{"id":4442,"date":"2013-06-16T12:51:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T19:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=4442"},"modified":"2013-08-16T15:48:22","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T22:48:22","slug":"curtis-time-out-corner-seeking-greater-vitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/curtis-time-out-corner-seeking-greater-vitality\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtis&#8217; Time-Out Corner: Seeking Greater Vitality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Curtis&#8217; Time-Out Corner<\/strong><br \/>\nBy Curtis Brown<\/p>\n<p>John Wesley himself selected his brother\u2019s hymn \u201cAnd Are We Yet Alive\u201d to begin the annual meetings of Methodists.&nbsp; &nbsp;We stood in that long habit by initiating our PNW Annual Conference with that same hymn.&nbsp; &nbsp;But more than habit, Charles Wesley\u2019s iconic text asks what might be our most critical and poignant question: Are we still lively, vibrant, vital and strong?<\/p>\n<p>We sometimes struggle to develop an institutional definition of a vital leader or congregation but many of us recognize them when we experience them.<\/p>\n<p>Wesley did not assume that just because the Methodists gathered that they were vital.&nbsp; &nbsp;Instead, he challenged them to continue to seek after spiritual maturity and he admonished them to deeply inquire about their ongoing spiritual health and missional effectiveness.&nbsp; &nbsp;Depending on the grace and strength of God, how vital are we today? &nbsp;How urgently and actively are we seeking greater vitality? &nbsp;What are we willing to do as individuals and a Conference to become even more lively?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>The Rev. Curtis Brown serves as the director of Faith Community Development for the PNWUMC.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Curtis&#8217; Time-Out Corner By Curtis Brown John Wesley himself selected his brother\u2019s hymn \u201cAnd Are We Yet Alive\u201d to begin the annual meetings of Methodists.&nbsp; &nbsp;We stood in that long habit by initiating our PNW Annual Conference with that same hymn.&nbsp; &nbsp;But more than habit, Charles Wesley\u2019s iconic text asks what might be our most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":4380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[245,262],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-annual-conference","8":"category-faith-community-development"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/COLUMNS_Curtis.jpg?fit=600%2C307&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-19E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4442"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4864,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions\/4864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}