As those “untimely born” like the Apostle Paul, we disciples today have the ability to know the Risen Christ and to know that some teachings of the past must not rule our future, writes the Rev. Bill Cotton.

The announcement of Jesus’ birth to lowly shepherds by a heavenly host prompts the Rev. Bill Cotton to ponder what kind of conglomeration United Methodists will be at the 2019 General Conference.

The Rev. Bill Cotton first learned about racism under an old peach tree in East Texas where his white mother let him meet his African-American playmates. Now he backs the Black Lives Matter movement.

Recalling Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting “Freedom from want,” the Rev. Bill Cotton counsels that in today’s America, churches should embrace a fifth freedom, to resist the systems that are creating want, or poverty.

Queen Esther made “God-talk” when she saved the Jews in Persia from slaughter, and today the “Raging Grannies” walk the same walk, writes the Rev. Bill Cotton.

Sunday school may seem like a quaint, dying tradititon, but the Rev. Bill Cotton knows it as the place where faith and community relationships are first formed and much needed.

A 72-year-old retired librarian came to the Rev. Bill Cotton’s Course of Study school because there were children in her small rural church that needed to be baptized.

Despite Martin Luther’s distaste for it, the Book of James contains hardly a paragraph that is not focused on human need, which is the church’s primary task, writes the Rev. Bill Cotton.