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A Women’s Conference will be held September 22-24, 2006. It is being sponsored by the UB Women’s Ministry Team. The conference will be held at the Farmstead Inn in Shipshewanna, Ind. Women who attend will be challenged by seminars on women’s issues, will learn leadership strategies, will share creative ideas, and will learn ways to start or improve women’s ministries in their own local churches. More information will be coming in the months ahead.
Join a UB short-term team to the Philippines for an outreach crusade and medical service March 29–April 8. There will be diverse opportunities for ministry. For more details, see the Global Ministries website at ubglobal.org or call the Global Ministries office.
Brown Corners UB (Clare, MI) will send their second construction team of the year to Nicaragua on June 8-20 to assist a church plant in building a house of worship. They currently have six spots still available on the team, and would like to invite churches and/or individuals who would like to partner with them in this ministry experience. For details, contact the Global Ministries office.
Also, check the website for details on two 2006 denominational mission trips:
1. Medical team to Honduras in March (deadline is December 15).
2. Polish English camp in June
The United Brethren Discipline for 2005-2007 has now been posted online. You can view the individual chapters, or download a PDF of the whole document.
Pastor Tim Hallman of Anchor Community Church (front, right) prays for Tabatha Lamb as she prepares to head for Vietnam.
On June 26, Anchor Community Church commissioned Tabatha Lamb as a missionary to serve in Vietnam with the English Language Institute/China. She arrived there in August, and is now involved in teaching English as a second language. Tabatha is a 2005 graduate of Taylor University-Fort Wayne.
Anchor has a strong relationship with Taylor University’s Fort Wayne campus. A number of students attend Anchor, and some have served in the tutoring, mentoring, and concert ministries, as well as in VBS and other church ministries.
Amanda Heinsch, a current student, received support from Anchor to spend two months this summer in Turkey with the Caleb Project. On September 25, she gave a presentation about her work in Turkey.
Another former Taylor student who attended Anchor has been serving since around 1999 in Azerbaijian. She is involved in Christian literature work. She has received annual support from Anchor’s missions fund.
On September 18, Anchor started a second Sunday morning worship service. The two services now meet at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., with Sunday school during the second hour.
During this year’s Homecoming activities, Huntington University gave out its annual outstanding alumnus awards.
Doris MacDonald, a UB endorsed missionary, has recorded a second album with her musical partner, Sharon Dennis. You can obtain a copy through their website, The Braeded Chord.
A reviewer wrote:
This talented duo defies classification. Sprinkle some acoustic flavor, add a dash of southern gospel, mix well with folk and you get the multi-layer confection of The Braeded Chord. Sharon Dennis and Doris Au MacDonald have created a delicacy for the listener that is extremely well crafted, emotes strong emotions and is a pure pleasure to contently sit back and musically digest. It is amazing to comprehend that so much talent exudes from these two ladies. Dennis plays guitar, banjo and mandolin. On keys and orchestration duties is MacDonald. The two moms share songwriting and singing responsibilities. Tight harmonization comes naturally to this group, with MacDonald’s alto frequently dovetailing Dennis’ vocals in perfect synchronization. Each song is beautifully woven together exquisitely combining a simple melody with complex lyrics. Dare to Dream starts off with the fun, honky-tonk, feel-good tune, “The Ride,” that details the trials and tribulations of riding a roller coaster and the similes that can be pulled from the experience and applied to life’s daily grind, cleverly using Old Testament Bible references for extra emphasis. The hauntingly lovely ballad “I Will Wait” received an honor award at the 2005 Great American Songwriting Contest, and it is not difficult to hear why. Another gorgeous ballad, “Holy Passion,” has a Celtic-esque intro with pipes and drums that segue into the most CCM radio friendly tune. Yet another standout is “Rain Upon the Suff’ring” that could pass, along with the latter, as a contemporary hymn. “O Tiny Child” is reminiscent of the seasonal favorite “Mary, Did You Know?” The album ends on the upbeat note it began on, with the uplifting sing-along “Fly Away Home.” Highly recommended with high hopes that The Braeded Chord continues to concoct more delightful music for many years to come.”
The Mid-Atlantic Conference Council, during its September 10 meeting, passed a recommendation that the Mid-Atlantic Conference “officially disband operations as of December 31, 2005, unless otherwise needed.” This recommendation will be voted on the Mid-Year Conference Session on November 12. That meeting will be held at the Prince Street UB church in Shippensburg, Pa.
Anthony Blair, in an email, explained, “The December 31 date was chosen because on January 1, we will move into will move into the new national conference structure, including the paying of assessments (3.5% of income) directly to the national office. This motion gives us the option of continuing some functions later that than date if needed. A transition team will likely be appointed to help us move from status quo to the new structure. If we vote in the affirmative, the Mid-Year Council Session will include a worship experience to celebrate what God has done among the conference for the past 216 years.”
