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Paul Wall (right), pastor of West Windsor UB (Dimondale, Mich.), experienced the loss of his father on Friday, Jan 6, 2012. Rev. Dave Wall, 82, had had dementia and Alzheimer’s for several years. Cards can be sent to Paul and Pam Wall at: 7275 Windsor Hwy, Dimondale, MI 48821.
The Mill Crossing UB Church in Cambridge, Ontario
Mill Crossing UB Church (Cambridge, Ontario) is one of three Ontario churches featured in an article by TheRecord.com titled, “Building a Church Bigger than a Building.” It’s about unconventional evangelical churches arising not in traditional church buildings, but in other locations–a hotel, a community center, and, in the case of Mill Crossing, a former warehouse. Here’s the part about Mill Crossing.
Neil and Liz Cudney
At Mill Crossing, reaching out to others in their Hespeler community is central to their mission.
Co-pastors Neil and Elizabeth Cudney (right) describe Mill Crossing in Cambridge as a journey where members try to be more like Christ, showing mercy, grace, and gentleness.
“How do we help the community around us experience that?” Neil Cudney asked.
He said Mill Crossing has connected with Popcorn House, serving Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and supporting the group’s breakfast club.
Mill Crossing started in Cambridge in 2005, meeting at the Best Western, and moved into its current home in a renovated warehouse on Queen Street next to Len’s Mill last April.
Mill Crossing stems from the United Brethren Church, the denomination of Orville and Wilbur Wright, who built the first airplane. Their father was Bishop Milton Wright. The denomination came to Canada in the 1800s.
“We are an old denomination but no one has heard of us,” Elizabeth Cudney said.
Mill Crossing’s mother church is Parkwood Gardens in Guelph. Mill Crossing has been financially self-sufficient for two years, relying on offerings and tithes from members to pay its costs.
About 80 people call the church home, many of them young families.
“We are the oldies in the group,” chuckles Elizabeth Cudney, 50.
She said a church community is important during times of economic uncertainty.
“We need each other especially in these crazy times,” she said. “I really don’t understand why people don’t flock to churches. We really need each other.”
“You can never realize true community until we are in community with God,” said Neil, who is the director of pastoral ministries at Christian Horizons.
Elizabeth said some members may have difficulty with organized churches.
“We are careful about earning trust. We want to be honest and real and not push money in their face,” she said.
The Cudneys, like most Christian evangelicals, believe that salvation is found only through Jesus.
“I believe that to be the truth. I live my life in accordance with that,” said Neil Cudney.
But for those who have another point of view, Neil says “it does not change my value placed on understanding you or working with you. It’s God that holds the door.”
Although these three groups may be attracting similar followers, they say there’s room for all of them.
Elizabeth Cudney said she’s thrilled other similar groups exist in the region. “We want to see God’s kingdom expand.”
Sam Ward (right), Pastor of Creative Worship and Drama, Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
It seems like we’re listening to more music than we ever have. We listen to music in our cars, on headphones, at the gas station, and even at the grocery store, but we make music less and less. We are singing together less and less. Think about it…50 to 60 years ago, it was a common occurrence for people to get together and sing on a Wednesday or Sunday night. But not anymore. Our music production values are getting better, but when do we join with a small group of believers to sing?
When I grew up, my Dad played guitar and led worship for our small church of 100 people or so. A close family friend would always call at Christmas and invite our whole family over. He would also always remind my Dad to bring his guitar. And then we would sing, eat, laugh, and tell stories for the whole night. That was it.
Thinking back to those times…what I found out is that there are not a whole lot of things that you really need to have a time of fellowship and worship. So we created times like this at Emmanuel Community Church this Christmas.
The ECC Worship Arts and Warmth Ministries joined forces and called it the ECC HOME TOUR. This was a time of us coming together to participate in something together. It wasn’t a time to come and be fed, but a time to sing, eat, laugh, tell stories, and celebrate that Jesus, God with us, was born in a barn. He wasn’t born in a palace or a temple or a synagogue or a church. He was born in a barn.
So we thought it appropriate that these happened in various homes, a log cabin and…even a barn. While all the events were similar, we had three different teams to pull off the 9 different HOME TOURS that took place on different nights and in different places.
On December 10-11 (Saturday and Sunday), “The Gift of Christmas” was presented by the choir, orchestra, praise teams, kid’s choir, and drama and tech ministries of King Street Church (Chambersburg, Pa.). It featured anthems for choir and orchestra arranged by Bradley Knight, a beautiful worship musical entitled “Behold the Lamb of God” by Andrew Peterson and a live nativity (which included a donkey, calf, 2 roosters, 2 goats, 2 sheep and a lamb).
The 70 voice choir, under the direction of Pastor Jonathan Ford, spanned in age from 13 to 80+. All instrumental ensembles were directed by Mckendree Tucker, the newest member of the King Street Worship staff. With 4 performances over the course of 2 days, more than 2,000 people were able to come and see this cast of more than 200 volunteers present their sacrifice of praise to the Lord Jesus Christ in honor of his birthday!
You can watch segments of this program on YouTube.
If you would like a DVD or audio CD of this program please contact King Street Church by email.
Ralph Butzow, Claytonville UB Church (Claytonville, Ill.)
We continued a church tradition by inviting neighbors and friends of our congregation to join
us for an evening of singing Christmas carols around the lighted evergreen tree on our church lawn. After the singing, we enjoyed a time of food and fellowship in the church basement. This was a good
time of renewing friendships and sharing the Christmas message.
