In my convocation address I shared with you the fact that I am preoccupied these days with the nature of the church – and the nature of Christian discipleship. Maybe my preoccupation with the church is triggered by the struggles going on in my own denomination – the United Methodist Church. The truth of the matter is, these struggles are going on in all mainline churches.

Schism is a threat – I struggle with questions like when or does a person ever have enough reason to leave the church of which he is a part? What constitutes heresy? Have we become an apostate church? How might the church be renewed? What does God seem to be doing in the church?

Now don’t start salivating. I am not going to answer these questions. Right now they are issues for my own personal reflection and for delibera…