UM & Global 10th Anniversary Stats: Content

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Mission Theologian at the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions and analysis expressed here are Dr. Scott's own and do not reflect in any way the official position of Global Ministries.

This blog is sponsored by the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission (formerly United Methodist Professors of Mission). At the AMPM meeting four weeks ago, I (David) offered a 10th anniversary update on the blog. After having shared statistics and reflections from that report about contributors in a previous blog post, in this post, I want to share in this post some statistics and reflections on blog content and the achievements of the blog.

Content

The tagline for UM & Global is "Dedicated to fostering conversations about the global nature of The United Methodist Church." Following that tagline, the blog has sought to publish material about mission, especially international mission, in the UMC, stories about and analysis of the UMC outside the United States, and stories about and analysis of denomination-wide news and trends, especially when these trends cross national boundaries.

If one looks at the "big bucket" tags that I have used to categorize UM & Global material, one sees the above foci reflected in the tags used to label content on the blog. In descending order of frequency of use, the most popular categories of content have been mission, global ecclesiology, theology, history, culture and diversity, global social issues, ecumenical and interreligious relationships, migration, central conferences, international partnerships, evangelism, reciprocal relationships, women, connectionalism, health, and education.

Looking at more specific tags, one sees General Conference, Africa, the United States, LGBT, resources, money, the Philippines, coronavirus, and A Way Forward added to the list. These categories reflect the geographic distribution of The United Methodist Church, its recent denomination-wide foci, and my own interests in talking about how money and resources shape the church and mission.

In terms of specific pieces, Pete Bellini's two pieces on "Global Mental Health and the Church" are the first and eighth most popular pieces of all time on the site. Dana L. Robert's piece "The 'Other' Issue of Gender: What Happens to United Methodist Women Leaders?" is the second most popular piece, and my piece "American UMC is a white people problem" is third.

UM & Global has also sought to create resources for those teaching and learning about mission and the global church. Among those resources are our Collections (compilations of articles on a theme) and YouTube playlists to help people access content (created by others) on topics related to mission and the global church.

Achievements

Ultimately, the question of significance is less about how much of something one has done and more about the impact of that work on others. In the regard, I think UM & Global and its contributors can feel some justifiable satisfaction. Articles from UM & Global have been widely read and discussed by those in the church. They have also been cited in academic publications and other blogs. In this regard, the blog has been able to strike a rare balance between accessibility to non-academic readers in the church and (enough) respectability among academic audiences.

Much of the content of UM & Global has been part of overarching series. Some of these series have had an impact beyond their individual component blog posts. The commentary series on Grace Upon Grace, one of the first series on the blog, helped re-spark interest in that document. A series of comments on Wonder, Love, and Praise, the draft ecclesiology document for the UMC, helped push revision of that document into Sent In Love in a more missional direction.

While it has not always been easy work to put together a consistent stream of reasonably high quality content, it has been satisfying work, and I (David) am grateful to the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission for the opportunity to take this project and run with it. I hope the results have served and will continue to serve to build up the church as a diverse, global body, deeply engaged in God's mission.

UM & Global 10th Anniversary Stats: Contributors

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Mission Theologian at the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions and analysis expressed here are Dr. Scott's own and do not reflect in any way the official position of Global Ministries.

This blog is sponsored by the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission (formerly United Methodist Professors of Mission). At the AMPM meeting two weeks ago, I (David) offered an update on the blog, as I usually do at those meetings.

This update, however, was a special one, as it is now just over 10 years since the blog launched. Therefore, I took the opportunity to compile some special statistics to share with the AMPM, which I also want to share with you, the readers of this blog. I will share statistics and reflections about contributors in this piece and additional statistics in a future piece.

