14 Oct Bishop Whipple’s Report to the ELT

Bishop Phil Whipple leading the ELT meeting, as his administrative assistant, Cathy Reich, takes notes.

The Executive Leadership Team met October 11-12 in Huntington, Ind. The ELT, the highest governing body between meetings of the US National Conference, meets twice a year to handle business. There are 13 members: Bishop Phil Whipple (chairman), 8 persons elected by the National Conference, and 4 persons appointed by the ELT itself.

The bishop and the various directors all presented one-page bulleted reports. Here are some items from Bishop Phil Whipple’s written and verbal report to the ELT:

• Bishop Whipple, often accompanied by his wife Sandy, traveled over 44,000 miles during his first year as bishop. He has been in 87 of our approximately 200 churches in the United States.
• The church in Lansing, Mich., will close October 24. All assets will be given to a Lansing restart project headed by Tim Flickinger, former senior pastor of Fowlerville UB (Fowlerville, Mich.). It is not known yet if the building will be sold.
• Andy Sikora has begun planting a new church in Berea, Ohio.
• Another new work is Eternal Waters, located in southern Ohio. They report decisions and baptisms. This self-supporting work requires no funds from the denomination. Their founder, Allen Layne, is employed fulltime and takes no salary.
• The denomination now owns the property of Fountain Hills Community Church (Fountain Hills, Ariz.). That church closed in the fall of 2009. The former congregation had outstanding loans with both the denomination and Global Ministries. The building underwent some significant repairs and is now being leased to an independent congregation called Four Peaks Church. Bishop Whipple will visit Fountain Hills in January 2011 to meet with the Four Peaks elder team.
• Two churches were closed: Central UB (Rohersville, Md.), and Convoy (Convoy, Ohio).
• Felida Christian Fellowship, our church in Vancouver, Wash., withdrew from the denomination. They are becoming a satellite campus for Summit View Church, a megachurch in Vancouver.
• “We must do a better job of developing leaders among our pastors and help them to raise up leaders in their congregations.”
• “I believe that God has great things in store for us as a body of churches together. Let’s lift up our eyes and look to the God who is more than able to accomplish more than I can dream of. Let’s move forward in faith believing that he is going to do a new thing, with or without us, but he delights in doing it in the hearts of those who are willing to trust him fully.”

14 Oct 2011 Pastor’s Salary Recommendation

The Executive Leadership Team approved the 2011 minimum fulltime salary formula for United Brethren ministers.

• The recommendation includes a base salary of $36,500 (a 1.1% increase from 2010). That is a starting point.
• Other factors–such as experience, education, church attendance, staff size–add to the base salary.
• Benefits such as parsonage, utilities, SECA, insurance, and pension round out the compensation package.

To be a fulltime pastor, the compensation package must meet all of these criteria in full. If a church cannot meet these guidelines, a pastor may pursue supplemental employment to achieve the compensation level.

You can read the current compensation recommendation on the UB website.

06 Oct Help Us Redesign the UB Website

We’re beginning work on a redesign of the UB.org website, the official website of the United Brethren in Christ Church, USA. The current design has been in place for over 5 years. Time for an upgrade.

We want your suggestions as we begin developing a new flagship site.

• What would you like to see in a revamped UB.org?
• What is missing in the current site?
• What frustrates you about the current site?
• What bells and whistles would you like to see?
• What types of information would be most valuable?
• What information needs to be most accessible?

Please send your suggestions to Steve Dennie, the Communications director.

Anything is fair game. So fire away!

UB.org will complement these two new sites:

• UBCentral.org, a centralized place for all types of UB news, with hooks into Facebook and Twitter. Created in October 2009.
• UBGlobal.org, a new site for everything related to Global Ministries. Unveiled in September 2010.

04 Oct PMLT Meeting October 4-5

The Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team is meeting October 4-5 (Monday and Tuesday) in Huntington, Ind. The PMLT is responsible for issues related to pastoral education, licensing, and ordination. Lee Rhodes, pastor of Countryside UB (Breckenridge, Mich.), is the chairman.

28 Jul Bishop Phil and Sandy Whipple “On the Road Again”

Bishop Phil and Sandy Whipple are making a sweep out west to visit our churches and bring a message of hope. They started their trek this past weekend, with the whole weekend spent at Adeline Christian Camp, Adeline, Illinois. The rest of their itinerary is included here:

• Milltown UB, Parkston, SD (July 26)
• Cream Ridge UB, Lenore, ID and Pastor Fred Browning (July 30)
• Dayton UB, Dayton, WA and Pastor Greg Brownell (August 1)
• Felida Christian Fellowship, Vancouver, WA and Pastor Ian McIntosh (August 2)
• Philomath Community Church, Philomath, OR and Pastor Rick Finley (August 4)
• Log Cabin Church, Boise, ID and Pastor Armond Taylor (August 8)
• McGuire Bend UB, Dayton, IA and Pastor “Dot” Hasler (August 12)
• Garden Prairie UB, Arlington, IA (August 13)

09 Jun UB History Class Visits the Office

Bishop Phil Whipple (middle) speaks to the UB Church History class. Beside him are Jeff Bleijerveld (left) and course teacher Dr. Howard Cherry (right). (click to enlarge)

Bishop Phil Whipple (far right) giving a tour of the offices to the Church History class. At their workstations are Cathy Reich (left, administrative assistant to the bishop), and Darlene Burkett (administrative assistant in Global Ministries). (click to enlarge)

The annual United Brethren Church History class has been meeting this week, Monday through Thursday (June 7-10). On Wednesday, the national office hosted them for:

• Lunch
• Some words from Bishop Phil Whipple and Global Ministries Director Jeff Bleijerveld.
• A tour of the Healthy Ministry Resources building.

Howard Cherry is teaching the class for the umpteenth time.

17 Mar PMLT Studies UB Pastoral Training

The Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team. L-r: Chuck Wheatley, Robert Bruce, Craig Burkholder, Lee Rhodes (chairman), Chris Little (red shirt, back to the camera), Bishop Phil Whipple, Cathy Reich (secretary, hidden), Terry Smith, Dennis Sites.

The Pastoral Ministry Leadership Team (PMLT) met Monday night and Tuesday, March 15-16. The main agenda item involved pastoral training. The Huntington University Graduate School will discontinue the Pastoral Leadership track in June. That has always been our primary vehicle for training ministers. The PMLT needed to figure out how to replace it.

They settled on a list of 11 core courses for the National Conference license, and 24 core courses for ordination. If no college can be found that offers a particular course, the PMLT may cover the subject through a workshop of some kind. A Masters degree is no longer required for ordination.

Here are the course subjects. If you have questions, ask them in the “Comments,” and Bishop Whipple will respond.

26 Feb Annual Reports Due Monday

Just a reminder to senior pastors and licensed ministers: your annual reports are due to Bishop Phil Whipple on Monday, March 1. Lots of reports have been coming to the office this week.