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25 Jun

June 25, 2008 |

Bethany House of the Lord is a four-year-old United Brethren church planting project in Cumberland, Maryland. The congregation emphasizes a simple household approach to ministry and worship. Using an age-integrated curriculum for daily devotions based on the Sunday sermon, parents are encouraged to take responsibility for the discipleship of their own children.

On Fathers Day 2008, Pastor Michael Mudge took vacation and left the responsibilities for leading worship and preaching to the congregation for the fourth consecutive year. This year, the preaching was done by three young men of the congregation…ages 15, 13, and 39!

25 Jun

June 25, 2008 |

hirschy_paul.jpgPaul Hirschy, former bishop and now a Huntington University staffer, has been offering the Good Sense stewardship training to UB churches. He recently conducted this at Franklintown UB church (Franklintown, Pa.). What’s this about?

Paul explains, “Willow Creek developed the Good Sense materials because they found that people would not give the time required for the demanding Crown Ministry. It is practical, designed to be done in one day, with six one-hour sessions. However, people are expected to do some pre-session work in preparation for the training.

“The material emphasizes that:

  • God owns it all and we are to be good trustees of what God has entrusted to us.
  • Credit card debt is the most damaging kind of debt, and people need to be very wise in the use of credit cards.
  • People can get out of debt and find financial freedom.

Credit card debt is a huge issue for many people. Churches need to deal with it to be relevant to one of the major problems in people’s lives.

“I like Good Sense because it is easy for people to understand, it can be presented in one day, and the cost is reasonable ($15 per manual, which a couple can share).”

If you’re interested in possibly hosting a Good Sense seminar, contact Paul Hirschy at phirschy@huntington.edu or call toll-free 1-866-213-3710.

24 Jun

June 24, 2008 |

A medical team left for Honduras last Friday. Donna Hollopeter, associate director of Global Ministries, is a member of that team. She sent this brief email back to the Global Ministries office on Monday, June 24: “Just a note to let everyone know that we are just fine. It is quite nice here temperature wise. We have been incredibly busy. Two clinics and so far we have seen 709 people. Lots of need, definitely.”

23 Jun

June 23, 2008 |

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L-r: Thurm Payton, Howard Matthews, Mike Caley, Mark Ralph, Scott Hergert, Darrel Bosworth, Gordon Kettel.

J. Michael Caley, Banner Church, Byron Center, Mich.
Banner Church is part of a LEAD team, the first one in Michigan. The initials stand for learn, encourage, achieve, dream. It’s a group of pastors getting together for the specific purpose of thinking and praying together about the most strategic places God might have us plant a new church.

The commitment of that team and church, by the pastor participating, is:

  • Identify a potential church planter.
  • Pool resources.
  • Set goals for how often to start a new church.
  • Do everything possible to support and encourage the planter.
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Gordon and Lori Kettel

Our LEAD team gathers every 6-8 weeks to support the work of Gordon Kettel, who is planting a church in Grand Ledge, Mich. Our experience has been good. Gordon is so fun and entertaining; we have a great time together. In addition to me and Gordon, there are:

  • Howard Matthews (HomeFront UB, Grandville)
  • Scott Hergert (First UB, Lansing).
  • Thurm Payton (Lighthouse UB, Williamston)
  • Darrel Bosworth (Kilpatrick UB, Ashley).

We have committed for a period of 2-3 years to start a church and see it through. We serve as a sounding board for Gordon. He shares struggles and asks questions, and we agree to always laugh at his jokes.

In the 1980s, I became a church planter. I felt entirely alone, even though I received a regular paycheck from the conference treasurer and was told the conference backed us. God used that experience to teach us, as a family, some amazing things, and we learned how to share Christ without any real support. But the LEAD team concept excites me, because I feel it’ll lead to some real success stories.

19 Jun

June 19, 2008 |

This Sunday, June 22, Bishop Ramsey will speak at Jerusalem Chapel (Churchville, Va.), and help them dedicate their new facility. It’s been just over two years ago that a fire destroyed a large part of their facility.

