25 Aug Avlon UB Erects New Church Sign
Avlon UB church (Bremen, Ohio installed a new sign in front of the church. It incorporates the new UB logo.
22 Aug Attaboy at the UB Women’s Conference
The band Attaboy, which is associated with Huntington University, will lead worship at the upcoming UB Women’s Conference. They will share their latest ministry emphasis to students. The conference will be held September 19-21 in Huron, Ohio.
22 Aug Baptisms in Orrstown, Pa.
Ken Williamson, pastor of Orrstown UB church (Orrstown, Pa.), reported that they baptized five people this summer.
22 Aug Praying for Persecuted Christians
Darwin Dunten, senior pastor, Findlay First UB church (Findlay, Ohio)
Yesterday, our church opened the altar following the services to pray for our brothers and sisters in Iraq and around the world who are being persecuted. The altar was filled with 48 adults. May I challenge all of you to do the same and make it a day of prayer for our world wide church family.
18 Aug Obit: Marylou Birdsall
Marylou Birdsall passed away at 3:30 on Thursday, August 14, 2014. She was 85 years old, and living at Swiss Village in Berne, Ind.
Visitation: 9-11 am Tuesday, August 19, 2014.
Funeral: 11 am Tuesday, August 19, 2014. Sons Doug, Brent, and Brian will officiate.
Location: Swiss Village Chapel, 1350 W. Main St., Berne, Ind.
Memorials are to be given to Huntington University. You can sign the on-line guestbook at the Yager-Kirchhofer Funeral Home. Burial will be at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery in Huntington, Ind., with graveside services at 1:30 pm Tuesday, August 14.
Marylou and her late husband, Roger, served in the pastorate for 39 years, pastoring five United Brethren churches and one non-UB church. She was a true partner in ministry with her husband. She is survived by sons Doug, Brent, and Brian, and daughter Connie Potter. In addition there are 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Marylou attended Huntington University, where she met and married seminary student S. Roger Birdsall. They both graduated in 1950 and moved to Boise, Idaho, where he began his pastoral ministry and she began her elementary teaching career. Their first two children, Connie and Doug, were born there. In 1954, the Birdsall family moved to Sylmar, Calif., to serve another United Brethren church. Two more sons, Brent and Brian, joined the family there.
In 1960, the family moved to Peoria, Ill., where they spent the next 22 years pastoring First UB church of Peoria. Marylou taught hundreds of students at Rolling Acres Elementary School until her retirement in 1983.
Rev. and Mrs. Birdsall frequently traveled internationally upon retirement, including extended mission trips to visit their sons who were missionaries in Sierra Leone, West Africa; Tokyo, Japan; and Kiev, Ukraine. They also traveled together to teach at Bible colleges in Jamaica and Bangalore, India.
Marylou was known and loved at church and school for her musical talents at the piano and organ. She continued playing the piano almost to the end of her life for Rotary Clubs in Huntington and Berne, for handicapped persons, and at Swiss Village for the enjoyment of residents and staff. In addition, many people appreciated her easy laughter, pleasant disposition, and imaginative story-telling. Being a mother and grandmother as well as mentoring other young women “who just needed a mother” brought her great joy.
Funeral arrangements will be posted when available.
15 Aug Salem UB, Gener Lascase, and Our Haitian Church in Pennsylvania
Pastor Gener Lascase ministers to a member at Salem United Brethren Church during worship service. (Photo by Ryan Blackwell — Public Opinion)
Pastor Lascase’s congregation feels the spirit. (Photo by Ryan Blackwell – Public Opinion)
The Lascase family is busy helping finish a Habitat for Humanity home in Chambersburg, which they will be moving into. Left to right: friend of family and volunteer Eliavme Louis Charles; Lascase son Jonathan, daughter Syndy, son Davidson, daughter Sooyann, son Meatchacson, mother and wife Aurore, and Pastor Gener Lascase. (Photo by Frieda Stayman – For Public Opinion)
As jobs dwindle in Florida, more Haitians are making their way north up the East Coast.
Pastor Gener Lascase is one who started in Florida, but had to search elsewhere for employment. In 2008, he found himself in Chambersburg for the first time.
