(260) 356-2312

UB.orgUBGlobal.orgChurch Search

17 Oct

October 17, 2008 |

Steve Dennie, Communications Director

In two days, Anchor Community Church celebrates its tenth anniversary. Pam and I were among the 50 people sent out from Emmanuel UB church in Fort Wayne in 1998 to “restart” the former Third Street UB church, which had existed there since the 1930s.

The church had a great history, but had declined in size and not adapted to the changing neighborhood. Most of the attendees were older and drove in from outlying areas.Third Street was shut-down for five months, and underwent an extensive renovation. New carpet everywhere. Fresh paint. Got rid of the pews and organ. A whole new platform area. New name and sign. Lots of other stuff. Meanwhile, Emmanuel people were challenged to commit a certain amount of time–3 months, 6 months, a year–to getting the reincarnated church going. Pam and I signed up “indefinitely.”

In September of that year, the core group met in our home–the first time we’d been together. With only a few weeks until our first service. Some of us didn’t even know each other; I knew only a few others very well. We looked at what each of us brought to the table, our gifts and interests.

Amazingly, out of this haphazard assemblage of people, God brought together exactly what we needed. There was certainly no human design behind it.

Today, only Pam and I, along with Pastor Tim and Tara (who have since added four children to the mix) remain from that initial core group. Most of the 100-plus people who attend Anchor come from the immediate community. Which was the original vision.

A few weeks ago, while still on vacation, Pam and I attended the Sonrise United Methodist Church near where we live. They told about the new church they were starting in Roanoke, and how 50 people had committed to leaving Sonrise to take part.

It took me back ten years, and I envied those 50 people.

  • They will work harder than they’ve ever worked in church.
  • They will be needed more than Sonrise, with its large size and resources, ever needed them.
  • They will pray harder, knowing full well that they are in over their heads.
  • They will do things way out of their comfort zone.
  • They will think about their new church, this baby, all week long, looking forward with eagerness and some fear to the coming Sunday.
  • And they will be totally energized by the venture.

That’s what Anchor did for me ten years ago. And I wish more United Brethren people could experience the same thing.

03 Oct

October 3, 2008 |

Steve Dennie, Communications Director
I bought one of the early Palm Pilots, back around 1997. I envisioned it being a good tool. But it didn’t fit the way I work. It became something cool that I showed people. Not something that made me more effective. For many people, a Palm Pilot is a great tool. For me, it became a toy.

A tool, on the other hand:

  • Will enhance your ministry.
  • Will solve a problem.
  • Can be cool and fun to show people, but that’s a bonus.

02 Oct

October 2, 2008 |

Steve Dennie, Communications Director
Every time your mouth waters over some new gadget or software or social media site, ask yourself, “Is it a tool or a toy?” That’s the question posed in the excellent book The Blogging Church, by Brian Bailey and Terry Storch.

Tech-savvy people (like me) love new technology and usually believe more technology can only bring good things. But toys can merely waste church money and consume the pastor’s (and volunteers’) time.

How can you tell if it’s a toy?

  • You use the word “cool” to describe it.
  • You spend more time playing with it than using it.
  • You want it because other people have it.
  • You love to show it to other people.
  • You hear, “We should get a….” You’d like to have it, but can’t articulate a compelling ministry need for it.

27 Sep

September 27, 2008 |

At the MinistryCOM conference, the closing speakers (Jon Acuff, who runs the delightful StuffChristiansLike blog), made this point about people and churches who break new ground:

“When you go first, you give everyone else the gift of going second.”

I don’t know if we were the first denomination to oppose slavery–we probably weren’t–but our stand in the early 1800s no doubt emboldened other denominations to take such a stand. If we didn’t go first, we at least went early.

In 1853, we sent a whole wagon train of UBs from Iowa to start churches in Oregon. I’ll bet no denomination had done anything like that.

In 2005, we eliminated regional conferences–the middle-management layer–and cut assessments to a mere 3.5%. Churches in most denominations would salivate over paying just 3.5% to higher church administration. I know our example hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Several years ago, on vacation, Pam and I attended a Vineyard church that planned to always use rented facilities, rather than pour megabucks into facilities. We haven’t had a church follow through on that strategy. We need a first.

Where else have we gone first?

Where else do we need a United Brethren church to go first?

19 Sep

September 19, 2008 |

I’m in Oklahoma City attending the MinistryCOM conference–my third year. It’s designed for local church communications specialists, most of whom come from megachurches. Some churches come with an entire staff of 4-5 people who work only in communications (graphics, video, internet, etc.). Then there are a few folks like me.

Today, I met two persons who do fulltime communications work in churches of less than 1000 attendees. First time I’ve seen that. (I’m not aware of any UB church with a person working fulltime solely in communications. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any. But if they exist, they should definitely attend MinistryCOM.)

Just finished lunch with three people from Houston. The one couple said they planned to attend MinistryCOM before the hurricane, but the hurricane made it even more attractive, because they’re expected to be without electricity for another 3-4 weeks. Bummer for them.