18 Jun

June 18, 2008 |

On May 12, Global Ministries Director Jeff Bleijerveld (right) participated in the 25th anniversary of the Looking Unto Jesus churches in the Philippines. These churches, in 2005, affiliated with the United Brethren denomination to become a national conference. While we refer to them as the Philippine National Conference, they are known locally as Looking Unto Jesus.

Joining Jeff was Mike Brown, pastor of Franklin UB church in New Albany, Ohio. Mike’s connections with Superintendent Prudencio Lim and the Looking Unto Jesus churches led to them becoming part of our fellowship.

Jeff Bleijerveld put together a short video from the trip. You can watch the YouTube version above.

18 Jun

June 18, 2008 |

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A team of 15 persons from College Park UB (Huntington, Ind.) left today to do a week of work in La Ceiba, Honduras. map_200.jpgThey’ll tackle a variety of projects, the main one being building bunks at the new conference camp outside of La Ceiba.

To fund the project, College Park promoted “Build a Bunk” for about six week. A sample of the bunk they would build was placed in the church. For $150, people could sponsor a bunk. That amount covered materials for the bunk itself, but also for other projects.

18 Jun

June 18, 2008 |

This is just a reminder, for people in the Indiana-Ohio area, of next Thursday’s “Hang with the Bishop” meeting. Pat Jones and Jeff Bleijerveld will join Bishop Ron Ramsey. It’s for UB pastors and laypersons from churches within driving distance of Huntington, Ind.

  • Date: Thursday, June 26
  • Time: 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
  • Location: College Park UB church, Huntington, Ind.

18 Jun

June 18, 2008 |

The consultation process is the primary method we use to transition churches to health. It starts with an intensive weekend at the church, but continues with a year-long process of coaching on my part, with monthly visits. When the year ends, I usually speak on a Sunday morning and encourage them to keep moving ahead.

Among the initial churches were four congregations in Michigan. That enabled me to be more efficient in my traveling, hitting several churches on the same trip.

At this point, we have completed our year-long work with two churches in Michigan:

  • Banner of Christ (Byron Center, Mich.). The concluding service for them was January 6.
  • Gaines UB (Caledonia, Mich.). The concluding service was February 10.

In the next few weeks, we’ll conclude the consultations with three more churches:

  • Mount Pleasant (Chambersburg, Pa.). The concluding service will be this Sunday, June 22. Mount Pleasant made the transition to a governance system, and some neat things have happened in services recently.
  • Eden UB (Mason, Mich.). The final service is June 29. Eden is averaging over 200 now, but they face some serious financial struggles.
  • Fowlerville UB (Fowlerville, Mich.). The consultation was held June 22-24, 2007. We’ll finish up with them in July.

That leaves only the Mongul UB church in Shippensburg, Pa. Bishop Ramsey and I conducted the assessment March 7-9.

However, a new round of consultations is in the works. I’ll conduct an assessment August 22-24 at Crestview UB in Lafayette, Ind., with Pastor Dan Young. We’re also working toward consultations with four other churches–one in Indiana, one in Ohio, and two in Pennsylvania. I’ll let you know more about those soon.

17 Jun

June 17, 2008 |

At Mainstreet, when I prepared my sermons, I would frequently hit a road block, unable to get my ideas to gel. That was always frustrating. So I would go visit people in the hospital, and in between hospitals, I would preach at the steering wheel. Lo and behold, it sounded pretty good! I’d stop and jot down some ideas, and things came together.

I prepared a lot of sermons that way. I would get excited about something, pound the steering wheel, and feel like I wanted to kick the tires. People in other cars probably thought I was nuts.

I still find myself doing that. An idea will pop into my head while I’m driving, and I’ll start talking about it out loud. I can think better when I’m talking than when I’m writing. 

Some preachers manuscript their sermons. I don’t. Many times I’d write my sermon outline on a note-card, with several words on it.

As a pastor, I was always well-prepared. I studied hard, going back to the Greek and Hebrew to research the original meaning of words, and reading as many commentaries as I could find about a Scripture passage. But I had a hard time putting everything I learned into a 30-minute package, and would go into the pulpit and basically speak without notes.

I’ve been criticized for that.  But I tell people, “I’m not giving a speech. I’m preaching.”