24 Feb A Day of Farewells for Darlene Burkett

Darlene Burkett with Box Number 1.

Peggy Sell (left) and Darlene Burkett.

On Wednesday, February 23, the Healthy Ministry Resources staff recognized Darlene Burkett for her seven years as Administrative Assistant to Global Ministries. As reported earlier, Darlene will complete her work at the national office next week.

Darlene and her husband, Phil, will load up a truck on Friday, March 4, and move to Cass City, Mich., where Phil will become senior pastor of the Cass City Missionary Church. Until the end of 2010, Phil was Minister of Music and Worship at College Park Church in Huntington, Ind.

During the morning break time, the staff presented a bunch of nicely-wrapped gifts to Darlene. Each box held part of a large, elaborate nativity set. Darlene collects nativity sets.

Then, over lunch, the staff went to downtown Huntington to the Brick House Grill, where Phil was waiting. Everyone enjoyed a nice meal together as a send-off for Darlene. She’ll be back next week to continue training her replacement, Peggy Sell. But after that, Peggy will be on her own.

We at the national office wish Phil and Darlene well as they begin this new venture.

08 Feb Six UB Bishops in One Place

The six living bishops. L-r: Ray Seilhamer, Paul Hirschy, Phil Whipple, Raymond Waldfogel, C. Ray Miller, and Ron Ramsey. (click to enlarge)

The six living bishops gathered for breakfast this morning in the new conference room at the national office in Huntington, Ind. Bishop Phil Whipple meets with them every couple of months; they are his accountability group. The original plan was to try to do a conference video hook-up with Wilber L. Sites, Jr., who lived in Pennsylvania; unfortunately, he passed away December 28.

01 Feb UB Offices Closed Wednesday

Because of the blizzard, the Healthy Ministry Resources offices will be closed on Wednesday, February 2.

31 Jan Conference Room Makeover

The new conference room at the national office is now finished. Everything is brand new–tables (with A/C and ethernet plugins), swiveling chairs, indirect lighting, carpet, electronic projection system, and more. Very, very nice. Removing two closets even made the room a little bigger.

The previous conference room had remained basically the same since 1987. Cathy Reich, administrative assistant to Bishop Phil Whipple, oversaw the makeover.

17 Jan United Brethren History Takes to the Road

The annual United Brethren History course, usually held only Huntington, Ind., will be held in two regional settings this year. This course is a requirement for becoming a licensed United Brethren minister.

Basic Information

• The cost is $200.
• You will need to read the UB history book “Trials and Triumphs” beforehand. It is available through the Healthy Ministry Resources bookstore for $14.95 (plus shipping). Order a copy by calling toll-free: 888.622.3019
• Register using the online form at: ub.org/events/ubhistory

February 21-22, 2011

Location: Rhodes Grove Campground (Chambersburg, Pa.)
Time: 9 am Monday — 4 pm Tuesday
Teacher: Dr. Daryl Elliott (right), senior pastor of Fountain UB (Keyser, W. Va.)
Registration Deadline: February 1, 2011
Lodging: available at Rhodes Grove by calling: 717.375.4162. Meals will be off-campus on your own.

March 7-8, 2011

Location: Mt. Zion UB church (Wayne, Ohio)
Time: 9 am Monday — 4 pm Tuesday
Teacher: Rev. Robert Bruce (right), associate pastor of Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Registration Deadline: February 15, 2011
Meals: breaks and lunch provided at the church for a donation. Breakfast and dinner on your own.

Hotel rooms have been reserved at:

Comfort Suites
3700 Speedway Drive
Findlay, OH 45840

Cost per room per night: $79.95 single, $89.99 double (plus tax). Make your reservation by calling 419.420.1212 before February 7. The hotel is about a 20-minute drive from the Mt. Zion Church.

11 Jan Cluster Leader Training

Bishop Phil Whipple speaking to the cluster leaders.

L-r: Stephen Smith, Jeff Bleijerveld, and Marty Pennington.

Dan Kopp (left) and Denny Miller. Dan led the training for the cluster leaders. Denny, as Cluster Coordinator, is responsible for all of the clusters and the training provided to them.

John Cole (Bluffton, Ind.), Troy Green (Monroe, Ind.), and Lester Kaufman (Greencastle, Pa.).

L-r: Dennis Miller, Bishop Emeritus C. Ray Miller, and Bishop Emeritus Ron Ramsey.

