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11 Jun

June 11, 2009 |

Center Hill United Brethren Church of Mt. Carroll, Ill., is closing after nearly 140 years. A final celebration service will be held Sunday afternoon, June 14, at 2:00. Bishop Ron Ramsey will speak at the closing service.

The attendance of Center Hill had declined to the point where it was no longer viable. Bishop Ramsey met with remaining members on April 19. During that meeting, they voted to close.

“While this is a sad time for the congregation,” says Bishop Ramsey, “yet we rejoice over the faithfulness of God’s people who worshiped and served our Lord from that location. They have truly tried to fulfill being a lighthouse on the hill for that community.

He continues, “Closing churches is painful. We wish the closing service to be a time of great celebration.”

11 Jun

June 11, 2009 |

During the Friday business meeting at National Conference, Dennis Miller introduced Anna Evenzahav, who has been arranging trips to the Holy Land for him and Emmanuel Community Church for many years. She works with Bible Lands & Reformation Group Travel. If you’re interested in contacting her, you can do so at:

Toll-free: 800-801-4795
Email: annae@giltravel.com

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

As of June 1, the Michindoh Camp and Conference Center in Hillsdale, Mich., is owned by Spring Arbor University. It comes as a gift from the Merillat Foundation, and is described as the largest gift in the college’s history.

Spring Arbor’s main campus is 35 miles away. The college has conducted a number of classes and programs at the camp over the years, and has supplied students for the summer camping program.

An article in the Hillsdale Daily News explains how this came about, and gives a lot of background. It says that Spring Arbor is the camp’s fifth owner since 2007. Here is how that works:

  1. Michindoh Conference originally owned the camp.
  2. In the spring of 2007, Gull Lake Ministries, another camping ministry in Michigan, agreed to assume ownership of the camp. But before the deal with completed, they backed out.
  3. In the fall of 2007, the Executive Leadership Team took control of the camp.
  4. The Executive Leadership Team deeded the camp to the Lenawee Christian Association, the organization created by Orville and Ruth Merillat.
  5. Now, the foundation has given the camp to Spring Arbor University.

The Michindoh Camp and Conference Center opened in 1987, replacing the former Michindoh Conference camp called Rothfuss Park, located just down the road. The conference center was built largely through gifts from the Merillat Foundation.

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |


installationprayer_500.jpg
Bishop Ron Ramsey (right) prays over Phil and Sandy Whipple during the June 7 installation service for the newly-elected bishop.

After a near-unanimous vote of 336 delegates, Phil Whipple, pastor of Colwood UB Church (Caro, Mich.) was elected bishop of the United Brethren church 2009-2013. He will take office August 15.

The voting occurred about 9:30 Friday morning, June 5, as one of the first items on the agenda of the US National Conference business meeting. The results were announced just before lunch.

Bishop-elect Whipple spoke briefly to the assembled delegates and observers (over 500 people). Then Bishop Ron Ramsey asked the former UB bishops, all of whom were in attendance, to come forward for a prayer time. They included Raymond Waldfogel (1969-1981), C. Ray Miller (1973-1993), Wilber L. Sites, Jr. (1977-1989), Ray Seilhamer (1993-2001), and Paul Hirschy (2001-2005). They laid their hands on Rev. Whipple, and Bishop Emeritus Raymond Waldfogel led in prayer.

philinstallation_500.jpgBishop Ramsey led the official installation service on Sunday morning, June 7. Assisting in that service were:

  • Roxton Spear, who spent four years serving on staff with Phil at Colwood UB, and now pastors the Mongul UB church in Shippensburg, Pa.
  • Russ Tibbits, chairman of the governance board at Colwood.
  • Lester Smith, pastor of Hillsdale UB (Hillsdale, Mich.). Les is responsible for hiring Phil into the United Brethren church.
  • Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries.

Phil grew up in a strong Christian family, and sensed God’s callto the ministry at age 17. He graduated from Liberty University, and took his first pastorate in 1984.

Phil entered the United Brethren fold in 1990, when Lester Smith hired him as an associate pastor at Richfield Road UB in Flint, Mich. A year later, he was stationed as pastor of Pleasant Valley UB in Lake Odessa, Mich. He remained there for seven years, and was then assigned to Colwood. At Colwood, the church’s morning attendance has grown from 200 to over 500, and they have baptized over 130 people.

Phil and his wife, Sandy, have been married for almost 30 years. They have two sons, both serving the Lord in ministry. Josh is Youth and Worship Arts Pastor at Mongul UB in Shippensburg, Pa. Mike works part-time at Colwood as Worship Arts Pastor, and as a custodian.

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

This year, anyone holding a national conference license was a voting delegate at the US National Conference. Not so in 2011. A new provision cuts out unassigned and retired ministers. The new Paragraph 503.1, “Clergy Representation,” says:

Voting members. Ministers are eligible to serve as voting members if they meet both of these conditions:
1. They hold a specialized Ministry license, a national conference license, or are ordained elders in the United Brethren church.
2, At the time of the National Conference, they meet one of these criteria:
a. Are employed by a United Brethren church in the US National Conference.
b. Serve the national conference in an appointed or elected position.
c. Hold a leadership position in a non-United Brethren ministry recognized by the Executive Leadership Team. Persons desiring this recognition must send a letter to the bishop requesting such recognition.

