16 Oct Fall Teen Retreat at Camp Cotubic
On November 19-21, all teens are invited to attend the annual teen retreat at Camp Cotubic (Bellefontaine, Ohio). Cost for the weekend is $75. You can register on the camp’s website.
14 Oct Bishop Whipple’s Report to the ELT
Bishop Phil Whipple leading the ELT meeting, as his administrative assistant, Cathy Reich, takes notes.
The Executive Leadership Team met October 11-12 in Huntington, Ind. The ELT, the highest governing body between meetings of the US National Conference, meets twice a year to handle business. There are 13 members: Bishop Phil Whipple (chairman), 8 persons elected by the National Conference, and 4 persons appointed by the ELT itself.
The bishop and the various directors all presented one-page bulleted reports. Here are some items from Bishop Phil Whipple’s written and verbal report to the ELT:
- Bishop Whipple, often accompanied by his wife Sandy, traveled over 44,000 miles during his first year as bishop. He has been in 87 of our approximately 200 churches in the United States.
- The church in Lansing, Mich., will close October 24. All assets will be given to a Lansing restart project headed by Tim Flickinger, former senior pastor of Fowlerville UB (Fowlerville, Mich.). It is not known yet if the building will be sold.
- Andy Sikora has begun planting a new church in Berea, Ohio.
- Another new work is Eternal Waters, located in southern Ohio. They report decisions and baptisms. This self-supporting work requires no funds from the denomination. Their founder, Allen Layne, is employed fulltime and takes no salary.
- The denomination now owns the property of Fountain Hills Community Church (Fountain Hills, Ariz.). That church closed in the fall of 2009. The former congregation had outstanding loans with both the denomination and Global Ministries. The building underwent some significant repairs and is now being leased to an independent congregation called Four Peaks Church. Bishop Whipple will visit Fountain Hills in January 2011 to meet with the Four Peaks elder team.
- Two churches were closed: Central UB (Rohersville, Md.), and Convoy (Convoy, Ohio).
- Felida Christian Fellowship, our church in Vancouver, Wash., withdrew from the denomination. They are becoming a satellite campus for Summit View Church, a megachurch in Vancouver.
- “We must do a better job of developing leaders among our pastors and help them to raise up leaders in their congregations.”
- “I believe that God has great things in store for us as a body of churches together. Let’s lift up our eyes and look to the God who is more than able to accomplish more than I can dream of. Let’s move forward in faith believing that he is going to do a new thing, with or without us, but he delights in doing it in the hearts of those who are willing to trust him fully.”
14 Oct 2011 Pastor’s Salary Recommendation
The Executive Leadership Team approved the 2011 minimum fulltime salary formula for United Brethren ministers.
- The recommendation includes a base salary of $36,500 (a 1.1% increase from 2010). That is a starting point.
- Other factors–such as experience, education, church attendance, staff size–add to the base salary.
- Benefits such as parsonage, utilities, SECA, insurance, and pension round out the compensation package.
To be a fulltime pastor, the compensation package must meet all of these criteria in full. If a church cannot meet these guidelines, a pastor may pursue supplemental employment to achieve the compensation level.
You can read the current compensation recommendation on the UB website.
13 Oct Pastor Appreciation Month
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Many churches use this month to recognize their pastor and do something special to show their love. What is your church doing?
13 Oct Summer Camp 2011 Dates at Camp Cotubic
Many United Brethren churches send children to summer camp at Camp Cotubic, the former UB camp in Bellefontaine, Ohio. Here are the dates for the summer 2011 camps, so you can plan ahead:
June 12-17: Teen Challenge Camp (grades 7-12).
June 26 – July 1: Discovery camp (grades 5-6).
July 17-21: Voyager Camp (grades 2-4).
13 Oct Camp Cotubic and Chick Fil-A
Chick Fil-A is chipping in to help with a unique fundraiser for Camp Cotubic in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
On Tuesday, October 26, the Chick Fil-A at the Jefferson Pointe mall in Fort Wayne, Ind., will donate to the camp 15% of all sales made 5-7 pm. Friends of the camp will be on hand to clean tables, greet friends, and answer questions about the camp. So if you live in the Fort Wayne area, head on over to Jefferson Pointe.
Members from Zanesville UB church (Zanesville, Ind.) arranged this event. Note: the Jefferson Point Chick Fil-A is the only location participating in this promotion for the camp.
13 Oct HU Students Spending Fall Break in Service
In fall 2008, Munster, Ind., and other northwest Indiana communities were greatly affected by a flood that damaged more than 18,000 homes and businesses. Some were lucky, regaining their homes within a matter of weeks. Others were not.
A group of eight Huntington University students and one staff adviser will be traveling to Munster from October 15-19 during fall break to rebuild and tear down houses that were greatly affected by the flooding. The team will work with LARRI (Lakeshore Area Regional Recovery of Indiana), a local relief organization, as well as ArcBridges to do some site maintenance to its building and to a few other residential buildings.
“We are going on this trip because it is important to serve God and serve others through service,” said Zach Keller, a junior math and math education double major from Portland, Ind. “The Munster area is still in need of clean up, and we are very excited to be able to help with that.”
The trip is sponsored by Huntington University’s Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service.
12 Oct Paul Hirschy to Resume Chemo
Paul Hirschy, who served as bishop 2001-2005, dealt with lymphoma cancer during his years as bishop and and before. Now his cancer has returned. He will begin chemo treatments on Thursday, October 21, and it will continue over a period of months.
You can send cards to:
Paul Hirschy
5493 North Goshen Rd
Huntington, IN 46750
08 Oct Canadian Work Team in Haiti
Joan Sider has made many trips to Haiti with her fellow Canadians. Now she’s there again, this time with a team of 12 persons from Canada, plus one from Honduras. They are working on the Delmas church in Port au Prince.
06 Oct Help Us Redesign the UB Website
We’re beginning work on a redesign of the UB.org website, the official website of the United Brethren in Christ Church, USA. The current design has been in place for over 5 years. Time for an upgrade.
We want your suggestions as we begin developing a new flagship site.
- What would you like to see in a revamped UB.org?
- What is missing in the current site?
- What frustrates you about the current site?
- What bells and whistles would you like to see?
- What types of information would be most valuable?
- What information needs to be most accessible?
Please send your suggestions to Steve Dennie, the Communications director.
Anything is fair game. So fire away!
UB.org will complement these two new sites:
- UBCentral.org, a centralized place for all types of UB news, with hooks into Facebook and Twitter. Created in October 2009.
- UBGlobal.org, a new site for everything related to Global Ministries. Unveiled in September 2010.