Conference make me cringe. But I really feel like I'm in the right place. I'll explain why.

For the past couple of months, I've visited a non-denominational charismatic service on Saturday evenings. I initially went because I was invited by a former youth group member who is enrolled at a music/arts institute that's connected with this church. The music there is very well done, and I can't help but get excited about how I see God moving in the services. Sunday worship at my own church seems to have been enhanced by my experiences on Saturday nights. I've also noticed something else... When I'm at my own church, I find myself longing for something more "charismatic", but when I'm at the charismatic church, I hunger for more liturgy, structure and tradition. (Can you imagine this coming from a low church Methodist?)

The UMC I'm part of in Austin is low church but we still have a fairly traditional order of service. My favorite part is after the sermon, when we have a prayer, ministry and response time. We invite people to come to the altar rail if they want to pray or receive prayer for any reason, including making a commitment to Christ. It amazes me because I see worshipers (including teenagers) being touched by God on a regular basis. Last week, a member of our youth group experienced a physical manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. He was blown away by the experience, and talked about it afterward. I couldn't help but think how God's presence likely did more ministry in his life in a couple of minutes than anything we've done in the two years since we've known him. I'm thankful that I go to a church that is theologically and methodologically flexible enough for something like this to happen.

The joke goes that Methodists are "too Baptist for the Catholics and too Catholic for the Baptists".  That's our biggest strength if you ask me. Many people in my congregation have a Catholic background. Some even call the worship service "mass". Then there are those who could easily be in Baptist or Pentecostal churches, but for some reason, they made their church home with us. We have a "blended" service that makes everyone happy some weeks and no one happy other weeks, which I suppose is fitting since worship isn't really about satisfying us in the first place. But we've managed to carve out a niche right in the middle of the worship spectrum. Liturgical lite if you will.

If we embrace our heritage (and hopefully all UMC's will do this) we'll find that we're thinking evangelicals. We stress the importance of conversion, yet we still have rites of passage like confirmation. We baptize babies, but we do it with the hope (even expectation) that this faith will be fully owned by those infants someday. And if people weren't baptized as infants, we'll do it later. We can even dunk 'em if we want. You see, Methodists have lots of options.

Back to that charismatic church. I thank God for how he's moving there, and I'll likely continue to visit. There's so much to learn from other parts of the body. But what I've really learned is that the Holy Spirit wants to move in my own congregation, even through the liturgy. There's so much potential there, and he's already moving behind the scenes in so many ways. It's amazing how much our own attitudes and expectations affect our experiences with God. This week at youth group I taught from James 4. One verse really grabbed my attention: "Come close to God, and he will come close to you" (James 4:8a GWT). We have that promise no matter what part of the body we worship in, whether high church liturgical or free charismatic. If we come close to God, he will come close to us. Our Wesleyan heritage confirms this.

I love being a United Methodist.

A Totally Organic Experience

I just finished reading Inside the Organic Church, a new book profiling twelve emerging congregations in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain.  (The author prefers the term "organic" to "emerging".) I don't read a lot of books about the emergent church because I usually get frustrated with authors who often seem to want to keep their options open instead of taking clear stands on certain theological issues. But I found this title to be quite helpful,  and the fact that it is about real congregations (not just someone's theories) grabbed my attention right away.

All of the churches profiled in this book aren't successful. In fact,  some are struggling. I found that refreshingly realistic. I think we have a lot to learn from the success stories, but sometimes learning from fellow struggling congregations can be just what the doctor ordered. 

Here are a handful of points that stuck with me, along with some of my own thoughts:

• The author notes that Generation X doesn't evaluate churches based on outward successes but rather on authenticity of spirituality. This is supposed to be in contrast to baby boomers, who allegedly do judge more on the externals. I agree that my generation is more cynical than our boomer parents, but I'm not sure boomers aren't just as demanding of authenticity when it comes to religion. Perhaps different generations simply have different tendencies when it comes to how they measure success.

