PlainSpoken

Lonnie Brooks is the first reserve lay delegate to the upcoming General Conference, representing the Alaska United Methodist Conference. In February, he published an op ed in UMNews, which projected a hostile takeover by progressives within The United Methodist Church in the coming years as traditionalists move to the periphery of denominational life. He has presented a number of legislative sugge...

Andy contacted me to represent a house church he is leading in Austin, TX. The man is quite well-read on Wesleyan doctrine and history. If you have ever wondered at the virtues of a less formal structure for communal faith, you may enjoy thinking through these things with us a bit. If you want to contact Andy with any questions about house churches, you can reach him at: andyhogue@ymail.com Links...

Rev. Matthew Sichel is an Ordained Deacon in the Northeast TCAT of the Global Methodist Church. He disaffiliated from the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church recently and is actively involved in leading the conversation around how Wesleyanism needs to continue forward as a distinct religious tradition in the future. As a deacon, he serves to bridge the world of th...

The Wespath Clergy Wellbeing Study Survey was published last week. It raised a number of concerns around the quality of life for United Methodist pastors. I covered the first four areas of analysis, but I neglected the fifth: finances. In this episode, I try to establish a healthy relationship around money to be reflected in the lives, not just of pastors, but also of all believers, and of the com...

Rev. Guillem Correa is the Presiding Elder over 21 volunteer clergy in Spain. He and his colleagues are mobilized to evangelize to the Spanish and broader European context. Rev. Correa is passionate and authentically Wesleyan in his framework. Take some time to learn about his context, his evangelistic approach, and how it is that you can pray for the new GMC churches in Spain. Presentation on Spa...

Following in the footsteps of First Church OKC, Church of the Servant appealed to a worldly court for justice when the Oklahoma Annual Conference seemingly worked against the interests of the local church community. This last week, a state judge, in fact the same one who ruled on the First Church case, also ruled in favor of Church of the Servant. This episode covers the broader story of churches...

Ever since the President of the Council of Bishops, Tom Bickerton, pronounced that churches outside of America cannot disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church, local churches around the globe have known that freedom would not be an option. However, leadership from a majority of the churches in Kenya-Ethiopia Annual Conference became clear that their latest conference session would mark a cess...

After what has happened to Fifth Avenue, Struthers, and First Church OKC, we are starting to see a pattern. Valuable real estate with humble attendance are targeted by increasingly impoverished annual conference leadership within The United Methodist Church. As they speak platitudes about renewal and growth, they simultaneously disenfranchise local church communities to absorb them and profit off...

Rev. Max Edwards is the International General Superintendent of the Evangelical Methodist Church, a denomination that broke away from The Methodist Church (predecessor to the UMC) in 1946. His denomination represents a distinct tradition that would surely be appealing to some leaving the UMC at this time. Take some time to get a feel for the ethos of the leadership and the ways in which they balan...

Part 2 of Jeffrey's Interview with Max Edwards of the Evangelical Methodist Church. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

New Wespath data just came out revealing several very concerning trends in the mental, spiritual, and physical health of United Methodist Clergy. We go through some of the study while also looking at other social data and how it is that what we believe correlates with our health. In this one we come up against a number of things that cause most folks to take offense. This is a harsh critique of ou...

Dr. David F. Watson is the Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary. He is one of a few authors of the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline for the Global Methodist Church. He also sits on the Transitional Leadership Council (TLC) for the Global Methodist Church, which is currently its primary coordinating body. Dr. Watson is well established as an autho...

Pastor Boniface Mukii is navigating the waters of building Methodism in Kenya. In this interview, he takes the time to explain the dynamics at play in the capitol city area, Nairobi, where he serves as a police officer. It turns out there are some pressures moving him and many others to the Global Methodist Church before the UMC's General Conference next year. If you have been tracking develop...

Part 2 of Jeffrey's interview with Lloyd Lunceford. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Lloyd Lunceford, Esq has been working in church disaffiliation law in the US for decades. Now in semi-retirement, he took the time to visit with me and help me to understand some of the basics of this area of law that most people don't understand. If you and your church have been interested to learn more about litigation against hostile conference entities, this will almost certainly be helpfu...

Adam Hamilton pastors the largest church in The United Methodist Church, Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS. He has spoken several times on the floor of General Conference, and he has filmed segments representing the denomination's position on theological issues. He is very much in the mainstream with respect to the average UM pastor's theology. In this segment, I sit down with TJ a...

As the church in America continues to wonder at the sudden and rapid decline of church involvement, different theories and explanations are being put forth. In this segment, I go through a piece written by Jake Meador, published in The Atlantic (see link below), it is posited that American public life has culturally excluded the distinctly Christian way of life. I go through a couple tweets and th...

Yesterday I posted a comparative analysis of the FAQ submitted by the Oklahoma Conference of the UMC and the answer First Church OKC issued. It was okay. What I should've done is what I did today, which was walk through the text of Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons' ruling pertaining to the whole trial. She was much better than I have been at being simultaneously insightful and amusing. So in th...

Affairs with First (UM) Church of Oklahoma City have resulted in an emergency specially called conference of the Oklahoma Annual Conference. The Conference is bristling in response to a ruling from a state judge, which mandated that the hold such a meeting to mirror the same dynamics of the April conference. This means they had to invite back delegates from 55 churches who had already left the con...

Recently a United Methodist Church in Birmingham Alabama decided to use more "inclusive" language when saying the Lords Prayer. When confronted by a member of another church, the pastor (Stephanie York-Arnold), explained why they chose to do so, and later produced a video to explain to everyone. In this video we examine that explanation and breakdown the issues from a conservative perspect...

In just over a year the GMC has grown to over 3100 congregations and 3400 clergy. A recent article by Rev. Keith Boyette examines this growth and the hopes for the GMC, in this video Jeffrey breaks down the article and gives his own reflections on the development within the Global Methodist Church. Show Notes: Watch Us Grow Article: https://globalmethodist.org/watch-us-grow/ Interview With Jeff Po...

Mississippi and many other UMC annual conferences are increasingly using Paragraph 2549.3.b to supplement or replace Paragraph 2553. Some, including Mississippi, are so bold as to say that they will use it to extend the ability of local churches to disaffiliate. In this segment, I cover the intersection points I'm aware of and speak to the likelihood that this is a promise that can be kept, sp...

Bishop Forrest Stith published a lengthy article leveling the charge of systemic racism against those who have disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church. What is to be said about such accusations? Is there any merit in the accusation? I submit that Stith presents false information to promote racial hatred and separation, that the institution of the UMC might continue to benefit from black peo...

Part 3, the final part, of our coverage of the Easter Pennsylvania Annual Conference that happened earlier this year. We discuss a few more clips of the issues that happened in this contentious meeting and hope it helps us reflect on how those who have left the UMC should act in their new denominations. Show Notes: Day Three Live Stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/iIJ6gi-mWaI?feature=share Joe D...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed in 1988 as the largest Lutheran denomination in the US and one of our nation's mainline denominations. It suffered a split, similar to the UMC, in response to the theological drift that they experienced before the Methodists. In this conversation, Rev. Wheeler details how it is that he experienced the time of theological corruption and deca...