Jan. 22 marked the 39th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. Taken together, the two rulings (authored by Justice Harry Blackmun, a United Methodist) effectively voided dozens of state laws aimed at protecting unborn children from abortion. Since then, abortion doctors have [...]
Archive for the ‘United Methodist Church’ Category
Should we turn control of UMC over to the Council of Bishops?
Posted in Bishops, Book of Discipline, Christian/Methodist History, Church Renewal, General Conference, North Georgia Conference, United Methodist Church, tagged UMC, United Methodist Church on January 19, 2012 | Comments Off
The following commentary is by Joe M. Whittemore, a member of the United Methodist Church’s Connectional Table. Mr. Whittemore, a delegate to the 2012 UM General Conference, has chaired Committee on Episcopacy for the Southeastern Jurisdiction and has served as the Lay Leader of North Georgia Annual Conference. This opinion piece was originally published in a [...]
United Methodists are well-liked, but to what end?
Posted in Christian/Methodist History, Church Growth, Evangelism, Holiness, United Methodist Church, tagged UMC, United Methodist Church on January 11, 2012 | Comments Off
The following commentary is by Riley B. Case, associate executive director of the Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church. Dr. Case served for many years as a pastor and district superintendent in the UMC’s North Indiana Conference (now the Indiana Conference). He is the author of Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular History (Abingdon Press) [...]
Happy Birthday to The Mission Society
Posted in Christian/Methodist History, Evangelism, Missions, United Methodist Church on January 6, 2012 | Comments Off
The Mission Society (formerly The Mission Society for United Methodists) is celebrating its 28th birthday today. Society president Dick McClain recounts the founding: A small gathering of people met together in an airport hotel in St. Louis. Like any other meeting, this one had potential — potential to be hardly remembered just a few months [...]
Podcast: Rob Renfroe on ‘The Truth About God’
Posted in Doctrine, Holiness, Podcasts, Sermons, United Methodist Church, tagged Audio, UMC, United Methodist Church on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
This edition of the Methodist Thinker Mini-Podcast features a teaching excerpt from the Rev. Rob Renfroe, pastor of discipleship at The Woodlands (Texas) United Methodist Church and the president of the UM renewal ministry Good News. The excerpt is from a 2009 sermon series, “The Trouble with the Truth,” preached at The Woodlands UMC . [...]
Call to Action member: We must foster vital congregations or ‘we do not have a future with hope’
Posted in Bishops, Church Renewal, General Conference, North Georgia Conference, United Methodist Church, tagged Audio, UMC, United Methodist Church, Video on June 13, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A member of the United Methodist Church’s Call to Action Steering Team says the team’s task was to be “prophetic” and to avoid the “terminal niceness” that has long inhibited realistic discussion of the challenges facing the denomination. “We were asked to do a deep study of the church,” the Rev. Jorge Acevedo, lead pastor [...]
Podcast: Steve Wende on electing delegates to GC 2012
Posted in Church Renewal, Doctrine, General Conference, North Georgia Conference, Podcasts, United Methodist Church, tagged Audio, UMC, United Methodist Church on June 7, 2011 | 1 Comment »
On this edition of the MethodistThinker Mini-Podcast, Dr. Stephen P. Wende, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church–Houston, Texas, urges the election of delegates to the 2012 UMC General Conference “who will represent God-honoring, Kingdom-focused, Christ-first, biblically strong positions.” He says that the outcome of this year’s elections will determine whether or not the future [...]
