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.

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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.

21 Dec How UBs Connect

We continually increase the number of people who receive UB information electronically. Here are the latest numbers.

Facebook: 411 people now “Like” the United Brethren page. We add new persons every week. A little over a year ago, we started at zero. Last March, the number was 230.

Feedburner: 200 subscribers. Feedburner is the best way to keep current with UB news, since the news comes to your email every day. Subscribe here.

Connect Email: 1242 subscribers. This is an occasional e-letter containing UB news and information. Subscribe here.

WAVES: 277 subscribers. This is a fairly new quarterly email from the Women’s Ministry Leadership Team. It’s designed as a resource for women. The second edition went out a few days ago. Subscribe here.

17 Dec Free Stuff from the National Office

The conference room at the national office is getting a makeover.

Bishop Phil Whipple surveys the "damage."

We are remodeling the conference room at the national office. Right now, it’s totally gutted. The current conference room had been in place since 1987. The new one will replace well-used furnishings, enlarge the room, and provide significant upgrades in technology (such as videoconferencing).

In the process, we tore out two closets, which contained audio-visual equipment and other things going back 30+ years.

We’re making everything available FOR FREE to United Brethren churches. All you have to do is come get it. We’re not shipping anything.

You’ll find short descriptions and photos on the UB website [Nov 2011 note: this information is no longer there]. Just contact Administrative Assistant Cathy Reich is you’re interested in an item.

15 Dec 2010 Annual Reports Posted Online

At the end of each year, pastors are required to complete forms which tell about the church’s ministry during the past year and about their own ministry. The forms for 2010 will be mailed in January. However, right now they can be downloaded from the UB website.

The reports can be downloaded as Word files (which you can fill in on your computer and email back), or as PDF files (which you can fill in by hand). There are five documents:

1. 2010 Minister’s Reports
2. 2010 Unassigned Minister’s reported
3. 2010 Local Church Report
4. 2010 Women’s Ministry Report
5. Instruction Sheet

The Unassigned Minister’s Report and the Women’s Ministry Report can both be filled out online.

All reports are due to the Bishop’s office February 15, 2011.

02 Dec On the Road with Bishop Whipple

Women at Zion United African Church in Philadelphia, Pa.

At the end of  October and into November, I spent several weeks in Pennsylvania.

On October 31, I spoke at Zion United African Church, the UB church in Philadelphia where Joe Abu is the pastor. That was an interesting and fun experience. They had dubbed it as sort of a rally day. Some other ethnic churches in the area came over. The building was packed–and it’s quite a large building—with what I guessed to be several hundred people.

Bishop Phil Whipple speaking at Zion United African Church.

They had special African garb for me to wear. They warned me that there would be dancing. I’ve been to Mozambique, in Africa. The shuffle common in Mozambique was the same that the folks from Sierra Leone do. It was a very fun experience.

I spoke at Franklintown UB church (Franklintown, Pa.) on November 7, and then at Prince Street Church (Shippensburg, Pa.) on November 14.

About 35 pastors attended the Mid-Atlantic Resource Day, held November 7-8 at Rhodes Grove Camp in Chambersburg, Pa.

I saw a lot of pastors and had some very productive conversations. I sensed that pastors were thankful to see me on their terms, at their place, to hear their heart and see their ministry. In the past, annual conferences were the connection bishops had with pastors. The National Conference is a great experience, but it’s not conducive to meeting people beyond a handshake. Part of the need of the bishop’s office is to get out and meet our pastors on their turf. It’s helpful to speak to them when there is not a problem, to get acquainted when things are going well.

I’ve now been in 105 churches since taking this position. I’ll visit the Pixley UB church in California in January, and visit the Florida churches later. During the summer, Sandy and I took a 26-day tour through the west and visited 11 churches. By comparison, I saw more churches during my two weeks in Pennsylvania in a much shorter span of time. My hope is to have been in every UB church in the United States by National Conference in July 2011. I think it’s doable.

16 Nov Winter Slam 2011

The annual Winter Slam youth retreat is coming up February 4-6, 2011. This annual retreat, which has been held for about 20 years now, will take place in southwest Pennsylvania at the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center near Mount Pleasant, Pa.

You can read all about it on the UB website–schedule, speakers, musicians, how to register, etc. There are a variety of items you can download.

Bring some teens from your youth group for fun and spiritual inspiration.

18 Oct The Cluster System Continues to Evolve

All senior pastor and churches are required to participate in a cluster, which is generally a group of senior pastors from 6-8 churches. During the past year, Dennis Miller (right), senior pastor of Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.), has been working one day a week as Director of Clusters. In that role he oversees the cluster system.

The cluster strategy was reorganized this year, with four types of clusters:

1. Geographical Clusters. Pastors that serve in a certain geographical area (which is true of most of the clusters).
2. Affinity Clusters. Pastors who have the same focus, church size, ministry philosophy, whatever.
3. Social Clusters. A cluster that has fellowship as its primary purpose.
4. CECL. A cluster using training from the Center for Excellence in Congregational Leadership.

Here are some items from Denny Miller’s written and oral report to the Executive Leadership Team on October 12.

• There are 28 clusters. Two meet for fellowship only, one uses the CECL training, and one cluster hasn’t been meeting. The other 24 clusters use a common video curriculum we developed for cluster meetings.
• A training event for cluster leaders was held in January, with most of the leaders attending.
• On January 10, 2011, another training event for cluster leaders will be held in Huntington, Ind., with a focus on coaching. Each cluster leader will be asked to coach one person from his cluster in the coming year.
• The curriculum for 2011 will focus on church systems.
• We will offer two new clusters–one for pastors leading churches with over 200 people, and one for pastors leading churches with fewer than 200 people.
• A system was devised whereby Bishop Whipple, Jeff Bleijerveld, and Denny Miller will each meet with one-third of the clusters during the year, thereby giving each cluster a personal contact.
• Former bishops Ron Ramsey and C. Ray Miller each call and encourage half of the cluster leaders each month.

Information about the cluster system and the constituents of the various groups is given on the UB website.