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I am honored to be one of the presenters for Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness, Oct 22, 2023, at James Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster. Our topic is “Liberating the Politics of Jesus.” Please join us! https://lancasterinterchurchpeacewitness.org/ When politics is reduced to statecraft and peace to the absence of war, we miss the radical implications of … Read more

Diakonia is a form of Christian motivated social service. It is originally modeled on Jesus’s insistence on serving his disciples (Luke 22:26–27) and its expressions in Acts and the early church. Today, diakonia is focused not only on serving others but also advocating for others, empowering them, and joining them in solidarity to build participatory … Read more

What is the fasted growing segment of North American Christianity? So many congregations have lost membership over the past twenty years, this question may surprise you. Faith Communities Today, “Twenty Years of Congregational Change: The 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview” (Hartford, CT: Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2021), https://faithcommunitiestoday.org/fact-2020-survey/, 11. If you are wondering if … Read more

Diakonia is essential to the church’s mission and ministry in North America. Such is the premise of “Revitalizing the Church through Diaconal Studies in North American Theological Education,” a research project of Warburg Theological Seminary, which recently received a grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation for this work. The four-person leadership … Read more

Do mainline churches find traditional seminary education an obstacle to thriving? “As churches shrink and pastors retire, creative workarounds are redefining ministry,” reported Elizabeth E. Evans recently in Religion News Service. A workaround, by definition, is an alternate path used when the main path is not longer serviceable. Workarounds are required when existing structures no … Read more

During these summer months, I have been teaching and learning about the diaconate of all believers at Otterbein UMC, Lancaster, PA. We started by sharing how each of us volunteers in service in the community. Then, we asked, Where is God in these relationships? Listen to our podcast about “Diakonia, how and why we serve … Read more

Today’s post is by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Frank, retired, University Professor and Associate Dean of Continuing Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Wake Forest University. His publications include Polity, Practice, and the Mission of The United Methodist Church (2006) and The Soul of the Congregation (2000). Sometimes it seems like Christians are the … Read more

Today’s post is written by the Rev. Amy Banka, pastor of Hopewell Church, Downington, PA. Pastor Amy delivered this speech at the conclusion of the Eastern Pennsylvania annual conference, on May 20, 2023. The conference theme was “possibility.” The affiliation and change to which she refers is a bishop-led, “strategic direction” in which the EPA … Read more

“Bivocational and Beyond offers an insightful and solidly researched entrée into the strange new landscape of part-time and bivocational ministry, not as an indicator of failure in the metrics of numbers and money, but as a rich, new possibility for calling forth Christ’s people in God’s mission.” Ross Bartlett, Reading Religion, April 2023 “an ambitious, informative resource … Read more

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. In this day and age of #MeToo and #ChurchToo, churches are on the front lines. Assault victims sometimes confide in clergy and other church leaders when they feel there is nowhere else to turn. Churches are also places of violation. Yesterday, yet another report of decades of abuse and … Read more