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.

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.