Contributors

Since its start on March 3, 2013, UM & Global has functioned on a three-stranded model of content contribution. It features pieces written by David W. Scott as blogmaster, pieces written by other contributors (AMPM members and beyond), and "Recommended Reading" (or similar) pieces with links and short rationales for reading whatever is linked to. You can see how those three strands of content have varied over the years here:

From all these sources, UM & Global has published 1217 articles so far from 116 authors from 24 countries!

Just over half of authors have come from the United States (reflecting the blog's home within a US academic group), with several authors also coming from Germany, Argentina, the Philippines, Switzerland, Zimbabwe, and the DRC.

Just over half of the authors were white, either white Americans or white Europeans. About 1/6 were Asian or Asian-American, 1/6 were Black African or African-American, and 1/8 were Latin American or US Hispanic. These are, of course, overly broad categories. Moreover, total authorship does not reflect the full diversity of the global church. It is, however, significantly more diverse than its sponsoring body.

2/3rds of contributors have been men, with the remaining 1/3 women. Again, this is less than the parity to which the church and academy should strive, but significantly more gender balanced than the AMPM.

Since not all contributors have written the same number of blogs, with white, American, men contributing more pieces per author, and since I as a white, American, man write the largest number of pieces, the content on this site is less well-balanced than the contributor pool as a whole.

Again, high quality theological reflection depends on contributions from a multitude of perspectives, and the content on UM & Global has not given space, and certainly not equal space, to all possible perspectives, and this representation (or lack thereof) matters.

There are many ways to norm what the distribution of content on the blog should be. Is the comparison point global church membership? US professors in general? US missiology professors in particular? Relative to global church membership, women are underrepresented, Europeans are overrepresented, and Africans are underrepresented. Relative to US professors as a whole, women are underrepresented but racial/ethnic minorities are a larger percentage of blog authors than US professors. I am not familiar with data on the composition of missiologists, but based on my personal sense of the American Society of Missiology, relative to that group, UM & Global authors have been at least equally female and more likely to be racial and ethnic minorities in the United States or to come from outside the United States.

If there's a consolation for me as the editor in these numbers, it's that the blog has gotten better and more representative over its run. When I last compiled such number in fall 2014, the blog contributors were 3/4 men, 71% American, and 61% white. The increase in contributors who are women, not from the United States, and people of color has been the result of conscious and often extensive effort to invite contributions from these groups.

That's the takeaway I'd like to end with. It's easy to get white American men to write stuff about the church. They do it all the time. It takes more work to identify and cultivate alternative voices. But this is critical work that all in church leadership need to be engaged in.

UM & Global Returns from Hiatus

After nearly two months off, UM & Global is back from hiatus. Here's what's new after that time away:

There is a new way to subscribe to email updates of blog posts. Just enter your email into the box on the right side of the desktop version, and you'll receive emails announcing each new post. Once signed up, you can unsubscribe anytime. Anyone who signed up under the old system has automatically had their email transferred to the new system, and this should fix the problem that people were experiencing of not receiving post notifications.

I cleaned up some of the pages of the blog (see links under the banner of the desktop version or in the drop-down menu on the mobile version) and tweaked some of the sidebar elements, but I did not end up making any major changes to the design or layout of the blog. The blog design remains nothing fancy, but the focus is still on simplicity over sophistication.

The biggest changes will be in publishing schedule. UM & Global will be cutting back to a more sustainable 1-2 posts per week. One main article per week will be published on Thursdays. These articles will continue to feature in-depth reflections on mission and the global nature of The United Methodist Church, written by blogmaster David W. Scott and a variety of other authors.

Mondays will see occasional additional content. Recommended Reading pieces will be discontinued in favor of links style news roundups that feature a run-down of multiple significant stories related to mission and global Methodism. (This will be a return to the very early days of the blog!) Recommended Viewing pieces will continue with the added benefit of embedding the related video content within the blog post whenever possible to make it easier to access.

UM & Global Announces Hiatus

UM & Global is announcing that, as of this post, it is going on a hiatus. We are taking a break from our publication schedule while we address some technical issues with the site and re-evaluate our editorial purpose. In the meantime, you can continue to follow @globalumc on Twitter for reposts of news related to mission and worldwide Methodism.

