Touche, mon pasteur

This is one of the most fascinating blog posts I've read in awhile, even if I am one of the butts of the joke. I knew nothing of Jeremy Smith's relatively new blog until John the Methodist pointed me to it, but you can bet I'll be checking it out in the future.

I thought about comparing the mission statements of the various UM seminaries when I wrote that last post about Claremont. Well Jeremy actually did it, and in a much funnier way than I ever could have pulled off. Asbury Theological Seminary as the mushiest, least-holy seminary of the bunch? Who knew?

New and Improved Methoblog

While I was in Rome, Jay Voorhees & Co. launched the new and improved version of the Methoblog. It's really sharp. Check it out here.

The Methoblog has been online for a year or so, and it was originally intended to build on the important work that Shane Raynor (through his now defunct Wesley Blog) and John the Methodist (through the ever-popular Weekly Roundup, now managed by Allan Bevere) did in popularizing the Methoblogosphere.

The topics covered on the Methoblog are widely diverse and a broad range of topics related to church & faith. Of course, issues pertinent to United Methodists tend to get the most play.

Say it ain't so, Shane, say it ain't so

Fans of Wesley Blog know about Shane Raynor's hiatus from blogging this past summer. But we were all thrilled when he came back at the beginning of the fall with the intention of blogging once or twice a week. So the news over at Locusts and Honey today came as quite a shock. Read it and weep.

I was first introduced to Wesley Blog sometime in early 2005, but I really got familiar with it when Shane skewered me for writing a negative review of an Adam Hamilton book in the United Methodist Reporter, back in July of that year. (And I stand by my review, by the way. Adam Hamilton is an important leader in the UMC, and his Church of the Resurrection does some tremendous ministry. But Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic buys wholesale into the "business model" of church growth, which is highly problematic in a theological sense.)

Shane and I e-mailed back and forth after I defended myself on his blog, and from that interaction, I came up with the idea of doing a "Gen X Rising" column on the Methoblogosphere, along with a companion interview of Shane himself. That project was a real watershed event in the life of my column. Up until that time, most of the contacts I had made through "Gen X Rising" were not, ironically enough, with Gen X'ers. They were with the rank-and-file readers of the Reporter, who tend to be older than Generation X. But Shane linked to the column and interview on Wesley Blog, and that caused a lot of folks to drop me a line saying they had 'discovered' the column. Like the book review, that column and interview are still on the Reporter's archive.

Why am I telling you this? Because Shane Raynor's influence on the community of Methodist blogs known as the Methoblogosphere has been huge. My own blog's existence is at least partly due to Shane and the Wesley Blog. The "Methodist Blogroll" which Shane created (and which is listed at the right-hand side of this webpage) has probably done more single-handedly to link up Methodist bloggers in cyberspace than all the individual efforts of bloggers combined.

Shane's approach to blogging gave us all a model to follow, and I'll always be grateful for that. He never shied away from tough issues, and he always let you know where he stood. But he also treated people who held a different perspective from his with a lot of grace. That includes the post about my book review, by the way. And it was nice to see such an attitude of honesty combined with courtesy in the blogosphere - a place that is lacking in both, oftentimes.

So now Shane reports that his work in youth ministry has led him in new directions. Good for him. I know he must approach local church ministry with the same attitude that he approached blogging. And while I am sorry to hear that some cybersquatter grabbed the Wesley Blog domain name, I look forward to the time when he gets the blogging bug again and jumps back onto the scene with a new site. Shane, blessings on you in your work for the kingdom.

FYI, you can still see what Wesley Blog looked like by going to this auxiliary site.

Methobloggers, unite!

I am new to the Methoblog community, but I'm learning as fast as I can. A friend of mine in my doctoral program was at the recent UMerging Colloquy at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, and he remarked that he saw a lot of the prominent Methobloggers. They are using actual conferences and gatherings to meet in ways a little more physical than cyberspace allows.

Gavin Richardson is putting together one such gathering at the upcoming Congress on Evangelism in January of '07 at Myrtle Beach. I'd love to attend. If you want to find out a little bit about what they are planning (and maybe let Gavin know you are interested), check out the announcement he posted.

Gen X Connection

A friend turned me on to a new blog today, called Endangered Species: Church. It's written by a Gen X clergywoman named Erika Gara. Good stuff. I always like to see another X'er engaging the generation/church/pastor combo.

A blogging District Superintendent??

Who says there's nothing new under the sun?

The name of the D.S. is Susan Cox-Johnson, and she is in the Missouri Conference. She's apparently really interested in emergent church conversations. Check out her blog.

A friend at the United Methodist Reporter gave me the heads up on this. The good folks over at the Reporter have added Susan's blog to their featured blogger page at the UM Portal site.

Gen-X Rising Blog Debut

Hello, cyberworld! This is my first official post on this blog, so let me offer a little background...

For the past couple of years, I've been writing a column for The United Methodist Reporter, called "Gen X Rising." It looks at issues concerning the church and the Christian faith from the perspective of a Gen-X'er. Along the way, a couple of people suggested that I should expand my writing into the blogosphere (specifically into that happy corner of cyberspace known as the Methoblog community). I've wanted to do that for sometime, but it took awhile to get going.

I am a United Methodist pastor who has been serving appointments in campus ministry and the local church for the past five years. I left my appointment in June to return to school, and I've really missed the preaching and teaching I did on a weekly basis. So starting the blog just makes sense. I'm not planning on preaching in my posts : ), but I will be sharing my views on issues that I think are important to people of faith in Generation X. Because I'm a Methodist pastor, a lot of this will probably center on the UMC. But I won't limit what I write to Methodist topics.

I'll continue writing my column for the Reporter as well. Here's my most recent column online. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog or my column, feel free to post a comment or e-mail me (andrew@mandatum.org).

Enjoy the blog!