Today, I close my THIS FOCUSED CENTER blog with a special prayer for a A Happy and Holy New Year to All! To this prayer I wish to offer a special welcome to a good, faithful and honorable man, Bishop Ruben Saenz, Jr. He will serve as Bishop of the ...
Just recall when you last visited your family doctor. Quite typically she or he looked first at some basic numbers even before physically examining you. They checked to see what your pulse was, they ascertained your height and weight, they listened ...
On Thursday evening Nov. 4, I drove to Rockwall, Texas, and joined with a widely ecumenical small group to listen to a presentation by Ed Stetzer. For those of you who do not know of Ed, he is what I would term a moderate Southern Baptist. As his ...
These are wild times. The COVID-19 Pandemic continues to slam us all. International news around the world reports seemingly continual conflicts. Here in the United States, one political party’s convention has just ended, and the other major party is...
When I started this blog site approximately 10 years ago, I chose to title it “This Focused Center” based on 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. “Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same ...
This Blog is part one of a three-part blog series pulled from my 2019 Episcopal Address delivered on June 11 to the lay and clergy members of the 109th Annual Meeting the Central Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church. To view the video of ...
Tomorrow (Saturday, May 4th) opens a period of activity that comes around with all the regularity of blooming, perennial spring flowers. I will fly to Chicago to participate in the regularly scheduled spring meeting of the Council of Bishops of ...
When I began writing my blog back in 2010, I entitled it This Focused Center based on a version of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 from The Message (a paraphrased translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson) “Our firm decision is to work from this focused ...
Recently a friend pointed me back to an article written a number of years ago about The Beatles and spiritual hunger. In their meteoric rise from obscurity to fame, The Beatles quickly discovered that fame and fortune were not everything it was ...
Tuesday, November 8, 2016, our world tilted and ground shifted - wherever you stand on the political spectrum in the United States, whether or not it be far right or far left or anything in between or above or below. On November 9th we awoke to a new...
On April first of this year, I had the privilege and high honor of being asked to address a gathering of the United Methodist Scholars for Christian Orthodoxy Conference at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The address is ...
On April first of this year, I had the privilege and high honor of being asked to address a gathering of the United Methodist Scholars for Christian Orthodoxy Conference at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The address is ...
On April first of this year, I had the privilege and high honor of being asked to address a gathering of the United Methodist Scholars for Christian Orthodoxy Conference at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The address is ...
On April first of this year, I had the privilege and high honor of being asked to address a gathering of the United Methodist Scholars for Christian Orthodoxy Conference at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The address is ...
I confess that I had initially written a different blog to share today. (It will be published on Friday instead.) However the tragedy of events in San Bernardino, California brought me to a halt. No doubt as with many of you, I watched transfixed to ...
Last week the Central Texas Conference (CTC) Core Leadership Team and Cabinet met to begin work on the seven recommendations adopted by the Central Texas Conference in the Exodus Project Evaluation Report. With the adoption of the Exodus Project ...
The Future Before Us I come now to the close of an eight part series on “A New Church Being Called Forth by the Holy Spirit.” I opened recalling how books on giving birth to one’s first child describe the emotional changes and feeling of an expectant...
A MISSIONARY CHURCH Shortly before I was elected as bishop in the United Methodist Church, I stood with others, including two bishops, at a tiny country church in Leesville, Texas. A plaque was dedicated to Alejo Hernandez who had been ordained at ...
Like many of you, I found myself working at home on Monday, February 23rd. Outside the study window, both our driveway and the street are covered in a sheet of ice. Such winter days often leave me in a thoughtful reflective mood. I try to catch up on...
This is the third in a series of “Epiphany” related blogs which deal with the foundational issue of faith sharing and evangelism. They spring from the understanding that among the very first to greet the new born Savior were a group of wise men who ...
Happy New Year! And greetings in the name of the Lord whose birth we celebrate. With this first blog of 2015, I quite realize that Christmas is over and yet, based on hard biblical evidence, want to assert that it is not at all over! The Eastern ...
They lie as two half-crumpled sticky notes on my desk. One reads use John 17:3; the other simple records – Acts 20:24. Somewhere in my wanderings they came to me as messages from God. They’ve sat as notes on my desk for at least a couple of months, ...
The original identification of Christ followers was not the label “Christian.” They were called followers of the Way. By that, they meant they were following the way of Christ in faithful discipleship. As we met for the first Cabinet meeting of the ...
The invitation came (I think from God) while standing at an entrance to the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle. I was taking a picture of a coffee shop across the street with a long line outside its door waiting to be served. A young man (early to ...
Looking back at the close of General Conference, a story about a couple of old moose hunters who went on a yearly hunting trip in remote northern Maine comes to mind. As was their habit, they hired the pilot of a little float plane to fly up to a ...
Monday, February 20th, it was officially announced that the Central Texas Methodist Foundation (CTMF) and the Texas Methodist Foundation (TMF) have joined forces and resources. There is a detailed article about the joining of “forces and resources” ...
A thin ribbon of dawn sliced the eastern skyline in glorious splendor but what drew our attention was the stark, sharp concertina wire forming a deadly lace of metal on the outer fence of the Boyd Unit Friday morning as we waited to enter a series of...
I read the words during my daily devotional time. “Our communities should be places where people can detox, whether that be from alcohol, tobacco, gluttony, shopping, or gossip. We long for a place that tips us towards goodness …” (Shane Claiborne, ...
A good number of years ago, a disaster movie came out about an ocean liner that capsized. The plot dealt the survivors climbing out of the capsized ship to the light of the new day. The theme song, “There’s Got to be a Morning After,” highlighted the...
I saved a few vacation days and with my wife got away to the mountains of New Mexico. It was beautiful with the leaves turning gold on the aspen trees. The time to think and read was precious. As a part of my reading (and in preparation for an ...
As I begin this Year of Our Lord 2010 (A.D.), I offer a new blog. I’ve entitled it This Focused Center based on The Message (a paraphrased translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson) version of II Corinthians 5:14-15. “Our firm decision is to work ...