The primary impulse for this hiatus is that the platform the blog uses, Blogger, is now only being minimally supported by Google, its parent company, and has lost features. In particular, the function that sends notifications of new posts to readers has disappeared. Several of you have commented to me on its loss, and analytics show that this does seem to be impacting our site traffic. Currently, there is no alternative notification system available on Blogger. I want to explore other possible platforms for the blog, but since UM & Global is (and has always been) a one-person team run in addition to other full-time duties, I lack the bandwidth to do that while also continuing to produce regular content for the site.

On another level, this is a chance to not just tweak features but rethink how the blog functions. There has been a lot that has changed about the world, about The United Methodist Church, about mission, and about online fora for discussion since the blog launched. Indeed, the rise of new online platforms such as YouTube, podcasts, Substack, and various social media outlets has challenged the idea of what a blog is and should do. A hiatus will also create space to think about how UM & Global fits into the information landscape within and beyond the church in 2023.

Furthermore, a pause to reassess the purpose and function of the blog seems well timed given the accomplishments of the blog and the landmarks it has reached. UM & Global launched on March 3rd, 2013, so we have published for ten years now, and this is our 1200th post! Over those ten years and 1200 posts, the site has hosted a lot of good writing by about 120 different authors. Whatever comes next for the blog, this body of work is an accomplishment that all those who have contributed to the blog can be proud of.

I am not yet sure what the timeline for the hiatus or the next steps will be, but I anticipate that one way or another, there will still be demand for reflective, high-quality analysis related to “fostering conversations about the global nature of The United Methodist Church,” as the tagline for the blog has been. When we come back from this hiatus, UM & Global will continue to advance that mission.

Dr. David W. Scott
Blogmaster, UM & Global

2022 Year in Review

There's no secret about it: the topic UM & Global readers were most interested in during 2022 was developments related to the future of the church.

The most-read story of the year came in February when UM & Global alerted readers to the problem of securing visas in sufficient time for General Conference to be held in 2022. UM & Global had previously written about the challenges of securing visas after General Conference 2019 and then returned to the issue in November of this year, looking ahead to the 2024 General Conference.

After General Conference was further delayed to 2024 and Traditionalist leaders announced the formation of the Global Methodist Church, UM & Global helped orient readers to how these developments were playing out globally, including in the United States, in Africa, and in Europe.

With these developments related to separation and intra-church fights, this blog also highlighted the dangers for United Methodists of staying stuck in conflict and explained how new narratives can help move the church past such conflict.

Amid this focus on church politics, mission was not entirely overlooked. Readers also resonated with a post from May that suggested that rather than following John Wesley in talking about the world being our parish, we should instead follow Thomas Coke's affirmation that “Oceans cannot limit the affection we have for one another.”

While this was not reflected in the readership stats for the year, 2022 also saw an all-time high mark for the amount of translated material on UM & Global, including posts from Germany, Argentina, Switzerland, Norway, and the Congo (which also yielded the first French-language post on UM & Global). As the church seeks to live into its intercultural, multilingual future, such posts that facilitate discussion across linguistic barriers are an important part of strengthening the connection.

Finally, on a technical note, several regular readers have noted that they are no longer receiving emails notifications about new posts. This is due to some technical changes in the blog's current platform. We are aware of the problem and looking into possible solutions. Stay tuned for more updates in 2023.

UM & Global Collection on Theological Education

A new UM & Global collection is now available. This collection examines theological education, including its intersection with mission and Methodism, access to theological education, and the ways in which it is changing in various contexts around the world.

The collection includes eleven posts by Ann Hidalgo, Genilma Boehler, Benjamin L. Hartley, Andrew Harper, David N. Field, Robert A. Hunt, Dana L. Robert, and David W. Scott. As with other collections, there is a set of discussion questions at the end of the volume, intended to help church members, students, and others reflect on how theological educators can help prepare their students and the church as a whole to effectively join in God's mission to the world.