This subject sparked the only major debate on the conference floor. There were two main issues:

  1. There was strong sentiment for allowing all national conference ministers to be voting delegates, whether they were actively serving or not.
  2. What about United Brethren ministers who serve in the broader Kingdom in other organizations, and who value their UB connections? The two main examples given were missionaries Dave Datema and Roger Skinner, both of whom are ordained but serve fulltime in mission organizations.

It would be impossible to write a Discipline statement covering every possible organization. Point C addressed that by letting the Executive Leadership Team be the filter. If Dave Datema and Roger Skinner (and others) want to be voting members in 2011, they merely need to send a letter to the bishop with that request. He’ll take the request to the ELT, which can grant or deny the request.

After considerable discussion, this entire debate was deferred until after lunch, so that a small group of people could formulate a statement, rather than try to write one on the conference floor. What they came up with is what passed by a considerable margin. There was much, much further discussion, and unsuccessful attempts at several amendments, but the statement above ultimately passed as presented.

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

The US National Conference delegates elected eight members of the Executive Leadership Team–one minister and one layperson from each of the four districts. The total ballot included 22 persons, broken down according to district and lay/clergy status. The persons elected are:

East District

  • John Beukema (senior pastor, King Street Church, Chambersburg, Pa.).
  • Annette Sites (pastor’s wife, Jerusalem Chapel, Churchville, Va.).

Central District

  • Marty Pennington (senior pastor, Mainstreet Church, Walbridge, Ohio).
  • Debbie Voight (pastor’s wife, Lancaster UB, Lancaster, Ohio).

North District

  • Lester Smith (senior pastor, Hillsdale UB, Hillsdale, Mich.).
  • Dan Paternoster (layperson, Fowlerville UB, Fowlerville, Mich.).

West District

  • Dennis Miller (senior pastor, Emmanuel Community Church, Fort Wayne, Ind.).
  • Molly Kesler (pastor’s wife, Good Shepherd Church, Huntington, Ind.).

The new ELT will now appoint four additional persons, one from each district–2 laypersons, and 2 ministers. The bishop is also a member (and chairman) of the ELT.

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

The US National Conference delegates acted on 22 proposals for changing the Discipline. Some were minor, some more substantial. Here are several which weren’t addressed in other posts.

  • The Discipline has required that the pastor be a member of the church board of administration. A proposal saying the senior pastor “may” (instead of “shall”) be a member of the board was defeated. So the pastor remains a voting member of the local church board.

  • Paragraph 423.1, on Lay Delegates, was rewritten. Now, the only responsibilites of lay delegates are to represent the church at the national conference. They no longer need to be chosen every year (and the church can select them in any way it sees fit–no need to elect them).

  • Added this line: “It is recommended that money from the sale of closed churches be given to the US National Conference to start new churches.” This used to be a policy statement, but was removed somewhere along the line.

  • All of the national directors are now voting members or the National Conference. The directors who are ordained ministers have been voting members because of their clergy status, but not the laypersons. So in 2011, if they are still around, Steve Dennie, Marci Hammel, Donna Hollopeter, and G. Blair Dowden will have a vote.

  • Added responsibilities to the Bishop and to the Executive Leadership Team. All were basically administrative in nature, intended to conform better to the overall structure.

  • Added a line to the paragraph about clusters which says, “The cluster to which the local church is accountable shall be the cluster in which the senior pastor is a member.” This covers situations where the senior pastor and associate staff may belong to different clusters (there are clusters, for instance, designed just for youth workers).

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

The 2009 US National Conference added a new paragraph to Chapter 10, “Joining the Church.” UB missionaries must hold membership in a United Brethren church. The new provision says, “dual membership is permitted should missionaries find church membership in their place of ministry to be either necessary or advantageous.”

We have staff serving in places in the United States where there is no UB church (examples: the Datemas, Skinners, and Brinnemans). We also have staff involved in overseas churches, but unable to become members of those churches (such as our staff in Macau). Endorsed staff involved in church planting can’t become members of the churches they are planting.

So this new provision makes a lot of sense. The provision for dual membership applies only to Global Ministries staff (not to Florida snowbirds).

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

The UB Discipline, with the changes made this past week during the US National Conference, has been updated online. The print version, which you’ll be able to download as a PDF file, will (hopefully) be available later next week. But for now, you can at least view the updated chapters on your screen.

We will not produce a printed version which you can purchase. We haven’t done that since the 2001-2005 edition. The only printed copy available will be the PDF version.

10 Jun

June 10, 2009 |

Over 500 photos from the US National Conference have been posted on Flickr. They are divided into sets according to day. Use them to build your own PowerPoint presentation to show to your church. Or, use some of the photos in others ways, like in a church newsletter.