General

Church seems as if it would be the last place where child abuse can occur, but it happens more often than we might think. About 30% of child abuse cases involve religious organizations, and 90% of children know their abuser. To minimize the risk of inappropriate interactions with youth, as well as unfounded accusations of

General Conference concluded with some important business: the adoption of the budget and the deploying of bishops world-wide. Churches on the African continent will gain two bishops, while the number of bishops in the US, currently 39 and intended to be 46, will be 32. This means some bishops will oversee two episcopal areas, as

“Get out of the silos we have created and break down the walls we have built,” she said. “Put behind the false narratives and the lies that have trapped us into hurtful debates and theological discourses. “Take hold of the new things that God is doing in our lives and in the continuing history of

Folks, today was a lot. We spent a lot of time today debating the pension fund, the last regionalization petition, and a motion intended to save us time that took way too much time to decide on. A return plan for churches that disaffiliated but want to reunite with the UMC was established, along the

Leslie Kellenberger and I arrived at General Conference this afternoon. I was at the special called General Conference in 2019, and the spirit here is completely different. There’s a sense of hope and optimism in the air, a feeling that now is the time for renewal in our denomination, and that the future is bright

Read: John 20:1-18 Early on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. But when she got there, the stone was rolled away. This is how joy found Mary: confused and alone, weeping and afraid, squinting into the predawn darkness and the rock-hewn tomb. It wasn’t long until joy

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified [Jesus]. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would