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This is just a reminder, for people in the Indiana-Ohio area, of next Thursday’s “Hang with the Bishop” meeting. Pat Jones and Jeff Bleijerveld will join Bishop Ron Ramsey. It’s for UB pastors and laypersons from churches within driving distance of Huntington, Ind.
The planning committee (l-r): Nate Perry, Steve Dennie, Josh Greenfield, Heather Umbaugh, Chris Kuntz, Amy Pennington, Ron Ramsey, E. J. Ramsey, Donna Hollopeter, Opal Sherman, Marci Hammel, Cathy Reich.
The 2009 National Conference will return to Saw Mill Creek Resort (Huron, Ohio), scene of the 2007 US National Conference. Last weekend, an extended version of the planning team (above) met at Saw Mill Creek to continue the planning they’ve been doing for the past nine months.
The date: June 4-7, 2009. That’s Thursday through Sunday morning. We’ll follow pretty much the same schedule we did in 2007.
The location: People liked the general location, northern Ohio, according to the evaluations. It made a good mid-point for the bulk of our people (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Virginias). We looked at various venues large enough to accommodate 900-plus people, and Saw Mill Creek floated to the top of the list.
Two things to know:
We’ll get you more information as plans come together. But for now, get June 4-7 on your calendar and begin talking to people in your church about attending. By year’s end, you’ll need to identify persons to represent your church as lay delegate(s).
L-r: Nate Perry, Steve Dennie, Josh Greenfield, Heather Umbaugh, Chris Kuntz, Amy Pennington, Ron Ramsey, E. J. Ramsey, Donna Hollopeter, Opal Sherman, Marci Hammel, and Cathy Reich.
The 2009 National Conference will return to Saw Mill Creek Resort, scene of the 2007 US National Conference. The planning committee has met several times during the last nine months. Last weekend, the planning team, plus several other persons who are playing an important role in making it happen, met at Saw Mill Creek to continue planning.
Date: June 4-7, 2009
Location: Huron, Ohio
We’ll follow the same basic schedule as in 2007:
The annual meeting of the Michigan United Brethren churches (a hold-over from the previous Michigan Conference) will take place:
The event will include:
Persons interested in the meal should contact Jim Kendall to order the number of quarters of chicken they and their family will need. Contact him by June 30 at (989) 236-5070.
Camp sites are available for $10 per night. They include water and electricity ($12 if you have air conditioning). Call Lee Palmer to reserve a spot at (989) 235-6525
To receive a national conference ministerial license, you must complete the UB church history course. That class has been meeting since Monday at Huntington University, and will conclude today. One attendee is Jeff Bleijerveld, our new Director of Global Ministries, who is preparing to transfer his ordination from the Missionary Church USA.
Here are the class members from the photo, left to right (click the image for a larger photo):
Dr. Howard Cherry, who served in the HU Graduate School of Christian Ministries until 1992, has been teaching the course for nearly 20 years.
The denominational Bible quiz finals will be held June 13-15 (Friday through Sunday) at Huntington University. The Saturday night awards banquet starts at 5:30. Churches from three areas will compete:
Indiana is getting its chance to host a “Hang with the Bishop” event. This is for pastors and laypersons from churches within driving distance of Huntington, Ind.
This is an agenda-less, informal meeting. Come with your questions, and Bishop Ron Ramsey and Pat Jones will do their best to answer them. Bring your staff or any interested persons from your congregation.
And by the way: lunch will be provided.
We need to know how many people are coming. So please RSVP to Cathy Reich, my administrative assistant, by June 19.
We previously held Hang with the Bishop meetings in southern Ohio, Chambersburg, Pa., and Ashley, Mich.
The Train the Trainer seminar is continuing today at Huntington University. In addition to the 20 UB ministers who are attending, there are various people from the local community–from government, the schools, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other groups. Huntington University, the Huntington Foundation, and the UB denomination are jointly sponsoring the event.
Tim Elmore, the leader, is sharing principles about communication, vision, leadership, and other topics that can apply to various types of organizations.
We need to step up leadership development, because there is a dearth of recognizable leadership across our denomination. With that in mind, three events are occurring during a three-week period. Two have already happened. The third started today.
1. Hit the Bullseye Conference (Lima, Ohio). We brought all of our cluster leaders to this two-day conference April 29-30. We registered 35 people through our office, and several other UBs came on their own.
2. Drive Conference (Atlanta, Ga.). For the second year, we took a group of pastors of our largest churches to the Drive Conference, hosted by Andy Stanley’s church in Georgia.
3. Train the Trainer (Huntington, Ind.). Tim Elmore, who has been associated with John Maxwell for a long time, has his own leadership development organization. He recrafted material which he uses in the business world. We invited 20 people to take part in this event:
Adam Will, pastor of Eden UB (Reedsville, Ohio), wrote on his blog about the Hit the Bullseye Conference, which he attended with about 30 other UBs.
