We are joined again by Will Willimon to talk about his new book, "Don't Look Back". We talk about the future of the Methodist Church and how we look forward and find hope. We discuss ways to promote unity and conversation instead of isolating each other. 

Cynthia Fierro Harvey served as bishop of the Louisiana Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, having been assigned there in September of 2012. The Louisiana Annual Conference is composed of 486 congregations and 118,725 members and includes the entire state of Louisiana.

Bishop Harvey was recently appointed as the Bishop for the Texas Annual Conference. Today we discuss her hopes for the future, how she became a bishop, how it feels coming back to Houston and the process of appointing Bishops. 

TXCUMC Announcement 

This week we are joined by Bishop Gary Mueller and Bishop Janice Huie. We talk about how they became bishops and their path to the ministry. We also discuss the importance of having hopeful conversations about the future of The UMC. 

A bishop in the United Methodist Church, Professor Willimon served as the dean of Duke Chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke University for 20 years. He returned to Duke after serving as the bishop of the North Alabama Conference from 2004 to 2012. He has taught in Germany, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia in various seminaries. He is a trustee of Wofford College, Emory University, and serves on the Dean’s Committee of Yale Divinity School.   Willimon is the author of over 70 books. His Worship as Pastoral Care was selected as one of the 10 most useful books for pastors in 1979 by the Academy of Parish Clergy. More than a million copies of his books have been sold. His articles have appeared in many publications including Theology Today, Interpretation, Liturgy, and Christianity Today. He is editor-at-large for The Christian Century. His book Pastor: the Theology and Practice of Ordained Leadership is used in dozens of seminaries in the United States and Asia.

Today we talk about current news in The United Methodist Church, disaffiliation and Professor Willimon's time as a Bishop in The UMC.

This week we are joined by Matthew Marchetti. Matthew is the Co-Founder of CrowdSource Rescue. CrowdSource Rescue is technology platform developed in Hurricane Harvey to help organize civilian water rescues. Since Harvey, the platform helped rescue nearly 43,000 people by connecting them to 15,000 civilian rescuers. Our mission is simple: provide a platform to help organize spontaneous volunteers and empower them to connect with more survivors after a major disaster.

Today we talk about how CrowdSource Rescue began and the resources that the organization continues to provide for those suffering from natural disasters. 

https://crowdsourcerescue.com

This week we talk about everything from millennial church demographics to William Shatner's trip to space. We look at some recent news around Black Friday and the excitement for upcoming holiday traditions. 

Justin Posey has worked as a graphic designer and creative director for Bethel and Jesus Culture. He joins us today in person from Louisiana! We talk about art and the church and how we can use social media to create "real" relationships. 

Today we are joined by The Broken Spokes! The Broken Spokes are a Houston based honky-tonk band that has been writing and performing music since 2013. Today we discuss the writing process, what touring is like and we get to hear some tunes from their latest album!

The Broken Spokes Website

This week we are joined by Natty The Poet! She shares some of her life story, how she started in poetry and the ways she gives back to her community. 

Follow Natty on Instagram! NattyPoet