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19 Feb

February 19, 2009 |

Roger Vezeau, College Park UB Church (Huntington, Ind.)

Roger Vezeau is Director of Student Ministries at College Park UB church (Huntington, Ind.) and a member of the denominational Youth Ministry Team.

Today’s youth want community–meaningful, authentic relationships with peers and adults who are not judgmental. They are motivated first by what draws their attention, but they stay when challenged to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Youth are drawn to a community that cares about people and the concerns of the world. They long for a place/community that makes them laugh, brings joy to their lives, and challenges them to think and respond. They want to find the meaning of life and their role in it.

Adults may think that youth are not interested in spiritual things, but nothing could be further from the truth. Teens have a very high interest in God and their spiritual life. They need the freedom to question, doubt, and explore spiritual truth without the judgment from others. On the other hand, they are turned off by judgmental people who care more about protecting what they believe rather than showing people the love of Jesus.

Today’s teens may challenge orthodoxy, but that doesn’t mean they won’t embrace it. They just need to wrestle for their own answers and not be expected to blindly receive their elders’ views. Let’s trust the work of the Holy Spirit to guide as they question.

In my experience, the best way to help youth grow spiritually is through a healthy family surrounding the youth. On the other side is the youth who comes from a broken family or deep hurt, looks for answers, and finds that the world does not deliver the answers it promises.

If they have an authentic, caring, mature adult in their life, they will be more apt to talk about these things. That is how you connect with today’s youth–through authentic, non-judgmental relationships from caring adults. Show them that they matter and that you value them.

18 Feb

February 18, 2009 |

I’ve been slow to post about the book “Prayer Coach” that we began a month or so ago.  Well, I have been wondering if any of you have used the prayer patterns, i.e. praying through the armor, or the fruit of the Spirit, or even you body. It certainly provides a new, fresh approach to prayer.

I like that it’s so teachable. You could teach a new believer to pray like that. And after all, that is one of purpose of the book–that we leaders begin coaching prayer. Anyone have any neat stories about trying it?

In reading the book, God has given me many flashbacks to events in my life that center on prayer. I think he just wants me to remember the power of prayer.

As I was reading recently, I remembered a time when I called for a special period of prayer at 10 PM on Saturday night to begin the first of September. The purpose: to pray for revival in our church. As you can well imagine, not many showed up. Actually, most of the time just one man showed up to join me in praying.

Harold I would would gather at the altar. Sometimes we would go through the sanctuary, stopping at each pew praying for those who would be sitting there the next morning. Sometimes we went to every classroom and prayed for the teachers and students who would be in those rooms the next day.

EJ and I lived about 3-4 miles from the church, and some Saturday nights I groaned when it was time to leave. But I went because I knew Harold would be there.

Harold lived just about half a block from the church. The man could pray. We prayed together at the altar until summer.  When Harold passed away some time later, I began to reflect on his life, his friendship, and his love for the Lord. Looking back over church stats, I realized that the church had one of its greatest growth spurts during the time we were praying at the altar at 10 PM on Saturday night.

Well, don’t know why I told all that, but I do believe that God is interested in his children coming to him with their needs, burdens, and praises.

17 Feb

February 17, 2009 |

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Francisco Raudales, center, with the plaque I presented on behalf of Global Ministries.

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Francisco Raudales and I pray over Juanita Chavez, as she begins her new role as superintendent of Honduras Conference.

In January, I was privileged to attend the Honduras National Conference. This was the going-away conference for Francisco Raudales, who had served as superintendent since January 1997.

There were many expressions of appreciation for his ministry over the years. I presented a plaque on behalf of Global Ministries.

Juanita Chavez was elected as the new superintendent. They didn’t announce the vote tally, but her selection definitely pleased the crowd, and people were supportive even if they personally didn’t vote for her.

I wasn’t able to stay for the closing service on Saturday night, but Francisco told her 2000 people attended. My last official act was to pray for Juanita Chavez.

Prior to the election, Juanita had been working on a strategic plan for the coming years. It wasn’t a plan with specific outcomes in terms of numbers, but outcomes in relation to healthy church development and healthy conference development. That was exciting to see. They were looking down the road–how do we get there? how do we know when we’ve developed healthy ministries?

It was something their governing council, the junta, put together, and they gave her the lead. It’ll be neat seeing her work through that in the coming years.

16 Feb

February 16, 2009 |

Barry Skinner, pastor of Kilburne Avenue UB church (Rockford, Ill.), reports:

  • They installed a new projector screen.
  • The Carpenter family, missionaries from Napervile, Ill., made a presentation this past Sunday.
  • Several new people have begun attending.
  • He is beginning more outreach this week at the local fast food restaurants.

16 Feb

February 16, 2009 |

A domain name is a very cheap piece of cyber real estate. Your church can register a domain for $20 or less per year. This domain can then become the hub for all of your church’s internet communications–your website, your email, a blog, etc. If people know your domain name, they can find you.

However, every year, one or two United Brethren churches lose their domain name.

  • Maybe nobody in the church office understood what the renewal notices were about.
  • Maybe renewal notices were going to somebody who no longer attends, but who originally registered the account.
  • Maybe they just procrastinated too long.
  • Or maybe they just forgot.

