Catalyst Publications
Publications by Category
Every now and then, students ask me for advice as they prepare to graduate and move into ministry. The advice they seek in not about anything in particular, just some bit of wisdom they believe, rightly or wrongly, I may have gleaned in the…
Aug/06/2018
If you asked various people about how to live the Christian life, some of the responses might include: know Jesus, recognize Jesus’ power, read your Bible, and attend church. While all of these are important, they are also problematic. Here…
Jul/30/2018
In my last two Catalyst essays (see here, and here), I encouraged contemporary United Methodists to embrace the Christian language of “heart religion.” Wesley summarized his essential heart-orientation by focusing on three spiritual-emotion…
Jul/23/2018
During a conversation with faculty from the Divinity School and the College of Arts and Sciences, a colleague observed that during times of social anxiety there is a noticeable decrease in the number of liberal arts and humanities majors an…
Jul/16/2018
At least 58 people died and 489 more were seriously injured by a killer in Las Vegas last year. A murderous driver in New York City killed eight more people on bicycles the very next week. When someone intentionally kills an innocent human …
Jul/09/2018
“Lord” is an odd word in today’s culture. As Christians, we say “Jesus is Lord” on a regular basis. But this has become a rather churchy word. Non-Christians do not use it; no one walks around saying, “Snapchat is my Lord!” So what do Chris…
Jul/02/2018
In their introduction to a collection of essays, entitled Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation between Two Worlds (InterVarsity Press, 2017), W. David Taylor and Taylor Worley name forthrightly the antipathy between the modern ar…
Jun/25/2018
Some readers of my first essay on this topic found its terminology too academically oriented to speak to their experience of baptisms within the local congregation. Unfamiliar with Karl Barth and the liturgical history of the baptismal rite…
Jun/18/2018
What kind of person do I need to become to serve as a model of Christlike character for others?
A Lesson from Surfing
I took up surfing the year before I turned 40 years old. I had watched surfers from the safety of the seashore for many …
Jun/11/2018
In a previous essay, I encouraged contemporary United Methodists to unashamedly use Wesley’s—and the Bible’s!—language of “heart religion.” There I showed how the current intellectual culture has started to appreciate in a fresh way the pot…
Jun/04/2018
Next to his brother Charles, no one played a more significant role in John Wesley’s Methodism than John Fletcher. Although little remembered today, Fletcher’s theological works were read alongside the Wesley brothers by Methodists on both s…
May/28/2018
I sometimes find what Scripture says to be puzzling. I doubt that I am alone. Yet, at other times and perhaps even more often, I find the way that many self-professing Christians respond to Scripture to be just as puzzling, if not more so. …
May/21/2018
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A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE) John Wesley Fellowships have been awarded to three doctoral stud…
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Announcing that 2026 John Wesley Fellowship Scholarship Applications are now being accepted. Please see the at…
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JWF and Friends of AFTE, we look forward to you joining us Thursday-Sunday, January 15-18, 2026, for the AFTE …
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Twenty John Wesley Fellows, spouses, and friends were able to experience a trip of a lifetime. The travel itin…
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