07 Apr Easter Story: Rockford, Ill.

Pastor Barry Skinner and boys

Kevin Bergdall, a layperson at Kilburn Avenue, at the Easter pancake breakfast.

From Barry Skinner, senior pastor of Kilburn Avenue UB (Rockford, Ill.)

On Sunday evening, April 4, about 12 of us held an Easter chapel service at the Rockford Rescue Mission. On Saturday, in preparation for the service, we had made 180 sack/dinners and Arby’s provided us with 180 roast beef sandwiches and condiments (which were picked up Sunday evening so they would be fresh).

The theme was the victory we have in Christ Jesus because of what He accomplished on the cross. Several people responded for prayer in their lives. One fellow in particular broke down in tears as I prayed for him; the Holy Spirit was indeed present when I prayed with him.

We also walked the community inviting folks to our pancake breakfast on Easter Sunday morning. Preparation for that was also done Saturday morning.

On Easter Sunday we celebrated the risen Christ and had special music from guests Charles and Linda Nealy (who also went to the Rescue Mission with us that night). We also had our communion service and six other people came who do not normally attend. Two young boys from the community came and bonded with my grandson who is their age, and they stayed for most of our service.

06 Apr Easter Story: Byron Center, Mich.

From J. Michael Caley (right), senior pastor of Banner of Christ Church (Byron Center, Mich.)

On Palm Sunday I gave a report on my recent trip to Israel, along with slides and stories. It ended with a pictorial walk of Christ during Holy Week. Over 100 people attended.

On Tuesday, we celebrated a full Passover Dinner with families participating by bringing some of the food. We had 90 in attendance as we celebrated Jesus’ declaration that he was the lamb of God come to sacrifice himself for our sin.

On Saturday, April 3, we held our third annual free egg hunt with over 4000 candy-filled eggs spread throughout our back lawn. Over 200 showed up to gather the eggs, pick up special prizes, and hear the message of Easter.

Many new families came the following day for Easter Sunday, with a strong attendance of 275 even though many families had left for the beginning of Spring Break vacations. Banner has seen an attendance average increase of over 23% for the past two years.

06 Apr Easter Story: Jackson, Mich.

From Scott Hardaway, senior pastor of Pathway Community Church (Jackson, Mich.)

Two weeks before Easter, I challenged everyone to pray for three unchurched people and invite them to our Easter service, and I asked those who were willing to do this to stand up. We had 45 adults stand (over half the adults in attendance that day).

Since that time, I’ve been sending out a daily email of encouragement to each of the people who stood, and praying for each of them daily, along with 10 unchurched people of my own.

On Easter Sunday, we kicked off a new series on different world religions titled, “So What Is The Difference?” We had 157 people in attendance–112 regular attenders, and 45 visitors (25 of them first-time visitors).

So 1 out of every 6 people in attendance had never been to our church before. Nearly all the first-time visitors are unconnected with any church. By comparison, we had 31 first-time visitors in all 12 months of 2009.

Our church is learning how to become evangelistic people. Praise God!

06 Apr Easter Story: Shippensburg, Pa.

From Rocky Spear (right), senior pastor of Mongul UB church (Shippensburg, Pa.)

Easter for Mongul Church began Saturday morning at 11:00 with an 1100 egg Eggstravaganza. Food and crafts were also available. Having promoted this on the radio, internet and flyers, we did not know what to expect.

We were excited and overwhelmed when over 250 kids and adults showed up, some as early as 10:00. Great contacts were made with our community.

Easter Sunday morning marked a new page in the history of Mongul, as we began a third worship experience. All three services were well attended with a total attendance of 251.

The highlight? At the end of each service, we gave the opportunity to pray the sinner’s prayer. The instructions were, if you prayed to receive Christ, write your name on the bulletin tear-off and place a “1” beside your name.

A little girl, attending with her parents and grandparents, walked by me at the end of the service, holding her grandfather’s hand, and she handed me a little piece of paper with her name written in her best handwriting and a “1” beside it. Her grandfather had tears in his eyes.

Sixty guests joined us for Easter worship, about half of them “first-timers.” God is working in the church and he’s helping us reach into the community. I am excited about the journey God is allowing Mongul Church to take.

06 Apr Easter Story: Stryker, Ohio

From Nick Woodall, senior pastor of Stryker UB church (Stryker, Ohio)

Stryker United Brethren held a Lenten luncheon every Wednesday. The menu included donated soup, sandwiches, cookies, and appropriate menu items. We divided the hour into two parts:

• 11:30 – 12:00: meal.
• 12:00 – 12:30: worship service.

Each week a different community pastor spoke for 10-12 minutes. We also had special music from different churches.

The Lenten luncheons were attended by a wide variety of people from the community, including a bus of clients from the Quadco sheltered workshop attended.

