(260) 356-2312

UB.orgUBGlobal.orgChurch Search

10 Jun

June 10, 2008 |

The annual meeting of the Michigan United Brethren churches (a hold-over from the previous Michigan Conference) will take place:

  • Date: Saturday, July 19
  • Location: Carson City Christian Camping Center, 5940 S Mt Hope Rd. Carson City, Michigan 48811
  • Time: 9 a.m. to noon, followed by a noon meal.

The event will include:

  • Worship in music
  • A message from Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries.
  • A business session, with various reports and elections.
  • Each cluster leader introducing the pastors in their cluster.
  • A chicken barbeque meal at noon ($1.50 per quarter).

Persons interested in the meal should contact Jim Kendall to order the number of quarters of chicken they and their family will need. Contact him by June 30 at (989) 236-5070.
 
Camp sites are available for $10 per night. They include water and electricity ($12 if you have air conditioning). Call Lee Palmer to reserve a spot at (989) 235-6525

10 Jun

June 10, 2008 |

Carlson and Naomi Becker

L-r: Naomi Becker, Global Ministries Director Jeff Bleijerveld, Associate Director Donna Hollopeter, and Carlson Becker.

Carlson and Naomi Becker stopped by the Healthy Ministry Resources office today to spend some time with Jeff Bleijerveld and Donna Hollopeter. On May 30, they returned to the States, having completed a three-year term of service in Macau. It’s great to see people, in their retirement years, who can’t sit still when it comes to doing the Lord’s work. 

The Beckers have no immediate plans, except to hang around their home in northern Michigan,  take care of various projects, and spend time with kids and grandkids. They look great, energetic as always.

05 Jun

June 5, 2008 |

2008ChurchHistory_500.jpg

To receive a national conference ministerial license, you must complete the UB church history course. That class has been meeting since Monday at Huntington University, and will conclude today. One attendee is Jeff Bleijerveld, our new Director of Global Ministries, who is preparing to transfer his ordination from the Missionary Church USA.

Here are the class members from the photo, left to right (click the image for a larger photo):

  • Marvin Schwartz, senior pastor of New Horizons UB church (Rockford, Ohio) since May 25.
  • Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries.
  • Warrick Fuller, from Devonshire Church (Harrisburg, Pa.). He holds a local church license. (He’s got a blog.)
  • Doug Moyer, youth pastor of Lancaster UB (Lancaster, Ohio).
  • Dustin Staples, youth pastor of Atlantic Avenue UB (Franklin, Pa.).
  • Steve Henry, senior pastor of Victory Heights UB (Franklin, Pa.).
  • Dr. Howard Cherry, the teacher.
  • John Schadle, associate youth pastor at Fowlerville UB (Fowlerville, Mich.).
  • Brad Kittle, currently pastor of Findlay Evangelical Congregational Church (Findlay, Ohio).
  • Thurm Payton, senior pastor of Lighthouse UB (Williamston, Mich.).

Dr. Howard Cherry, who served in the HU Graduate School of Christian Ministries until 1992, has been teaching the course for nearly 20 years.

04 Jun

June 4, 2008 |

The denominational Bible quiz finals will be held June 13-15 (Friday through Sunday) at Huntington University. The Saturday night awards banquet starts at 5:30. Churches from three areas will compete:

  • Michigan: Eden UB (Mason, Mich.).
  • Pennsylvania: Salem UB (Chambersburg, Pa.) and Ebenezer UB (Greencastle, Pa.).
  • Central: The Chapel and Bethel (both non-UB churches).

02 Jun

June 2, 2008 |

Devonshire Church in Harrisburg, Pa., is the latest United Brethren church to offer a podcast of the weekly sermon. That makes 17 churches doing podcasts. Plenty of great sermonizing there. A number of other UB churches are doing podcasts.

A podcast is simply a sermon you can download from a website and listen to on your computer or on a music player, like an iPod, Zune, They are typically an MP3 file.

At least two churches are doing video podcasts, which means you can watch the sermon: Emmanuel (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Mount Pleasant (Chambersburg, Pa.).

