I have not blogged much about the awesome appointment I received in June of 2017, partly because that new appointment has kept me busy, and partly because I believe you need to experience something before you analyze it. Now that things are settling out a bit in the new appointment--you can learn a bit more here--I hope to use this space to talk about what we are learning about church partnerships in the 21st century, particularly when those partnerships are formed from something other than small-membership churches. While the experiment has certainly had its fits and starts, we are still learning, which is exciting, and we are growing together in a time in which the Church simply can't afford more division; culture is divided enough.
This way of doing church has also allowed us the opportunity to experiment, and I want to share one such experiment with you. In the season of Lent, the clergy of the Greater Decatur Churches--those of us serving North Decatur and Decatur First United Methodist Churches--have put together a podcast that we are encouraging the churches to engage. Each week, a new episode is released which previews the scripture for the coming Sunday and features conversation (and even occasional light disagreement!) that we hope models how the church is called to be in conversation and live together.
You can listen to the podcast at this website, listen via Stitcher here, or subscribe to the iTunes feed at this link. The preview episode is embedded below.
