You need to read this article

My colleague at the United Methodist Reporter, the Rev. Don Haynes, has written an extremely important column.

His latest in the Reporter, entitled, "Call for GC special session is reality check," offers a lucid and articulate view on the issues likely to face a specially-called session of the General Conference in the coming months.

One of Don's paragraphs that particularly struck me goes as follows: "Whether we have a special session of General Conference or not, this is the time for a painful reality check. We can no longer copy the corporate culture of the 20th century; connectionalism can no longer mean an obsolete, hierarchical flow chart."

In casting a critical eye at the United Methodist Church's present organization, Don suggests needed changes in everything from guaranteed appointments to the mission of the publishing house, and from the size & role of the general boards and agencies to the prevailing anxiety over the pension fund.

But he's also not making cheap shots. Don's commentary is realistic, and it is respectful to the institutional arrangements that served the Church so well in the last century. He's just not willing to let inertia dictate the Church's future course.

Don writes quite self-consciously as a member of the Church's older generation. But he offers a fresh critique that provides a ray of sunlight into our current discussions on the Church's top-heavy bureaucracy on every level from local church to annual conference to general board.

I'm not anti-institutional, and you shouldn't be either. The Church is an institution, and it is a Christ-created institution. We need the Church to be a strong institution in order to give us a community where faith can be formed and discipleship can be developed.

And that's why Don's article is so important. He's asking the right questions - questions that can help us move strongly into the future. Go read the article. You'll be glad you did.

Calling all Hogs fans

I try to stay on topic in my blogging, but every once in awhile something random pops up that's too good not to post.

As those of you who know me personally can attest, I am a die-hard Arkansas Razorbacks fan. I let that show through here and there - like when I couldn't contain my excitement at the beginning of the 2009 season and when I highlighted Tight End D.J. Williams' stellar character.

And truth be told, living away from the great state of Arkansas for the past four years has only made me pine away for my homeland even more.

(I mean, did you know we are the only state in the union with an active diamond mine? And that Arkansas produces more rice than any other state, accounting for well over 40% of all rice production in the U.S.?? And that we've got the Hogs besides all that??? It's a great place to live.)

Anyway, Razorback fans everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief a few days ago when our highly talented QB, Ryan Mallett, decided to forgo the NFL draft and return to the U of A for another year. The Hogs would have had a good time lined up for next fall in any event, but the prospect of having Mallett around means a good season could potentially be a great one.

When I saw Mallett's decision announced on a blog co-owned by my childhood friend Adam Butler, I left a comment suggesting he should write a commentary on the Hogs' prospects for next season. He did, and the commentary is fantastic.

But wait ... let me give you a little background. At present, Adam is an upstanding attorney in the law firm of Butler & Green, P.A., in North Little Rock. But when we were raising Cain back in high school in our hometown of Paragould, Adam somehow found time to be a sports writer for a local newspaper called the Northeast Arkansas Tribune. (Did you know it's the only town named Paragould in the whole world?? Talk about awesome.) He was darn good at it, too. Adam went on to work for the sports information department at the University of Arkansas for several years while he was a student there, which only sharpened his insight into the world of sports.

So now go check out his commentary on Ryan Mallett and the Arkansas Razorbacks. It's funny and insightful, as well as even-handed. You won't find any better. If Adam ever gets tired of practicing law, maybe he can angle for Chris Low's job.

And Adam - thanks for taking up the challenge!

Sad news from UMCOR

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is now reporting that two mission leaders at the agency have died as a result of injuries sustained in the Haiti earthquake.

Early reports that Sam Dixon and Clint Rabb had been rescued and were safe were apparently premature. Both men were removed from the rubble of the Hotel Montana. But follow-up reports indicate that UMCOR head Sam Dixon had passed away before he could be pulled out of the collapsed hotel. And while Clint Rabb was successfully rescued and airlifted to Miami, he died from injuries sustained in the earthquake in a hospital there.

The UMCOR website has posted stories about the lives and ministries of both men. You can find the story on Sam Dixon here. The story on Clint Rabb is at this link.

The devastation in Haiti has been disheartening to watch on television and the Internet. Receiving word that two Methodist pastors have been killed brings the sense of loss home in a certain way. But the deaths of Dixon and Rabb should also serve as witnesses to the gospel. Both men gave their lives in service to Jesus Christ, and because of that their ministry will continue to echo throughout the Church as signs of the coming kingdom.