UM & Global Collection on Mission and Food

A new UM & Global collection is now available. This collection examines the connections between mission and food: its production (through agriculture), its provision (in relief efforts), and its consumption (as a means of community-building and connection). The essays, reflecting contexts in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the United States examine various forms of food-related mission.

The collection includes ten posts by David W. Scott, Jack Amick, John Walter Ngoy, Caleb Kanyimb Mbaz, Nan McCurdy, Temba Nkomozepi, Maria Van Der Maaten, Jonathan McCurley, and Elliott Wright. As with other collections, there is a set of discussion questions at the end of the volume, intended to help church members, students, and others reflect on the ways in which the church should engage in food-related ministries.

On the African Bishops' Statement, Or, Defining Success in Blogging

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Mission Theologian at the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions and analysis expressed here are Dr. Scott's own and do not reflect in any way the official position of Global Ministries.

About a month ago, the Africa Colleges of Bishops released a statement denouncing the Africa Initiative and the WCA and, by implication, affirming their loyalty to the UMC. The statement lists the bishops present for its adoption and indicates support from other bishops not present. Bishop John Wesley Yohanna of Nigeria is the only active African bishop not in one of these two categories.

When the statement came out, I know that several regular readers of this blog were looking forward to see what we would publish about that statement. Perhaps some have been surprised that this blog has not addressed that statement until now.

A word of explanation is therefore in order, and it gets to not only the statement itself but the role that I hope this blog plays in the wider ecosystem of the UMC.

The tagline for UM & Global is "Dedicated to fostering conversations about the global nature of The United Methodist Church." Under that tagline, I have tried to write, recruit, and highlight content that either relates to the UMC outside the United States and/or to mission, broadly defined. I am humbled that readers have responded by regularly tuning in to read the posts that I and others have written here.

Ultimately, though, as much as I am honored by and appreciate the dedicated readership of this blog, it is not an end unto itself. The goal is that there be "conversations about the global nature of The United Methodist Church." This site certainly serves as a venue for such conversations, but ultimately, it is my hope that those conversations will happen throughout denominational spaces. The goal is not that UM & Global become the premier place to have such conversations; the goal is that more such conversations take place, which requires them to happen in places other than on UM & Global.

UM & Global will ultimately be successful not by dominating the market for international analysis of the UMC but by growing that market to the point where we are just one small player (or even no longer a player) in that market. In missiology, they say that a good missionary works themselves out of a job. My goal for UM & Global is to work ourselves out of a job - to increase the interest in and capacity for talking about the international church such that UM & Global itself is no longer essential to that endeavor.

Thus, I am happy when other people and other venues report on, discuss, and analyze the global church. I myself am deeply dependent on UMNews for the fine work that their stable of international journalists do, and regular readers will have noted various collaborative projects between UM & Global and UMNews over the past couple years.

Similarly, I am deeply grateful for the work Cynthia Astle at United Methodist Insight does to give a place for voices from Africa and elsewhere throughout global Methodism to express themselves. I'm glad that Cynthia regularly publishes commentary by Lloyd Nyarota and others and stories about Nigeria.

So, when I am choosing what to focus on with UM & Global, the question for me is not necessarily, "What are the biggest stories going on in global Methodism?" It's more, "What stories about Methodism around the world are not getting the attention they deserve? What needs to be lifted up and highlighted that people might otherwise miss?"

Which brings us back to the African Colleges of Bishops' statement. That statement got a lot of attention, which it absolutely deserved. It was widely shared on social media. UMNews did a story on it the next day. The Africa Initiative released a response, which was also widely shared. Africa Voice of Unity released a statement in support of the bishops, which was shared as well. Rev. John Stephens invited Bishop Mande Muyombo on his podcast, where they talked about the statement (among other things - it's a good podcast episode and worth a watch). United Methodist Insight published a story and materials related to the fallout of the statement in Nigeria.

