April 1, 2010
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Last Sunday, March 28, I visited the Imagine This UB church in Grand Ledge, Mich. This church was planted just over two years ago. They went through a process of organizing as a full-fledged United Brethren church. And on March 28, we made it official.
I also conducted an installation service for Roy Atherton, who had been appointed senior pastor at the end of January. I charged the congregation with the responsibility of supporting their pastor.
The people at Grand Ledge are mostly new believers. The church is stronger than it’s ever been. They went through the ups and downs of losing their founding pastor, Gordon Kettel, but Roy Atherton is doing a great job of keeping them on course.
Imagine This makes an impact in the community. If they closed their doors, people would notice because of the types of services and ministries they do. They currently occupy a former bank building on a prominent corner in Grand Ledge. The lease on their building runs out at the end of April, but they are working on several different options.
Imagine This holds two services each Sunday—one at 10:30 a.m., one at 6 p.m. They are identical services. The congregation began with an evening service while sharing facilities with several other churches; evening was the only time slot available to them. When they got their own facility, they added a morning service, but kept the evening service since that’s what the people were accustomed to attending. The evening service has always been their larger service, and the services draw a different group of people. I estimate that around 200 people attended the two services on March 28.
They baptized eight people–two boys and an adult woman in the morning, and three teens and two adult women at night. They used an inflatable pool, probably six feet across. People sat down in the water and were dipped backwards. The pool apparently had a slow leak, which became noticeable at night. People came up to hold the sides in place.
The water was very cold. A young boy about 10 years old went first in the morning. As he stood knee deep in the water, he couldn’t go through with it. They ended up pouring water over his head. Both women in the evening service were also baptized by pouring (one worse a cast).
At 3 p.m., they held a concert featuring Seven Day Slumber and another band. The leader of Seven Day Slumber gave a powerful testimony of his conversion. Twelve people came forward to make some kind of change in their lives, not necessarily a first-time conversion, but an altar call. This went until 5:30. That left just 30 minutes to reorient the stage for the evening service, but they were ready to go at 6:00.
The evening service also featured the dedication of the worship leader’s new baby, which brought in some extra families. Since they meet at night, guests were able to attend their own churches in the morning.
I’m very proud to have Imagine This as a United Brethren church. They are doing what I think all of God’s churches are called to do. They won’t reach every type of person, but they are reaching people who need the gospel and are definitely making an impact on their community.
From Marvin Schwartz (right), senior pastor of New Horizons Community Church (Rockford, Ohio):
Mabel Mundy, who has worked at the national office since 1987 (most of that time in Global Ministries), became a great-grandma this morning.
On this date in 1812–which was 198 years ago–Bishop Martin Boehm died. He was 87 years old. Boehm was one of our denomination’s founders. He was the man who preached that fiery message at Long’s Barn in 1767 which caught the attention of our other founder, William Otterbein.