• The author profiles a large church in England that lost its lease to the only building in Sheffield that would hold a group of its size. So what did it do? It split into 17+ groups that met all around the city. It was still loosely organized as one church, but essentially it became a multi-congregation body, and has since grown to over 1700 people. This sounds like a perfect example of multiplication by division to me.
• Most of the churches profiled in this book are orthodox (read traditional) in their theology, which seems to indicate that the author, Bob Whitesel, thinks that the emergent church is less about theology than it is about style and methodology. If that's the case (and there's a good chance it is) then why all the fuss lately about Brian McLaren, generous orthodoxies and possible heresies coming from the emergent camp?
• One profiled church  is actually a coffee house where the pastor delivers sermons with a busy street scene visible through a storefront window behind him. That's a good way to keep people reminded of their mission field.
• Speaking of coffee houses, I was complaining to a friend today about how I often feel more intimacy and acceptance in a coffee house where I don't know anybody than in a church where I know almost everybody.  Anybody else ever feel that way?
• One growing church in Minnesota is determined not to become a mega-church because it would hinder the way they do ministry. (Talk about being a victim of your own success!) That makes me wonder if much of the emergent church isn't mostly a backlash against mega-churches. Maybe our traditional mainline churches are analogous to the old neighborhood supermarkets (think IGA), the mega-churches are more like Wal-Mart Supercenters, and emerging churches are Whole Foods stores. You know, for hip youngsters who don't want to do things the way their parents did.

This book is an easy read, and there are actual interviews with the people who built these churches and/or pastor them, so there's a lot of practical help here (even if your church isn't organic).

Why Calling God "Father" Is Important

Lately I'm noticing that more mainline publishers, seminaries and Christian colleges have been going to inclusive language policies that encourage avoiding the use of gender specific pronouns when speaking or writing about God. I'm sure many of the creators of these policies have good intentions, but I'm afraid their efforts are misguided. This kind of language hyper-sensitivity will likely create more problems than it solves.

Before you dismiss this as a conservative rant, you should probably understand my positions on a couple of related issues: gender accuracy in Bible translations and women in ministry. The short answer is, I support both. I hold an egalitarian view (equal ministerial opportunity for both sexes) and I support Bible translations that translate inclusively provided the original languages were understood in the same way. (See my article on the TNIV.)

But God is different. Jesus called God "Father" and I think it's pretty clear that he wasn't afraid to rock the boat if he thought that using masculine language was a misrepresentation. Come on, this was the guy who took financial support from females (scandalous!) and talked to women (Samaritan no less) regardless of society's taboos. Oh I know all the arguments about feminine imagery (a stretch if you ask me since it's just imagery) and people who can't relate to their fathers because of sexual abuse and various dysfunctions. And I think these are points we need to consider. But there's something else to consider as well.

We live in a society of absentee fathers. Many of the ones who do stick around are lousy parents who have no idea how to raise healthy kids. Some are abusive and downright cruel to their families. Many teenage boys are growing up and becoming dads with no good role models in their homes to show them what it means to be a good father. This is especially true in urban/inner city areas. I have experience with this because many of the teenagers in my church's youth group come from single parent families. In fact, I was raised in a single parent family. Psalm 68:5 calls God "father to the fatherless" (TNIV). Kids need a good father, and God wants to fill this need. The problem is, people get so carried away with deleting masculine references to God that they rob these kids of the experience of knowing God as the perfect dad. I think some well meaning Christians would be a little embarrassed if they gave this some serious thought.

This post has been edited for clarity.

