Moral leadership, social change, and the common good
I was a stranger and you welcomed me —Jesus Jesus was a migrant. Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with their infant son to escape political persecution. Similar stories happen today. Families with boys named Jesús flee poverty, war, and persecution to find sanctuary across national borders. What does our faith say about this? Politics … Read more
Bearing witness is not about immediately trying to fix things. It is not another version of the white savior complex. Rather, bearing witness involves attentive presence and deep listening by those with relatively greater social power. When we talk about peace with justice, we cannot skip immediately to the comfort of peace. The path to … Read more
February 10, 2021. Grandview United Methodist Church announced final plans to disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church today. With a 90% affirmative vote by the congregation’s membership, the church leadership celebrated its anticipated new beginning through a 30 minute worship service livestreamed. Grandview Church Lancaster will become an independent congregation and launch a new denomination, … Read more
Host Jennifer Farmer writes: As we celebrate Black History Month, I want to invite you to our February 11 Faith Talks podcast at 2:00 p.m. ET when’ll interview: Darryl W. Stephens, author of UMW’s 2021 Spiritual Growth study book, Bearing Witness in the Kin-dom: Living into the Church’s Moral Witness through Radical Discipleship The Rev. … Read more
Bearing Witness in the Kin-dom: Living Into the Church’s Moral Witness through Radical Discipleship by Darryl W. Stephens 2021 Spiritual Growth Mission Study In Jesus’ own words, he came to bring good news to the poor, release the captives, restore sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free. What is the responsibility … Read more
Newly awarded grant! Lancaster Theological Seminary faculty will study the effects of trauma on learning and develop ways to better teach students who have experienced trauma in their lives. The graduate school of theology has received a one-year $5,000 grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion for this project. … Read more
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24 United Methodist Deacons are at it again, stirring the waters of justice. In the second in a series of workshops on the theme “Becoming an Antiracist Community,” the Orders of Deacons of the Peninsula-Delaware and Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conferences dove … Read more
Faith seeking understanding must not be confined to scholars seeking an audience. If we desire to transcend the “fantastic hegemonic imagination” of racism, as described by Emilie Townes, we cannot proceed alone, either as scholars or as a group of scholars. We must expand the conversation of the feminist study of religion beyond the academy. … Read more
The term “bivocational ministry” connotes different things to different people. For persons in non-white or immigrant communities, it may be the usual way ministry is done. For persons in white-majority settings, it may indicate falling short of a goal, namely, the model of a full-time pastorate. For others, it may represent the cutting edge of … Read more
Since the 1970s, North American mainline denominations have monitored and measured the markers of congregational vitality in an effort to halt if not reverse denominational decline. The Vital Congregations Initiative of The United Methodist Church (UMC) serves as an illustration of the metrics of vitality, exposing the limitations of a quantitative approach to evangelism and … Read more