So much going on in life.  My calendar is constantly packed, the church calendar is even busier, and there is even more that I could be doing if I just wasn’t so tired and worn out.  But is busyness really the goal?  I sure hope not.  I think the goal is committed discipleship, yet at times that seems so easily lost.  All of our activity pushes us onward with direction-less frenzy until finally individuals and families are driven away from the church searching for sabbath.  Oh the irony.   [Read more →]

After day one of the new ministry boot camp in Dallas I have a “to do list” that is half a page long, three pages of notes, and a swirling mind.  There are so many ideas coming at me I’ve spent the last several hours processing.  I’ll leave some updates here on the blog and hope to start communication during the day on facebook.com/woodlawnyoungadults.  The purpose of the conference is to hear the best practices of starting new ministries.  Todays session was specifically geared to larger churches who are starting daughter churches, second campuses, or new ministries.  Things that stuck out was a conversation about DNA vs. fingerprints and how to build ownership in the project. [Read more →]

As you can see by our nearly month long hiatus Ashley and I have been insanely busy.  We had annual conference, found a job for Ashley, officiated a wedding in California, had family vacation in Colorado, said goodbye to all our friends in Illinois, moved to Kansas, and unpacked the huge amount of stuff we own.  It was a crazy month.  But this is a crazy month for a a lot of United Methodist.  Because this is the month that pastors take new appointments.  Within the United States the entire denomination has pastors taking new churches, moving into new homes, uprooting their families and taking on the task of building a life in a new place. [Read more →]

Hey everyone.  I wanted to point out some new features on the blog.  Check out our new colorful tag cloud on the left.  Isn’t it pretty.  Up above are 6 rotating pictures with the new Barlow-Thompson logo.  To your right are three new ways read our blog:  1. Sign up to get automatic emails of all our post.  2. Use the RSS feed and get the blog in your choice of readers.  3. Follow our twitter account and get links to the blog after every post.  All good options just one click away!

Ashley and I are heading out tomorrow morning for Kansas West Annual Conference.  Annual Conference is the gathering of clergy and lay leaders in the United Methodist Church.  At Annual Conference we talk about important thing like health care, church budget, and clergy compensation…kind of boring.  However, we also hope to talk about important things like church vision, special ministries, and the role of ordained and clergy people.  We’ll add some post through out the week to give you a heads up on all the tantalizing events.  If for some insane reason you really are interested follow it on twitter at #kswumc/@kswumc.

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A call to Love God and Love Neighbor

The word “diakonia” is one of the catchy words we throw around at seminary a lot. First of all, it is Greek, so it makes us think we sound smart (seminary people love to be pompous). Second,diakonia is translated asDeacon, a leadership role that many denominations have as a part of their church structure…in the United Methodist Church, it is an ordination order, the one I am called into. Finally, and most importantly, we us the word to describe the ways in which the church does service.

The word Diakonia means service. Not lowly, powerless, oppressive servanthood. But the kind of servanthood that recognizes the need for compassion, justice and lived out love in the world. The kind of service where the powerful and powerless work towards equity in relationship and resources. Sounds good, right? [Read more →]

I started a blog series long ago about my wishes for the UMC.  Unfortunately, the whole series only a whopping 1 post, but behold here is the second addition.  My second wish is that the evaluation and compensation of clergy would be overhauled.  It is a three part wish: First, I wish that individual congregations would no longer pay clergy directly, but would pay into a conference wide salary fund to pay clergy from the conference level.  This would allow for a more equitable spread of clergy talent among small and large congregations and wealthy and low income areas.  Second, I wish the amount of compensation for pastors would be decided on a merit based evaluation that did not only focus on church growth and reputation, but included the pastors commitment and willingness to work with their congregations and took into account the context of their ministry.  And finally, I wish that pastors who have repeatedly destroyed churches and neglected conference responsibilities would be put on probation and eventually removed from their role as a UMC clergy person…… [Read more →]

This is the first entry of a series Ashley and I have been talking about for the holiday season.  Instead of a wish list for Santa we have a wish list for the United Methodist Church.  These are our hopes, dreams, and hopefully what we are working to form in the UMC.  While this is my first entry, I am not doing them in order of importance, rather their order is more indicative of what is on my mind for that given day.  With that said here we go……

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