The Beta Vitality Committee had its first meeting with our coach, Reverend John Haller this past month. We spent our time talking about our first “module,” which was Spiritual Disciplines. This module was chosen for us but from now on, we will be choosing our own. Certainly one of the reasons this module was chosen […]
Over the last decade, I have enjoyed learning about soccer. When I was young there really weren’t opportunities to play soccer – I wish there had been. However, it is the one sport Kenneth loves and so I have been to a lot of soccer games. Now corner kicks and off sides are second nature […]
For the Beta Vitality Project the Task Force has been asked to collect a good deal of information to provide us with a better understanding of our Church. We have compiled it all to pass on to the Annual Conference, but I think it is important for you all to know too. Beta Vitality is […]
This past Sunday we had the pleasure of meeting our coach, Reverend John Haller who will be leading us through the Beta-Vitality process for the next two years. Reverend Haller is a retired pastor from the Texas Southwest Annual Conference, significantly a graduate of the University of Texas. He and his spouse moved to Bellingham […]
“This is the religion we long to see established in the world, religion of love and joy and peace, having its seat n the heart, in the inmost soul.” –John Wesley John Wesley believed in a Religion of the Heart. He was a learned man, son of a clergyman, a graduate of Oxford, but all […]
We took an initial step in the Beta-Vitality Project on Sunday, August 25 when we took a survey that will be processed by a company called Natural Church Development. Thank you all who took the time to ex the boxes. The next step is to meet our coach. If you don’t know what I’m talking […]
You’ve heard about it – the panic that has seized the Annual Conference and our whole denomination about losing members. Over the past decades we have slowly shrunk; we are still one of the largest denominations in America but we re losing ground. Leaders in particular are troubled by this (as they should be) and […]
Why did Raskolnikov kill? That is the question that haunts Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s classic novel, Crime and Punishment. There is not single answer but the author gives a number of hints: Raskolnikov was bullied, his father was absent and his mother possessive, and the larger problem of atheism that the Enlightenment brought to Russia. (Dostoyevsky is […]
The recent event in Newton, Connecticut is simply horrific. These victims were innocent children! First, we are all stunned and sickened. To imagine it brings so much grief we feel it in our guts. It is hard to focus, and as much as it hurts to think about it, it is hard to think of […]
I hope we are getting to the place where we accept that religion and politics do mix. Jesus was political and if discipleship involes the whole of us it must include our political passions, opinions and interests. Of course we are quick to ammend that to say that we are not allowed to endorse a […]