The opening speaker was Mike Foster, founder of XXXChurch.com Some notes from his session:

  • Spend your life in the ocean, not in the tank. Be in the wild. Experience new things. Get out among nonChristians.
  • The average age of videogame players is 33. (I would have guessed much younger.)
  • Our guardian angels are bored. We’re playing it safe, not taking chances.
  • Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s easy and fun to dream. What’s valuable is a well-executed idea.

17 Sep

September 17, 2008 |

One of the blogs I follow is TonyMorganLive.com. Tony Morgan is on staff with Newspring Church in South Carolina, one of the fastest-growing and innovative churches in the country (as was his previous church, Granger Community Church, which he was lured away from two years ago).

Morgan told about a couple in their 60s who found Christ at one of their satellite churches. The curious thing, he said, is that the service isn’t designed for people that age, but for much younger people–loud music, video teaching, coffeehouse atmosphere.

“Here’s what we’ve learned,” he wrote. “If we design our service experiences for a younger audience, we’re more likely to reach that younger person and we’ll also reach older folks. The reverse is not true. If we designed our service experience for an older audience, the younger crowd would not show up.”

There is a lot to talk about here, and most of us have talked about it plenty. How much to cater to the younger set, while seemingly ignoring older folks. The mix of hymns vs. contemporary songs. Etc.

But in the end, there are several inescapable and competing realities:

  • In most churches, the people calling the shots are older folks (baby boomers, like me, tend to be in control nowadays).
  • Young people aren’t necessarily thrilled with the shots they are calling.
  • Older Christians need to say, “The church shouldn’t need to cater to me. I’ll let other people’s tastes and preferences take precedence over my own.”
  • Most older Christians aren’t mature enough to say that.

Do you agree with Tony Morgan?

25 Aug

August 25, 2008 |

I sent a note to Owen Gordon (right), UB endorsed missionary and president of Jamaica Bible College, commenting on how excited Jamaica must be over the success of their sprinters in the Olympics. Owen responded:

“Oh yes Steve. There has been a euphoria that has swept across the country. People gathered in groups to celebrate. It reached a high when the 4×100 relay was being run. People felt badly for Asafa Powell, so when he took off in the final leg and broke the world record…it was simply GREAT!

“We all are hoping that this new inspiration will have a positive effect on all of us as Jamaicans, and that the scourge of crime and violence will be addressed.

“This has been a great Olympics for Jamaica: six gold medals, three silver and two bronze. For such a very small country, we all feel very proud of the athletes. The government and the country is planning a big welcome celebration!”

25 Jul

July 25, 2008 |

On Wednesday, I encouraged all churches to get a domain name, whether or not they have current plans for a website. Now you may be wondering, “So where do we get a domain name?”

There are many places. My experience is limited to Network Solutions, Aplus.net, and Yahoo. Yahoo! was extremely frustrating, Aplus not so much. But I’ve transferred all UB domains to Network Solutions.

Network Solutions makes it easy to configure domains to use with websites hosted by other service providers. We have domains scattered among several providers, and have never had trouble configuring things through Network Solutions.

  • UB.org and UBMissions.com are hosted on the Huntington University system (with the server in my office).
  • Ubonline.org (home of the UB News page) is hosted by Aplus.net.
  • Bluehost.com hosts our atmychurch.com and healthyministryresources.com websites.

GoDaddy.com is the largest domain registrar; Tucows.com is also popular. I’m sticking with Network Solutions (which is a bit pricier) for the UB accounts, because I’ve had such good experience.

If you open an account with an internet service provider (Bluehost, Aplus, GoDaddy–there are scores of them), you often get a free domain name (at least for a year). But make sure the account is in the church’s name (not the name of a staff member or layperson). Make sure the church controls the name.

To search for available names, go to the homepage of Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

What advice or experience can you share?

23 Jul

July 23, 2008 |

Your church needs a domain name.

  • The potential domain names for your church decline every day. Unless your church has an unusual name, or you add “ub” to the end, you’ll probably have trouble finding an appropriate name. So get on it now.
  • When my church, Anchor Community Church, started a website in 2002, we had a terrible time finding a good domain name. Most any name containing “Anchor” was already taken, and that was six years ago. We finally settled on “Anchorpeople.org.”
  • Domain names are bargain-priced real estate on the internet. Prices vary, but $20 a year might do it.
  • Once a name is gone, it’s gone. Unless somebody forgets to renew it somewhere down the road (in which case, somebody else will probably grab it first).

You don’t need a website to have a domain name.

  • Even if you have no immediate plans to create a website, I recommend obtaining a domain name. Set it on the shelf until you need it.
  • The national office owns 37 domain names, most of which aren’t being used. We’re just saving them for possible future needs, and don’t want anyone else to own them (like unitedbrethren.com, ubchurches.us, ubchildren.org, and ubusa.org).
  • If you have an internet service provider, you can possibly use your domain name for email even if you don’t have a website.

To search for available names, go to the homepage of Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

What advice or experience can you share?