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22 May

May 22, 2009 |

Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries

I received a call from Chuck McKeown, pastor of First Church in Holly Hill, Fla. They had been in a drought condition, but since Monday have received 26 inches of rain. There is nowhere for it to go, and most of the area around Holly Hill and Ormond Beach (just north of them) is totally flooded. Chuck said it is almost worse than when they get hurricanes.

They are setting up the church as an emergency care center. They are in need of any teams that would be willing to come down and help their families and other families in their community to pull carpets and mattresses and help begin the process of recovery. He indicated that most of the folks do not have flood insurance, so this is going to devastate them financially as well.

If you have folks who can and would like to help, please coordinate through Chuck. His contact info and the address for the church are:

Pastor Chuck McKeown
First UB Daytona
1650 Center Avenue
Holly Hill, FL 32117
Office: 386-677-6940
Cell: 386-547-4005

His cell would probably be the best way to get him.

22 May

May 22, 2009 |

OliveBranchYouth_500.jpg

L-r: Pastor Dan and Mary Alice Drake, Zachary Kennedy, and Courtney Clark.

Last Sunday, May 17, I was privileged to participate in a service at Olive Branch Church of Lakeville, Ind. (just outside of South Bend). I was there to install Zachary Kennedy as the church’s Young Adult and Youth Pastor.

This is a historic thing for Olive Branchy–their first staff hire ever, as far as I know. Zachary graduated this spring from Bethel College in nearby Mishawaka, Ind. He and Courtney are to be married June 13. For now, the new position will be part-time, but the church is praying tha tit can become fulltime in the very near future.

21 May

May 21, 2009 |

The US Postal Service brought us an Easter story from Liberty UB church in Stockport, Ohio. Mike Turner, a layperson, writes:

“We started at 7 a.m. with 46 in our sunrise service. Those present were encouraged to take part with testimonies, songs, readings, etc. After the sunrise service, Pastor Charles Simmons’ adult twin sons fixed breakfast for all attending. They do this for their dad every year to honor him. It was a great time of fellowship and good food. Charlie had 82 to preach to in morning worship.

“In 2008 we averaged 36 in morning worship. So far in 2009 we are averaging 52. Charlie is preaching the Word. Christians are praying. Seekers are coming. God is good, all the time.”

20 May

May 20, 2009 |

A one-day workshop on “Strategic Planning for the Local Church” will be held July 16 in Fort Wayne, Ind. It’s limited to 30 persons–the first 30 to register. This seminar was previously held in February, and it filled up.

The presenter is Dr. Rick Upchurch, director of the Huntington University EXCEL adult education program. His office, along with all other graduate school offices, is in the Healthy Ministry Resources building (and all of us agree that he’s a great guy). Rick is an ordained Nazarene minister who has worked with local churches the past ten years as a consultant in leadership-related areas.

Date: Thursday, July 16, 2009
Time: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Innovation Center, 3201 Stelhorn Road, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Cost: $99 (or $79 each if 3 or more persons come from the same church). Includes lunch.
CEU Credit: .5 CEU

The class will focus on:

  • Steps to an effective strategic plan for your church.
  • How to implement change in a way that produces results.
  • Leadership types and how to maximize your personal type.

You can register online. You can also contact Dr. Upchurch by email.

18 May

May 18, 2009 |

On Saturday, Huntington University awarded degrees to another 235 graduates. This 111th commencement was held in the Field House of the Merillat Complex for Physical Education and Recreation. The break-down included:

  • 7 Master of Arts degrees.
  • 6 Master of Education degrees.
  • 62 Bachelor of Arts degrees.
  • 198 Bachelor of Science degrees.
  • 7 even Bachelor of Social Work degrees.
  • 21 Associate of Science degrees.
  • 3 honorary doctorates.

You can view more photos from Commencement and Baccalaureate at the Huntington University site.

15 May

May 15, 2009 |

While reading from Trial and Triumphs: History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, I came across a quote from our Bishop’s quadrennial report of 1929:

“We stand in need of a great spiritual awakening throughout the Church. A greater emphasis should be placed upon the actual presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our people. A consciousness of the intervention of God…is the only antidote which will counteract the poison of materialistic teaching which is everywhere pouring in upon Christianity, killing the spirituality of the church and rendering the lives of thousands barren and unfruitful.”

Wow!  That could have been written about the Church in 2009 as well.

13 May

May 13, 2009 |

Wow, things are a bit crazy around Healthy Ministry Resource as we put together a big packet of materials for all delegates to the National Conference. Which is just three weeks away.

The packet contains:

  • Reports from Bishop Ramsey and the various directors.
  • Materials regarding elections–vision statement, bios, ballots.
  • All of the proposals for changing the Discipline (about 30 of them).
  • Executive Leadership Team minutes from the last two years.
  • The Rules and Procedures of the conference.

Bishop Ramsey stresses: READ THE REPORTS. We’re not going to spend a lot of time going over them during the conference. That would be redundant. We have too much ground to cover.

The packet of reports will probably go out Thursday or Friday. But right now, you can download most of them, and also view them online at the US National Conference site.

Delegates are also advised to download the UB Discipline from the US National Conference site. Perhaps pastors could print out a copy for each delegate. It may come in handy when we’re doing Discipline revision.

09 May

May 9, 2009 |

Registrations now stand at 788, so the big 8-0-0- isn’t far away.

The number of ministerial and lay delegates has been running neck-and-neck, but now the laypersons have jumped out to a decent lead:

  • 180 ministerial delegates
  • 189 lay delegates

The UB Historical Banquet will be quite the deal, certainly the largest the UB Historical Society has had. Current signees: 135.

The golf outing has 25 people registered for Thursday and 27 for Saturday.

We’ve been publicizing the LEAD Team luncheon on Friday. We now have 22 people signed up to learn more about church planting.