21 Mar Coming to Ontario: 2013 General Conference
Delegates and attendees at the 2010 General Conference in La Ceiba, Honduras.
Date: May 29 – June 2, 2013.
Location: Emmanuel Bible College, Kitchener, Ontario
General Conference is an international gathering, bringing together representatives from all 10 United Brethren national conference, along with guests from the various mission districts (countries which haven’t yet organized as an official national conference).
General Conference meets every three years. The last event was held in La Ceiba, Honduras, in January 2010.
The 2013 General Conference will be hosted by the Stanley Park United Brethren Church, and held at Emmanuel Bible College in Kitchener, Ontario. Brian Magnus (right), Bishop of the Canadian conference, is the pastor at the Parkwood Gardens UB Church in nearby Guelph, Ontario. He is also chairman of the International Executive Committee, and will chair the meetings of the General Conference.
The sessions will include the business of the international United Brethren Church, the sharing of accomplishments, challenges and missions activities, and the election of new leadership for the International Executive Committee. Following the example of Honduras Conference in 2010, there will be excursions to nearby significant sights in the afternoons and inspiring worship services in the evenings.
On Saturday, June 1, the General Conference members will be joined by folk from churches around the United Brethren Church in Canada for a giant Missions Day.
On April 2, Huntington University will host the first Bergdall Endowed Lectureship on Biblical Studies. The lectureship is named in honor of Dr. Chaney Bergdall (right), an ordained United Brethren minister, who taught Bible and Religion at HU 1975-2012.
Walter Kaiser (right), one of the world’s top evangelical Old Testament scholars, will address the topic, “Why Does God Use the Jewish People?”
Pastor Brad Kittle writes, “It was crazy exhausting, but I’d done them before and I knew the possible impact. At the banquet we gave opportunities for guys to make first-time commitments, etc. As a result, 10 adults and 5 students make first-time commitments at the banquet. We also had a lot of guys check on a response card that they wanted to know more about what it means to follow Christ and even more wanted to know more about the church.”
Jason Garwood, lead pastor of Colwood UB church (Caro, Mich.), has published his first book, “The Fight for Joy: Reflections on the Book of Philippians.” It’s available for $6.38 at both 
Pastor Garwood (right) writes on his 
Each year, the church gains new families through Upwards. “Most of the kids in Upwards are not from our church,” says Pastor Lester Smith (right).
On March 11, Renew Communities (Berea, Ohio) celebrated its second anniversary as a church. They put together the video above to celebrate what God has done in their midst during the past two years. It is narrated by founding pastor Andy Sikora (right). (
“When we first built our campus wireless network in 2001, students might have brought a single laptop computer to college,” said Gary Campbell (right), director of technology services. “Today, things are very different. Our students now bring a wide variety of wireless devices to campus — computers, tablets, mobile phones, gaming consoles, and even televisions and DVD players — so the demand on our system is much greater. To help meet students’ expectations, we have developed a plan to substantially overhaul our wireless infrastructure.”