Open Hearts: Developing a Church Growth Mindset

• If a church isn't growing, it's dying. There is no in-between or maintenance mode for a church, no matter what the statistics might seem to suggest. This summer, central Texas experienced a longer-than-usual drought period. My lawn was so brown that I actually set up a portable sprinkler system  to make the grass green again. The problem is, I hate mowing the lawn. But I discovered that if the grass was going to be green again, I was going to have to work to keep it looking nice. My friend Mark suggested that I water the lawn just enough to keep it green, but not enough to make it grow. But I quickly found out that lawns don't work that way. Neither do churches. If a congregation isn't growing, it's dying.
• A healthy church must be multi-generational. Allow me to use my youth group as an example. We have worked hard building a culture where students invite their friends to our Wednesday event, but the tendency is for people to invite friends from their own grade level. This year I began encouraging our core group (mostly rising juniors) to invite freshmen and sophomores. The reason? In a ministry model with a four-year window (high school outreach), at least 25% of the students must be replaced every year just to maintain the group. If our group were to place its focus on inviting upperclassmen only, we would experience growth, but not over the long term. In fact, in a couple of years, we wouldn't have much of a youth group. Consider this on a larger scale. It's one reason why churches with mostly older people just can't seem to grow.
• It is about the numbers. I've said this for years and the only people who usually object are people (mostly pastors) who aren't part of a growing congregation. Numbers do matter to God. The reason numbers matter to him is because numbers represent people, and people matter to God. If the gospel is being preached with power at our churches, I can guarantee that God is infinitely concerned about how many people are attending each Sunday. Am I suggesting that every church should become a mega-church? Not at all. But our goal should be to have more people participating in the life of our congregation this week than last week, even if it's only one more.
• People need God. One factor that affects church growth is whether or not people experience God at our services. I've left church services many times wondering if God was even there. We should make it our goal for people to have an unmistakable experience in God's presence when they visit our services. Don't confuse God's presence with his manifest presence. God is everywhere, but he doesn't show up everywhere. Think of Moses, who encountered the manifest presence of God through a burning bush (and many times thereafter.)  The manifest presence of God should be something we pray for and seek for all of our worship experiences.
• Church should not be a safe place. Hear me out. Church shouldn't be a safe place because God isn't a safe God. He wants to change us, and when we have a genuine encounter with him, we will change. We have to. He loves us too much to leave us the way he found us. Our congregations should be places where people experience transformation in the presence of a holy God, not places where they experience "religion" completely on their own terms. If our church services develop a reputation for changing people, growing won't be an issue. We'd have to drive people away to get them to leave.

These points were adapted from a talk I gave on church growth at a retreat over the weekend.

Friday Thoughts

It seems thatValtrex and the general malaise brought on by shingles made me less inclined than I thought to pick up the laptop and write. :) Anyway, here are some thoughts going into Friday:

• I'm heading back to work today after a few days of wrestling with shingles. I'm glad, because lying around doing nothing is incredibly overrated. (Not to mention boring.)
• I'm speaking at a church retreat this weekend on reasons why we want to grow churches. I've tried for days to come up with an organized, polished talk, but as is usually the case, it won't fall into place until I get up and actually do it. Thankfully this retreat has plenty of free time, so I plan to get a lot of rest.
• I'm behind the curve on this one, but I've been meaning to write about Joel Betow's 22 components of liberal theology (HT: Jason Woolever). I hope to do that next week. Meanwhile, take a look if you haven't. It's an interesting read.
• I want to do a series on church planting in the UMC (a how-to with stories from real life.) If you have expertise in this area, drop me a message.

Have a great weekend.

Shingles

I was scheduled to be in Nashville for a conference this week, but I woke up this morning with a painful rash on the left side of my body. I stopped by church to see our parish nurse before I caught my plane, and she insisted that I see a doctor before flying out.

The diagnosis? Shingles. No it's not excruciatingly painful (yet) and hopefully since we caught it early, the antiviral meds will prevent a major outbreak. I'm going to be taking it easy for a couple of days at least, so I'll probably keep my laptop near the couch and write a little here and there. Prayers are much appreciated.

Methodist Blogroll Update Is Complete

I have purged all dead blogs and blogs without updates in the past month. I have also pulled all add requests from my in-box and placed current blogs (updated within a month) on the roll. As far as I know, the Methodist Blogroll is now completely current. If your blog isn't listed or your link is incorrect (and you're Methodist), e-mail me and I'll get you on the list. Here are instructions for adding the blogroll to your blog.

The WB is Back

No, not that WB.

After a three month break from blogging I've decided that it's time for me to return. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to rest a little. I pulled back from blogging because I felt God leading me in some other directions over the summer. Teen ministry continues to be a major passion of mine, and this summer was a blast. Our fall Wednesday program kicked off a few weeks ago and it now seems stronger than ever. So as I resume posting here, please understand that there will be many times when my ministry in my church will take priority over my writing here. There will be days when I won't be able to update. In fact, if I can create one full length article and a few shorter posts each week, I'll be content with that.

About the Methodist Blogroll: I've been a jerk and I owe everyone an apology. I've been unresponsive to e-mails and I have a lot of add requests in my in-box (Almost 500 unanswered e-mails, but only a few dozen of those are blogroll related.) I've made a commitment to have the blogroll updated completely by Sunday night. Thanks for your patience.

