Over the weekend I wonderfully enjoyed speaking at both a Methodist church and a Baptist church outside Knoxville, Tennessee. The experience was a good reminder that Baptists and Methodists largely shaped America and its democracy as the two largest Protestant forces in America for most of our history. But, as a I shared in my remarks, America’s religious scene is fast changing.
The first church where I spoke exited from United Methodism and has joined the new Global Methodist Church. It’s in a small Knoxville city, in an attractive and fairly modern building, with a robust congregation. Its pastor is an Asbury Seminary graduate. The next morning, I spoke at a prayer breakfast at a Southern Baptist congregation, in the country, but with a good-sized congregation. Both churches belong to an ecumenical coalition committed to extolling Christian teachings about marriage and family.
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