02 May Introducing Healthy Ministry Resources

The United Brethren national office has a new name: Healthy Ministry Resources. The name reflects the mission of the national office, which is: “To effectively resource pastors and congregations of the US National Conference to fulfill the Great Commission.”

When Bishop Ron Ramsey took office in 2005, one of his strategic initiatives was to create a “brand” for the national office in Huntington which would:

• Provide an official name and logo for the office. The generic “UB Headquarters” has been used until now.
• Focus the office’s purpose squarely on serving and resourcing local churches.
• Emphasize that the national office’s only reason to exist is to help UB churches. The churches don’t exist for the sake of the national office.
• Change the perception of the national office as an hierarchical entity.

“The real work of our denomination occurs at the local level,” says Bishop Ramsey. “As a national office, our only reason to exist is to help those churches thrive. Many people in our churches around the country view us as a bureaucratic, top-down entity. I want to change that perception. Our purpose is to serve our churches. The new name, the website, and everything we do will emphasize that purpose.”

The branding initiative was unveiled on April 21 to the Executive Leadership Team, and went public on May 2. It includes:

• A name and logo for the national office, which you’ll begin seeing on stationery, forms, and all kinds of other materials.
• A new website for the national office: healthyministryresources.com

UB.org remains the official website of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA, and UBMissions.com is the official website for Global Ministries. Those aren’t going away. The new website deals specifically with the work of the national office.

The BishopBlog, which was launched in 2006, has been revamped and folded into the new website. It has a new purpose, and will be given far more attention than in the past. Communications director Steve Dennie describes the new BishopBlog as the “Grand Central Station” of UB communications–the one place to go to find out what’s happening throughout the UB internet world.

The Healthy Ministry Resources name and logo apply only to the national office. It is just one ministry of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA.

• We’re not changing the name of the denomination.
• This is not a new denominational logo.

02 May New Healthy Ministry Resources Sign

Today is the public launch day for Healthy Ministry Resources. With that, Steve Dennie and Cathy Reich took down the old sign in front of the building and unveiled the new sign. We like it.

21 Nov Cathy Reich Joins the Headquarters Staff

Cathy Reich is the new Administrative Assistant to Bishop Ron Ramsey, Pat Jones, and Steve Dennie. She started in that position on November 19.

Cathy is a graduate of Huntington University, and beginning in 1975 spent nearly nine years working at the United Brethren Headquarters. She initially worked in the printshop, and in 1982 became executive secretary to Paul Hirschy, then the Director of Church Services. She left that position in 1984 when she and her husband, Jon, began having children.

Cathy and her family are very active members of Good Shepherd UB church in Huntington, Ind. In recent years, Cathy has served on the Good Shepherd staff part-time as Director of Children’s Ministries.

Cathy was elected to the Executive Leadership Team at the 2007 US National Conference. With her new role, she has stepped down from that position.

11 Jun Five Changes Made to the UB Constitution

The 2007 US National Conference, meeting on June 1 in Huron, Ohio, gave official approval to five changes to the Constitution. All five proposed changes, called referenda, were advanced by the 2005 US National Conference and voted upon by members of all UB churches in the United States during February 2007.

Each referendum received at least 90% of the votes cast. Here are the complete results:

The delegates responded by giving their assent with comparable percentages (a two-thirds vote is needed to make a referendum official).

The ramifications of these referenda are:

1. Referendum 1 removed some language from the preamble which the new structure adopted in 2005 makes obsolete (specifically, reference to annual conferences).
(more…)

11 Jun Two Items Removed from National Church Covenant

The US National Conference approved two changes to the National Church Covenant, which United Brethren churches must sign every two years (2007 was the first year for that). The covenant consists of eight points. By action of the 2007 US National Conference, points 5 and 8 have been removed.

Point 5 says, “They are intererested in partnering with other like-minded churches.” It was explained that this point is vague and nobody is sure exactly what it means (nor how to force churches to comply with this).

Point 8 says, “They support the work of the camps, university, and other ministries of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA.” This line was added from the floor of the 2005 National Conference. Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries, explained that this is the only part of the covenant which is programmatic in nature, in that it requires supporting two “programs” of the church–the camps and university.

He pointed out that most of the camps are now separate entities from the denomination, organized with their own board of directors; so that part was already obsolete. He stressed that there is no intention of weakening the relationship with Huntington University.

This issue received a good deal of discussion at the spring 2007 Executive Leadership Team, and the ELT passed on the recommendation that item 8 be removed. The original desire with the covenant was to keep program issues out and stick mainly to matters of philosophy and relationship. If we include the camps and college, why not also specifically name Global Ministries and church multiplication, which are arguably more central to the work of local churches? Other potential additions might include Women’s Ministries, Bible quizzing, and the Youthworkers Summit.

There was some discussion, but not much. Both points 5 and 8 were removed. So when local churches are asked to once again sign the covenant in early 2009, it will look like the following, but without the two points in bold:

Every congregation shall…reaffirm their support of and membership in the US National Conference by signing a covenant which includes affirmation of these points:

1. They are committed to the Confession of Faith.
2. They agree with the core values of the United Brethren in Christ, International.
3. They agree to abide by the Constitution and Discipline of the US National Conference.
4. They are passionate about fulfilling the Great Commission through their local church.
5. They are interested in partnering with other like-minded churches.
6. They support the ministry and mission of the United Brethren Church, USA, through the annual partnership fee.
7. They will participate in a cluster.
8. They support the work of the camps, university, and other ministries of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA.