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We trust you’ve all have a wonderful News Year’s Day, regardless of whether or not your team won (sorry about that, to all of our constituents in Pennsylvania).
The Healthy Ministry Resources office is closed until Monday.
May this be a great year for the United Brethren in Christ!
The National Conference nominating committee always has an important job, especially when a new bishop will be elected. That’s the case right now.
Upon the recommendation of Bishop Ron Ramsey, Executive Leadership Team approved a nominating committee of three ministers:
They, in turn, selected several laypersons to serve on the committee.
The nominating committee will put together a ballot for:
Keeps these folks in your prayers as they go about discussing candidates and contacting people. They already held one meeting.
Ron Ramsey, Bishop
United Brethren churches do a lot of neat things over the Christmas holidays.
What did your church do this year? Let me know, so we can share it with others.
An ice storm hit northeast Indiana last Friday, knocking out power to businesses and homes all over the area. Most power was finally restored today. But trees are down everywhere.
Such was Jeff Bleijerveld’s welcome back from his trip to Sierra Leone. He arrived on December 23. He’ll no doubt have plenty to report.
Anyway, all is well. We hope your church has a wonderful Christmas season (what’s left of it), and that you personally have a joyous time. The office was closed today, and will be closed on Friday, the 26th. But we’ll see you next Monday
The staff with some of the gifts, before we loaded them into Bishop Ramsey’s van (bottom).
The Healthy Ministry Resources staff and the Huntington University graduate school (whose staff are housed in our building) joined forces to buy gifts for a local family. This family includes a father and mother, five kids, and another child on the way.
We hooked up with them through Love in the Name of Christ, a local agency that serves as a clearinghouse and screening agency for churches and other groups that want to help local people.
On Wednesday, Bishop Ron Ramsey and Steve Dennie delivered a van-load of gifts to this family. There were multiple presents for each member of the family, plus a number of food items.
Every year, the Healthy Ministry Resources staff and spouses go somewhere nice for a Christmas party. Two years ago it was the Bluegate Inn in Shipshewana, Ind. Last year we went to the Back 40 in Decatur, Ind.
This year: the Potawatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park near Angola, Ind. With snow falling all around, it was a beautiful place to be. Not much fun getting there, and not much fun driving back home. But snow falling upon a lodge in the woods–nice.
Before the fabulous buffet meal, we all played (brace yourself) Bingo. Cathy Reich, the administrative assistant, found Christmas-themed Bingo cards. Click on the thumbnail on the right for a large view of the card.
Bishop Ron Ramsey drew and called out the card items, which in this case were like “I Snowman” or “G Holly.” Winners received prizes (though be assured,no actual money exchanged hands). Pam Dennie, wife of Communications Director Steve Dennie, won the grand prize (a four-corners round).
Ron Ramsey, Bishop
One of the things that leaders do is LEAD.
We desperately need pastors who will LEAD the congregation or ministry area that God has called you to lead.
You say, “Well, I can’t.” Then, did God make a mistake in calling you?
You say, “I don’t know how. “Then learn some skills and begin to practice them.
We tend to think of the Type A personality who is the natural-born leader. If that doesn’t describe us, then we beg off of leading. No! No! No! If God has called you to a position of leadership, then LEAD. If God has called you to that ministry, he wants you to LEAD.
To me, spiritual leadership involves:
How do you discover that? Pray. Read the scriptures. Pray. Read books on leadership. Pray. Study your ministry area to determine what the needs are. Pray. Then LEAD! You may not lead where or how I think you should, but if you’re getting spiritual results, then you won’t get an argument from me.
Scott Hardaway, pastor of Pathway Community Church, the UB church in Jackson, Mich., wrote a superb blog post called “Something to Believe In.” He talks about how we too often squander laypersons’ time and energy in ministries that lack purpose.
Here are three paragraphs from the middle of the piece. You should read the whole thing, including Scott’s own purposeful goals for himself in 2009.
I believe that churches too often simply assume that everything they do is worthwhile. It might even be true (although, usually it’s not), but I guarantee that the average person in the pew does not make that same assumption. The average person wants to know, “OK, if I give my time to this thing, what difference is that going to make? What’s the impact that my contribution is going to have?” And if we can answer that question satisfactorily, we’ll find people lining up to serve because every single one of us has an innate, God-given desire to make a real difference with our lives.
Part of answering that question satisfactorily, however, lies in our ability to own up to the fact that we have in fact wasted people’s time and efforts in the past. We have invested them in places that really didn’t make any difference. We have created ministries that were not strategic, that were not well-planned or excellently executed. We have mis-shepherded the hearts and lives of our people and put them in positions where they were destined to fail, usually due to no fault of their own.
So we must commit to not doing that anymore. We must solemnly promise (and then, of course, follow through on that promise) to do our part in developing ministries that matter–ministries that really allow those serving to make an impact or an investment in the lives of other people; ministries that tangibly bring glory to God, instead of simply supporting our structure. And the best way to do that is to set clearly defined, concrete goals that spell out plainly what will be accomplished through any particular ministry.
Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries
I woke up to this amazing thought and had to share it. While there is nothing new in it, my heart was blessed to contemplate it all in a new way. So here is my new, old Christmas thought.
The One who created all things, left that which was comfortable in order to take on a form that was unnatural.
The Creator became created.
The Omnipotent One became dependent.
The One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills was born in abject poverty.
He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we may have life.
And He simply asks that we be willing to leave our position of comfort, enter into the zone of unknown, and tell the world what He has done for us. All by the power of His Spirit living in us.
All I can do is say “Thank you” and “Here am I, Lord, send me.”
Here’s a pretty incredible website, Iamsecond.com, with excellent testimonies from a number of people–some of them well-known, some not. They’re communicating that God is first in their lives.