In other words, people paid quite a lot of attention to the African bishops' statement, listened to a variety of African perspectives on the statement, and discussed its meaning and implications. And all that happened without UM & Global writing anything. Success!

But for those of you who have read thus far, waiting to see whether I will actually say anything about the statement, here are my few contributions to the conversation that is going on throughout the church, as it should, and not just on this blog:

• I think the statement reflects the strong leadership of Bishop Nhiwatiwa, currently head of the African Colleges of Bishops. Bishop Nhiwatiwa is deeply loyal to the UMC and has previously indicated his desire for African United Methodists to make their own decisions.
• Tensions between the bishops and the Africa Initiative/WCA have long simmered. This statement certainly brings those tensions to a new height, but also indicates that the bishops feel like they have the strength to win that contest for influence.
• Some have wondered whether bishops who have previously been aligned with the Africa Initiative/WCA, especially Bishops Kasap and Quire, "really" supported the statement. The statement should be viewed in light of the African tradition of consensus decision-making. Bishops Kasap and Quire may not have been completely in favor of the gist of the statement, but they were unwilling to go against the consensus of the bishops as a whole. Bishop Yohanna probably felt more freedom to speak out against the statement because he was not present when that consensus was formed.
• As for what the statement means long-term, time will only tell, but the statement should be taken as a significant inflection point.

Those are my thoughts at least, and I expect and hope that others will have their own interpretations of this statement by the African bishops and will continue to interpret and discuss on their own future such statements as well.

2021 Year in Review

As 2021 draws to a close, here are some of the most read themes and stories from UM & Global over the course of the past year:

1. Questions about General Conference
Out of everything that UM & Global published this last year, stories about what might happen with General Conference proved to be among the most popular to readers, from (correctly) predicting in January 2021 that the pandemic would prohibit holding General Conference in 2021 to analyzing the aborted May 8 virtual General Conference to reviewing how the pandemic and travel might impact the currently scheduled General Conference in 2022.

2. Analysis of UMC politics and current events
Readers have also turned to this site for thoughtful analysis of the internal conflicts and struggles of the UMC, especially from an international angle. That has included everything from historical background on current conflicts in the UMC in Nigeria to identifying the current issues of contention within the UMC to analysis of the strategic choices facing those seeking to launch the Global Methodist Church.

3. Understanding church decline
This blog has also spent a good deal of time seeking to understand various forms of decline in The United Methodist Church--from the "hollowing out" of the church to institutional decline to the connection between US membership decline and the rhetoric of the global church, and readers have found those explorations interesting.

4. Grappling with emotional impact
Conflicts in the church and in society, combined with the impacts of the on-going pandemic, have taken an emotional toll on people, and so pieces on grief in the church and pastors considering leaving the ministry have also appealed to readership.

5. Confronting racism
Amid conflict in the church and problems in the world, good ministry still goes on. This blog has tried to highlight over the past year the ways in which the church is (or should be) engaged in confronting the sin of racism. In that vein, John Oda's piece on why Asian Americans should speak out about racism has been one of the most read posts of 2021.

At this point, there is no particular reason to assume that the topics that will be of most interest to readers in 2022 will be any different, but if the past several years have taught us anything, it is that there are always surprises in store.

Introducing UM & Global YouTube Playlists

UM & Global is debuting a new resource to help better equip and educate United Methodists (and others) about mission and the global church. Blogmaster David W. Scott has compiled playlists on YouTube for a variety of topics, as listed below.

Mission Theology
Mission History
Missionaries
Mission and COVID
Anti-Racism
Creation Care
Evangelism
Migration
World Methodism
United Methodist Polity

These videos, which range from short reflections to long interviews, offer a variety of options for use in teaching, presentations, and other settings. Videos are ordered from most recent to oldest, to help viewers access current information first. Some videos appear on more than one list.