Additional links:
-- Online site to donate to UMCOR relief efforts in Haiti

-- NY Times story in the role of faith in sustaining Haitian earthquake survivors

-- Recent update by the NY Times on continuing rescue and relief efforts

Friday Miscellanies

Here are a few notes that might interest you. Consider it suggestions for weekend reading! I wanted to highlight a few articles that touch on important issues in faith and discipleship -

Steve Rankin, the university chaplain at Southern Methodist University, has a great article in the United Methodist Reporter looking at the doctrine of Christian perfection, character formation, and contemporary higher education. As Steve rightly points out, higher education that aims only at increasing the knowledge of students and does not nurture formation in moral virtues is both impoverished and un-Wesleyan.

Two articles on leadership have caught my eye recently. One is this interview with Stanley Hauerwas which is available from Faith & Leadership. Hauerwas comments on whether "leadership" can be understood as a theological category, and he also makes some interesting insights into the role of leadership in institutions and the role of institutions in leadership.

The other article on leadership comes from Covenant Discipleship Connection, where Steve Manskar connects Wesleyan leadership with the deep Wesleyan understanding of faith in Jesus Christ and the ongoing process of sanctification. Steve wants to invite folks into an ongoing conversation about the character of Wesleyan leadership, and he has started a new blog to facilitate that.

Finally, after a writing sabbatical of several months, I'm back in the pages of the United Methodist Reporter. My new column - available at this link - starts a series on the means of grace in Christian practice. This is the subject of my academic research at Duke Divinity School. So I'm excited about presenting some material related to it in my regular column. I believe - as John Wesley did - that our growth in holiness of heart & life is impossible apart from disciplined participation in the means of grace. And I'll be explaining that conviction column by column over the coming weeks.

Help for Haiti

The stories about Haiti's earthquake paint a dire picture of what the Haitian people are facing. Some accounts speculate that perhaps 100,000 people have lost their lives. As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti isn't well equipped to cope with the fallout from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck two days ago.

The most recent reports point out that, added to the challenge of finding survivors and getting food and water where it is needed, there is also the looming problem of untreated disease that could claim many more lives if proper nutrition and medical treatment are not available.

I traveled to Haiti on two different occasions about a decade ago to work with the Christian Mission of Pignon in the small town of Pignon on Haiti's north central plateau. The country I experienced was remarkably lacking in basic infrastructure. And with no resources to fall back on in times of emergency such as this, the suffering of Haiti's people will only be multiplied.

The United Methodist Church is gearing up to respond in anyway it can. I want to invite you to prayerfully consider making a contribution to the relief efforts in Haiti. The United Methodist Committee on Relief - or UMCOR - is already working to get needed supplies into the country. UMCOR has got a special advance fund set up to provide Haiti with immediate crisis relief. You can give an offering via UMCOR's online giving service at this link.

For anyone reading this post in the Durham, North Carolina, area, you should be aware that Epworth United Methodist Church has volunteered to serve as a clearing station for emergency relief supplies that will be sent to the MERCI station at Goldsboro this weekend. The specific supplies that are needed right now are related to triage care, so you'll need to contact the church to get that list before you start gathering donations. Epworth UMC is located at 4002 Hope Valley Road in Durham, and you can contact the church during the day by calling 919-489-6557. The church is asking that donations be brought either during normal business hours on Friday or during the morning on Sunday.

Other links:
-- Link to Haiti donation site for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)

-- Link to Haiti donation site for the American Red Cross

-- Listing of UMCOR stories on the Haiti earthquake

-- Listing of news stores and blog posts at the main UMC website

-- Op/ed article on the earthquake disaster by Tracy Kidder, the author of an excellent book on Dr. Paul Farmer's work in Haiti entitled, Mountains Beyond Mountains

-- Link to the homepage of Partners in Health, which is the organization probably doing the best healthcare work in Haiti. Provides a way to donate to earthquake relief through PIH on the site

Worth reading, part VI

I want to conclude this series of blog posts by recommending one more periodical in the Wesleyan/Methodist world. It is the Asbury Journal, which is the official publication of Asbury Theological Seminary.

The Asbury Journal is a biannual publication, which means it comes out two times per year (in April and October). Like some of the other academic periodicals I've recommended, the Asbury Journal is a peer-reviewed publication. That means all its articles have been read, critiqued, and approved by scholars. And that, in turn, means that it is going to offer solid content on topics in the Wesleyan and Methodist tradition. That's good news for you, the prospective reader!