Our congregation started this annual event to replace a similar event that had been sponsored for
many years by the merchants of the town.
Mark Smith, Morocco UB church (Temperance, Mich.)
On Saturday, December 3, at Christmas In Ida, we had a table this year at the craft show. We gave away cloth shopping bags with our name on them, along with free Bibles and information about our church and service times. It was a great day of sharing. Two people who took information attended our Christmas Eve service.
Our church Christmas program was on Sunday night, December 11, with almost everyone from the congregation taking part. It was wonderful seeing the church almost filled, and sharing the joys of Christmas not only with each other but with the visitors who attended. A fellowship time followed with plenty of treats.
We had a wonderful service on Christmas Eve. Pastor Todd Greenman served communion, with an elder and his wife assisting. On Christmas Day we had our regular service at the normal time, and again God blessed us with visitors who heard our church was having services. We praise God for the excitment of seeing him work not only in our families but in seeing new faces almost weekly.
Tell us something special your church did during the Christmas season–events, programs, ministries, anything. You can use this form or send an email.
Persons from The Rock cook a Christmas morning meal at the Findlay City Mission.
Christmas morning at the Findlay City Mission
Teddy Fairchild (right), senior pastor, The Rock (Findlay, Ohio)
We have been celebrating Christmas a little differently here at our church, The Rock, here in Findlay, Ohio. God gave us the opportunity to serve him in unique ways through the local jail. I was recently sworn in as a chaplain for the Hancock County Sheriffs Department.
I was given an idea about videotaping Christmas messages from the inmates to their families. I volunteered myself and The Rock to carry out the project. The sheriff was supportive in allowing us to bring in a festive backdrop, a Christmas tree, and video equipment. It was a lot of work for the Correctional Officers to go to each cell block and transport the inmates to get their video done, and they did so with full support.
In total, 17 inmates choose to record a message. We included a brief introduction of our church and our wishes for a blessed Christmas before the individual messages from the inmates with music overlay. Each DVD was personalized and mailed to the families.
God certainly was at work in the hearts of the inmates as well as the officers, and I am eager to continue building relationship’s with both of these communities. Our prayer is that we remain open to the new and different outreaches God allows the Rock to be a part of as we seek to reach others for Christ’s Kingdom.
In our Christmas sermon series, we were challenged to find a gift for Christ on His birthday, whether a gift of forgiveness to another, an expression of love, or an act of service to one whom we may not think deserves it or will give anything back. Christ set the example in sacrificing and giving without expectation of return in coming to our world as a baby in a lowly manger.
So this Christmas morning nearly two-thirds of The Rock Church showed up bright and early at the Findlay City Mission to cook and serve breakfast for the homeless before our regular church worship time. Many arrived before 7 am to decorate tables, heat ovens, and make coffee. We served egg casserole, biscuits and sausage gravy, donuts, drinks, and lots of friendly conversation.
As a pastor, I am encouraged to see my fellow brothers and sisters living out the name they chose for this church: Reaching Others for Christ’s Kingdom (ROCK). It was something small and simple to give, but I believe it shows the heart of God’s people, and some of the neediest people in our community experienced his love in a very practical way this Christmas.
Tell us something special your church did during the Christmas season–events, programs, ministries, anything. You can use this form or send an email.
First UB Church in Holly Hill, Fla., is looking for a bus. Got one they could have or buy?
Pastor Chuck McKeown (right, with wife Vicki) writes, “We opened an ACE school at the church on December 12, 2011. We have about 50 K-12 students enrolled now and are expecting an additional 10 by the end of January. Most are from low-income families and many have special needs. We need a school-type bus for outings and field trips.”
He reports that they also plan to build a new home for their food pantry. “In 2011 we distributed 340,000 pounds of food to over 40,000 people from another location. Because that location is no longer available, we had to move everything to the church.”
Bishop Phil Whipple (right) presents a ministerial certificate to his son Josh.
On Sunday, January 1, 2012, Bishop Phil Whipple had the privilege of granting a ministerial license to his son, Josh Whipple. Josh was named senior pastor of Mount Hope UB Church (Carson City, Mich.) effective November 14, 2011. He had previously served as youth/worship pastor at Mongul UB in Shippensburg, Pa.
Josh is the first person to be granted the new “provisional” ministerial license. Normally, the local church license, which is granted by individual churches, is the entry point for ministers. However, this has proven awkward in situations where a person (perhaps coming from outside the denomination) is being assigned as senior pastor of that church. Last fall the Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team implemented this new license, which brings the license under the authority of the PMLT and involves questioning which goes much deeper than the local church license (on the level of the national conference license).
Details of the provisional license will be finalized during the spring 2012 meeting of the Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team.
Eldon Grubb, pastor, Pleasant Valley UB (Lake Odessa, Mich.)
On the first Sunday night in December, we had a concert with our bell choir and brass group. Not all the bell choir members are from Pleasant Valley, so we invited people from 3 or more other churches. More than 110 came out, and it was a great time of music and worship, including a “Ring-a-story” skit with the bell choir.
On December 18 in the evening, about 6-8 of us went Christmas caroling. We got to 2-3 places to people who had only been to church once in a while or not at all in the last year. So it was some good outreach.
On December 24, we held a simple candlelighting service. I knew some were gone, so I did not expect many. But those who
came brought families, and at least one family came on their own. It was very good!
Tell us something special your church did during the Christmas season–events, programs, ministries, anything. You can use this form or send an email.
