10 Sep Voting in the Church

When I talk to churches about the governance model, several questions typically come up. One involves voting. 

In many of our churches, 10-25% of the people are on the board, and you vote for people on those boards. The issue of American democracy and having a vote is vital to people– they want to have a say in who sits on the board. But as I talk to people, I look at them straight, and say, “Would you agree that your voting doesn’t necessarily put the best people in the best spots?” Their answer is generally “yes.”

Voting is not a biblical model for putting leaders into place. It’s an empowerment issue. Under the governance system, we encourage letting people nominate persons for various positions. But your leadership team makes appointments to put gifted people in proper places. This follows the Acts 6 model. Deacons were “nominated” by the people but appointed by the Apostles.

08 Sep Organize for Growth

You always need to organize yourself beyond what you are. If you’re a church of 200 and want to be a church of 500, you need to organize like a church of 500. Otherwise, you won’t get there. 

When I became pastor of Mainstreet Church in Walbridge, Ohio, we started at about 220, grew, and began adding staff. I took the staff to larger churches on little field trips. How does it look and feel? How do they structure themselves? We began to tinker. God blessed us and the church grew. 

Over half of our growth was new converts. You get people who don’t know anything, and it’s fun. You get a chance to infect them with the real disease. 

I covet that for you. Not that you get big; that doesn’t make any difference to me. What makes a difference is that you become effective in what God has called you to do. 

05 Sep Ride of a Lifetime

Donna Hollopeter is a big Nascar fan. Her son-in-law builds cars for Jeff Burton, #31.

A couple weeks ago, she took the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Daytona speedway in Florida. It’s something she’s always wanted to do.

• You put on a fireproof suit and helmet.
• You climb through the window of a modified Nascar vehicle.
• You get strapped in real tight (including a device to support your neck).
• The driver looks over and asks, “Are you ready?”
• You give him the thumbs up…and off you go.

About halfway around the track, the driver asked, “How are you doing?” Donna gave another thumbs up.

At which point he floored it, taking the car to 170 mph. Donna says she wasn’t aware of how fast they were going, just looking straight ahead. But then she looked at the wall, “which was pretty close,” and realized–yes, they were going fast.

After three laps, it was over. Then Donna’s husband, Jason, took his turn.

“It was totally awesome!” Donna says.

28 Aug Ruth Boggs, Mother of Titus Boggs

We learned that Ruth Boggs, the mother of Titus Boggs (director of Laurel Mission in Kentucky), passed away Tuesday, August 26. Ruth’s late husband, Alvin, grew up at Laurel Mission and later served on staff there. Titus’s address:

Titus J. Boggs
77 Cedar Chapel Road
Big Laurel, KY 40808-7611

28 Aug Back to School for Bridger Fetters

L-r: Pat Jones, Ron Ramsey, Bridger Fetters, Jeff Bleijerveld.

A pizza buffet seemed like a good way to say goodbye to Bridger Fetters, the summer intern for Global Ministries. So the entire Healthy Ministry Resources staff headed to Pizza Hut for lunch. Bridger returned to Huntington University this week; he’s a senior English major.

Bridger helped out in a number of ways:

• Contacting missionaries and doing other groundwork for next summer’s Global Ministries Homecoming (with as many of our missionaries as possible coming to the States at the same time).
• Preparations for the Mission Team Leader Training events.
• Various promotional materials.
• Organizing hundreds of Global Ministries photos.
• Designing Powerpoint presentations.

Bridger also participated in the China English Camp in July and August (as he did in 2007).

So we definitely got our money’s worth out of Bridger. It was great having him in the office, and we wish him well as he finishes his schooling. (Bridger is the oldest son of Luke and Audrey Fetters.)

27 Aug They Say

I don’t know how I got on the email list for Beyond Borders, but I received an email from them yesterday. The subject is something that we have a lot of problem with in the UB Church: gossip (I don’t think we are unique in that). I suggest that you read the little article by Carl Richardson called “They Say.”

