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.

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.