Videos included are mostly from denominational and para-denominational sources in the UMC and other Methodist bodies. Videos were selected to be educational rather than promotional for the producing party, though not all videos have been reviewed in their entirety.

If there are other videos that you think should be included in these lists, or if you would like to see additional lists that fit with the focus of this blog, please let me know in the comment section below.

2020 Year in Review

This is the 148th and final post on UM & Global for 2020, and it's time for the annual year in review. 2020 was quite a year for a number of reasons, and the themes that were prominent on this blog were prominent in many other media sources. There were three themes that received consistent attention in a variety of posts throughout the year:

1. The COVID-19 Pandemic
2020 will be remembered around the world as the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic struck at aspects of society from healthcare to the economy to family gatherings to church meetings. UM & Global examined several issues related to the pandemic. We shared information when United Methodist churches outside the US closed due to restrictions ([1], [2], [3], [4]), but also the new possibilities for connection made possible ([1], [2]). We talked a lot about how pandemic-related travel restrictions impacted mission and missionaries ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]) and gave rise to the phenomenon of virtual mission trips ([1], [2], [3], [4]). We shared videos discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the church around the world ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]). We explored how the pandemic impacted theology and ethical issues ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). We examined how the pandemic might still impact a rescheduled General Conference in 2021 ([1], [2], [3], [4]). We talked about whether the Payroll Protection Program eroded the separation of church and state in the United States ([1], [2]). We speculated about what might be different about mission after the pandemic's impact subsides ([1]). The pandemic featured in a quarter of our posts from 2020, more than any other topic.

2. United Methodist Division
When the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation dropped on January 3rd, it was clear that a split in the church would be a major story of 2020. While that division has not yet formally occurred, that possibility has been a major focus for UM & Global, along with other United Methodist news sources and commentators. At UM & Global, we have explored the financial issues associated with division ([collection of posts here]), tracked European efforts to find their own ways forward ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]), examined the Christmas Covenant ([1], [2], [3]), discussed the roots of division ([1], [2], [3]), followed the various political maneuverings in advance of such a division ([1], [2], [3]), and examined the how the COVID-19 pandemic (see above) might impact denominational division ([1], [2], [3], [4]). These posts included a fifth of the total published in 2020.

3. Racism
The #BlackLivesMatter protests that swept around the world starting in June focused attention on the ways in which racism is woven into US society and the global social order. UM & Global picked up this theme by looking at the global dimensions of this and other nonviolent protests ([1], [2]) by examining the intersections between race and mission ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]) and race and other aspects of the church ([1], [2]). Related to the topic of race and racial hierarchies, there have also been a number of posts over the year examining the relationship between religion and empire ([1], [2], [3], [4]) and how this connection may be driving the decline of Christianity in the United States ([1], [2]) in ways that intersect importantly with race.

Other topics that crossed multiple posts included evangelism, missionaries, theological education, ecumenism, women in mission, understanding cultural difference, and an evaluation of the ecclesiology document Sent in Love.

Updated blog pages

Here at UM & Global, we're taking advantage of the slower news cycle around the holidays to make a few updates to the blog. In particular, we've updated our pages, which you can find underneath the banner. We've updated existing pages to ensure that links are still active, and we've added two new pages.

The first new page, "UM & Global Collections," includes a list of all of the UM & Global collections that we've released throughout the fall. These are PDF compilations of multiple posts on a single topic. I hope this list of resources all in one place will be useful for regular readers, scholars, and students.

The second new page, "The UMC Around the World," includes a list of the United Methodist web presence around the world. The page gives websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts (where these exist) for the UMC at the national level. In some instances, information is given for episcopal areas or annual conferences where it is lacking or sparse at the national level. No national web presence exists for the United States outside of the general denominational web presence that serves the entire denomination, and annual conference accounts in the US are not listed.

