Kenneth L. Carder

Dementia diseases represent a crisis of faith for many family members and congregations. Magnifying this crisis is the way people with dementia tend to be objectified by both medical and religious communities. They are recipients of treatment and projects for mission. Ministry is done to and for them rather than with them. While acknowledging the devastation of dementia diseases, Ken Carder draws on his own experience as a caregiver, hospice chaplain, and pastoral practitioner to portray the gifts as well as the challenges accompanying dementia diseases. He confronts the deep personal and theological questions created by loving people with dementia diseases, demonstrating how living with dementia can be a means of growing in faith, wholeness, and ministry for the entire community of faith. He also reveals that authentic faith transcends intellectual beliefs, verbal affirmations, and prescribed practices. Carder asserts that the Judeo-Christian tradition offers a broader lens, defining personhood in relationship to God's story and humanity's participation in God's mighty acts of creation and new creation; thereby contributing to hope, community, and self-worth. Pastors and congregations will be better equipped to minister with people affected by dementia, receiving their gifts and responding to their unique needs. They will learn how people with dementia contribute to the community and the church's life and mission, discovering practical ways those contributions can be identified, nurtured, and incorporated into the church's life and ministry. From the Foreword: "Bishop Carder has written a generously wise book that is a gift to the church and a healing resource for people living with dementia and all who walk with them and alongside them. Those who are seeking a book on pastoral care and dementia will find here a wealth of theological insight, practical recommendations, and reflections that are grounded in deeply lived experience. But this is not simply a book about living with dementia or caregiving for those who live with dementia, nor simply a book about pastoral care. It is rather a testimony from the wilderness, a memoir of 'trust-end-faith.' It is a book about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in our modern, technological world. It is a book about what it means to be known and loved by God, full stop. It is a book about what it means for love to endure, when all else fails." -Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center; Esther Colliflower Associate Professor of the Practice of Pastoral and Moral Theology, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC

Feeding, providing potable water, clothing, housing, education, and access to healthcare for orphans and vulnerable children will provide the United Methodist Church its raison d'ê·tre for the 21st century and beyond. It will serve to re-unite and re-ignite the Wesleyan flame that flickers tentatively today. Who Will Care for the Orphan: If you are a United Methodist, It Could Be You is more than simply a title. It is an invitation to authentic Christian discipleship. Caring for orphans and vulnerable children is Biblically-based: the Bible commands its readers to care for orphans (often coupled with caring for widows and resident aliens) thirty-one times, as seen in this well-known but oft-ignored passage: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). Service to orphans and vulnerable children is consistent with John Wesley’s two-pronged means of grace, consisting of the works of piety and the works of mercy. Wesley himself wrote these words to George Whitefield: “Can anything on earth be a greater charity, than to bring up orphans?” Who Will Care for the Orphan offers United Methodists an alternative to the bitter infighting that has defined, divided, and created deep divisions within the denomination for the past forty years. Suggesting that United Methodist must agree to disagree on some political and theological positions, this proposed path forward replaces internal debate with service to the least, the last, and the lost. Dr. Lavender, drawing from decades of pastoral leadership, personal stories, and extensive research, presents the compelling needs of orphans and vulnerable children around the planet, laying out the case that caring for these little ones is a key to true peace with justice.

You can believe anything and be a Methodist, just so long as you're sincere. Such a misperception has deep historical and cultural roots.Explore a basic explanation of the beliefs and practices of the United Methodist Church as defined in Part II of The Book of Discipline. Uncover a deeper understanding and experience of Christian faith as you embrace the United Methodist way. "Beliefs are to be lived; doctrine is to be practiced," writes Carder in this updated edition of his 1996 bestseller. "The authenticity of beliefs lie in their ability to shape people and communities into the image of Christ and to promote holiness and happiness. ...The important test of the validity of doctrines and beliefs for United Methodists is the kind of character they produce in individuals and communities and the actions they inspire in the world." Living Our Beliefs is essential reading for new members, confirmation classes and small group studies.As one reviewer says, "Bishop Carder invites us to both understand and live our beliefs. With deep understanding of Wesley's teaching, he inspires us to practice what we preach. That is the United Methodist way."The Leader's Guide for this course, Living Our United Methodist Beliefs, by George Hovaness Donigan may be purchased here.