About Wesley Daily: It was a neat experiment, and before my hiatus it was getting hundreds of hits a day, but in all honesty, it was too much work. I have a lot of fun writing my own stuff and reading everyone else's, but editing is not my passion. So Wesley Daily has gone the way of Michigan Frog and the WB Network. Wesleydaily.com now redirects to Wesley Blog. If you want a good quick Methoblogosphere highlight reel, check out the MBWR at Locusts and Honey.

It's good to be back.

Blogging Hiatus

Sorry about the unannounced break from blogging (and the hit and miss posting) of recent days. I'm still considering what form(s) my two blogs will take in the future. As I mentioned recently, I'm considering a combined blog- maybe a consolidation of WB and WD into a group effort. I got an e-mail from someone asking if I'm experiencing burnout. Not really... at least not with writing. But few things are more annoying to me than someone who writes (or talks) when they have nothing new to say. Right now I have a passion for teaching the Bible, youth ministry, and a youth Bible study project that has been on the back burner way too long. I think God is telling me to take a step back for a short period of time and figure out where he's leading me on all this.

So, yes, it's the dreaded hiatus. I'll still be running the Methodist Blogroll (which has tons of blogs waiting to be added) and I may write something here and there on WB. Check back about once a week or so, or set up a Bloglines account and you'll know if I've made any updates.

Thanks to my readers and to other Methobloggers for all of your encouragement.

More on Worship Services

Thanks for the good discussion about my last post. I decided to respond to a few of your comments and questions in a follow-up:

Comment
The first biblical mention of the spirit of God showing up in power during a "worship service" was at pentecost (we just passed it). At that service most of the unchurched said "they must be drunk". How many time has your church service ever been accused of being drunk recently?

I agree. But to be that free in worship means we might actually have to deviate from the bulletin occasionally. That's okay. Most people don't read the bulletin anyway.
...
Comment
My guess is that the things that are boring to teens are also boring to many adults.

Exactly. Only most adults will try to be polite and look like they're paying attention (except when they take an unplanned nap.)
...
Comment
Surely, Shane, you aren't suggesting that worship should be entertaining? Because I hardly think entertainment should be a consideration of worship.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Here are some dictionary definitions of entertain:
en·ter·tain (ntr-tn)
v. tr. 1. To hold the attention of with something amusing or diverting.
2.  To extend hospitality toward.

How are teens going to worship God with their minds if we can't get their attention and get them to focus on God? I think holding people's attention during a worship service is a good thing. Diversion is defined as distracting the attention from worrisome thoughts or cares. Shouldn't that happen when we worship God?
...
Comment
I know we're living in a different day and age, but I think the biggest mistake we're making with this generation is feeling obligated to entertain them every minute of every day.

Not every minute of every day, but wouldn't it great to be able to hold their attention for an hour or two a week?
...
Comment
They are not going elsewhere to be fed; as far as I can tell they are just choosing to stay between the sheets on Sunday morning. And, I place large measure of blame on parents who allow that to happen.

Does MTV blame the parents if teenagers tune out? Does Hollywood blame parents if teens skip the latest flick? No. They blame themselves and they fix whatever's wrong. And besides... what about unchurched kids who have unchurched parents?
...
Comment
Let them preach!!!  They have some good things to say to us!!! Let them do children's sermons!!! Give them the tools and they will run with it. Let them serve in music!!! They often play it better than us!!! Let them at the tech team!!! They know it better than any of us. Let them work with the pastor to spice-up a message.

Sounds good to me, but are we really prepared to take their suggestions seriously and talk the older longtime members down from the tree when teens do something out of the box or make a mistake?
...
Comment
I don't think bongos and guitars in worship are a problem but you don't have to forsake, as most churhes have now, all aspects of the historic Christian faith to update your worship sevice. The gospel is timeless and God doesn't need cool music for it to work.

There are a couple of problems with your argument: Style and substance are two different things. Tightening up a worship service, adding elements to engage younger generations and allowing freedom in the Spirit doesn't in any way forsake the historic Christian faith. So most churches have rejected all aspects of the historic Christian faith now? That's definitely an exaggeration. All music is new sometimes. The stuff in our hymnal was cutting edge at various points in time. And no, we don't need the latest music for God to work. But why settle for all old stuff when we have a church full of young artists who have much to contribute?
...
Comment
Shane, as some others have noted, my resistance to one of your suggestions is that gathering for worship should never be made "optional" for Christians.