Here's the description of the AJ offered on the journal's title page: "The Asbury Journal publishes scholarly essays and book reviews written from a Wesleyan perspective. The Journal's authors and audience reflect the global reality of the Christian church, the holistic nature of Wesleyan thought, and the importance of both theory and practice in addressing the current issues of the day. Authors include Wesleyan scholars, scholars of Wesleyaniusm/Methodism, and scholars writing on issues of theological and theological education importance."

My sense of reading articles from the AJ is that they are often aimed at the point of intersection between theory and practice. The above description mentions that emphasis, and what it means is that articles will often look at some aspect of Wesleyan theology or Methodist history with an eye to how it can inform current ecclesial practice. So in that sense, the AJ's articles have relevance for both the professor and the pastor, the seminary student and the church member.

The AJ is the successor journal to both the Asbury Seminarian and the Asbury Theological Journal. The latter title, in particular, was on the masthead until just a few years ago. So don't let that confuse you. From what I can see, the Asbury Journal is essentially the same publication and I imagine taking the word "theological" out of the title was simply to encourage the submission of articles beyond the realm of theology & doctrine (e.g., in history, various areas of practical theology, etc.).

I'll admit that the Asbury Journal is the one publication I've recommended in this blog series to which I do not personally subscribe. But that's mainly because the Duke Divinity School library subscribes to the AJ, and I can have access to its most recent issue anytime I like. It's an important periodical for our tradition, and I highly recommend it.

The subscription price for individuals is $20 per year, and you can find information for ordering a subscription at this link. So take advantage of it - then read, and enjoy!

Worth reading, part V

Another great periodical I want to highlight for reading in the Wesleyan & Methodist tradition is the publication of the Wesleyan Theological Society, an organization that I wrote about last year after attending its annual meeting in Anderson, Indiana.

The quarterly journal of the WTS is called the Wesleyan Theological Journal. Probably more than any periodical I've posted about in the past few days, The Wesleyan Theological Journal (or WTJ) represents a wide spectrum of folks who consider themselves Wesleyan.

What I mean by that is that its contributors and readers aren't just Methodists. In fact, probably the majority of them come from the Holiness tradition - a branch of Wesleyanism that includes the Church of the Nazarene, the Wesleyan Church, the Free Methodist Church, the Church of God (Anderson, IN), and the Salvation Army, among others.

There are quite a few United Methodists who are involved in the work of the WTJ as either contributors or subscribers as well (I'm one of them!). But it is also very refreshing to read the work being done by Wesleyan Christians in other denominational bodies (just like it is refreshing to interact with them at the annual WTS meeting in March).

The content of the Wesleyan Theological Journal is diverse. Its articles cover a great range of topics - across the sub-disciplines of systematic theology & doctrine, historical theology, ethics, practical theology, and even occasionally biblical hermeneutics. The unifying aspect of the journal is that all its articles supposedly connect with the Wesleyan tradition in some way (and that's largely true).

As with periodicals such as Methodist Review and Methodist History, the WTJ is essential reading for any serious student of the Wesleyan theology and/or Methodist doctrine. And just like the way that joining the Historical Society of the UMC will get you an Methodist History subscription, joining the Wesleyan Theological Society will get you a subscription to the WTJ. Plus, there's a discount for current students.

The Wesleyan tradition is rich with resources for theological reflection, as well as example and guidance for practical ministry. By 'joining in the conversation' through engaging with journals like the WTJ, we can both invigorate and extend that tradition.

So read ... and enjoy!

Worth reading, part IV

My last two posts featured periodicals in the Wesleyan & Methodist tradition that fall by and large on the scholarly or academic side. Today I want to highlight a more popular-level publication. The United Methodist Reporter, in my opinion, is the best news source available for current events and commentary related to the life of the United Methodist Church.

Okay, okay, first a disclosure. I am a columnist for the Reporter, where my articles appear bi-weekly. I did take a sabbatical from writing over much of the fall, but my columns will return to the pages of the Reporter later this month. Then again, the only reason I write for the Reporter is because I think it's a great publication!

The Reporter is both a traditional newspaper and an online news site. The newspaper is used by many annual conferences as its printed source of conference news. UMR Communications - the parent company - partners with annual conferences to tailor their own editions. So for instance, you might see the Memphis Conference Reporter if you live in that annual conference, featuring local news combined with stories related to the larger Methodist connection.

What this basically offers the Church is a journalistic organization dedicated to covering and reporting on the United Methodist connection, but one that is also independent and thus able to maintain the objectivity that comes along with being its own entity.

