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Roger Reece (left), executive director of the Associated Churches, prays for the five 46808 pastors. Tim Hallman, pastor of Anchor UB, is second from the right.
Anchor Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.) participated in a community worship service on September 4 with four other area churches. Of the 165 people who attended the joint service in Hamilton Park, about 60 were from Anchor. The Anchor worship team led all of the music. Roger Reece, executive director of the Fort Wayne Associated Church, gave the sermon, after which everyone participated in communion. Followed, of course, by a potluck.
These five churches–UB, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Church of Christ, and United Methodist–are known as the 46808 churches (after the zip code). They have been cooperating in various ministries for several years. This was the first time they have held a joint Sunday morning service. (They have held joint Sunday evening services during Lent for the past four years.)
Tim Hallman (right), pastor of Anchor, wrote about the event on his blog. Here is an excerpt:
“Anchor has worked hard to be relevant to our neighbors–but we don’t want to continue to do that work alone. We want to learn from our other neighborhood churches the ways they’ve become helpful. From the collaboration comes more helpful churches, a unity of spirit that adds strength to our good work, and new opportunities for the Spirit to accomplish the impossible in us and through us.
“More than anything, our churches want the Gospel of Jesus to be good news for our neighbors. We want our churches to be harbingers of that announcement. We want the kingdom to come where we live. This means, though, that we have to get involved in the lives and issues of our neighborhood. All the divorced families. All the kids without a father at home. Homes where the man is in prison. Families that are caught up in the court-system. Families that are dependent on the welfare system. Parents that don’t know how to make it work together. People on disability, who are depressed, who are angry. People struggling to start over again, to get an education, to get a better job, to be a better parent.
“There are also great families in our neighborhood, homes that are good and stable and shine a lot of light. And our neighborhood needs our churches to do their best in making disciples who are the hands and feet of Jesus where they live.”
Anchor’s Facebook page has lots of photos from the event.
A post on August 23 told about Josh McKeown’s struggle with leukemia since being diagnosed with a rare form, called Ph+CML, in November 2010. The article mentioned the book he wrote, called “The Gift of Cancer.” You can order a copy of the book at his website, TheGiftofCancerOnline.com.
Josh writes of his leukemia diagnosis: “On that day my life changed and I could have retreated and given up but that’s not the type of life that God wants for us. I decided then and there that I wasn’t going to let cancer beat me. I was going to look at cancer as a gift from God that I can use for His glory. I don’t think God gave me cancer, but I do know that He is the God that heals. But right now He is choosing not to. The time that I have with this disease I am going to use to further His kingdom and minister through it with a positive attitude. I am trying to travel around and speak at churches and share my testimony.”
Mount Pleasant Church (United Brethren in Christ) in Chambersburg, Pa., a growing and healthy church of 500 in weekly attendance, is seeking a fulltime Pastor of Outreach and Connecting. This fulltime salaried position is directly accountable to the senior pastor and secondarily to the Governing Board.
Spiritual gifts in evangelism, leadership, administration, teaching and preaching are important. Passion for helping people become committed followers of Jesus–disciples who make a difference–is a must. The chosen candidate must have at least significant progress towards a graduate degree in Christian Ministry such as a Master of Arts in Religion or a Master of Divinity, and at least five years of relevant work experience.
The new pastor will provide leadership to the Outreach Ministry Team consisting of both local and global goals and objectives. Locally, the pastoral candidate will survey the community to understand its perceived needs. Then he or she will develop ministry systems to meet those needs while introducing Christ and the Mt. Pleasant Church. Local outreach events will need to be planned and coordinated. A local outreach team will need to be built to facilitate the newly developed goals and objectives in our local community.
Globally, the candidate will track the work and needs of the missionaries supported by the Mt. Pleasant Church, make sure the promised obligations made by the church are upheld in a timely manner, and recommend extra gifting if possible at the end of the year. Short-term mission trips and projects will be coordinated.
This new pastor will develop, implement, and administer a connecting plan that will move new believers and first-time visitors as well as loosely-connected attendees into fully engaged participants in the life of the Mt. Pleasant Church. The development of electives or classes to help people in their process of maturing as a Christian and a Church member will be a significant responsibility.
