2018 Year in Review

As 2018 winds down, we are joining in hallowed news tradition and reviewing some of the top stories of 2018 on UM & Global. Topics and posts drawing interest on this site included:

Many posts on UM & Global, as elsewhere in the Methodist blogosphere, have continued to focus on the upcoming special called General Conference in 2019 and the Way Forward process leading up to it. UM & Global has tried to bring global perspectives and organizational analysis that provide a different approach to these topics than the theological and cultural arguments for one side or another found in most other sources.

A series of posts by William Payne, Robert Hunt, and Darrell Whiteman on the topic of contextualization gathered attention this summer, with each of the three providing different perspectives on how to understand this term missiologically.

Several authors contributed to the popular series #MyHope4Methodism throughout the year, naming bright spots, strengths, and desired futures they see for the (United) Methodist tradition.

Phil Wingeier-Rayo wrote several posts on the COSMOS process in the 1960s which led to the establishment of autonomous affiliated Methodist church.

A number of posts by David W. Scott this spring encouraged readers to consider structural and financial considerations in how the church has and could understand itself and engage in mission.


Finally, those interested in short-term mission found David W. Scott's post comparing short-term mission and pilgrimage an interesting read.