23 Oct What Does it Mean to be United Brethren?

Ron Ramsey, Bishop
What does it mean to be a United Brethren today?

In rereading Christian Newcomer’s journal, it seemed clear: we were passionate about reaching lost people. They took seriously the Great Commission. Being a United Brethren wasn’t simply a matter of taking a membership class in a local church.

In many of our churches:

• The Great Commission is merely a slogan we hang on the wall or print in a worship folder.
• The Great Commission is not an eternal truth that compels us to become strategic in reaching people for Christ.
• There is little passion or conviction to reach lost people with the Gospel.
• There is little talk, if any, about the passion that drove Christian Newcomer and others of our early history.

If we are to have a lasting future, we must take seriously the Great Commission.

No denomination has an inherent right to exist. Any church or denomination that loses its passion to make disciples for Jesus stands in risk of having its candlestick removed from the candelabra.

For our early church fathers, being United Brethren required a conviction that people apart from God’s saving grace are lost in their sins. They leaders would do anything, go anywhere at any cost, at any time, in order to:

• See people come to Christ.
• See them gain an assurance of salvation.
• See that faith begin to grow in their lives.

21 Oct Making a Connection with God

Ron Ramsey, Bishop
In early October I attended the 140th anniversary of the Liberty UB church in Stockport, Ohio. Bishop Milton Wright, father of the Wright Brothers, preached when the Liberty church was dedicated. I love being in the hills of southern Ohio. That’s my roots. And being at Liberty turned out to be among the highlights of my three years as bishop.

The pastor is Charles Simmons, a converted oil derrick worker. He told me, “I’ve done every sin imaginable.” A few years ago he found Christ in a Nazarene church, and through a series of circumstances, he became the preacher at Liberty when the former preacher left. He doesn’t have a ministerial license or any formal training.

They have a girl with Down’s Syndrome who reads well. She selects the music for every service and tells the pianist, who tells the chorister. She doesn’t know what the pastor is preaching about. But it was absolutely amazing how her song selections fit what he preached about that day. It gave me goosebumps. I spoke in the afternoon, and she had no information about my sermon. But again, she chose appropriate songs.

At Liberty, the preacher preaches. He preached loud, walking down the center aisle and across the back and around the sides and back to the front. The church was full, with about 75 people. They had a sound system, but you didn’t need it for him, or for me.

Liberty is so different from Mainstreet, the church I pastored on the outskirts of Toledo. But I sat there thinking: those people are happy, they lead a Christian lifestyle, and you sense God’s Spirit in that place. I enjoyed being there. They didn’t have printed bulletins, no projector or video. But they knew how to connect with God, and it was very evident.

What works at Liberty wouldn’t be appropriate for every congregation. But one thing belongs in every church, regardless of style: to make a connection with God in worship.

17 Oct Ten Years Ago, When My Church Began

Steve Dennie, Communications Director

In two days, Anchor Community Church celebrates its tenth anniversary. Pam and I were among the 50 people sent out from Emmanuel UB church in Fort Wayne in 1998 to “restart” the former Third Street UB church, which had existed there since the 1930s.

The church had a great history, but had declined in size and not adapted to the changing neighborhood. Most of the attendees were older and drove in from outlying areas.Third Street was shut-down for five months, and underwent an extensive renovation. New carpet everywhere. Fresh paint. Got rid of the pews and organ. A whole new platform area. New name and sign. Lots of other stuff. Meanwhile, Emmanuel people were challenged to commit a certain amount of time–3 months, 6 months, a year–to getting the reincarnated church going. Pam and I signed up “indefinitely.”

In September of that year, the core group met in our home–the first time we’d been together. With only a few weeks until our first service. Some of us didn’t even know each other; I knew only a few others very well. We looked at what each of us brought to the table, our gifts and interests.

Amazingly, out of this haphazard assemblage of people, God brought together exactly what we needed. There was certainly no human design behind it.

Today, only Pam and I, along with Pastor Tim and Tara (who have since added four children to the mix) remain from that initial core group. Most of the 100-plus people who attend Anchor come from the immediate community. Which was the original vision.

A few weeks ago, while still on vacation, Pam and I attended the Sonrise United Methodist Church near where we live. They told about the new church they were starting in Roanoke, and how 50 people had committed to leaving Sonrise to take part.

It took me back ten years, and I envied those 50 people.

14 Oct The Passion of Christian Newcomer

Ron Ramsey, Bishop
Several weeks ago I came into possession of some old books about the history of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. One was the translated journal of Christian Newcomer. He:

• was born 1749
• answered the call to preach in 1777
• became a bishop in 1813
• died in 1830.

