The Christian as Leader
Leadership, leadership, leadership. We hear this mantra all the time, especially in the church. In fact, these 3 words were tweeted by Bishop Scott Jones on the opening night of General Conference 2012 as he reflected on the most important factors in United Methodist renewal. Though acknowledged as crucial, we might profitably ask, “What kind … Read more
What’s a little conspiracy among friends? A Relevance LEAD wrap-up
Lots of folks blogged, tweeted, facebooked, instagrammed, and flickred (pinned, anyone?) their way through Relevance LEAD and Relevance X last weekend, so I won’t rehash every detail. I was fortunate to be on the inside a little; helping to coordinate the social media presence — PR on the cheap — and generally pitching in to … Read more
Relevance LEAD this week!
I’m doing something new at the end of this week. I’m going to a conference (well, that’s not new) in Las Vegas (well, I drove through on the Interstate once) called Relevance. (That. That’s the new thing!) Relevance LEAD follows the TED model — where current leaders in technology, entertainment, design, and more share brief … Read more
Adaptive Challenge?
During discussions about the future of the United Methodist Church, including the Call to Action and the Global Leadership Summit, there’s been much discussion of the “adaptive challenge” facing us. But official presentations go on to say that we know exactly how to meet that adaptive challenge. So here’s an alternative perspective of poetry, not … Read more
Envisioning Campus Ministry Anew
In yesterday’s post I talked about giving up our Babylon-like assumptions about how campus ministries might work, and focusing on what we might call the Israel model: a smaller community, dedicated to the highest ideals of faithfulness to God’s calling and mission. But this means quite a bit of adjustment about how we might go … Read more
What’s our story in campus ministry?
One of the best resources I’ve used so far in campus ministry is Sean Gladding’s The Story of God, the Story of Us which has just been published by IVP; I’ve used it 3 times in its manuscript form after Sean was kind enough to email it to some of us who asked after hearing … Read more
What are Campus Ministries?
I am not sure I’m even an average campus minister. To look at the statistics, Lamar’s Wesley Foundation isn’t doing great in my 5th year. Better than when I got here, sure: building gutted, zero program and students, poor relationship with the university and area churches, & a board of directors which was outdated and … Read more
A Funny Thing Happened…
…on the way to last night’s Astros game. Well, actually right before the game got started. Here’s how it all began. At the end of last season, the team was clearing out game-worn jerseys. Christie, knowing how much I wanted one, stopped into the store during a game, and found a batting practice jersey worn … Read more
Teach Me To Live…
An often-sung evening hymn is the post-Reformation English chorus that appears in our United Methodist Hymnal at # 682: “All praise to thee, my God, this night.” Of its many beautiful phrases that match the famous “Tallis Canon” tune (meant to be sung in a round, like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) my favorite is: … Read more
Discipleship and Attending Worship
One of the things that Mike Gaffney said this morning has really stuck with me. When asked, “How many college students attend worship” at his collegiate church-based ministries, he would respond, “I don’t know and I don’t care. The much better question is, ‘How many students are connected in relational way to a member of … Read more
