Lent, madness and digital spiritual formation

Have you heard of Lent Madness? It’s 32 saints placed into a tournament-like single elimination bracket. An online community votes to determine the victor of each matchup… of course with lots of discussion in the process. Lent Madness is over a decade old and continues to grow and inform. It succeeds in an area many of us in digital ministry feel a bit short: it succeeds in online spiritual formation.

So let’s get the story of Lent Madness with the Supreme Executive Committee: Reverends Scott Gunn and Tim Schenck.

See more about Lent Madness at www.lentmadness.org

And find more sessions of Pastoring in the Digital Parish at resourceumc.org/digital-parish

Commitment: Rethink Church audiomagazine February 2022

This is the February 2022 edition of the Rethink Church audiomagazine presented on the Compass podcast.

Throughout February of 2022, our content focused on commitment. And we have some great posts about what commitment looks like in this new age and how we personally nurture our own feelings of commitment. In this edition of the audiomag, we’ll hear:

  • “The one thing it takes to remain committed” by Joseph Yoo
  • “Making a commitment to faith in a culture of disbelief” by Madison Myers
  • “Why should church stay online? Wordle.” By Nathan Webb
  • And “John Wesley’s 22 questions of self-examination”

The African American Methodist Heritage Center

The African American Methodist Heritage Center (AAMHC) has a mission: “To establish and provide for the maintenance of an African American Methodist Heritage Center, connected with a historically Black institution, that will preserve and protect artifacts and be accessible for research about African American people in Methodism.” This month we discuss the history of this important institute, the present, as well as where they hope to be in 10 years! More on their website at https://aamhc-umc.org

GUESTS:

Carol Travis was baptized at Asbury UMC and is recorded as having delivered her first prayer at the age of 6 over 60 years ago. After a long career in corporate America, she retired to start another career in church administration, serving on the staff of diverse churches in urban and suburban settings  She currently works in several ministry areas at Asbury UMC and at the Annual Conference level where she helps to advance the UMC ‘s dismantling racism agenda.  She holds degrees from Trinity University and American University in Washington, DC. For 15 years, she was a board member of the African American Methodist Heritage Center and has been the Executive Assistant to the board since 2014.

HOST:

Dr. Ashley Boggan Dreff, General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. Dreff earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, specializing in American Religious History. She has previously worked as staff at the General Commission on Archives and History (2012-2014) and the Connectional Table of The United Methodist Church (2014-2016). She was the Director of United Methodist Studies and Assistant Professor Christian History at Hood Theological Seminary (Salisbury, NC), an AME Zion Seminary, from 2017-2019 and was the Director of Women’s and Gender Studies and Assistant Professor of Religion at High Point University (High Point, NC) from 2019-2020. Dreff is a lay member of the Arkansas Annual Conference and the daughter of two ordained United Methodist ministers. She is the author of Nevertheless: American Methodists and Women’s Rights (2020) and Entangled: A History of American Methodism, Politics, and Sexuality (2018).

The Pursuit to Make Prayer Personal with Angela Chadwick

Angela Chadwick, Global Director of Prayer for Alpha International, talks with us about prayer, what it looks like day in and day out, and how prayer is that place where God becomes personal when we show up as our authentic selves.

Unleashing the power of words with Jonathan Merritt

The words we use matter. Words are both a reflection of what we feel inside and a means for influencing our own states of mind. Jonathan Merritt helps us understand how an inability to “speak God” might lead us to feel far from God. He also reveals how utilizing the language of faith influences our mindsets and motivations in powerful ways.

Jonathan Merritt is an award-winning contributor for The Atlantic, a contributing editor for The Week, a regular columnist for Religion News Service, and an author. His books include A Faith of Our Own, Green Like God, and Learning to Speak God From Scratch, which was released in 2018. He holds a Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Theology from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Some of the questions covered in this discussion with Jonathan:

  • Can you make a case to the rest of us as to why words about God and religious language might be important?
  • What are your favorite words for God?
  • Do you have least favorite words for God?
  • Why is it important that we reclaim—or begin to utilize—language concerning God?
  • What prompted your journey of relearning religious language?
  • We asked some of our listeners what their uncomfortable religious words were. If we may, how might someone lean into a new definition of repentance? Of Justice?

Announcing season 3 of Pastoring in the Digital Parish

A new season of Pastoring in the digital Parish is about to begin! Season 3 will get underway on February 23rd, just in time to power your digital ministry through Lent and beyond.

In this season we’re going to continue to share best practices for evangelism and discipleship in digital spaces–and we’re going to do so mainly by sharing the stories of other digital ministry practitioners. We’ll see what new social media trends are opening up new pathways for ministry. We’ll also spend some time diving into the changing landscape of the worldwide web… Like, what is Web 3.0? 

Not everything’s recorded yet. So if you have some suggestions for future episodes or a burning question we might be able to address, then join up with the Pastoring in the Digital Parish Facebook Group and offer your suggestion.

MyCom podcast Ep. 070: Why you are out of ideas

We have all faced the dreaded blank page – whether it is a literal blank page in our word processor, a blank canvas in our graphic design program, or an empty social media calendar. There are seasons of life when this is an exciting invitation, and seasons of life when it is a nightmare.

As we approach the 2 year anniversary of the start of the covid-19 pandemic, we are going to take a few episodes to touch on topics that involve the realm of self-care.

So, on this episode, Dan explores why we run out of ideas and what we can do about it.

For 80 years, United Methodist Communications has been leading the church in telling inspirational stories of God’s work in the world through The United Methodist Church, reaching new people, supporting local churches in vibrant communications ministry, equipping leaders and delivering messages of hope and healing.

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Making vaccines available for all with Kathleen Griffith & David Boan

Dr. David Boan, a member of First United Methodist Church of Boise, Idaho, and Kathleen Griffith, a veteran global heath leader with the General Board of Global Ministries, discuss Love Beyond Borders, an equitable vaccine distribution campaign.