Worth reading, part IV

My last two posts featured periodicals in the Wesleyan & Methodist tradition that fall by and large on the scholarly or academic side. Today I want to highlight a more popular-level publication. The United Methodist Reporter, in my opinion, is the best news source available for current events and commentary related to the life of the United Methodist Church.

Okay, okay, first a disclosure. I am a columnist for the Reporter, where my articles appear bi-weekly. I did take a sabbatical from writing over much of the fall, but my columns will return to the pages of the Reporter later this month. Then again, the only reason I write for the Reporter is because I think it's a great publication!

The Reporter is both a traditional newspaper and an online news site. The newspaper is used by many annual conferences as its printed source of conference news. UMR Communications - the parent company - partners with annual conferences to tailor their own editions. So for instance, you might see the Memphis Conference Reporter if you live in that annual conference, featuring local news combined with stories related to the larger Methodist connection.

What this basically offers the Church is a journalistic organization dedicated to covering and reporting on the United Methodist connection, but one that is also independent and thus able to maintain the objectivity that comes along with being its own entity.

Along with news reporting, you'll find a great deal of special features in the pages of the Reporter. Each issue usually highlights a cutting edge ministry or important initiative going on somewhere in the Church. In the opinion section, I write an op/ed column, alongside other regular columnists like Don Haynes and Bishop Woodie White. You'll also see a lot of special contributors writing commentaries on various topics. And there are regular features on film, Christian music, and hymnody.

If your annual conference uses the Reporter and you'd like to subscribe, go through your conference office. If you want to subscribe to the national edition (this is the type of subscription I have, for instance), then go to this link.

As with my previous posts, I would urge you to think about a print subscription to support the ministry periodicals like the Reporter are carrying on. Even if you prefer to read stories online (which you can through the UM Portal, the Reporter's online presence), getting the print edition is a way to further the work of an important ministry that helps keep the connection, connected!