01 Feb On This Day in UB History: February 1

Christian Newcomer (left) and Ray Seilhamer.

Two United Brethren bishops were born on February 1, but nearly 200 years apart. Both were committed to church planting, and both saw the denomination greatly expand during their years in office–domestically for one, internationally for the other.

Christian Newcomer was born on February 1, 1749, the son of Swiss Mennonites. He began preaching in 1777, and soon became associated with United Brethren founders Martin Boehm and William Otterbein. In 1813 he became the third United Brethren bishop, and served until his death in 1830.

Newcomer is credited with leading the expansion of the church beyond Pennsylvania. He even made it to Canada in 1826. He was kind of our Apostle Paul, constantly traveling and organizing churches. Is it estimated that Newcomer traveled 150,000 miles on horseback between ages 46 and 81.

Ray Seilhamer was born February 1, 1938, and served eight years as bishop, 1993-2001. Under his watch, we nearly doubled the number of countries with United Brethren churches.

As World War 2 ended, we added outreaches in Jamaica (1944) and Honduras (1945). We then settled into a pattern of venturing into one new country every decade: Hong Kong in the 1950s, Nicaragua in the 1960s, India in the 1970s, and Macau in the 1980s. It wasn’t an intentional strategy, but just the way it worked out.

Then came the 1990s. No more big gaps. During that decade, beginning in 1993, the year Seilhamer was elected, the seeds were planted for United Brethren ministry in another nine countries: Thailand (1993), Costa Rica (1995), Mexico (1997), Guatemala (1997), Germany (1997), Myanmar (1998), El Salvador (1999), the Philippines (1999), and Haiti (2000).

It was an exciting time. And it was no longer only the United States taking the lead. Hong Kong initiated work in Thailand and Myanmar, Sierra Leoneans spearheaded a church in Germany, and Honduras and Nicaragua initiated expansion into Costa Rica, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Two men, same birthday, and a very similar legacy.

30 Jan On This Day in UB History: January 30

On January 30, 1995, rebels captured the town of Mattru Jong in Sierra Leone. Everyone saw it coming. Rebels had taken Bumpe, then the nearby Sierra Rutile mining camp. It was only a matter of time before they came to Mattru.

In mid-January, Mattru Hospital essentially closed down. Nadine Hoekman, a UB nurse, paid all the workers and locked things up. Then she and the only other remaining missionaries, Joe and Rachel Beah, headed to Freetown. Two staffers stayed to give daily medication to tuberculosis patients.

Rebels ransacked Mattru Hospital, taking everything of value. They even dismantled the X-ray machine. They loaded it onto a boat and headed toward Guinea to sell it, but the launch sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mattru, like many towns throughout the country, was deserted as residents fled into the bush. Many United Brethren people were among them. Two UB ministers were taken prisoner.

The RUF settled in for eight months, establishing its own government and turning Mattru Hospital into a training base.

29 Jan On This Day in UB History: January 29

On January 29, 1989, Dennis Miller preached his first message as pastor of Emmanuel Community Church in Fort Wayne, Ind. It was a congregation of about 100 people primed for growth–good leadership, nice facility, great location in a growing area. Miller was exactly the right person to help Emmanuel fulfill its potential. He brought leadership, vision, a strong pulpit teaching ministry, and a focus on discipleship.

Within seven years, Emmanuel had grown to 600 people and completed two major building campaigns, including a 700-seat sanctuary. And in 2009, 20 years after that first sermon, Emmanuel became the UB church with the highest average attendance, shooting past the 1400 mark (King Street church in Chambersburg, Pa., had been the largest church for many decades). In 2011, attendance went past 1800, with 71 conversions and 93 baptisms for the year.

Soon after he came to Emmanuel, Miller developed the church motto “His Word, Our Walk.” Nowhere was that theme more clear than in the many weekly GROW discipleship groups which systematically led people through the whole Bible and helped them grow deep in their Christian walk. It accounted for the ever-broadening leadership base, which in turn fueled the church’s growth.

28 Jan On This Day in UB History: January 28

On January 28, 1952, Bumpe Bible Institute opened as the place to train United Brethren ministers in Sierra Leone. The initial class had 12 students.

Two months before, Rev. M.E. and Francis Burkett arrived on the field with sons David and Stephen. At that point, land had been cleared and construction begun on a two-room school. The Burketts took up residence in a thatch-roof house in Bumpe.

Rev. Burkett served as principal of the school, and taught alongside two Sierra Leonean ministers. The next year, they were joined by Bernadine Hoffman, who had previously served two terms in Sierra Leone. During the second and third years, dormitories and dining rooms were added to the campus.

Bumpe Bible Institute was short-lived. In 1964, we joined with three other denominations–Missionary Church, Wesleyan Church, and Wesleyan Methodist–to start Sierra Leone Bible College (now Evangelical College of Theology). On the vacated land of Bumpe Bible Institute, we built the current Bumpe High School.

21 Jan On This Day in UB History: January 21

Dr. George D. Fleming

George and Daisy Fleming

George Daniel Fleming was born January 21, 1890, in Ionia County, Mich. He was one of the United Brethren giants of the 1900s–missionary, pastor, missions director, author, mentor, and prayer warrior. Many knew him as “Mr. Missions,” a fitting title for the man who headed our mission work for 25 years.

Fleming became a Christian at age 13 under the ministry of his father, a UB pastor. In 1911, at age 22, he and his wife of 11 months, Daisy, sailed for Sierra Leone, where he became principal of the 120-student school at Danville. After 13 months, they were sent to Bonthe to begin a girls’ boarding school.

Altogether, the Flemings spent 20 years–five terms–as missionaries, returning to the States in 1932. After a few years pastoring a church, Fleming was elected as the denomination’s General Secretary of Missions (what we now call Director of Global Ministries). During his tenure, we opened mission fields in Honduras, Jamaica, and Hong Kong. He continued in that office until retiring in 1961. He then wrote two books about the history of the Sierra Leone mission.

Those who knew George Fleming recognized him as a man who lived his life as though in the presence of God.

Bishop Clyde W. Meadows treasured his many late-night talks with George Fleming, as they reviewed the church and the opportunities before them. He wrote, “He was a man of God, and was a real bishop—encouraging, correcting, quietly steering the work of the Kingdom of God….Pastor of pastors, bishop of souls, a leader always abounding in the work of the Lord. Thank God for this man who in his life, ministry, words, and attitude showed us the Lord Jesus Christ.”