General Conference 2024 Daily Updates

April 26, 2024.Reading time 54 minutes.

I’m going to update this blog post each day during the 2024 General Conference, as a way of keeping folks informed, and offering my own view as to what’s happening. Some quick background, before we get started…Feel free to scroll past this lenthy opening part, if you feel you already know enough about United Methodism.But […]

An Honest Accounting of “Missing” African Delegates

April 24, 2024.Reading time 10 minutes.

There are as many as 100 International Delegates not at United Methodist General Conference this year, many of whom are from Africa. This has caused many questions. Allegations have been made that General Conference failed to communicate with them quickly, or the American government failed to issue visas quickly. Calls have been made to investigate. […]

Table Rules (“Crowded Table,” Highwomen Cover)

April 23, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

General Conference starts today, and I am thinking about this song and what might happen these next few weeks. I don’t think it’s an accident that I was introduced to this song by clergywomen colleagues. We were all sitting around a fire pit on a clergy retreat two years ago (I had my guitar…) when several […]

Long, Tortured Thoughts About the Long Torturned Journey to General Conference 2024

April 22, 2024.Reading time 37 minutes.

This week, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church will begin in Charlotte, North Carolina. This will be the first “regular” General Conference since 2016. I thought I would put down a few thoughts ahead of this potentially momentous week for the new United Methodist Church. These will be a combination of personal reflections […]

A Deeper Sense of “Faith”

April 6, 2024.Reading time 16 minutes.

Increasingly, I am convinced the opposite of “faith” is not “doubt,” but “fear.” This is because the deepest level of “faith” is not “belief,” but “trust;” and the opposite of “trust/faith” is “fear/anxiety.” Instead of faith’s opposite, doubt is a part of the journey of faith. Skepticism is, or should be, embraced as how we […]

Driving Gratitude

November 23, 2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

On this Thanksgiving morning, I’m posting a picture that shows you what I see every day as I am driving home from North Oak Cliff. This pic from the great Justin Terveen shows a much more swollen river than usual…I mostly post it for how the buildings look…because that’s how it looks, every night… I […]

“Drag Bunch” and what REALLY “Grooms” Our Children

April 14, 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

Why are we not asking about the “grooming,” —the disturbing messages of sexually gendered roles— these shows reinforce for humans of all orientations….for little girls, for little boys, for mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters?

Cody McMahan

January 30, 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

Cody McMahan died Saturday. I had the privilege of knowing Cody for perhaps 15-20 years….I believe I’ve lost count. I believe I first met him when Cody was still a member of Greenland Hills UMC. He later joined Northaven, and still later started dating and eventually married Mike House. One of the high honors of […]

I am going down with the ship.

June 25, 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

“I am going down with the ship.” I can’t speak for everyone. I can only speak for me. I can’t fault any other choice anyone else might make.All I am saying is: If Texas goes down, I’m going down with it.To the bitter end. I’m here to stay and I’m ready to fight. Ever since […]

White American Christianity’s Tribal Flaw

June 17, 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

“Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.”— John 16:2 “When your icon of the enemy is completeyou will be able to kill without guilt,slaughter without shame.The thing you destroy will have becomemerely an enemy of God, an impedimentto the sacred […]