Many of the information that informs the writing on this blog or appears in "Recommended Readings" posts originates on these websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts from United Methodists around the world. Now, you can more easily access this information itself, whether its accessing the website of the UMC in Cote d'Ivoire, finding the Facebook page for the Baguio Episcopal Area, or following United Methodists in Bulgaria on Twitter!

UM & Global Collections: Missional Ecclesiology and Church Unity

The previous UM & Global collection looks at the issue of ecclesiology through the lens of two documents developed by the Committee on Faith and Order to help define the UMC's theology of church: "Wonder, Love and Praise" and "Sent in Love." Many of the essays in that collection highlighted the missional nature of Methodist ecclesiology.

In follow-up, the two latest collections continue to examine issues of ecclesiology, especially missional ecclesiology. A collection on missional ecclesiology with contributions by David W. Scott and Hendrik R. Pieterse looks at the relationship between mission and our theological understandings of the church. A second collection of essays by David W. Scott considers various sources for denominational unity, exploring in particular the connection between personal relationships and unity.

As always, discussion questions help connect these writings to pressing contemporary questions for United Methodist leaders, General Conference delegates, and students.

UM & Global Collection: Commentaries on "Wonder, Love and Praise" and "Sent in Love"

Three previous UM & Global collections have looked at issues of global ecclesiology: one on the UMC as a global church, one on church autonomy and the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS), and one on ecumenical perspectives on the global UMC.

The latest collection looks at the issue of ecclesiology through the lens of two documents developed by the Committee on Faith and Order to help define the UMC's theology of church: "Wonder, Love and Praise" and "Sent in Love." "Wonder, Love and Praise" was a draft ecclesiology document released in 2016. It was revised and rewritten into "Sent in Love," which is pending for adoption by General Conference the next time that body meets.

The collection includes twenty-nine essays by a range of authors: Benjamin L. Hartley, Knut Refsdal, Daniel Shin, Robert A. Hunt, Jacob Dharmaraj, Stefan Zürcher, Norma Dollaga, David N. Field, Joon-Sik Park, Steven J. Ybarrola, Ole Birch, James Z. Labala, Global Ministries staff, Nkemba Ndjungu, Laceye Warner, Meeli Tankler, and Lizette Tapia-Raquel. Women are under-represented in the analysis of "Wonder, Love and Praise." Yet the collection includes ecclesiological reflections by United Methodists from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.

As always, discussion questions help connect these writings to pressing contemporary questions for United Methodist leaders, General Conference delegates, and students.

UM & Global Collection: Culture, Context, and the Global Church

Three previous UM & Global collections have looked at issues of global ecclesiology: one on the UMC as a global church, one on church autonomy and the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS), and one on ecumenical perspectives on the global UMC.

The latest collection continues that theme by looking at culture, context, and the global church. These pieces examine the impact of culture on what it means to be a global United Methodist church, the challenges of communicating and doing theology across cultural differences, the definition of contextualization, issues of contextualization in Europe and the United States, and ministry practices for multicultural congregations.

The collection includes twenty-four essays, many of them by Robert A. Hunt. Additional essays are by David W. Scott, William Payne, Darrell Whiteman, Barry Bryant, Michael Nausner, David Field, Hendrik R. Pieterse, Heinrich Bolleter, and David Markay. As always, discussion questions help connect these writings to pressing contemporary questions for United Methodist leaders, General Conference delegates, and students.

UM & Global Collection: The Global UMC in Ecumenical Perspective

Two previous UM & Global collections have looked at issues of global ecclesiology: one on the UMC as a global church and one on church autonomy and the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS). The latest collection continues that theme by looking at the global UMC in ecumenical perspective. These pieces examine other models of being a global or world-wide church, including Catholicism, Pentecostalism, and other Methodist/Wesleyan denominations, raising questions for The United Methodist Church through the process of comparison. The collection also includes several pieces that examine the World Methodist Council and other ecumenical associations of Methodist denominations for the light they can shed on what it means to be a global Methodist, United Methodist or otherwise.

