By Michelle Bearden, Faith & Leadership… TAMPA, Fla.—The call came from the bishop on the Rev. Jim Harnish’s 45th birthday. “Can you come by the office tonight?” the bishop asked. Dr. Harnish, then pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Orlando, knew an urgent summons from the bishop was serious. He suspected that he and his wife, Marsha, would be asked to relocate. The prospect of leaving the vital, healthy church he had helped birth 13 years earlier wasn’t a happy one. Exciting things were happening there. When they [...]
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Bishop Willimon on GC2012 and ‘church by committee’
By William H. Willimon, Special Contributor… General Conference in Tampa made history as the most expensive ($1,500 per minute!), least productive, most fatuous assemblage in the history of Methodism. Sunday evening’s “A Celebration of Ministry” fiasco was a metaphor for our nearly two weeks at church expense: four hours of belabored supplication by the General Commission on Status and Role of Women, five Ethnic National Plans, Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century, United Methodist Men, Girl Scouts, Africa University and a number of other agencies I can’t remember. [...]
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