PlainSpoken

First Methodist Church of Oklahoma City has filed suit against the Oklahoma Annual Conference, moving to protect their assets from any hostile takeover situation from the conference. They saw their day in court, and a state judge has ruled in favor of the local church, mandating that the conference comply with very strict and unprecedented stipulations. This segment details what was said in these...

This is the second part of a series we are doing, going through the three days that the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference met. This segment covers Day 2, during which Bishop Schol strong-armed two initiatives through the body. There are a few bold people in this conference who tried to take the bishop to task! Even so, he seems to have carried the day. Show Notes: Part 1: https://youtu.be/cqU...

Rev. Beth Caulfield has been a leader in the Wesleyan Covenant Association and the Global Methodist Church, even helping to draft a portion of the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline. She has published a whistleblower’s account of the inner working and dynamics of The United Methodist Church in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. She is programmatically gifted and finds herself eng...

Part 2 of the interview with Ryan Turnipseed and the discussion of the progressive infiltration of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The United Methodist Church is far from the only religious institution that wokism has infiltrated. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), popularly known as the conservative alternative to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American (ELCA), is dealing with similar struggles with the ascendant intolerant orthodoxy of progressivism. In this episode, Ryan Turnipseed, a lay member of the LCMS in...

Rev. John Miles led his church through the disaffiliation process faithfully, only to be shut down by the Arkansas Annual Conference at the end of 2022. At that point, he and local leadership entered into litigation with the conference. A dozen judges recused themselves from the case before it could finally proceed. Although the judge initially showed some favor to the congregation, he recently ru...

Rev. Dr. Nathan Doyle is a pastor at Venture Church in Boardman, Ohio. He is ordained clergy within the Primitive Methodist Church, which has a distinct history and culture going back to the time of the Methodist Revival in Great Britain. Nathan had the patience to help me to understand the distinctive characteristics of his denomination. I hope you enjoy him as much as I did! Website For The Prim...

The Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference held their annual gathering recently and it, like many other conferences within the United Methodist Church, had its fair share of issues. From the Bishop pushing past opposition to a full on physical altercation between attendees, the splintering of the United Methodist Church was on full display. We go over a few of the instances in part of this install...

Garry Ingraham is the Executive Director of Transforming Congregations and the Director of the Love & Truth Network. He and his wife have both been powerfully transformed by the Holy Spirit, coming out of sexual sin into the fulness of Christ. Garry is passionate about local churches being places of authentic transformation for sinners. He is spending his life equipping churches to do such min...

Last week, footage of a new creed was shared with the Internet, in which a congregation confesses a gospel outside of the one entrusted to the saints. More concerning in this worship service was the children's sermon, which used a non-biblical Jesus to justify a way of life that stands against authentic Christianity. This segment covers both portions, talking a bit about the nature of this fai...

Despite how hyperbolic this topic seems, there are some serious ways in which The United Methodist Church reveals a low view of nonAmerican people. The institution is unavoidably ethnocentric, to the marginalization of the majority world church. A lot of folks are so close to it that they cannot see it. This is my attempt to show as clearly as I can how flawed and sinful the whole structure is by...

Rev. Mao Her was the first Hmong clergy in The United Methodist Church. Though she served in a very liberal annual conference (Wisconsin), she did not feel the dysfunction of the UMC until the 2019 General Conference. It was at that time that she signed on with the Wesleyan Covenant Association, now serving as the Coordinator for her area. She has led her church through the disaffiliation process...

Each annual conference in the UMC is expected to oversee processes around the filing of charges against clergy who work against the doctrine and discipline of the denomination. There is a longstanding effort among progressive activists to use this system to simultaneously waste money and change the norms of the covenant body. I have covered a number of these attempts. This episode gives some histo...

Rev. Daniel Hixon is a recently-disaffiliated UMC pastor, currently independent, serving in Louisiana. He is one of a few people in the Methodist sphere who has done well on YouTube. In this segment, he and I have a good chat around why disaffiliation seemed the best option for us, hopes for the future of Methodism, and how it is that believers need to be ministering to our families while in the h...

First Church Oklahoma City is attempting to disaffiliate from the Oklahoma Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. While other churches in the conference have had few issues being able to leave, leadership has decided that First Church OKC is a different case. By implementing a "viability study", continuously missed deadlines, and lack of communication on the part of the conferen...

Forgive the corny reference in the title. But seriously, there was a great showdown at Cal-Pac Annual Conference a few days ago by those petitioning with clear conscience to renegotiate the disaffiliation agreement. The bishop's response was resoundingly clear and emblematic of the UMC institution as a whole. Take a few minutes to see excellent modeling of pastoral non-anxious presence, couple...

This segment deals with a church that has been on my heart for several months as they have faced several serious challenges, the likes of which American churches almost never have to deal with. Take some time to learn about Gwarimpa Abuja and their pastor, Rev. Absalom Nuhu. Rev. Nuhu was recently robbed by some thugs, losing not only his money, but also his phone and laptop. My hope is that we ca...

Disaffiliation is a fraught time and some annual conferences within The United Methodist Church have had more issues than most. With emotions running high, Vicar Derek Kubilus, decided to call down a "Holy Hex" upon the disaffiliation process rather than blessing those leaving the denomination. We take a look at the prayer, Bishop Tracy Malone's response, and Derek's apology. Show...

Episode 1 of this new series where we look into different Wesleyan denominations. Jeffrey was able to sit down with Jim Hancock of the Congregational Methodist Church to discuss his branch of Methodism and how it compares and contrasts with other Wesleyan groups. Website Of The Congregational Methodist Church: http://www.cm-church.org/home Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

A number of folks have been impacted by the conversation I've been hosting here on my podcast. People are regularly reaching out. I find some of these helpful springboards for thinking through things more robustly. If you're interested in hearing the reflections of those who are both pushing back and also affirming what they see here, then I hope you enjoy this. It deals with local church...

The Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church just held their annual conference meeting that last week. We go over some of the more surprising things that happened during the meeting and respond to them. Show Notes: https://www.bwcumc.org/news-and-views/for-bwc-its-all-about-love/ https://www.bwcumc.org/events/2023-annual-conference/agenda-annual-conference-2023/ https:...

What do United Methodists believe about Hell? Being a "Big Tent" denomination there are inherently going to be a wide range of thoughts on such a controversial subject. But how pervasive has a rejection of the historical belief become? In this video we look at what some of the clergy and those at the top of the denomination now teach and believe. The Compass Podcast: https://www.youtube.co...

The United Methodist denomination and Global Methodist Denominations are not the only Wesleyan denominations. In this new series we are going to begin to look at other groups around the world that share the Methodist heritage and beliefs. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

After 193 churches left the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church on May 7th, 2023 the board of trustees has now made it more difficult for the remaining churches in the conference to leave. On top of the already stringent requirements leveled against those wishing to leave, the conference has now implemented updated disaffiliation eligibility requirements that make it alm...

With every conference I report on, I get things wrong, or I don't emphasize some of the details as I should. So I always get helpful follow-up and corrections from viewers & listeners. I got a lot of good stuff for this conference, so I knew I needed to issue a new episode. This segment has a few details about other conferences, but I mostly just read through corrections pertaining to AWF,...