Many companies eagerly pounce on lapsed domain names. They like snapping up something with established traffic flow. As a result, the church loses their domain name, which has a variety of ramifications:

  • The church website address no longer works.
  • Email addresses which used that domain no longer work.
  • Business cards, letterhead, and any other printed materials which mentioned those email addresses or the website URL must be reprinted.
  • The church must find a new domain name, which will probably be less satisfactory than the previous one.
  • People who type in the name of the previous domain name will be taken to something totally unrelated to the church–perhaps a porn site.

So, some suggestions:

  1. Make sure you know where the domain is registered.
  2. Try to get the domain directly under the church’s control, rather than in the account of a parishioner.
  3. Make sure your contact information with the registrar is current, so you receive notices when it’s about to expire.

13 Feb

February 13, 2009 |

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Joel C. Rosenberg wrote a series of five books of fiction dealing with his theory of how the world will end. He also wrote a nonfiction book detailing the facts and interpretation of Scripture that planted the idea for his fiction books.

The non-fiction book is called Epicenter and is published by Tyndale House. I personally believe it is worth the read, even if you don’t read the fiction series. You might vigorously disagree with his views, but they are challenging and will make you think

12 Feb

February 12, 2009 |

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Technology has its frustrations, but also its amazing sides.

This morning, the Global Ministries staff held a meeting with David Kline in Macau. Four of them gathered around Darlene Burkett’s iMac, and using iChat’s video features, they discussed some financial issues. It was smooth, and free. Here in Huntington, it was 9:30 Thursday morning, but for David, it was 10:30 Thursday night.

David, seeing me enter the scene with my camera, apologized for not combing his hair.

Pictured (l-r): Mabel Mundy (accounting clerk), Darlene Burkett, Jeff Bleijerveld, Donna Hollopeter is out of the photo, on the left. (Sorry, Donna.)

10 Feb

February 10, 2009 |

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L-r: Josh Greenfield (promotion), Jeff Bleijerveld (missions), Ron Ramsey (bishop), and Kathy Bruce (women’s ministry).

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L-r: Todd Rupp (youth), E.J. Ramsey (prayer), Susie Burson (children), Chris Kuntz (worship/music/sound), Loretta Bailey (helping Chris).

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Things are moving along for the upcoming US National Conference. The planning committee met last Saturday at Emmanuel Community Church in Fort Wayne, Ind. Most of the members live in northeast Indiana, but several drove down from Toledo and one came from Grand Rapids, Mich.

Since the last meeting in June, groups or individuals have been working on their specific areas–music, promotion, set design, sound, workshops, registration, nursery, hospitality, children and youth, hotel arrangements, etc. It’s a big job, planning one of these conventions. Lots and lots of details.

We’re excited about our speaker, Tim Brown. He’s bringing his wife, Charity, who will do a workshop session just for pastor’s wives. We have a good line-up of workshops, which you can read about on the USNationalConference.com website.

Missions Night, on Saturday, should be great. A worship team from Owen Gordon’s church in Jamaica will lead us that night. They’re good, very good, and it should be great fun.

Registration brochures will be mailed to all churches this week. The online registration will go live soon–maybe this afternoon (still working out a few bugs).

Please promote the conference in your church. Over 900 people attended in 2007. We know the economy is an issue this year. But please, do everything you can to bring people from your church. It’ll be a great time for them, and for all of us as United Brethren.

09 Feb

February 9, 2009 |

Ron Ramsey, Bishop

winningonpurpose.jpgJohn Edmund Kaiser in his book, Winning on Purpose, proposes that a new organizational structure is needed to assist and support church growth. The structure is called “governance” which is described this way:
  • The church board govern.
  • The pastor leads.
  • The staff manages.
  • The congregation ministers. 
This book and system is one that both Pat Jones and I have advocated for our local churches.
I came across an article written by Bill Essum on the Church Central website (www.churchcentral.com) and I wanted to excerpt a paragraph from that article for our consideration. The overall theme is that churches need to reproduce themselves in order to stem church decline in the US.
Bill writes: 

There needs to be an end of democracy and consensus. Apostolic-led churches are structured around the Spirit-led leadership of a man or woman who listens to God rather than following a board. The more democratic the church is, the less likely it is to grow, much less become reproductive. Reproductive churches have small boards and very few committees if any. If you dig under the covers of the large megachurches and the churches that are planting churches, you won’t find much structure; and the sheep aren’t leading the shepherd. (Emphasis added)

I am tired of dealing with churches more interested in who is in charge than they are about being a Great Commission Church that is reaching lost people and seeing them become fully devoted followers of Jesus. I am tired of being called to churches where the sheep are trying to lead and the shepherd is just a “hired” employee.  
I recently was in one of our churches talking about the need for that particular church to become more focused on Great Commission issues. One of the attendees took offense and pounded the table, “This is my church and we don’t want to be one of those big churches.”  
I was able to inform the person they were wrong, it isn’t our church. The Church belongs to Jesus. He is the head. And because Jesus is the Head of the Church, he is also the head of our church. Wasn’t received real well.  
Anyway, this whole debate about who is in charge in a local church is diverting much of our energy away from Great Commission ministries. To me, there are two crucial elements to what Essum is arguing:
  1. That the congregation sees the pastor as a Spirit-led man or woman who listens to God first.  
  2. That the pastor is willing to lead. As Essum says, “The sheep aren’t leading the shepherd”.
I think that Essum makes a lot of sense. What do you think?