26 Aug The Cluster System After Three Years

We adopted the cluster system at the 2005 National Conference. At that time, two competing philosophies were at work:

1. We need to do everything at the cluster level, including who leads the cluster and what they do. Don’t appoint cluster leaders. 
2. We want clear direction. Tell us what to do, and appoint our cluster leader.

We’ve tried letting clusters develop the way most helpful to them, with the basic focus of churches becoming outward focused and healthy. But some structure works better for many of our pastors. So I’m working on ways to have more structure, but great flexibility, basically telling them, “Here are some things we’d like you to consider, but you figure out how to do it.” 

Every group is unique. I sent out surveys to see if pastors felt their cluster was effective and helpful to them. I found that a majority of the pastors enjoy their cluster and enjoy getting together, with a few guys wanting more instruction and leadership development. We’ve had people change clusters, because they wanted a more intentional approach and a nearby cluster was doing that. For the most part the clusters are working.

25 Aug Jamaican Pride

I sent a note to Owen Gordon (right), UB endorsed missionary and president of Jamaica Bible College, commenting on how excited Jamaica must be over the success of their sprinters in the Olympics. Owen responded:

“Oh yes Steve. There has been a euphoria that has swept across the country. People gathered in groups to celebrate. It reached a high when the 4×100 relay was being run. People felt badly for Asafa Powell, so when he took off in the final leg and broke the world record…it was simply GREAT!

“We all are hoping that this new inspiration will have a positive effect on all of us as Jamaicans, and that the scourge of crime and violence will be addressed.

“This has been a great Olympics for Jamaica: six gold medals, three silver and two bronze. For such a very small country, we all feel very proud of the athletes. The government and the country is planning a big welcome celebration!”

23 Aug Be the Church

Valerie Reynolds, Senior Pastor, Mt. Hope UB, Carson City, Mich.
Last week I spent some time with John and Valerie Reynolds in Carson City, Mich., where Valerie is pastor of the Mount Hope UB. She showed me an article she wrote for the local newspaper. I liked it and wanted to share it here.– Ron Ramsey

What’s happening to church today? Part of the problem is that we misunderstand the nature of the church. Our language is a dead give-away. We talk about “going to church,” the same way we talk about going to the store, going to the mall, or going to Wal-Mart.

We think of the church as a place we visit–and leave–rather than the reality that we should be living “church” every day. The early Christians, however, didn’t talk about “going to church.” They talked about being the church.

Acts 2: 42-27 is an example of “being the church.”

“They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe–all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple, followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.”

After Peter’s sermon, “there were added about 3000 who became believers.” And it happened because the people were not just going to church, but they were being church. They lived it. They did these things “day by day.” These early believers were still rubbing shoulders with people in their community. They didn’t sever all relationships with unbelievers–and neither should we.

Every day we should be rubbing shoulders with neighbors, coworkers, friends, family, clerks at stores and gas stations. The early church grew because they tried to meet needs outside of the church as well as within it.

They didn’t come to church to sit in a pew. They came to church to learn, fellowship, share meals, and then go out and impact their world.

As mature, growing, or new believers, we need to remember that our conversion is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning. Be the church.

21 Aug Country Music, the Scotts, and Speckled Birds

My children gave me a large book for Christmas, The All Encompassing History of Country Music. It’s been fun reading that. It’s not the type of book you sit down and read cover to cover. I read it in sections. 

Interestingly, a lot of country and bluegrass music has roots in Scottish music. Ramsey is a Scottish name. Maybe that’s why I have such an affinity for country music. 

I don’t like all country music, because some of it is trash, but I like the old stuff, the bluegrass. A lot of the early bluegrass had Christian themes to it. Probably my favorite song of all time is “Great Speckled Bird,” an old bluegrass song from a long time ago. The Great Speckled Bird is mentioned in the Bible; see if you can find it. 

At Mainstreet Church, whenever someone complained about our music, I would tell them, “I don’t like it either. You should be glad you’re not singing what I like, because it would be with a twang.” When I left, they brought in a bluegrass band for the going-away party.