Along with news reporting, you'll find a great deal of special features in the pages of the Reporter. Each issue usually highlights a cutting edge ministry or important initiative going on somewhere in the Church. In the opinion section, I write an op/ed column, alongside other regular columnists like Don Haynes and Bishop Woodie White. You'll also see a lot of special contributors writing commentaries on various topics. And there are regular features on film, Christian music, and hymnody.

If your annual conference uses the Reporter and you'd like to subscribe, go through your conference office. If you want to subscribe to the national edition (this is the type of subscription I have, for instance), then go to this link.

As with my previous posts, I would urge you to think about a print subscription to support the ministry periodicals like the Reporter are carrying on. Even if you prefer to read stories online (which you can through the UM Portal, the Reporter's online presence), getting the print edition is a way to further the work of an important ministry that helps keep the connection, connected!

Worth reading, part III

The next periodical I'd like to highlight is a print-based journal entitled Methodist History. This journal - which I'll abbreviate as MH - is the official historical journal of the United Methodist Church and is published by the General Commission on Archives and History. As such, it is an important publication for articles covering the historical interpretation of Methodism.

I've been a subscriber of MH for several years, and I've always been impressed at the breadth of its subject matter. It's common to see articles in a given year that look at aspects of the life of John Wesley, the history of 18th-century Methodism in England, the development of Methodism in America in the 19th century, and any number of biographical studies of Methodist figures both well-known and obscure from the past 250 years.

MH is printed four times per year and has a discount rate for current students.

I'd highly encourage subscribing to MH for those who care about the history of Methodism and want to learn more about it. Like Methodist Review - which I surveyed in my last post - Methodist History is a peer-reviewed journal. But because it is an academic journal published by the church, MH also tries, to a significant extent, to publish articles that are relevant to more than just a narrow slice of academic historians.

MH is solely print-based, so subscribing will get four bound issues per year delivered to your mailbox. But while you're at it, I'd actually recommend joining the Historical Society of the United Methodist Church. A Historical Society membership is only $30 per year ($20 for students) and it gets you an MH subscription plus other benefits. (You can find out more information here.) I think that our participation in such organizations (and their publications) is key to the continued vitality of the Wesleyan tradition.

So sign up, read, and enjoy!

Worth reading, part II

Earlier this week I explained that I am going to spend the next few posts looking at a number of great resources - both in print and online - that specialize in the Wesleyan tradition and contemporary Methodism.

I want to point first to an interesting new online journal by the name of Methodist Review. I highlighted MR back in August in this post. MR is the successor to Quarterly Review, which was published for about 25 years by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the UMC as a journal of theological resources for ministry.

Basically, that meant that its articles tried to bridge the gap between the academy and the church. Its authors included scholars as well as pastors and laity within the church. And its articles represented a wide variety of topics in theology and ministry. By the way, the entire QR archive is available for free online at this link.

I'm excited about Methodist Review for a number of reasons. First, it fills a need that was created by the demise of QR after it ceased publication five years ago. We need a journal that is committed to publishing broadly in the area of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, particularly around issues of practical theology and ministry that find purchase in both academy and church.

Second, MR is free! All that is required is a quick and easy online registration. After that, subscribers have access to all of MR's content, which can be read from your computer or printed out in pdf format.

Third, MR is a "peer-reviewed" journal, which means that submissions are read and judged in a blind review process to determine suitability and fitness for publication. So while MR, as a journal, wants to fit a niche not occupied by most scholarly journals, it is committed to maintaining a high level of quality in the articles it accepts because of the peer-review process. That also means it can serve as an outlet for publication for those of us who write essay-length works in Wesleyan theology or Methodist history - both because it helps to distribute our ideas to an audience and because it can help in securing teaching positions and tenure status.

Fourth and finally, as an online journal, MR is at the front end of a trend in academic publishing in general, which is moving away from expensive print formats and going to online publishing. Some people see that as lamentable, and it may well be. But academic journals are expensive to print and have to rely on notoriously small subscriber bases. So going online is really about developing a model that is sustainable for the future. In that sense, MR is helping to give shape in an area of academic publishing that, no doubt, many other journals will be moving into in the coming years.

One reason I started with Methodist Review in this blog series is that I think it could be of significant interest to a wide variety of committed Wesleyan Christians. Look, for instance, at the table of contents for Volume 1, which was published last year. The articles range from a consideration of the nature of Wesleyan theology, to a retrospective look at the UMC's first 40 years, to an analysis of certain aspects of John Wesley's thought.

Those are all topics with relevance both to academic theological reflection and grounded Christian practice!