Lascase said that for years, Florida remained a base for workers to find jobs while still remaining close to Haiti. They would farm corn, sugar and more, but in recent years those jobs have dried up.
After the earthquake in 2010, many Haitians, including Lascase, decided to move from their country. In 2010, he was one of the first Haitians to come to Franklin County. Now, the population in Chambersburg is about 450 souls, and growing every season.
Lascase felt a spiritual and religious calling to settle in Pennsylvania.
Lascase had been in contact with Pastor Jason Bakker (right), the associate pastor at Salem United Brethren Church. At the same time Lascase made the decision to move to the area, Bakker and the church had an opening in one of their buildings. Bakker said he felt it was a sign that Lascase could use the space as a Sunday school for Haitians, which had been lacking in the community.
Lascase said he had around seven people in his first class. The next week, he had two more. Now, four years later, they have outgrown the upstairs section of the Salem United Church, and moved to a space at the Second Lutheran Church, 240 E. Washington St.
Lascase said he now has up to 75 people attending Sunday school classes, and can expect around 65 to 75 people in church for services every Sunday.
The services are performed mostly in Creole, as “every Haitian speaks Creole” as well as a mix of other languages. However, English is spoken among the congregation as well.
As more Haitians are expected in the area, Lascase said he will continue to reach out to them and spread his faith.
“He’s a man who is (and) has the utmost integrity,” Bakker said about Lascase. “He has very strong conservative convictions about what the Bible teaches and how it applies today.”
Affirming Community
Jean Claude Benoit, 50, is one of the church members Lascase entrusts to assist in prayer leadership. He arrived in Chambersburg after the earthquake.
Benoit still works in the family-owned orchards next to the Salem United Brethren Church. Lascase said many people, once they settle in Chambersburg, change from being farm workers to warehouse workers. Benoit is not one of those people.
“I like it! I like not having to wake up early,” Benoit said. While Lascase said many workers coming from Haiti are not highly skilled, Benoit said he used to work in technology and machinery in Haiti.
However he found the jobs were better in the United States.
“(Chambersburg) is a nice place, it’s a good place for people looking for jobs,” Benoit said.
Even the youngest congregation members sing praises during Pastor Lascase’s sermon. (Photo by Ryan Blackwell – Public Opinion)
Benoit and Lascase have helped lead the community through prayers, despite the ever-present language barrier that keeps the Haitian community separate from the greater Chambersburg community. Benoit said that for people like himself, who were able to go to school while growing up, language was a focus of their education.
“We love languages. Spanish, French, English,” he said. “The more you know.”
He also learned Latin growing up, but for him, like the rest of his countrymen, Creole is his first language.
“They didn’t have a common language,” Benoit said of the people who helped build Creole. “They were from different tribes. There are misspellings, misuse of the conventions of other languages.”
Slowly, Beniot said, they have reformed the language and are beginning to build more structure to the language in recent years.
“Communicating is difficult,” Beniot said. “For the ones who have skills, they are in a good place. When they come here, they can be hired. With the language barrier, it creates a problem at work.”
Benoit said that he works with Lascase and others to help Haitians interpret when they need it, and teach them to understand so that those people can pass it on.
While they continue to deal with the language problem, there haven’t been community leaders besides Lascase to build them up and bring them together. “I think it’s necessary to affirm yourself as a Haitian community,” Benoit said.
For now, Benoit will continue to assist with the church, and lead services when Lascase cannot. In all, he said he hopes they can educate the community into having real leaders on all fronts, whether church or business.
Helping Hands
Although many Haitians have lived and worked in Florida for years before coming to Chambersburg, they possess very little when they get here. Lascase had to find a place for himself, his wife and five children to live.
Bakker and his church assisted Lascase in moving to Chambersburg, and have continued to do so with other new families.
“When they get here, they try to find a house,” Lascase said. He then helps them make contact with possible jobs, helps them with applications to work and then assists them with getting their kids into schools and eventually buying cars.
The Salem United Brethren Church members assist them by providing some of the same services to people newer to the community.
Bakker said that they’ll offer people use of the church’s food pantry, and help them find furniture and move into wherever they are staying.
