Bishop Mike Lowry

At a recent meeting of the United Methodist Publishing House Board of Directors, we received a great report on a new online ministry. MinistryMatters.com (www.MinistryMatters.com) is the United Methodist Publishing House’s new ministry resource site. It is a unique blend of  magazine and reference site. Its mission is threefold: to equip, connect, and inspire church leaders, both clergy and laity.

I asked the director of Ministry Matters (Shane Raynor) what its most popular feature is.  He replied, “The most popular feature of Ministry Matters is This Sunday, a weekly collection of resources centered around the Revised Common Lectionary. Ministry Matters has recently added kids’ worship helps, small group studies, and non-Lectionary based sermon series to the This Sunday mix.

Visitors to Ministry Matters have also responded well to the site’s current events resources. The most popular articles in the past six weeks have been a joint book review of Rob Bell’s Love Wins and Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell, and a provocative blog post called “Don’t Give ‘Em What They Want.” The site has been presenting different viewpoints and encouraging readers to step outside of their comfort zones as they consider different takes on current events.

I think this is an exciting new resource that I commend to both laity and clergy.  A final note from Shane Raynor, “Looking ahead, we’ll be launching subscriptions (both individual and institutional) in January. There will be new content in the reference library as well as the
fully searchable Common English Bible as the default translation. We’ll also be adding more topical sermon resources and sermon series to give options to pastors who don’t use the Lectionary. In the next few months, we’ll be adding ‘Reach’ and ‘Lead’ to the current ‘Preach,’ ‘Teach,’ and ‘Worship’ tabs.”

I sat through a discussion recently about whether a church-related college or university should require a course in religion as a part of a liberal arts education. Science classes, fine arts classes, language classes (to mention a few) are a required and expected part of a liberal arts curriculum. The required religion course was not a required course in Christianity (or any other particular religion); it was simply a required course in religion – period. The faculty voted to eliminate a required course in religion.

It is incomprehensible to me that religion per se is not a basic and foundational part of any truly comprehensive liberal arts education. The historical and contemporary importance of religion (not just the Christian religion but religion as a broader category of inquiry and study) is self-evident in a world torn by religious conflict, competition and claims. And yet, the skeptical gods of the Enlightenment reign triumphant in the academy. Religion is to be suspect on principle. In much of “so-called” higher culture in Western civilization (Europe and North America), religion (and especially the Christian religion) is rejected out of hand as some form of corrupted superstition. It is no longer seen as the queen of academic inquiry but rather treated as the dreads of mere opinion and ignorant opinion at that.

And yet, those same gods of the Enlightenment, so eagerly embraced, are challenged across the landscape by religious climate to truth with a capital T. Two colleagues of mine commented on the subject: “How can your education be liberal if it has no exposure to religion?”(Rev. David McNitsky) “The need for intentional examination of the religious dimension of life is imperative to any first-rate liberal arts institution. As important as open inquiry is in the area of the humanities, arts, and sciences, fine arts, etc. is, I contend, that any complete education must address the religious dimension of life. Religious dimensions of life contextualize all other areas of inquiry.” (Dr. J. Eric McKinney)

Well spoken gentleman!