05 Apr Easter Story: Mason, Mich.

From Linda Andreas, from Eden UB church (Mason, Mich.):

Our choir presented “The Easter Story” on Good Friday night and Easter Sunday morning. It was a wonderful mix of drama and music about our risen Savior. We were well led by our volunteer choir director Alena, a 21-year old student from Michigan State University.

The program was dedicated to one of our faithful choir members, Kathy Kyser, who had gone to be with the Lord the day before Good Friday at the age of 65 as a result of liver cancer. We all miss Kathy very much, but we sang with a smile on our faces knowing that Easter is all about the assurance we have in our risen Savior and everlasting life with Him. We know that Kathy is now strong and well and singing those high notes in the heavenly choir!

05 Apr Easter Story: Rockford, Ohio

From Marvin Schwartz (right), senior pastor of New Horizons Community Church (Rockford, Ohio):

We started planning for Easter in January. After much thought, I came up with an idea for a sermon series that would answer life’s most challenging questions:

• Is God real?
• Can I trust the Bible?
• If God loves us, why is there suffering?
• Is Jesus real?
• What happens when I die?
• Why did Jesus come to earth?

We promoted this series with radio ads, newspaper ads, mailers, and simply by inviting people.

Since then I became ill and was unable to do the series. But with the help of our youth pastor, John Emmons, and a great staff, we kicked this series off on Easter. The Lord blessed our commitment to reaching people, resulting in our largest crowd ever here. Around 400 persons attended one of our two services.

Easter has been a way for us to reach the community around us. I think Jesus would have wanted it like this.

05 Apr Tell Us About Easter at Your Church

The Easter season–Lent, Palm Sunday, Easter–is always exciting for churches. There are special events, and often large attendances. Churches do some pretty creative things to capitalize on the Easter season.

So tell us what happened during the Easter season at your church, using this form. Then we can share it with other UBs. Or, just leave a comment with this post.

01 Apr Imagine This Makes it Official

Last Sunday, March 28, I visited the Imagine This UB church in Grand Ledge, Mich. This church was planted just over two years ago. They went through a process of organizing as a full-fledged United Brethren church. And on March 28, we made it official.

I also conducted an installation service for Roy Atherton, who had been appointed senior pastor at the end of January. I charged the congregation with the responsibility of supporting their pastor.

The people at Grand Ledge are mostly new believers. The church is stronger than it’s ever been. They went through the ups and downs of losing their founding pastor, Gordon Kettel, but Roy Atherton is doing a great job of keeping them on course.

Imagine This makes an impact in the community. If they closed their doors, people would notice because of the types of services and ministries they do. They currently occupy a former bank building on a prominent corner in Grand Ledge. The lease on their building runs out at the end of April, but they are working on several different options.

Imagine This holds two services each Sunday—one at 10:30 a.m., one at 6 p.m. They are identical services. The congregation began with an evening service while sharing facilities with several other churches; evening was the only time slot available to them. When they got their own facility, they added a morning service, but kept the evening service since that’s what the people were accustomed to attending. The evening service has always been their larger service, and the services draw a different group of people. I estimate that around 200 people attended the two services on March 28.

They baptized eight people–two boys and an adult woman in the morning, and three teens and two adult women at night. They used an inflatable pool, probably six feet across. People sat down in the water and were dipped backwards. The pool apparently had a slow leak, which became noticeable at night. People came up to hold the sides in place.

The water was very cold. A young boy about 10 years old went first in the morning. As he stood knee deep in the water, he couldn’t go through with it. They ended up pouring water over his head. Both women in the evening service were also baptized by pouring (one worse a cast).

At 3 p.m., they held a concert featuring Seven Day Slumber and another band. The leader of Seven Day Slumber gave a powerful testimony of his conversion. Twelve people came forward to make some kind of change in their lives, not necessarily a first-time conversion, but an altar call. This went until 5:30. That left just 30 minutes to reorient the stage for the evening service, but they were ready to go at 6:00.

The evening service also featured the dedication of the worship leader’s new baby, which brought in some extra families. Since they meet at night, guests were able to attend their own churches in the morning.

I’m very proud to have Imagine This as a United Brethren church. They are doing what I think all of God’s churches are called to do. They won’t reach every type of person, but they are reaching people who need the gospel and are definitely making an impact on their community.

08 Mar Hillsdale Church Sponsors Upward Sports

The Hillsdale UB church (Hillsdale, Mich.) brought the national Upwards Basketball/Cheerleading outreach ministry to Hillsdale County. About 150 elementary age children participated in the eight-week program on Saturdays.

An Awards night was held Saturday, March 5. Thirty children responded to the gospel invitation to receive Christ. New families have come into the church as a direct result of the Upwards ministry.