12 May Church Closing
Prince of Peace UB (Springfield, Ohio) has voted to close.
12 May A Pastor “Gets” Healthy Ministry Resources
Scott Hardaway, pastor of Pathway Community Church (Jackson, Mich.), used his blog to explain Healthy Ministry Resources to his people. Did a fine job, too.
12 May LEAD Teams: an Insider’s View
The most effective way to start a church is for churches to cooperate in starting new churches. Banner Church (Byron Center, Mich.) has been part of a LEAD team, the first one in Michigan. The other members are Howard Matthews (HomeFront UB, Grandville), Scott Hergert (First UB, Lansing), Thurm Payton (Lighthouse UB, Williamston), and Darrel Bosworth (Kilpatrick UB, Woodland).
Our LEAD team gathers every 6-8 weeks to support the work of Gordon Kettel, who is planting a church in Grand Ledge, Mich. Tom Blaylock, the director of Church Multiplication, also meets with us. Our experience has been good. Gordon is so fun and entertaining; we have a great time together.
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.
We commit for a period of 2-3 years to start a church and see it through. We’re a committed group of guys who 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.
09 May Huntington University Alumni Portal
Huntington University has launched an internet portal for alumni. If you’re an alum, you may have received an email about it. That email contains your HU ID number, which you need to register. One neat feature: you can view your entire giving history to Huntington U.
09 May Hit the Bullseye Reflections
Adam Will, pastor of Eden UB (Reedsville, Ohio), wrote on his blog about the Hit the Bullseye Conference, which he attended with about 30 other UBs.
08 May Thoughts on Being Bishop
At the Michigan “Hang with the Bishop” meeting, someone asked, “How are you doing in this new position?”
Being bishop has been an eye-opening experience. The amount of conflict a bishop must referee is more than I expected. Some situations have been tense. It’s probably a good thing that I’m big.
But it’s an honor to be elected by your peers. I sometimes struggle with wearing the title “bishop,” but I’m okay with it.
Someone asked me if I enjoy the job. I don’t think this is something you enjoy, but I appreciate the opportunity to serve. I just believe in the sovereignty of God. He put me here, and he knows what he’s doing.
08 May One Prayer
A couple days ago, an email to the UB constituency mentioned the OnePrayer.com emphasis being directed out of LifeChurch in Oklahoma City. This is a very unique thing that has been promoted almost entirely through the internet. And it’s free.
One Prayer will occur for four weeks in June, focusing on the question, “If you could pray one prayer for the church, what would it be?” A number of the most prominent pastors in America are providing video sermons to answer that question, using the title “Make us ___.” Make us one, make us creative, make us dangerous, make us obedient, make us wise, make us audacious–those are some of the sermons available.
As of today, 720 churches are signed up, and the list grows by the hour. At least four UB churches plan to participate:
- New Hope Community Church (Bryan, Ohio).
- Eagle Quest (Columbia City, Ind.).
- Anchor Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.).
- Grace UB (Sherkston, Ontario).
We’re not pushing this as a denomination–just letting you know about it.
To participate, you need the ability to download and show a video in Quicktime or AVI format. You can read all about it at the OnePrayer.com site. The video by Craig Groeschel explains everything.
06 May Two Pastoral Appointments
Here are two new senior pastor appointments:
- Greg Helman will become senior pastor of Blue Rock UB (Waynesboro, Pa.), on May 17.
- Josh Kesler, an ordained UB minister currently on staff with a non-UB church in Minnesota, has been named senior pastor of Good Shepherd UB (Huntington, Ind.).
06 May “Hang with the Bishop” Meetings
During April, Pat Jones and I held “Hang with the Bishop” meetings in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. These were agenda-less meetings.
People showed up, we asked them what they wanted to talk about, and that was our agenda. About 70 people came for the last meeting, held at the East Washington UB church in Ashley, Michigan. We plan to hold a couple more, and will let you know when and where.
One question people wanted to know at each place was, “How are we doing as a denomination?”
It depends on who you talk to and on what day. We’re making progress slowly. We have churches that haven’t reported any conversions for a long time. There are barren altars and barren hearts, and yet the people are satisfied. We have so many places where people are being disobedient to the Great Commission. In some places, the Great Commission is not even on their radar.
But in other places, exciting things are happening. There are people in churches catching the vision. That’s exciting to me. We’re seeing some good fruit coming from the consultations we have held, and you’ll be hearing much more about those. So I’m optimistic about what God wants to do.
02 May LET’S TALK: About Denominations
Denominations take a lot of flack, and it’s not necessarily undeserved. The pro-denomination and anti-denomination sides have their fan clubs. What do you think?
- Is being part of a denomination a useful thing?
- Does a denomination help, hinder, or otherwise affect what happens in a local church?
- If you’re a pastor, what’s your perspective about being part of a denomination? Would life be better for you in a non-denom church?
- Does the average person in the pew give a hoot about denominations?
- What’s the proper role of a denomination?
- Are denominations dinosaurs that should just go away?
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