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Bishop Phil Whipple and his wife, Sandy, were supposed to be on vacation this week. However, this afternoon Phil took Sandy to St. Joseph Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., where she is being checked out for heart symptoms.
Sandy is scheduled for a heart catheterization. She and Bishop Phil would appreciate your prayers at this time.
Global Ministries will sponsor another workshop for persons interested in leading short-term mission trips. We did four such events in 2008.
Date: February 12-13, 2010
Location: Mainstreet Church, Walbridge, Ohio
Cost: $60
This workshop is open for all persons who either will lead short-term trips in 2010 or who may be considering leading trips in the future.
Participants will receive a lot of material helpful in putting together the trip, team development, dealing with cultural differences, and much more. If your church is considering short-term mission ministry, this is a “must” event.
Jeff Bleijerveld and Donna Hollopeter will be team teaching. More information will be coming to local churches. The Global Ministries website gives the schedule, and you can download a brochure about the event. You can register and pay online.
On Sunday, November 22, Bishop Phil Whipple returned to Colwood UB (Caro, Mich.), the church he pastored for 11 years before being elected bishop in June 2009. The visit was a surprise to the congregation, but senior pastor Jonathan Herron was well aware of it.
The occasion: to present a National Conference ministerial license to Jonathan Herron. Bishop Whipple presented the license during all three morning worship services.
Two churches have have chosen to withdraw from the denomination.
At the Canadian National Conference, Bishop Brian Magnus asserted, “Jesus was not accepted, but his mission and message were totally relevant.”
Commenting on the desire for churches to be relevant in our society today, Bishop Magnus went on to say that some churches have sought acceptance and have lost their relevance. Still others have put all their energies into “doing church”–making relevance itself irrelevant.
Based on Phil Wagler’s book, “Kingdom Culture,” Rev. Magnus suggested we could overcome irrelevance in these ways:
Marilyn Reeck, UB endorsed missionary with Wycliffe in Honduras
We arrived back form Africa and after one week in Honduras traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica where Roger has been helping lead a One Story workshop for 7 different language groups. I have been one of the facilitators. It is being held at the Youth with a Mission base.
Two days ago (on his 61st birthday) Roger fell on his knee. Yesterday, November 19, a doctor determined that he had a quadriceps tendon rupture. Last night he was taken in to surgery and the tendon was reattached. He is in a complete leg cast and in considerable pain. He will need to stay in the cast for 6 weeks.
When he leaves the hospital, we will need to decide how to get him home to Honduras. Our return date was to be a week from now, but we might possibly leave earlier. We praise the Lord that this happened in a country with such excellent medical care. We are in the Clinica Biblica hospital, a large and modern hospital.
Sarah Yanovitch, a sophomore vocal performance major at Huntington University, took first place for the second year in a row, in the sophomore women’s division of the Indiana NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) competition held Oct. 31 at Anderson University.
She performed “Ah, non giunge” from Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” in a competition that included singers from Indiana University, Indiana State, Depauw, Ball State, as well as several Christian colleges. Yanovitch is from Griswold, Conn.
Rick Warren got into the Twitter game a couple months ago, and I’ve been following him. His tweets are some of the more interesting and redeeming ones. Lots of fluff and nonsense out there, but Warren sends out very useful and sometimes provocative tidbits.
Last week, Warren sent out this tweet:
Finding time to read the great spiritual classics is no mystery. Turn off the TV. Nothing on TV today will matter in 10 years.
Then, to drive home the point, he sent this tweet:
“A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash.” Proverbs 15:14 (NLT)
All I can say is: touche.
Junior high and senior high students from UB churches are invited to attend WinterSlam 2010, a winter retreat in the mountains of western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. This annual retreat has existed for the past 20 years.
WinterSlam was originally sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Conference. Bobby Culler, youth pastor at Mount Pleasant UB (Chambersburg, Pa.) and a member of the denominational Youth Ministry Team, is in charge of the event. The retreat is sponsored in part by Huntington University.
The retreat is held at the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, a 250-acre retreat center at the foot of the Laurel Mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania. That’s near the town of Mt. Pleasant, and southeast of Pittsburgh.
The cost for the retreat is $80, plus activity fees for such things as skiing, snowboarding, and tubing.
Go to the Youth Ministry page for complete information.
Balloons fall as the worship team plays.
Pastor Jonathan Herron at a tailgating tent.
They called it Baptismapalooza. On November 15, Colwood UB (Caro, Mich.) baptized 40 people. And since baptism is a big deal–you’re publicly identifying with Christ–the church made it a very big deal.
Like the tailgating party. Pastor Jonathan Herron mentioned how we get excited about football and basketball games. Shouldn’t we get just as excited about somebody who gets raised from the dead? Maybe do tailgating for Jesus, too?
But that’s as far as he took it. The church office did nothing further–just planted the idea. What resulted was purely a grassroots thing. People arrived Saturday night to put up campers and tents. And all Sunday morning, out in the church parking lot, people were serving up food, including a truckload of bacon.
A powerful sound system was erected, too. Hunters three miles away said they could hear the music. Somebody even created a Facebook page just for the event. All grassroots-driven. People took the idea and ran with it. Ran far.
“Do the Oreo” appeared on signs and t-shirts made just for the event. That was a way Pastor Herron illustrated baptism–we dunk, immerse, Oreo cookies in milk. As opposed to just sprinkling on some milk. During the sermon series which led up to Baptismapalooza, he told how, as a Presbyterian preacher’s kid, he was sprinkled as an infant. But in 2005, he realized that baptism was supposed to be for believers. Infant baptism may be memorable and significant for the parents, but not for the infant. So, as a pastor, he was immersed before his own congregation.
Jonathan Herron prepared to baptize Clara, age 88.
His story resonated with some other people at Colwood. Like Clara, age 88. She was among the 40 believers who were baptized that day. “When an 88-year-old gets baptized, you better believe everyone was crying,” Pastor Herron says.
Baptismapalooza was designed as an outreach event, something you bring friends and relatives to. “We want to blow away the expectations of the unchurched and dechurched,” Pastor Herron says. “We wanted them to come to a party atmosphere.” Balloons dropped while the worship team played. Everyone who came received a printed invitation to the next outreach event, during the Christmas season. And when people come to that event, they’ll receive information about the next event, so that each outreach event builds on the next.
Ten people were baptized during the 9:45 service, with 287 people watching. The other 30 were baptized during the 11:15 service in front of 575 people. They videotaped testimonies of every person and edited them down. Show a video testimony, baptize that person. Show another video, baptize. There was no need for any other sermon that day.
Amber Herron, Jonathan’s wife, wrote on her blog, “I was so encouraged to see people have the same level of enthusiasm for lives changed by Jesus as they have for a favorite sports team….Not only were there tailgaters galore, but people brought cow bells and bull horns to cheer on those getting baptized. Totally unforgettable!”
Follow the link for more photos.
