✝davidwofford.com

There was a time that I thought commissioning was a just another gimme in the long list of promises coming my way.  Like a child, spoiled by the privileges of indulgence, I was sure that this was but a right for which I was to be handed.  That was of course until I came before the NGUMC Board of Ordained Ministry.

It was on that Monday during mid-March 2008 when I was humbled (Jesus says “the exalted will be humbled”).  I MEAN HUMBLED!  Then came mid-March 2009 when, yet again, I was deferred.  Seeing no way through at the moment, I told my wife, my family and my friends that “if there had ever been a needle’s eye, this was it.”

It was in my helplessness, my nothingness, my emptiness that Christ made a way by offering me a place to serve despite my inability to move forward.  During the third year leading up to Annual Conference for North Georgia this past week, everything seemed to change in my heart.  God moved in spite of me.  Despite my failures, God blessed.  Regardless of my stumbles with the Board, Christ showed up and ministered.  When I was not sure what would happened or where I (and my wife) may end up, God’s blessings poured out from seemingly thin air.  Time after time after time, God was revealed.  God was revealed…..GOD was REVEALED! Continue reading …and it was beautiful

your death is life,

your life is death.

spanning time in conversation,

outside of time’s conversion.

where do you end,

when do you begin?

how did you persevere,

why so severe? Continue reading tomb womb

Recently I’ve heard a lot of theology about all things “Jesus” and like most things good, I am finding that the simple things are quite often the most profound.  The more I complicate things the more convoluted they seems to become in my mind. I’m a details guy.  I get caught up in them, I dwell in them; quite often I falter because of them.

So this Maundy Thursday I am choosing to return things back to simple.  Rather than dwelling upon the minutiae surrounding me, I’m going to do my best to turn to the a more simple analogy for Jesus.  Sure, the vastness of God; the extraordinary nature of God may boggle our minds if we try too hard to understand what He is doing.  I for one can’t comprehend it.  But today, as I descend with Jesus to the Cross I’m keeping it simple. Continue reading Re-membering; Re-presenting: The Bucket List

Not too many more words needed to introduce this clip except that it was originally posted by JD Walt, Dean of Chapel at Asbury Seminary and that this is Matt Clark performing at (I believe) Wesley Foundation at Univ. of Arkansas.

May my story and your story descend with the story of Jesus!

The last several days have been all over the place!  I am preparing for my return to the Board of Ordained Ministry (BoOM) of the North Georgia Conference on Monday at 11:10 a.m. (please be in prayer for that interview).  I am also vigorously hard at work with several responsibilities here at St. James UMC (as are most pastors).  As a preface amid the distractions, God continues to pearce my soul with far deeper truth regarding human dignity and his love for humanity both collectively and individually.

In my preparations for the BoOM I have been reading a lot!  Specifically I’ve read lots of books on theology and doctrine.  Books like N.T. Wright’s “Evil and the Justice of God,” John Wesley’s “The Holy Spirit and Power,” and M. Scott Peck’s “People of the Lie.”  One of the most impacting reads yet (including these more mainstream reads) were three lesser read books in the Jesus genre, Brennan Manning’s “The Ragamuffin Gospel,” Shane Claiborne’s “The Irresistible Revolution,” and “Same Kind of Different As Me,” by Denver Moore and Ron Hall.  The message I keep hearing in my prayers is that EVERYONE DESERVES THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. Continue reading Dignity