However, Lascase remains the leader of their assistance to the community, Bakker said.
“As Lascase has been acquainted, he’s been able to help out with the families,” Bakker said. “He also knows what companies are currently hiring.”
Lascase said that every day he helps the newer arrivals get settled, outside of his normal tasks as a church pastor.
“Every day, if I finish work at 4, I’m still working at 10,” Lascase said.
“Haitians, the first thing they’re doing is working to pay their bills,” Lascase said. “You work and put money (toward paying) your bills.”
Past that, Lascase will then help educate the community members on family dynamics, changing what many of them are used to.
“Men don’t know how to help the wife — they think she’s got to work, clean, cook, while they watch TV,” Lascase said. “That’s not right. We teach them to clean, cook.”
To him, the family aspect is vital for the community members’ success with each other and their church relationship.
“I say, if the family is not right, the church is not right,” Lascase said.
Art Page, senior pastor of Salem UB church, with Pastor Lascase. (Photo by Ryan Blackwell – Public Opinion)
Sharing His Beliefs
If there’s one problem in building the Haitian community locally, Lascase said, it’s that as a religion-based leader, he doesn’t have as many chances to reach out to Haitians who are not religious.
“It’s hard to meet all of them,” Lascase said, “Some of them just don’t go into church.”
Of the 450 or more Haitians in the area, Lascase said he sees around 120 people at his largest services. Week to week, he will see around 65-75 people, and he’ll see the larger group when he has special guest speakers from Hagerstown or other areas.
For the ones who don’t attend church, Lascase said people often don’t practice any religion. In Haiti, there is a large Christian following, Lascase said, which makes outreach easier to people who do practice the religion. Lascase said he still tries to find ways to reach out to the rest of the community.
This Fourth of July, Lascase and his family held a party and invited as many people from the Haitian community as they could. Lascase said his party was somewhat successful, and he was able to meet more of the community, and he looks forward to trying again.
Lascase said more people are coming from Florida every harvest season, including others who knew him as a religious leader.
“God needed me to do something in Chambersburg,” Lascase said. “God wants me to start a ministry in Chambersburg. God knows many Haitians are going to be in this area.”
13 Aug Grow Materials: Revised and Ready to Order
The Grow In His Word materials, used in discipleship by over 50 United Brethren churches, have been completely revised. Grow is written by Dennis Miller, pastor of Emmanuel UB church in Fort Wayne, Ind. Grow is used in over 50 United Brethren churches, and over the years has been used to systematically take thousands of people through the entire Bible.
There are four books, each of which has its own leader’s guide and accompanying teaching slides. Books 1 and 3, along with leader’s guides, are now available for churches.
- Old Testament: The People (Genesis through Esther)
- Old Testament: The Prophets (Job through Malachi) – available in November 2014
- New Testament: The Christ (Matthew through John)
- New Testament: The Church (Acts through the Revelation) – available in November 2014
What is Grow?
The Grow Ministries plan is a 52-week study which takes students through the Old and New Testaments in an orderly manner. Students grasp not only what happened, but in what order, with hooks and memory tools to help them remember what they learn. As believers learn about God’s Word, they gain confidence in their understanding and use of the Bible.
Rev. Dennis Miller developed Grow in the 1980s. “When I became a pastor, I realized that the church was not teaching new believers. I tried several Bible studies to fix that. All of them were good, but I needed something that would give people methods for retaining what they’d learned. I also wanted application to go along with the content that was being taught.”
How to Use GROW
Previously, Grow in His Word was divided into two 26-week courses. The new 13-week format gives more flexibility and is less intimidating to people who are perhaps hesitant about making a 26-week commitment.
Emmanuel Community Church, for example, will offer Book 1 and Book 3 this fall, and then offer Book 2 and Book 4 in January (to complete the Old and New Testaments). Then they’ll start another round of parts 1 and 3. This encourages people new to the church to jump in, and gives more entry points to the discipleship process.
It’s best to take a person consecutively through the four parts, a total of 52 weeks. Churches can decide whether or not to include a break between the 13-week sessions.
Materials
Student Books. A workbook is needed for each student. Cost: $9.95 each.