The Council would like to continue a group health insurance policy for active ministers after the disbanding of the conference. It authorized “the Commission of Administration and Finance to continue looking for any and all possibilities for a vehicle for an insurance group plan, and that funds be made available for necessary legal advice….The group health insurance plan for retired ministers, spouses, and widows is more difficult. The conference supplements the premiums on this plan by $90,000 annually from conference funds. If the conference no longer exists, those funds will no longer exist and a number of our older retirees in particular cannot afford to pay for our current plan all by themselves. Our relationship with and commitment to our retirees means that we cannot simply abandon them to their own devices in this situation….
“During the Mid-Year Council session the Commission on Administration and Finance would like to meet and discuss options with all of the participants in the retiree plan who are able to attend. Those who are not able to attend will be met with individually at their homes as necessary. Again, the intention is treat our retirees with grace and respect through this process, present multiple options to them, and assist them as necessary in identifying an option that best suits their financial and medical parameters.”
The Conference Council didn’t take formal action on anything relating to clusters, but did spend considerable time addressing the transition to healthy church clusters. Both the national office and the conference Commission on Church Growth and Renewal will be assisting churches to create and/or find clusters this Fall.
The Council did not have an opportunity to address the future of Rhodes Grove Camp, but recognizes that the relationship with the camp will need to be re-defined if the Mid-Atlantic Conference no longer exists. Options include transferring ownership to the national conference, creating a membership organization to support the camp, folding it into the Mid-Atlantic Foundation, or establishing a covenant relationship that preserves its UB identity without the legal liabilities of outright ownership.
The new Executive Leadership Team held its first meeting September 12-13 in Huntington, Ind. Ron Ramsey chaired the meeting. Tom Brodbeck was chosen as assistant chairperson, and Brian Hughes (Walbridge, Ohio) was named secretary.
Leadership Teams. A major item of business was to approve chairpersons and members of the various leadership teams: Healthy Church, Global Ministries, Education, Pastoral Ministry, Administration, and Church Multiplication. Much of that work was done, though a variety of positions remain to be filled.
Strategic Initiatives. Bishop Ramsey presented five strategic initiatives for the US National Conference, and the ELT approved them. The steps to accomplish these initiatives remain to be fleshed out. However, those five strategic initiatives are:
2007 US National Conference. Bishop Ramsey recommended, and the ELT approved, the following: “That the 2007 National Conference be a two-day event held sometime during the period of June 18 through July 7, depending on availability of facilities.” Potential locations are being researched in Lancaster County, Pa., Baltimore, Md., Virginia Beach, Va., and Huntington University, Huntington. Ind. The National Conference would be promoted as a convention/family vacation, with business kept to a minimum and inspiration to a maximum. The event would include high quality music, speakers, teaching, and worship, and special events for children, youth, and pastors’ wives.
National Conference Covenant. The National Conference Covenant, approved by the 2005 US National Conference, represents a fundamental change in how we operate. Every local church will need to sign a covenant, which affirms their commitment to eight points. If a church refuses to sign the covenant, then they are saying, “We no longer want to be a United Brethren church.” The ELT agreed that the initial signing of the church covenant would be completed by all churches before January 1, 2006. Bishop Ramsey will be sending out copies of the covenant to each church. You can see a sample copy of the covenant here.
Clusters. Another fundamental change approved by the 2005 US National Conference was to reorganize the US churches into clusters, and to phase out the annual conference structure. This is still in its earliest stages. However, Pat Jones, the Director of Healthy Church Ministries, hopes to have the clusters formed by January 2006. A mailing concerning clusters went out in mid-September. All of those materials are also available on the website, along with other information about clusters.
Central Conference is sponsoring an October 6 event for ministers of Central, Michindoh, and Sandusky conferences which will focus on the creation of cluster groups. These three conferences are in close proximity, and since the clusters will cross conference boundary lines, churches within these conferences may want to link up.
In an email announcement, Superintendent Tom Brodbeck wrote, “All Central Conference ministers are strongly encouraged to be at Camp Cotubic (Bellefontaine, Ohio) on Thursday, October 6 for a day of information and inspiration. Pat Jones, the denomination’s new Director of Healthy Church Ministries, will be present to talk about the formation of clusters and the signing of the Local Church Covenant. We hope that by the end of that day all of our churches will be aligned into a cluster.
“We will meet from 10:00 am – 3:30 pm (Ohio time). Lunch will be provided by Camp Cotubic (cost to be announced later). You will need to RSVP before October 1 so that we have a good headcount. We are also inviting churches from Michindoh and Sandusky Conferences.
Terry Taylor has been appointed as the senior pastor at Innisdale Church (Alexandria, Ind.), effective September 11, 2005. He had been serving with Rev. Larry Schimmel (the former pastor) as an associate pastor.