But if it isn't optional, is it really worship? If it's forced on us, is it authentic? And is worship what happens at 11AM Sunday or should it be a lifestyle?
...
Comment

I think announcements can easily fall into that category! I prefer that announcements be made BEFORE the prelude. Heck, they are always printed in the bulletin anyway. Why does someone need to read the announcements from the bulletin? If we are going to announce everything printed in the bulletin anyway, why don't we just save a tree and quit printing the things.

Thank you. I couldn't have written it better myself.

When Teenagers Are Bored By the Worship Service

If most of your congregation's teenagers are church kids whose parents also attend the worship service, getting youth to come isn't a huge problem. But what about when most of your church's teens are of the unchurched variety, and mom and dad (if they even live with both parents) like to sleep in on Sunday mornings? Asking youth to sit through 60 to 90 minutes of prayer requests, announcements, music (and possibly sermons) that they can't easily relate to is a whole different ballgame when they're getting to church on their own initiative.

Since many UM churches (I know there are exceptions) don't do the best job of engaging youth during the 11:00 hour, what's the solution? Creating an alternative worship setting just for them? Killing the Sunday School hour and pulling youth out of the service for Christian education? I'm not sure if I know the answer.

Ideally the worship service should be a setting where generations interact and learn from each other while lifting up the name of Jesus. Of course it helps when the power of God is present in an obvious way. In fact, my guess is that if the Holy Spirit really showed up in power at more of our services, teenagers wouldn't need as many drums, guitars and lights and video clips to get their attention.

The truth is, we have a limited amount of time each week to reach and disciple teens, and I'm not sure we should spend a big portion of that time making them "do church". Why is the worship service such a sacred cow in churches anyway? Bring an unchurched teenager into a traditional mainline service, and the expectation of silence probably evokes for them memories of funerals and libraries- two places I didn't particularly want to be when I was younger (or now), especially if I had a choice in the matter. Why is the worship service considered prime time? Can teens be part of the Christian community without being in the same room with adults for that one hour? Maybe it's time we did things differently.

Or not. We can always stay on the same path and watch our kids go get fed somewhere else as soon as they're able to drive themselves there. And that's if we're lucky. The more likely scenario is that they won't get fed anywhere. If our churches are providing mediocre worship and learning experiences, we could be inoculating our teenagers against church or even against the Gospel itself. If we're not so excited about Jesus Christ that we're constantly thinking of new and creative ways to share that passion with upcoming generations, then we need to stop wasting our time with the whole church thing. Defending the status quo is not an option for the Kingdom-minded Christian.

Adventures in Missing the Point

Annual Conferences are meeting all over the country, and no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to get into it this year. All of the hemming and hawing and resolution-passing just doesn't appeal to me. Let's face it. Annual conference is most enjoyable for activist types and clergy who enjoy seeing their friends and colleagues once a year. I've been a delegate to the North Carolina Conference. As a college kid I found the actual conference part about as exciting as watching C-SPAN in a dentist's waiting room. But I did enjoy meeting new people and going out to eat. And I suppose the social aspect is why this institution is still highly anticipated by so many people.

Methodism is such a complicated beast. There are the cool parts (evangelism, conversion, teaching, preaching, receiving the Holy Spirit, worship, Bible study) and then there are the not-so-cool parts (meetings, politics, committees). I've decided that the real spirit of United Methodism isn't bound by structure or even by the denomination itself. Real United Methodism presents Jesus to people who don't have a relationship with him and it disciples those who do. Since when is Methodism about legislative or judicial victories? Does anyone in the world really give a rat's posterior if some annual conference somewhere passed a resolution against serving non-organic milk in public schools?

Then there's the Ed Johnson thing, the Beth Stroud thing, homosexuality in general, Soulforce, RMN, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Both sides win a few, both sides lose a few. No one seems to change their hearts on anything, no one seems to be convinced that they're wrong, and it seems that it's all about the bragging rights. What are we fighting to protect anyway? A church structure? A bureaucracy? A system designed to run like our own U.S. government? (And it's almost as efficient, believe me.) People, we're missing something big.

