UM News Digest - Aug. 26, 2026

UM News Digest - Aug. 26, 2026

Table ministry | Conference responds to cyber theft | Equipping youth

“The Table was not started for people already in the church. We wanted to meet people outside the church.” — The Rev. Changhyun Kim, a United Methodist pastor and Korean cuisine chef.

The Rev. Changhyun Kim, pastor of Bonfire United Methodist Church and chef at The Table Korean Cuisine in Olathe, Kan., talks with customers as he delivers a takeout meal to a table during Friday dinner service. Photo by the Rev. Thomas E. Kim, UM News.

Church sets the table to connect beyond its walls
OLATHE, Kan. (UM News) — On Friday evenings, Book & Coffee Shop at Grace United Methodist Church looks less like a church hall and more like one of Kansas City’s busiest Korean restaurants. Diners come for traditional Korean dishes prepared by the Rev. Changhyun Kim, a certified chef and pastor of Bonfire United Methodist Church. Kim has turned his passion for his native cuisine into a successful outreach ministry for the church start-up. The Rev. Thomas E. Kim has the story.

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Conference confronts cyber theft with faith, resolve
METHUEN, Mass. (UM News) — The New England Conference is working with federal and local investigators after a cybersecurity incident resulted in the theft of $1.6 million earlier this month. Conference leaders also are taking steps to help fellow United Methodists prevent wire fraud. Heather Hahn reports.
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See cybersecurity resources

High school students gather in Nashville, Tenn., for the Hispanic Youth Leadership Academy preparatory session, a program focused on nurturing the next generation of Hispanic-Latino leaders. Photo by the Rev. Gustavo Vásquez, UM News.

High school students gather in Nashville, Tenn., for the Hispanic Youth Leadership Academy preparatory session. Photo by the Rev. Gustavo Vásquez, UM News.

Equipping Hispanic-Latino youth for leadership
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UM News) — As Hispanic-Latino communities across the United States continue to navigate heightened immigration concerns, church leaders increasingly are asking not whether to invest in young leaders, but how to prepare them for faithful leadership. For more than two decades, the Hispanic Youth Leadership Academy has answered a call to help young people explore vocation and Christian service. The Rev. Gustavo Vásquez has the story.
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South Carolina Conference
Small South Carolina church feeds hundreds
PROSPERITY, S.C. — Zion United Methodist Church, a small congregation of 85, fed 280 families in a single morning, with cars lined up before dawn and winding through the graveyard to reach the food. The congregation does this three times a year, every year. Jessica Brodie has the story.
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United Methodist Publishing House
Abingdon Press defends Amy-Jill Levine
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Catholic Biblical Association recently elected Amy-Jill Levine as the association’s president. Levine, an Abingdon Press author, is both Jewish and a renowned New Testament scholar. Brian K. Milford, who heads the United Methodist Publishing House, and Neil M. Alexander, his immediate predecessor, express dismay at personal attacks Levine has faced since her election. The two also express gratitude for her scholarship that has helped Christians understand Jesus in his Jewish context.
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UM News: United Methodists embrace Amy-Jill Levine

UM News includes in the Digest various commentaries about issues in the denomination. The opinion pieces reflect a variety of viewpoints and are the opinions of the writers, not UM News staff.

On human dignity: People are ends in themselves
DOWAGIAC, Mich. (UM News) — The teaching in Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical has strong similarities with the ideas that drove the abolitionist movement in America, says the Rev. Dr. Christopher P. Momany, a historian and United Methodist pastor. Thinkers such as Theodore Weld, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. held that each person should be treated as an end and not as a means. “I believe this fundamental conviction remains vital for today’s defense of human rights,” he writes.
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