13 Aug Grow Materials: Revised and Ready to Order

The Grow In His Word materials, used in discipleship by over 50 United Brethren churches, have been completely revised. Grow is written by Dennis Miller, pastor of Emmanuel UB church in Fort Wayne, Ind. Grow is used in over 50 United Brethren churches, and over the years has been used to systematically take thousands of people through the entire Bible.

There are four books, each of which has its own leader’s guide and accompanying teaching slides. Books 1 and 3, along with leader’s guides, are now available for churches.

1. Old Testament: The People (Genesis through Esther)
2. Old Testament: The Prophets (Job through Malachi) – available in November 2014
3. New Testament: The Christ (Matthew through John)
4. New Testament: The Church (Acts through the Revelation) – available in November 2014

What is Grow?

The Grow Ministries plan is a 52-week study which takes students through the Old and New Testaments in an orderly manner. Students grasp not only what happened, but in what order, with hooks and memory tools to help them remember what they learn. As believers learn about God’s Word, they gain confidence in their understanding and use of the Bible.

Rev. Dennis Miller developed Grow in the 1980s. “When I became a pastor, I realized that the church was not teaching new believers. I tried several Bible studies to fix that. All of them were good, but I needed something that would give people methods for retaining what they’d learned. I also wanted application to go along with the content that was being taught.”

How to Use GROW

Previously, Grow in His Word was divided into two 26-week courses. The new 13-week format gives more flexibility and is less intimidating to people who are perhaps hesitant about making a 26-week commitment.

Emmanuel Community Church, for example, will offer Book 1 and Book 3 this fall, and then offer Book 2 and Book 4 in January (to complete the Old and New Testaments). Then they’ll start another round of parts 1 and 3. This encourages people new to the church to jump in, and gives more entry points to the discipleship process.

It’s best to take a person consecutively through the four parts, a total of 52 weeks. Churches can decide whether or not to include a break between the 13-week sessions.

Materials

Student Books. A workbook is needed for each student. Cost: $9.95 each.

Leader’s Guide. The completely new Leader’s Guide is formatted to provide a more step-by-step guide (especially helpful for first-time teachers). It lays the student workbook side-by-side with the leader’s guide. Cost: $24.95 per course. Includes a student book.

PowerPoint and Keynote Files. PowerPoint and Keynote files, one for each lesson, are available through the Grow Ministries website. Once purchased, an email will be sent with downloading instructions. Cost: $12.95 per 13-week course.

Audio Files. Audio files show Pastor Miller teaching the material to a discipleship class. Each lesson is a different MP3 file and can be purchased from the iTunes store. Cost: 99 cents per lesson.

19 Jun The UB Mobile App is Here! Ready to Install.

Screenshots from the UB app on an iPhone. It really looks great on a tablet.

Download our United Brethren app. It’s free. And it works on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.

If you want to go to the Apple iTunes store or to the Google Play store, just do a search for “United Brethren.” Or, just use the buttons at the bottom, which will take you directly to the app on those stores.

When you launch the app, it opens up to the news feed from UBCentral.org. You can see the latest UB news directly on your mobile device.

You’ll also find many other resources:

• Information about the UB church–beliefs, history, leadership.
• The complete UB Discipline and Pastoral Ministry Handbook.
• Info on each country which has UB churches.
• Upcoming UB events.
• Lots of information for ministers–licenses, education, assignment process, clergy finances.
• A few videos and podcasts.
• Links to various UB-related websites.

05 Jun UB Churches with Multiple Services

In April, a church that is considering adding a second service contacted the national office. They were wondering about the experience of other UB churches who were holding multiple services during the week. They were especially interested in how “traditional” services were faring in a multiple-service church.

The national office put up a survey, and a number of UB churches responded. Here is a compilation.

Findlay First (Findlay, Ohio)

Two identical services on Sunday morning:

• 8 am (35-50 people attend).
• 10 am (110-130 attend).

Comments:
“One issue that we have found that is very frustrating occurs when the first service needs to be cancelled for special services/holidays/etc. The first service people will not attend the second service. We have tried to address this, but there seems to be no response.

King Street Church (Chambersburg, Pa.)

Four services on Sunday morning:

• 8:15 am, sanctuary – traditional.
• 9:45 am, sanctuary– contemporary. Described on the website as “a modern worship experience.”
• 9:45 am, Baker Center – contemporary. Described on the website as “a rock-style worship service.”
• 11:00 am, sanctuary – blended.

The attendance at the traditional service has remained constant.

Fowlerville UB (Fowlerville, Mich.)

Three services on Sunday morning:

• 8 am – traditional (it’s not growing).
• 9:15 am – contemporary.
• 10:45 am – contemporary.

Comments:
“Adding another service is definitely more cost effective than building a bigger church. Other major advantages are greater opportunity to reach more people, less problems with overcrowding, more opportunities to tweak processes, and greater potential for growth.

“The disadvantages are providing volunteer staffing for all the extra programming, and a longer work day for paid staff. However, as long as the added service is healthily attended, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.” (more…)

23 Apr Paul Hirschy Given March Madness Award

Phil Whipple (right) presents the winner’s plaque to Paul Hirschy.