And as an added bonus related to MR's online format, I was glad to find out that it is not limited either in page length or publishing date. That means it can feature articles both longer and shorter than that which would be standard in a print-based journal. And articles can also be added to a given volume throughout the year by simply continuing with sequential pagination. Those two innovations, in and of themselves, show immediate benefits to having a specifically online journal in the world of Wesleyan theology and Methodist history.

So read and enjoy!

Worth reading, part I

I'd like to spend a few posts pointing my readers to excellent resources for reading in the Wesleyan & Methodist tradition. Here's why:

-- While there are a lot of good Methodist-related blogs these days (see Shane Raynor's Wesley Report for a regular rundown of solid content), it's important to read deeper than what you can get in a blog post. Christians identify with a particular tradition because of the understanding that it offers of the Christian faith. The Wesleyan tradition, I believe, offers a compelling account of certain key parts of the Christian life: the doctrine of salvation; the understanding of grace; the nature and work of the Holy Spirit; the evangelistic calling of Christian ministry; the nature of sanctification; and the importance of participation in the means of grace. Learning to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ within such a tradition means immersing oneself in that tradition's resources.

-- I often get requests about where to go to find information on this or that topic. While you can and should look for guidance on specific topics when they arise, I think a better way to come to a mature understanding of Wesleyan theology and Methodist history is to read regularly out of the best resources available. That will often come through new books that are written by pastors and theologians in the Wesleyan tradition. But it can also come through regularly engaging top periodicals and journals.

-- There are good resources available to us on both an academic and popular level - and I'll be recommending resources from both categories. Increasingly, these resources are available in both print and online editions. I have no doubt that most (if not all) will eventually be available primarily in online formats. The cost of printing and distribution is simply so high that it is driving print-based publications out of business. (And the move for academic journals, which have very small circulations, to go online has already started.) But the problem is that nobody has figured out how to make money with web-based publishing yet - and after all, making money is essential if a publication is going to survive. So in the resources I am going to recommend, I'm going to advocate not just free online reading, but actual subscriptions. That may sound a bit controversial, but I think it's important. If we want these publications to keep on going, we need to support them as they continue to evolve and develop publishing models that are sustainable for the future. For the sake of full disclosure, I'll let you know the ones for which I have subscriptions myself.

-- Many of us see the potential for revival of the Wesleyan tradition these days. In fact, in some ways a revival has been going on since the development of modern critical Wesley Studies in the 1960s. But for that revival to have a wide impact, it needs to be engaged by a breadth of interested laity, committed pastors, and dedicated scholars. So I'm going to be an advocate for that, here and in the posts to come.

Questions? Comments? I hope you'll stay tuned.

Renewing the Covenant

Happy 2010!

The coming of a new year is an appropriate time to take stock of our lives and think about how we want to live and act in better ways over the next 12 months.

People often call this process "New Year's Resolutions." I've got an alternative, if you'd like one. It is a way to think about your resolutions as aspects of your Christian discipleship. And that might just make you think about them more deeply after the hog jowl and black eyed peas have been cleared away.

In 1755, John Wesley came to believe that gathering a congregation together for a "Covenant Renewal Service" was, in his words, a "means of increasing serious religion." He reports in his Journal for August 6, 1755, that he spoke to a congregation about this practice, "which had been frequently practised by our forefathers and attended with eminent blessing: namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul."

A few days later, he led the congregation in just such a service. He records on August 11th,

"Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever."

Services of Covenant Renewal are seeing something of a renaissance amongst Wesleyan Christians during our time. Just this week, Amy Forbus of the United Methodist Reporter has an excellent story looking at contemporary uses of Covenant Renewal Services in both Britain and America.

The idea behind the Covenant Renewal is not that you are establishing something new with God on your own initiative. It is instead a renewal of your baptismal covenant, made within the congregation of the faithful. And in that sense, it is a means of grace, which can open us up to the renewing and empowering work of the Holy Spirit.

If you are interested in investigating the Covenant Renewal Service, start by checking out the Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition on p. 607 of the United Methodist Hymnal. The full service is found in the United Methodist Book of Worship, pp. 288-294, which provides an order of worship for the Covenant Renewal.

Pastors could think about using this service on the first Sunday of the new year, or (as I will be doing) as a way to orient Baptism of the Lord Sunday on January 10th. If you are a layperson who thinks this could be an effective service of worship for your congregation, point your pastor to this blog post and ask him or her if it could be a part of your church's worship in the new year.