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Atlantic Avenue UB (Franklin, Pa.) broke ground Monday morning, April 6, for an expension project to the church. A new sanctuary and classroom space will be added, along with a complete make-over of the entire building.
The project has a prictag of $1.96 million. The project should be completed by December of this year.
The Atlantic Avenue pastor is Gary Small. Since he arrived 17 years ago, the church has grown from 150 to about 500.
While some chose to lay on the sandy beaches of Florida to work on their tans, 13 students from Huntington University gave up their week of rest and relaxation to build houses in Benton Harbor, Mich., on March 16-20. The university’s Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service partnered with Harbor Habitat for Humanity, the local Habitat affiliate, to complete multiple service projects around the community.
Throughout the week, students tackled a variety of tasks, such as picking up trash, spreading mulch, and working directly on a house–putting up roof sheeting, painting, or putting in hurricane stripping. Students were on the worksite from 8 a.m. to about 3 p.m. each day.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of students,” said Grace McBrayer, the JMC staff advisor. “All week I saw students be selfless, inclusive to each other and serve, serve, serve!”
After putting in more than five hours of physical work, the students took their afternoons off to enjoy the scenery, interact with members of the community, hold devotional times, participate in other service projects, and spend time together as a group playing games and building relationships.
Josh Lawrence, program coordinator of the JMC and the student leader of the trip, felt each student had a good experience. He thought the trip served as a good reminder of just how blessed students are relative to other places not too far from Huntington.
“Our group was great, and it meant a great deal to me that everyone was willing to give up their spring break to make a practical difference,” said Lawrence, a senior business major from North Judson, Ind. “We not only grew as a team, but we saw the direct results of our efforts and the work we had done. I also think it helped put things in perspective for us.”
Tim and Tara Hallman, who serve Anchor UB church (Fort Wayne, Ind.), were invited by some Jewish friends to observe Passover with them. It was a great experience. Tim wrote about it on his blog.
The countries of Central America have large evangelical populations. Guatemala and El Salvador are 26% evangelical, Honduras is 23%, Nicaragua 22%. That’s nearly as high as the United States (26%, according to one study). So how does this affect our role?
Those countries don’t need pioneering missionaries from North America. They have plenty of Christians. Instead, our work really consists of church expansion. We want to provide resources and train leaders, and to help the Hondurans and Nicaraguans and others take the next step in becoming healthy, growing, viable congregations. That’s what they seem to look to us for.
Central America isn’t the 10/40 window, that area of the world stretching across Asia and northern Africa where 95% of the people haven’t heard the Gospel, and which is home to 87% of the world’s poorest of the poor.
Part of the Gospel ministry is compassion. But the other side is to reach the unreached. We must keep that balance. We will encounter compassionate needs everywhere we go, and we want to partner with people who are starting new churches. But we need to keep our eye on the unreached and the 10/40 window.
One of the stated priorities of Global Ministries is, “We focus our efforts and resources on lesser-reached people groups.” We don’t want to spend all our resources in heavily-churched countries, and not get around to countries where there is no opportunity to hear the gospel.
“The Monkey and the Fish” is about leadership and church health. The Christian market has many such books. This one hits some different chords.
Dave Gibbons, an Asian American who founded Newsong, a multi-site megachurch in California, is a refreshing voice. Too many Christian writers seemingly think the American church, and our interpretation of what church should be, is God’s definitive word for the world. Gibbons takes a world view, and his words open up whole new possibilities. No, he’s not in the emergent crowd; many of them would view Gibbons as tame. But for me, a traditional evangelical from the United Brethren mold, his thoughts stretch me aplenty.
A theme Gibbons develops throughout the book builds on the question asked of Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan, which is about two people who normally wouldn’t have anything to do with each other–a Samaritan and a Jew.
Gibbons writes, “Jesus was telling the religious leader that his neighbor, instead of being someone like him, was someone not like him at all, someone he would be uncomfortable with or even hate.”
He says churches need to seek out people who are different from them, not just like them. “There’s something truly divine about a movement of people who reach out to love others and be with others whom they find difficult to understand or love to be with.”
This is more than theory to Gibbons and Newsong Church. It’s a concept that permeates the church, as they intentionally pursue marginalized people, outsiders, people on the fringes of society. And he cautions, “It may very well mean that the church doesn’t grow numerically nearly as quickly as it otherwise might.” Imagine that–adopting a strategy which you know will slow your growth…just because you think it’s the way Jesus might do things.
Church growth exalts the “homogeneity” principle–that you attract people like you. United Brethren, for instance, are good at targeting other white, middle class folks. And that does, indeed, work. But that doesn’t mean it’s the way of Jesus. Gibbons illuminates another way to view our neighbors, and I find it engaging (partly, I’m sure, because it relates so well to me and my own church).
Nicaraguan superintendent Juan Pavon and Francisco Najera, superintendent of our churches in Guatemala, overlook new target area for church planting in Guatemala.
At one of our churches in Guatemala, I met a fellow who emerged from a life of adultery. He had a confirmed case of AIDS, came to Christ…and no longer has AIDS.
They have people who have come out of extreme alcoholism, homosexuality, addictions–all sorts of things–and God has set them free.
I’m glad we’re not just planting churches in some areas that are already saturated with churches, but going into areas of desperate need.
Adam Will, pastor of Eden UB in southern Ohio, included the following in a recent blog post on his blog.
If there is something in your life that causes you to either sin or weakens your faith, GET RID OF IT! I am dead serious about this! If you’re a recovering alcoholic, you’d be STUPID to live in an apartment over a bar.
The same logic applies to our walk with God. If you are addicted to your iPod, get rid of it. If you can’t read your Bible because you’re watching TV, cancel the cable or Dish! Why would we be so stupid to give up an incredible walk with Jesus simply because we love to watch a certain TV show?
John Christophel, pastor of Brooklyn Park, UB church (Baltimore, Md.) was interviewed by the Maryland Gazette regarding gang activity in the church’s neighborhood. The church runs an after-school program to reach at-risk children in the community; about 15% of the children who come have ties to neighborhood gangs.
The Global Ministries Leadership Team concludes its two-day spring meeting today. A lot of interesting stuff in the works, including the approval of several new missionaries. You’ll be hearing about some of this soon.
John Christophel, pastor of Brooklyn Park, UB church (Baltimore, Md.) was interviewed by the Maryland Gazette regarding gang activity in the church’s neighborhood. The article was prompted by a shooting incident near the church.
John said he’s seen an increase in gang activity in the last year. “It is a major issue for us. We built our youth program to have a safe place for the kids.”
The article continued:
In Brooklyn Park, several dozen area youth come daily to the United Brethren afterschool program, which Christophel founded to reach out to at-risk children in Brooklyn Park. He estimates that about 15 percent have ties to neighborhood gangs.
“We’re trying hard to do what we’re doing,” said Christophel, who’s in the middle of building an addition to the church to accommodate more youth. “We’re all trying to target these kids.”