Bishop Phil Whipple presented a plaque to Paul Hirschy for winning the Bishop’s March Madness Challenge. Of the 68 persons who filled out NCAA brackets in the bishop’s group on ESPN, Hirschy emerged as the winner.

Paul Hirschy served as bishop 2001-2005, and is currently associate pastor of College Park UB church (Huntington, Ind.)

09 Apr Survey on Multiple Services

A church that is considering adding a second service contacted the national office. They were wondering about the experience of other UB churches who were holding multiple services during the week. So we thought we’d ask–not just for this church, but for other churches in the same situation.

If your church holds more than one worship service per week, we’d love to get your answers to some questions, which we’ll compile and publish.

Go here to fill out the form. Please give us your honest feedback.

27 Mar Jim Bolich Leads Going into the Sweet 16

Bishop Phil Whipple issued a challenge to United Brethren ministers–to fill out an NCAA March Madness bracket in a special group for UB ministers on ESPN.com. A total of 68 people–mostly ministers, with a few missionaries and national office staff thrown in–signed on.

After the first two rounds, and as we begin the Sweet 16, the lone leader is Jim Bolich, senior pastor of Prince Street UB church in Shippensburg, Pa. Tied for second place are Donna Hollopeter, associate director of Global Ministries; and Kevin Poole, Children’s Pastor at Fowlerville UB church (Fowlerville, Mich.).

20 Feb A New Sign–and New Identity–for the National Office

On February 19, a new sign was installed outside the national office in Huntington, Ind. It incorporates the new United Brethren logo unveiled at national conference last summer. The sign has already been getting rave reviews. (As you can see, we still have plenty of snow on the ground.)

The original sign (top) dates back to the 1970s. It was replaced in 2008 with the Healthy Ministry Resources sign. That year, the national office went through a branding process, and adopted the name “Healthy Ministry Resources” to refer specifically to the national office. That name never really caught on and is being phased out. Most people simply refer to the national office as, well, the national office. So we’ll go with that.

Although the name of the office building has changed, it’s mission remains the same: “to effectively resource pastors and congregations of the US National Conference to fulfill the Great Commission.” That was central to the idea behind Healthy Ministry Resources, and it will continue to be the focus of the national office.

The national office handles all cooperative ministries of the US National Conference. Here are some of the services under that umbrella.

• The Office of the Bishop.
• Global Ministries (the United Brethren missions entity).
• Church planting.
• The Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team, which handles ministerial licensing, ordination, and stationing.
• Oversight of cluster groups.
• The biennial US National Conference.
• Church Resources, which ships Sunday school literature and other materials to several hundred churches every quarter.
• Communications services (websites, newsletters, print materials, etc.).
• Pension services for UB ministers.
• The women’s and youth ministry teams.
• The Higher Education Leadership Team, which oversees Huntington University.
• Overseeing various UB events (US National Conference, workshops, training events, etc.).
• Other leadership teams, study committees, and groups which may arise as needed.

05 Feb Annual Reports Due February 15

A reminder to UB ministers–your annual reports for the 2013 year are due to Bishop Phil Whipple by February 15. That includes:

• Your personal report as a UB minister.
• Your church’s annual report (which only the senior pastor needs to submit).

All reports are available online at ub.org/reports. You can download copies to fill out, or you can submit the report using an online form.

10 Jan Church and Minister Reports Coming In

Bishop Phil Whipple sent a note of appreciation to Darwin Dunten, senior pastor of First Church in Findlay, Ohio. Every year, local UB churches must submit a report to the bishop’s office. First Church was, well, the first church to submit their report for the 2013 year.

Licensed United Brethren ministers are also required to submit reports about their own ministry during the year. A number of ministers have already submitted their reports.

All annual reports can be found on the UB website. All of them can be filled out online, or downloaded to be filled out on a computer and then returned by email or FAX. Reports are due by February 15.

13 Dec The Challenge to Clergy Housing Allowance

A recent ruling by a US District Court has raised questions about the status of housing allowance for ministers. Some UB ministers have called the national office, wondering, “How does this affect me? Do I need to do anything different?”

The short answer is: continue what you’ve been doing. Nothing will take affect until all appeals have been exhausted. That could take a couple years.

Ministers of all religious groups are allowed housing allowance to pay expenses related to their home—rent, mortgage, utilities, insurance, repairs, furnishings, property taxes, etc. The church must state in advance (preferably in board minutes) the amount of salary designated as housing allowance. That amount, then, is not taxable. For instance, if a pastor makes $40,000 and $15,000 is designated as housing allowance, the minister will be taxed on just $25,000 of income. (Here’s suggested wording for a board resolution.)

On November 22, 2013, a US District Court in Wisconsin ruled that the housing exemption violates the Constitution’s “establishment of religion” clause. The judge said it unnecessarily “provides a benefit to religious persons and no one else.” She felt that housing allowance provides an unconstitutional preference for religion, and that denying housing allowance wouldn’t infringe on freedom of religion.

You can read much more about housing allowance in this article on UBCentral.org.