The collection includes thirteen essays by Arun W. Jones and David W. Scott. As always, discussion questions help connect these writings to pressing contemporary questions for United Methodist leaders, General Conference delegates, and students

UM & Global Collection: Church Autonomy and the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS)

The previous UM & Global collection looked at the UMC as a global church. The newest collection of UM & Global articles on church autonomy and the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS) looks at the flip side of that coin: churches that were at one point connected to The United Methodist Church or its predecessors but have chosen to become independent, autonomous denominations. Many of these denominations have, however, chosen to remain affiliated with the UMC. Most of these changes came about in the late 1960s and early 1970s through the work of the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS), a General Conference-created body of The Methodist Church. This collection examines this history for the sake of drawing lessons for current mission practice, ecumenical relationships, and global polity conversations in the UMC.

The collection includes essays by Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Robert Harman, David W. Scott, Blair Trygstad Stowe, Daniel Bruno, and Kyle Tau, as well as documents from the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS), including writings by D. T. Niles. As always, discussion questions help connect these writings to pressing contemporary questions for United Methodist leaders, General Conference delegates, and students.

UM & Global Collection on the UMC as a Global Church

The latest UM & Global collection include a compilation of 15 posts written by a variety of authors about The United Methodist Church as a global denomination.

The collection, "The UMC as a Global Church," includes pieces by Hendrik R. Pieterse, Dana L. Robert, David W. Scott, Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Robert A. Hunt, Amy Valdez-Barker, Darryl W. Stephens, Igmedio Domingo, and Robert Harman. The pieces raise questions about what it means to be a global denomination; the benefits, costs, and challenges of being such; and the various ways in which a global denomination is connected - through mission, relationships, polity, and money.

The collection includes discussion questions for reflection on the included pieces. These discussion questions are intended to help students, annual conference leaders, General Conference delegates, local church leaders, and others to think wisely about what it means to be a global denomination and whether and how the UMC should aspire to be such.

UM & Global Collection: Grace Upon Grace Commentary

One of the early foci for UM & Global was a reappraisal of The United Methodist Church's official theology of mission statement, Grace Upon Grace, originally released in 1988. From November of 2013 through December of 2014, in forty-five posts by over thirty authors, the blog did a thorough discussion of the document upon its 25th anniversary to determine what held up and what had shifted within the realm of missiological thinking. Now, for the first time, the entirety of that series is available in a single file. This collection will allow scholars and students to read Grace Upon Grace and the series of comments on it together in a single, book-length document. We at UM & Global hope this gives new impetus to theological reflections on the nature of the mission to which God has called United Methodists.

Here is the link to the file: Grace Upon Grace Commentary

Introducing UM & Global Collections: Collections on Race, Mission, and American Christianity

Today, UM & Global is debuting something new: UM & Global Collections. These are compilations of multiple posts on the same or similar topics packaged into a PDF for convenient reading. The goal of these Collections is to make the content of UM & Global more easily accessible for use in classroom discussions, mission training events, church study groups, and other venues. Rather than having to click through and try to find related posts, a bundle of posts is presented together for easy viewing.

The PDFs include a table of contents; the posts, including the original URL, date published, title, attribution, content, and tags; and some discussion questions about the Collection as a whole. Other than reformatting hyperlinks and a typographical correction here or there, the posts are not edited from their original format. The length of the Collections will vary somewhat based on the topic, but most will be 30-40 pages.

The first two Collections both deal with the topic of race:

Race and Mission: A UM & Global Collection

Race, American Christianity, and the Global Church: A UM & Global Collection

In the coming weeks, additional collections will be posted on short-term mission; commentaries on the UMC's official mission document, Grace Upon Grace; UMC assets; the global nature of the UMC; and other topics. If there are specific topics that you would find helpful in your teaching or church work, please note them in the comments below, and I (David) will try to prioritize these as I put together future Collections.