The only power Jesus seemed to care about was the power of God touching people's lives. Somehow I doubt he would be legislating at Annual Conference or going after political opponents if he were physically present today as a member in the UMC. I know I've written a lot about preserving Methodism, bringing renewal and fighting liberals, but has it really accomplished anything big for the kingdom? Don't get me wrong- I love writing, and I'm passionate about the UMC. But maybe, just maybe Christian blogs (like this one) are wasting too much energy doing things the world's way. Go read almost any political blog and you'll see mostly people with larger than normal egos preaching to a choir and maybe a troll or two. Christian blogs (including this one on its worst days) sadly aren't much of an improvement. There has to be more for us than this.

God's kingdom is here. Jesus Christ is real. He's alive and the Holy Spirit is ready to fill people who have received him. Sure there are forces of evil influencing people in our church but we have weapons to engage and defeat the enemy that don't involve judicial councils or resolutions. We've been grabbing desperately for power when we have all the power that we need. We've just been looking in the wrong place. And I've been one of the worst offenders.

If we make it our passion to save an institution, we're going to lose it. But If we put that energy into saving people, God will bless us. And if we get really excited about people coming to Jesus, it's going to be hard to get worked up about all of the political stuff. No matter who the General Conference delegates and Bishops are.

"What Was Abraham Thinking?" and Other Questions

I lead a Bible study for young adults on Friday nights and I also co-teach a teen Sunday school class. I've put both groups on the same weekly scripture track because doing so allows me to spend more time on personal study and research for the passage before I teach it. Plus, it's fun to hear the different perspectives of the two groups. This weekend, we explored Genesis 22:1-18- God's testing of Abraham. Here are a few of the things we discussed:

When did Isaac figure out what was happening? My understanding is that Isaac was likely in his early teens when this event took place. This passage doesn't tell us that Isaac freaked out or fought back (which doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't.) The implication seems to be that he was totally obedient to his father and allowed himself to be tied up and placed on the altar. Was Isaac this obedient? He didn't have to be you know. Most fourteen year olds I know could easily overpower someone 100 years their senior.

Was Abraham lying to his servants in verse 5 when he said both he and the boy would come back to them? I realize that ultimately he wasn't, but if he was willfully deceiving them, then it's the same thing. Hebrews 11:19 helps us out here by jumping inside Abraham's head for a moment, telling us that Abraham figured God was able to raise Isaac from the dead. I guess when a hundred year old guy watches his 90 year old wife give birth, it's a bit harder to doubt God after that.

Why does God bother to test people if he already knows what they're made of? One person suggested that God does the actual test so we'll know what we're made of. Sounds good to me- but possibly my favorite thing that this question launched was a discussion of open theism. Does God know every detail of every part of the future, or can an unwritten future be known completely, even by an omniscient God?

Why did God, who would later reveal his distaste for child sacrifice, test Abraham in this way? Was it a cruel and unreasonable test?

In the News

Sorry I haven't been able to post this week. I was going to write last night, but it was our last Wednesday youth group before fall, and it ran later than expected. There really isn't a whole lot going on right now anyway that I haven't already written about a hundred times.

...

I'm thinking about mixing up the format here a little. I have so much on my plate that it's not possible at the moment for me to write quality stuff day in and day out. (Some of you might argue that I've never written quality stuff day in and day out. :) ) Anyway, I'm also putting together a major new project designed to get teenagers into the Bible. I haven't done much with it lately because I haven't had time. I really feel that I'm supposed to make it a priority, so I may have to budget my time better and cut back on a few things. I've thought about gradually turning Wesley Blog into a group blog. WB would continue to be an evangelical blog (allowing diversity of opinion from authors within certain parameters) and Wesley Daily would be an edited digest republishing articles by Methodist bloggers from lots of different perspectives. Don't hold me to all that. I could change my mind before tomorrow. Feel free to leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments section.
...

There are a couple of news items-

A new United Methodist seminary is in the works for Oklahoma City.

Two Soulforce activists are challenging the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. They've attempted to join the National Guard, but their applications are on hold until their arrests at the West Point demonstration are resolved.