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Archive for October, 2010

United Methodist Judicial Council convenes for fall session

Posted in Bishops, Book of Discipline, Discipleship, General Conference, Holiness, Judicial Council, Social Issues, United Methodist Church, tagged , on October 28, 2010 |

Update: On Oct. 30, the Judicial Council denied requests to reconsider Decision 1032. The denial was issued in Memorandum No. 1158 (available here in PDF). ∞ The United Methodist Judicial Council opened its fall session in New Orleans Wednesday with a heavy docket of 31 items (PDF), including several related to a controversial 2005 decision [...]

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Party platforms and the United Methodist Church, part two

Posted in Bishops, Book of Discipline, Ethics, General Conference, Politics, Social Issues, Stewardship, United Methodist Church, tagged , on October 25, 2010 | 3 Comments »

This the second of two posts comparing the United Methodist “platform” (i.e. language from the UM Book of Discipline) with the official platforms of both the Democratic and Republican parties. This post focuses on two issues: marriage and national security. As noted in part one, for Christians living in a democratic society, electing government leaders [...]

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Party platforms and the United Methodist Church, part one

Posted in Book of Discipline, Ethics, General Conference, Politics, Social Issues, Stewardship, United Methodist Church, tagged , on October 21, 2010 | 5 Comments »

For Christians living in a democratic society, electing government leaders is a stewardship responsibility, giving followers of Christ an opportunity to influence government in the direction of policies that promote virtue and restrain evil. In deciding how to cast their ballots, Christian voters may wish to reflect on how the positions of the major political [...]

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Podcast: Bishop Alfred Norris on ‘Vitality in Ministry’

Posted in Bishops, Church Renewal, North Georgia Conference, Ordination, Podcasts, Sermons, United Methodist Church, tagged , , on October 18, 2010 |

The latest MethodistThinker Podcast features an address by Bishop Alfred Norris, currently interim president of Atlanta’s Gammon Theological Seminary. Born in Louisiana in 1938, Alfred Lloyd Norris was educated at Dillard University (New Orleans) and Gammon Seminary. After serving for 16 years as a United Methodist pastor and district superintendent in his native state, he [...]

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Adam Hamilton: How the UMC can have ‘a future with hope’

Posted in Church Growth, Church Renewal, Leadership Development, Media, Preaching, United Methodist Church, tagged , , on October 11, 2010 | 9 Comments »

To reverse the United Methodist Church’s decades-long membership decline in the United States, local UM churches must embrace innovation and commit themselves to constant improvement, according to Adam Hamilton, leader of one of the UMC’s largest and most successful churches. Hamilton, founder and senior pastor of  the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (COR) in [...]

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MethodistThinker adds Facebook page

Posted in MThinker General Annoucements on October 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »

In response to reader requests, we have launched a MethodistThinker “Facebook Fan” page. The page mirrors the ThinkerTwitter feed, seen in the column at right. So if you already “follow” us on Twitter, there is no need to “Like” the MethodstThinker Facebook page unless you prefer the functionality of Facebook. The link to our new [...]

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In embracing homosexual marriage, Foundry UMC rejects UM boundaries, breaks with 2 millennia of church teaching

Posted in Book of Discipline, Christian/Methodist History, Discipleship, Doctrine, General Conference, Holiness, Judicial Council, Social Issues, United Methodist Church, tagged , on October 4, 2010 | 6 Comments »

Following a four-month period of “prayer, study, [and] discussion” billed as the “Summer of Great Discernment,” one of United Methodism’s most prominent churches has concluded that the United Methodist Church’s restrictions on homosexual marriage, and by implication the Christian faith’s long-held doctrines related to marriage and homosexuality, are “inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ.” [...]

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The Communion of Saints: October in Christian history

Posted in Christian/Methodist History on October 1, 2010 |

October 1, 1509: Birth of John Calvin (below right), French Protestant reformer, in Noyon, France. In 1536 he published his first edition of his classic Institutes of the Christian Religion (Google Books preview), which became the most systematic Protestant doctrinal statement of the Reformation. October 6, 1536: English reformer William Tyndale, who translated and published [...]

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