September 6, 2011
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Roger Reece (left), executive director of the Associated Churches, prays for the five 46808 pastors. Tim Hallman, pastor of Anchor UB, is second from the right.
Anchor Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.) participated in a community worship service on September 4 with four other area churches. Of the 165 people who attended the joint service in Hamilton Park, about 60 were from Anchor. The Anchor worship team led all of the music. Roger Reece, executive director of the Fort Wayne Associated Church, gave the sermon, after which everyone participated in communion. Followed, of course, by a potluck.
These five churches–UB, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Church of Christ, and United Methodist–are known as the 46808 churches (after the zip code). They have been cooperating in various ministries for several years. This was the first time they have held a joint Sunday morning service. (They have held joint Sunday evening services during Lent for the past four years.)
Tim Hallman (right), pastor of Anchor, wrote about the event on his blog. Here is an excerpt:
“Anchor has worked hard to be relevant to our neighbors–but we don’t want to continue to do that work alone. We want to learn from our other neighborhood churches the ways they’ve become helpful. From the collaboration comes more helpful churches, a unity of spirit that adds strength to our good work, and new opportunities for the Spirit to accomplish the impossible in us and through us.
“More than anything, our churches want the Gospel of Jesus to be good news for our neighbors. We want our churches to be harbingers of that announcement. We want the kingdom to come where we live. This means, though, that we have to get involved in the lives and issues of our neighborhood. All the divorced families. All the kids without a father at home. Homes where the man is in prison. Families that are caught up in the court-system. Families that are dependent on the welfare system. Parents that don’t know how to make it work together. People on disability, who are depressed, who are angry. People struggling to start over again, to get an education, to get a better job, to be a better parent.
“There are also great families in our neighborhood, homes that are good and stable and shine a lot of light. And our neighborhood needs our churches to do their best in making disciples who are the hands and feet of Jesus where they live.”
Anchor’s Facebook page has lots of photos from the event.
Jen Blandin, a member of the Global Ministries Staff in Macau for the past 14 years, has been on educational leave from the field for most of this year. This summer, she was among the 19 students who graduated from Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay, Ohio. She writes:
Teddy Fairchild (right), the new pastor since July 1 of The Rock in Findlay, Ohio, reports that they took in 11 new members on Sunday, September 11.
After 34 years in Brazil, UB endorsed missionaries Wes and Jean Bell have accepted a Stateside role with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Wes will serve as an Application and Placement Specialist and Jean as Care and Recruitment Specialist. Before beginning those roles, they will work on raising their support level back up to 100%.