06 Oct It’s Official: The Rock is a UB Church

Ron Ramsey, Bishop

I had a great day yesterday in Findlay, Ohio, at The ROCK, formerly known as Faith Community Church. Faith began in 1995 under the leadership of Dan Young, who now pastors Crestview UB church in Lafayette, Ind.

A couple years ago, I appointed a young man as pastor of Faith Community Church. He had attended seminary with Brad Kittle (right, with wife Jamie), who was then pasturing a church in Findlay with the Evangelical Congregational denomination. They began talking about merging the two congregations. At the 2005 US National Conference, I met with Brad and a delegation from his church, and they attended part of the conference.

Early this year, they decided to begin holding services as one congregation. A few months later, they invited me and the Evangelical Congregational bishop to meet with them on a Sunday morning. Neither of us had any idea which way they would go, EC or UB. In this case, they voted to become United Brethren.

This past Sunday, October 5, was the grand finale. The EC congregation, plus a number of Faith people who had never joined the church, became members of the United Brethren church en masse. I was privileged to lead about 45 people in taking their UB membership vows.

They also baptized two women. One had been a Christian for a while, but had never been baptized. The other, however, was a brand new convert who was excited to be a Christian. We require people to be baptized before joining the church. These women joined the church the same day they were baptized, which was kind of neat.

I would guess they had 120 people there. They have a lot of kids for that size of church! They also ordained three men as a board of elders, and anointed them with oil. They held a hog roast after the service.

The church recently adopted the name The ROCK (Reaching Others for Christ’s Kingdom). Pastor Brad Kittle took the UB church history course this summer. He’s a fine young man doing a good job for us.