Twenty-six cluster leaders came to Huntington, Ind., for a day of training on January 10, 2011. They met in the Habecker Dining Commons at Huntington University. Dalton Jenkins, a cluster leader from Yonkers, N.Y., couldn’t attend in person, but he did participate in the entire meeting over the internet via Skype.

Each cluster leader oversees a group of 3-10 United Brethren churches. The senior pastors of these churches meet for training, fellowship, encouragement, and accountability.

Dan Kopp, senior pastor of NorthPointe UB church in Lewis Center, Ohio, led the training, which focused on the coaching relationship between cluster leaders and senior pastors. They did a lot of role-playing to practice the techniques of coaching.

Dennis Miller, senior pastor of Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.), works one day a week as the denominational Cluster Coordinator. Two former bishops serve on staff at Emmanuel–C. Ray Miller and Ron Ramsey. Both of them will work alongside Rev. Miller to interact regularly with the cluster leaders.

You can read more about the clusters and cluster grouping here.

10 Jan A Komets Christmas for the HQ Staff

G. Blair Dowden, President of Huntington University (left) and Bishop Phil Whipple chatting between periods of the hockey game.

Jason and Donna Hollopeter. Donna is associate director of Global Ministries.

Phil Burkett (left) and JR Reich take a stretch while their spouses, Darlene and Cathy, talk. Darlene and Cathy are, respectively, administrative assistants to Global Ministries and the bishop's office.

The staff and spouses of Healthy Ministry Resources (the UB national office) waited until January 7, 2011, for their annual Christmas party. December was just too crowded with events and traveling.

The evening started with a buffet meal at Don Hall’s Guesthouse in Fort Wayne, Ind. Then they adjourned to the Fort Wayne Coliseum for a hockey game between the local Komets and the Evansville Icemen. The Komets put in a terrible performance in a boring game, losing 3-1. But still, everyone had a good time.

Especially when persons found themselves on the big game screen. Phil Burkett (husband of Global Ministries administrative assistant Darlene Burkett), was pictured alongside a “Look-a-Like” photo of George Lucas. A few minutes later, the Kiss Cam caught Jason and Donna Hollopeter, who promptly complied.

08 Jan Introducing Trevor and Allison Kuney

Allison and Trevor Kuney

For the past couple of years, Allison Dunten has worked part-time at the United Brethren national office while attending Huntington University. She has helped Finance Director Marci Hammel with various finance-related tasks. Allison is the daughter of Rev. Darwin and Polly Dunten, who serve Findlay First UB church (Findlay, Ohio).

On January 1, Allison married Trevor Kuney. The wedding was held at Lakeview UB church in Camden, Mich. On January 6, they stopped by the UB offices, where we had some gifts awaiting them.

The newlyweds have settled into an apartment in Huntington. Allison will continue doing some work in the Finance department.

28 Dec The 2000’s: UB Decade in Review

Steve Dennie (right), Communications Director

Everyone’s publishing “decade in review” lists–best movies, best sports plays, most significant news stories, ground-breaking new products, top scandals, etc.

How would we recap the decade for the United Brethren church? Here are ten UB highlights of the decade, in roughly chronological order.

2001 General Conference. This was a historic conference. We adopted a true international structure, with 7 autonomous national conferences joined together by the Confession of Faith and an international constitution. Huntington, Ind., stopped being the United Brethren “world” headquarters, and became just the US headquarters. No longer does United Brethrenism revolve around the United States. Colonialism: RIP.

Open Theism. A whole lot of turbulence arose around Dr. John Sanders, a professor at Huntington University who was a leading proponent of what is called Open Theism. United Brethren theology clashed, hard, with academic freedom. Both church and college came under criticism from the broader evangelical community. In the end, an exit strategy was worked out for Dr. Sanders, and both church and college began mending the wounds.

Joining the Missionary Church. In early 2003, the UB Executive Leadership Team voted to pursue merging our denomination into the Missionary Church, a like-minded, larger denomination based in Fort Wayne, Ind. As leadership pushed this initiative, a group called UB Hope arose to rally people against it. Ultimately, UB members voted it down in a referendum, 56%-44%. This set the stage for lots of soul-searching about why we exist and the adoption of a whole new structure.

(more…)

21 Dec New Bookstore Hours as of January 4

The Healthy Ministry Resources (or Church Services) bookstore at the national office will adopt new hours in 2011.

Beginning January 4, 2011, the new bookstore hours are 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. The bookstore will be closed Fridays.