20 May

May 20, 2008 |

Confronted with the price of gas and a 20-mile daily commute to the office, Jeff Bleijerveld and I thought it made sense to ride together. So today, I picked him up. We both live on the southwest side of Fort Wayne, maybe a mile apart. It was good fellowship, we saved money, and we reduced our carbon footprint.

Seth Godin predicts that in the business world, with the price of fuel, it’ll become more common to hear people, after a meeting, complain, “I came all the way here for this?”

Churches don’t have nearly as many meetings as they once did.

  • Monthly board meetings have become bi-monthly or quarterly.
  • We’ve dispensed with lots of committees that once seemed necessary.
  • We’ve streamlined our church structures. Streamlining is good.

But now, church meetings don’t only take up a person’s time. They also hit the wallet.

  • Every trip Pam and I make to church costs us around $5.
  • Other people drive much, much farther.
  • A single board meeting could involve a collective cost of $50 or more.
  • Since we’re a low-income church, gas hurts.

So whatever awaits us at church, whether a meeting or music practice or a service, needs to be well worth not only the time, but the gas money.

That, of course, should have always been the case. But money has a way of focusing our attention.

01 May

May 1, 2008 |

The BishopBlog is your one-stop United Brethren browser bookmark. The UB Grand Central Station of information. Come here, and we’ll point you to what’s happening in the UB world.

The United Brethren church has a large web presence.

  • The UB.org site–the official website of the UB church in the United States.
  • UBMissions.com–the work of Global Ministries and our international conferences.
  • Huntington.edu–the Huntington University site.
  • The BishopBlog–which is where you’re at right now.
  • AtMyChurch.com–a UB service which provides websites for churches.
  • The UB News page–where we regularly post UB-related news.
  • The staff openings and church websites pages frequently contain new info.
  • The UB church and missionary directories are tied into our master database.
  • Blogs by UB people–a growing list.

So how do you keep track of what’s happening?

  • Bookmark all of these sites in your browser.
  • Check each one individually to see if something has changed?

No. Just come here. As a shortcut, Bishopblog.org will get you here, too.

20 Feb

February 20, 2008 |

Here in the national office, we’re excited about the upcoming arrival of Jeff Bleijerveld as the new Director of Global Ministries. He’s a quality guy who will fit right in. I’ll enjoy watching him take our missions program to the next level…whatever that is. Jeff starts on March 3.

Tomorrow, the office staff will hold a farewell luncheon for Gary Dilley, who served as Global Ministries director from August 2001 until January of this year. Because of a prior commitment, I’ll miss that luncheon. Pat Jones has offered to eat my pizza for me, and he’s welcome to it. But since I’ll be gone, I thought I’d use this space to say some words about Gary, who has been a beloved friend, in addition to a coworker.

The 1990s were a time of unprecedented expansion in our worldwide ministry. In 1993, Ray Seilhamer was elected bishop and Kyle McQuillen was elected as Director of Missions, and they both served until 2001. At that time, we had churches in eight countries, and had opened only one new field per decade–Nicaragua in the 1960s, India in the 1970s, and Macau in 1987.
But from 1993-2001, the number of fields nearly doubled:

  • 1993: Thailand
  • 1995: Costa Rica
  • 1997: Mexico
  • 1998: Myanmar
  • 1999: El Salvador
  • 2000: Haiti
  • 2000: Guatemala

In addition, the church planting work in India grew by leaps and bounds, and a number of Hispanic churches in the United States arose through the work of Denis Casco. Disclaimer: we in North America can’t take credit for this expansion. Much of it came from the initiative of our churches in Hong Kong and Central America. But in each case, we were involved, often heavily involved. So a great deal of new territory needed to be assimilated into worldwide United Brethrenism, and numerous new demands were placed on Global Ministries funds.
(more…)

09 Apr

April 9, 2007 |

Registrations for the US National Conference now stand at 715, which is pretty incredible. Unfortunately, this means we outgrew the accommodations available at Sawmill Creek. However, a number of hotels are located within just a few miles, and we have secured rooms from several different hotels (two of which have their own waterparks!).

If you still need to register, contact Administrative Assistant Marsha Biard about lodging. The rates vary, depending on the motel.

Thus far, people from 123 of our 210 United States churches have registered (plus two churches in Canada).