Our denomination – the United Methodist Church – had a big meeting for the last 4 days (Special Session of the General Conference) and on the final day, the Traditional Plan (TP) prevailed over 3 others. The other plans were all preferable to me. The Connectional Plan (CP) was a region-by-region approach. The One Church Plan (OCP) was my favorite and it allowed us to ‘agree to disagree’ but remain in unity. The...
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Our podcast feed is full of goodness right now! Progressive Bible Study (now called imBible Study) just finished the book of Ruth so Katie and I recorded a Ruth Recap podcast that was a LOT of fun. Sunday School (now called Brain Storming with Bo) is going through the alphabet. D is for Demythologize was a good podcast. E is for Emergence (and ecclesiology) comes out tomorrow. This Sunday is G is for Gay Christians where we are going...
Read MoreIs the Christian religion inherently conservative? The answer is ‘no’ but you could be forgiven for thinking so. I am rarely discouraged. Yesterday I had a free hour so I googled ‘new books in theology’ and sank as I went from list to list. Christianity, it appears at this moment, has no future. 98% percent of the books that I looked through were in some way related to the past – or worse – past oriented. We are a backward looking...
Read MoreThere has been lots of discussion about Anne Helen Petersen’s article “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation” on BuzzFeed. I have read and listened to some great responses and would like to weigh in to the conversation. I was a worked with youth from 1996-2016 and saw a severe amount of change. I have also picked up some new tools as an academic that I hope will be helpful. Millennial generation is burned...
Read MoreI condensed my library last year and decided to allow one theme or topic per shelf. An interesting theme developed with the books that did not make the cut. There were 3 important topics that many books written before 2000 were missing: The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the subsequent global war on terror.The impact of the internet, cell phones, and social media.Capitalism and Consumerism. Here is a short introductory video (more...
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