Leader’s Guide. The completely new Leader’s Guide is formatted to provide a more step-by-step guide (especially helpful for first-time teachers). It lays the student workbook side-by-side with the leader’s guide. Cost: $24.95 per course. Includes a student book.
PowerPoint and Keynote Files. PowerPoint and Keynote files, one for each lesson, are available through the Grow Ministries website. Once purchased, an email will be sent with downloading instructions. Cost: $12.95 per 13-week course.
Audio Files. Audio files show Pastor Miller teaching the material to a discipleship class. Each lesson is a different MP3 file and can be purchased from the iTunes store. Cost: 99 cents per lesson.
13 Aug HU Launches New Pastoral Leadership Program
For over 100 years, Huntington University has been the primary training ground for United Brethren ministers. The new Pastoral Leadership program, launching this fall, will once again take the lead in training future UB ministers.
“The pastoral leadership program represents a true collaboration between the church and college,” says Bishop Phil Whipple (left). “Huntington University took to heart what the church leadership felt were the important elements of training pastors, and they developed a program to meet those needs.”
In fact, HU is launching three masters programs designed for people entering Christian ministry:
- Pastoral Leadership: foundational principles and skills for effective leadership in local churches. Targets local church ministers.
- Global Youth Ministry: the skills needed for effective youth ministry leadership in traditional settings, with ethnic populations in the United States, and in international settings. Targets youth ministry professionals.
- Global Initiatives: foundational principles and skills for effective cross-cultural ministry leadership in the church. Targets Christian leaders and missionaries.
These add to the existing master’s degrees in Counseling, Youth Ministry Leadership, and Education.
The three new programs will be offered in seven-week blocks, with a combination of onsite classroom instruction, online live instruction, and online recorded classroom training. Every class will be broadcast live and posted online for later viewing. This will enable students to learn in an environment that best suits their needs.
Bishop Whipple points out four ways in which the new program will benefit the United Brethren Church.
- It is uniquely United Brethren. “The Pastoral Leadership program covers areas which the Church felt were priorities for training pastors.”
- It gives our pastors much flexibility. “Through the variety of delivery systems, the program will allow a number of pastors to complete their master’s degree and while continuing to serve their church.”
- It strengthens the UB/College bond. “The new program continues to help develop the connections between the United Brethren in Christ Church and Huntington University. We have some superb professors at Huntington University. It will be great using many of them in the masters program.”
- It expands the influence of the UB church. “The broader church world will benefit from this solid program for training pastors, missionaries, and youth pastors.”
In 2010, Huntington University discontinued the pastoral track. It was a sad day; from the days when HU had a seminary to the Graduate School of Christian Ministries, the majority of UB pastors were trained through Huntington University. However, it was a budget decision, and a decision not made lightly. Huntington University had tried different approaches over the years, but none worked. It finally reached the point where, because the program continued losing money, they felt they needed to pull the plug.
But now it’s back with a whole new look. And the United Brethren denomination–its ministers, its missionaries, and its youth workers–will greatly benefit.
“I am excited about the potential of this program,” says Bishop Whipple, “and I’m eager to see other areas in which Church and College can connect to produce win-win-scenarios.”
12 Aug Two UB Ministers Obtain Graduate Degrees
Mark Young on graduation day at Liberty University.
Ricky and Jami Hull and children on graduation day at Winebrenner Seminary.
Congratulations to Mark Young, music and worship pastor since 2004 at Mount Pleasant Church (Chambersburg, Pa.). On August 8, he received his Master of Arts in Religion: Worship Studies from Liberty University. He went through the graduation ceremony in May, but still had a couple classes to complete. Now he’s done, and the diploma came in the mail.
Congratulations to Ricky Hull, senior pastor of Mt. Hermon UB church (Pomeroy, Ohio). On August 2, he graduated from Winebrenner Theological Seminary (Findlay, Ohio) with a Master of Divinity degree.
12 Aug The UB Logo in Action
The sign at Devonshire Church, with the new UB logo.
Devonshire Church (Harrisburg, Pa.) incorporated the new UB logo into its outdoor sign. Looks real nice.