A Modest Proposal: The Minimum Standards in the Texas Conference
My friend Jeremy Smith, whose blog Hacking Christianity I’ve followed for years, posted yesterday about my conference’s Proposed Minimum Standards for Entering Candidates. As I have a little bit of knowledge about this, I thought I would offer some clarifications and challenges to what he has written. If you are new to my blog, welcome! … Read more
In Company
On the wall of my study hangs a poster-sized picture of my confirmation class. It’s a game for my church members to come in & try to find sixth-grade-Josh. Not a hard game, actually. I keep it even though I can’t remember everyone’s name—it was a big class, and not everyone was a regular at … Read more
On the Security of Appointment, the Judicial Council, & Being Clergy
I’m a lifelong United Methodist, an elder in my 8th year of service, and the new chair of my Conference Board of Ordained Ministry’s Conference Relations Committee. I spent a few days last week with other bright, passionate, warm, and capable conference BOM leaders at a training sponsored by GBHEM in Dallas where not a … Read more
Church Draft Roundup
Well, the books are closed on the Ecclesiastical Draft for 2010. My completed draft board looks like this: Rd 1: Ignatius of Loyola Rd 2: Gregory the Great Rd 3: Phoebe Palmer Rd 4: Julian of Norwich Rd 5: JRR Tolkien Rd 6: Janani Luwum Rd 7: the Alexandrian Washerwoman I’m exceedingly pleased with the … Read more
Church Draft 2010
I’m pleased to be participating in the 2010 Ecclesiastical Draft — Round 2 just wrapped up with some sleeper picks, and it’ll be interesting how Rounds 3-7 play out. This is the brainchild of Drew Ludwig, who has put together a terrific NFL-style marathon! So far I’ve picked 2 significant historical figures in church history: … Read more
Discipleship, Leadership, and Community
For those of you who have read my blog somewhat regularly over the past year, you know that one of the questions I have is about how communities of faith grow both excellent leadership and provide a context for high-capacity Christian discipleship to flourish. One of the metaphors I’ve been using is that of a … Read more
Where Jesus is always the Light
Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus was always visible in our churches? Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus always illuminated our lives and communities?
Chess, Dysfunction, and Misfits
Pity the child who has ambition Knows what he wants to do Knows that he’ll never fit the system Others expect him to Chess is perhaps one of my favorite musicals. A product of the 1980s, with a libretto by award-winner Tim Rice & music from Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus (two members of ABBA), … Read more
Twitter and Mission Fields
In “The Goal of Twitter’s New Homepage?” the social media gurus at Mashable suggest that Twitter is expanding their horizons: rather than being a network all about you, what you’re doing, what your friends are doing, and what BTW, my standard defense of Twitter is that it is a place to engage real people and … Read more