The new pastor will provide leadership to the existing ministries as well as to those developed within the bounds of the Connecting Ministry. He or she will also lead the Small Group Ministry, recognizing that one of the key ways that people connect to church life is by connecting to a small group of people with similar interests. The new pastor will work closely with the leader of the Discipleship Ministry Team, understanding that a significant opportunity for people to make their connections with Mt. Pleasant can take place in the Sunday school classes.
The associated budgets in these two areas of responsibility will be prepared and managed each year.
This position is now open and waiting to be staffed. To forward your resume, please get in touch with Senior Pastor Chris Little.
Mark Wilson, senior pastor, Fowlerville UB (Fowlerville, Mich.)
Each year we have an outdoor baptism service, that is often a highlight in our summer. This year was the first in the history of these outdoor baptisms that we had to cancel due to impending severe weather. After deciding to move the service and picnic indoors to the church. We planned to make the best of the day and still proceed with the baptisms.
God met with us in a very powerful way as He moved on the hearts of people. We celebrated God move as 34 individuals were baptized. As we reflected on the day, we were reminded that when God chooses to move, men’s plans are nothing. We are rejoicing in the celebration of these steps of obedience.
Jason Sheets (right), associate pastor of Shepherd of the Valley (Logan, Ohio), reports, “We baptized 18 people at a nearby pond in Sugar Grove, Ohio. We sang a different chorus as each person emerged from the pond. We all shared in eating homemade ice cream during a time of fellowship following the service.”
Al Carter, senior pastor of First UB (Columbus, Ohio)
First UB of Columbus, Ohio, just finished a joint venture Bible School with a Faith Community Alliance, a church plant that uses our facility on Sunday evenings. Well over 100 people participated each day for four days, Monday through Thursday.
First UB also had a free clothing give-away the previous week. We must have given out a ton of clothes to the poor and homeless in the area.
We are anticipating great things in the kingdom on the west side and throughout Columbus.
VBS at Lake View Church (click to enlarge)
Lake View United Brethren Church (Camden, Mich.) hosted its Vacation Bible School July 24-28. The program is focused on children ages 4-12. Over 40 adult and teen volunteers were involved, leading such areas as crafts, games, Bible lessons, decorating, and nursery.
The highest attendance was 66 children in one night, with a total attendance of 72 children throughout the week. So our attendance each night with leaders and children was just over 100 people.
This year’s theme was Gold Rush. Each day the children dove into the gold mine of Scripture to hear about the precious truth of Jesus Christ! As songs were sung, fun games were played, amazing crafts were made, and even scrumptious snacks were eaten, the children heard how they could discover the true rock of ages.
Each year we collect a missions offering during our VBS. The children are encouraged to gather their change, find jobs to do for their families, and even invite the help of others to raise money. This year’s offering went to support United Brethren Global missions.
Their 2011 Children’s Project is focused on raising funds to purchase the medicines and supplies needed for medical teams, the treatment of children with AIDS, and those suffering from leprosy. Due to the generosity of our children, this year we raised a total of $1,026.05!
Renew Communities, a church plant in Berea, Ohio (Cleveland area), is really big on serving the community, and they’ve been doing that in a variety of ways. Says senior pastor Andy Sikora, “We believe that one of the way that communities are renewed is that we serve together, whether you belong to Jesus already and have been made new by the gospel, or you haven’t, we want to create atmosphere where we can all work together.”
One group from Renew, while serving in a thrift store, got the idea of filling a 50-foot semi trailer with supplies for tornado victims in Alabama. They talked about it for a few days before mentioning it to Andy. The project took off.
Sort of. The first time they collected supplies, all they got was four bottles of detergent and four bucks. But they kept at it. Fourteen businesses partnered with them, along with others, and the supplies came in.
In the video above. Andy tells about the whole project. It gives you a good flavor of what Renew Communities is all about.
While you’re at it, read this article about how Renew helped clean the flooded basement for a family with a cancer-stricken seven-year-old daughter.
On July 31, Pastor Marshall Woods baptized 11 people at Mill Chapel (Reedsville, W. Va.). More will be baptized in August.
The church is now raising money to blacktop the parking lot.