Between 1810 and 1828, Newcomer made 24 round trips across the Allegheny Mountains on horseback, starting churches wherever he went. Newcomer tried making one trip in a horse and buggy, but it didn’t work, so he reverted to horseback. He left his family for months at a time. One time, he got lost in a forest in Ohio. He stopped, knelt down, prayed, and he and the horse quickly found the path.

Our church spread into western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana because Newcomer’s soul burned with a fire to reach the lost. In reading Newcomer’s journal, I was moved by his passion and determination to plant churches wherever he went.

As he moved into the west, he began organizing some annual conferences–Scioto, Muskingum, a few others. It wasn’t organization for organization’s sake, but organization to support the mission. In some ways, it seems like those early leaders purposely tried not to organize themselves. Yet the providence off God led them to develop their organization and structures.

Newcomer’s passion to reach lost people drove him. I don’t want to go back to our history to stay there, but I would like to drag some of that passion forward.

11 Oct Pastor Appreciation Month

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Are you doing something special for your pastor? It could be:

• Something the entire church does, corporately. to show appreciation.
• Something you do, just yourself. A one-to-one expression of appreciation.

27 Sep Going First

At the MinistryCOM conference, the closing speakers (Jon Acuff, who runs the delightful StuffChristiansLike blog), made this point about people and churches who break new ground:

“When you go first, you give everyone else the gift of going second.”

I don’t know if we were the first denomination to oppose slavery–we probably weren’t–but our stand in the early 1800s no doubt emboldened other denominations to take such a stand. If we didn’t go first, we at least went early.

In 1853, we sent a whole wagon train of UBs from Iowa to start churches in Oregon. I’ll bet no denomination had done anything like that.

In 2005, we eliminated regional conferences–the middle-management layer–and cut assessments to a mere 3.5%. Churches in most denominations would salivate over paying just 3.5% to higher church administration. I know our example hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Several years ago, on vacation, Pam and I attended a Vineyard church that planned to always use rented facilities, rather than pour megabucks into facilities. We haven’t had a church follow through on that strategy. We need a first.

Where else have we gone first?

Where else do we need a United Brethren church to go first?

24 Sep Transitions

I read a lot of business-related books that have implications for the church. A book I read recently is “Transition: Making the Most of Change,” by William Bridges.

I’m intrigued by the idea of transitions. I believe that becoming a fully-devoted follower of Jesus is all about transitions. You have a conversion experience, but go through other transitions toward becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ. As a preacher, I want to see changes in people’s lives.

19 Sep My One Magazine: Golf Digest

I don’t subscribe to a lot of magazines. I only subscribe to one, Golf Digest, which I read cover to cover, though not all at one sitting. It takes me a month before the next one comes, but by then I’ll have worked my way through it. It’s not that I want to become an expert in golf, but it’s a way my mind can escape into almost a vacation type mode when I think about golf, the land, the greens, and walking the fairways. Golf takes the stress away. To some people, it would add stress. But I don’t play it that well.

17 Sep Target the Young, Get the Old

One of the blogs I follow is TonyMorganLive.com. Tony Morgan is on staff with Newspring Church in South Carolina, one of the fastest-growing and innovative churches in the country (as was his previous church, Granger Community Church, which he was lured away from two years ago).

Morgan told about a couple in their 60s who found Christ at one of their satellite churches. The curious thing, he said, is that the service isn’t designed for people that age, but for much younger people–loud music, video teaching, coffeehouse atmosphere.

“Here’s what we’ve learned,” he wrote. “If we design our service experiences for a younger audience, we’re more likely to reach that younger person and we’ll also reach older folks. The reverse is not true. If we designed our service experience for an older audience, the younger crowd would not show up.”

There is a lot to talk about here, and most of us have talked about it plenty. How much to cater to the younger set, while seemingly ignoring older folks. The mix of hymns vs. contemporary songs. Etc.

But in the end, there are several inescapable and competing realities:

• In most churches, the people calling the shots are older folks (baby boomers, like me, tend to be in control nowadays).
• Young people aren’t necessarily thrilled with the shots they are calling.
• Older Christians need to say, “The church shouldn’t need to cater to me. I’ll let other people’s tastes and preferences take precedence over my own.”
• Most older Christians aren’t mature enough to say that.

Do you agree with Tony Morgan?

16 Sep Hurricanes and Best-Laid Plans

Cathy Reich, administrative assistant to Bishop Ron Ramsey, is scheduled to leave on a cruise this weekend. She and several other friends. Here’s the original plan:

• They fly into Houston.
• They leave from Galveston.

What’s the chance of that happening?