Use this category for any blog post that is not a course.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Lingering Leaves – our most memorable posts from around the web. This week: True Love (doesn’t?) Wait, Mid-Year Moves in the UMC, Social Holiness, Iconoclasm, and the World’s Everyday Heroes. The Church United Methodist Pastor Christy Thomas shares five advantages to a mid-year move as a UM pastor, on…
The successful expansion of any movement is in direct proportion to its success in mobilizing and occupying its total membership in constant propagation of its beliefs. (The Strachan Theorem, from Richard Peace, Small Group Evangelism – A Training Program for Reaching Out with the Gospel) There are two streams of disciple making which could be…
Here are a few notable posts from several sources as we finish up another week of this new year. Thoughts about topics ranging from social principles in the UMC, unsafe labor conditions in Bangladesh, Ron Burgundy…and some thoughts to take us to Epiphany and beyond! Take a look. Tell us what you think. The Church Elizabeth Wellington reports on…
Many of our congregations marked the Baptism of Christ this Sunday. Whether your congregation engaged this event or not, you might like to do so now through a practice called Visio Divina. “While Lectio Divina is a method of praying with scripture, Visio Divina (Latin for “divine seeing”) is a method for praying with images…
Part of my calling is to help churches and individuals equip disciples and connect faith to real life through Christian education ministries. The culture has changed: through technology, changing family structures, increasing diversity and many other factors, the society we grew up in is looking quite different, isn’t it? Not necessarily a bad thing, it…
A Meditation for the Fourth Week of Advent I was reading an Advent devotion this morning which sought to capture Mary’s emotions. Joseph was preparing to divorce her quietly because of her pregnancy. She felt alone, bearing a mysterious child in her womb, with only God’s promise to cling to. The final words of the reading encouraged…
Here are a few notable ponderances from the internet world this third week of Advent. Thoughts about topics including women in ministry, personhood, the Pope, contemporary art, and Advent blessing. May they enhance your waiting, resting, rejoicing, praying. The Church Jeremiah Gibbs shares 4 reasons why ordaining women is no longer an optional concept for the church,…
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14 I’m a big fan of seasons, and I’m wholeheartedly supportive of marking them in ways that bring remembrance, depth, and…
Lingering Leaves are our top picks from the blog and news sources we follow. Here are a few notable ponderances from this second week of Advent. May they enhance your waiting, resting, rejoicing, praying. The Church Pastor Kyle Childress compares Advent to his grandfather’s old pickup truck, with all the endurance needed to get where…
How does the church meet the expectations of the younger generation? When local congregations address this question, they usually discuss worship music or programming. I want to make a case for certain values held by our younger members and seekers that we, as their elders, would do well to recognize. Many, if not most, younger…