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19 Jan

January 19, 2006 |

Bishop Ron Ramsey provides the following update on his wife’s physical condition. “Many of you have been praying for my wife, E. J. I want to report that prayer works. As you may recall from an email in early December, she was diagnosed with a serious eye condition that could cause total blindness in as little as three weeks. She had already lost partial vision in her right eye. She was started on a course of steroids that could last 1-2 years to combat the disease. But after only four weeks of steroids, her latest blood test came back normal and she began to be weaned off the steroids. I thank God for all of your prayers. There is no doubt in my mind, or hers, that God supernaturally touched her. And I praise God today afresh for his compassion and healing.

19 Jan

January 19, 2006 |

On January 19, the annual reports for the year 2005 were mailed to all ministers. The forms have changed very little from previous years. However, the reporting process has changed. The originals will be sent to the Bishop (instead of to the conference superintendent). In addition, Bishop Ramsey wants pastors to make copies for their fellow cluster members. The cluster will serve as the “auditing” committee, since it is the place where congregations and pastors are primarily accountable. Information about the reports, including downloadable forms, is available online.

19 Jan

January 19, 2006 |

On January 15, 2006, Pastor Adam Will was officially installed as pastor of Eden UB church in Reedsville, Ohio. This happened 10 months since he took over as pastor on Palm Sunday in March 2005. He was surprised to find many people in attendance, because the congregation had surprised him with his local conference license. The ironic thing was that the title to Pastor Adam’s message was “Shhh! It’s a Secret!” By the Grace of God, the church, having been through so much, is starting to grow again in Spirit, energy, and even numbers.

17 Jan

January 17, 2006 |

Ron Ramsey, Bishop
I am praying that in 2006 we will see an unusual HARVEST of new believers. Our primary ministry focus must be outward–reaching lost people with the Good News and seeing them begin their journey to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. If you have some inspiring stories of individuals in your church coming to faith in Jesus, I would love to hear them. How about doing a short video or DVD testimony and sending it to me so it can be shared with others?

We need to regularly and consistently see lost people come to faith, so that our confidence in the Gospel will not be lost. When the 2007 US National Conference meets, I hope to share a large number of testimonies with the conference. So, keep those videos/DVDs coming in. Don’t worry that they are not professional. Just get something recorded and send it in. Oh, by the way, did I mention I wanted you to get the testimonies recorded and sent in? In case you missed it, I do!

16 Jan

January 16, 2006 |

It is a new year for the United Brethren Church–not just because the calendar says it’s a new year, but because of all the changes that became official on January 1. One of those changes involves organizing our churches and pastors into Healthy Church Clusters, rather than organizing around conferences. The Healthy Church Cluster is now the entity to which congregations and pastors are primarily accountable.
A cluster is a group of 7-10 pastors and churches who meet on a regular basis for mutual support, pastoral development, encouragement, coaching, accountability, friendship, healthy church development, fun (yes I said fun!), sharing of ideas, prayer, and reporting. Thus far, 31 cluster groups have formed. Pat Jones, our new Director of Healthy Church Ministries, has worked hard at organizing these clusters. Some decisions remain in certain areas of our denomination, and some pastors have not responded to the call to join a cluster. But for the most part, we are well organized. The cluster groups can be found on the UB website at this address.

22 Dec

December 22, 2005 |

Carlson Becker, missionary in Macau, reports that they started “Practice Church services” on November 20, as they lead up to formally launching a new church on Taipa Island on February 28. “We had 9 people present, with most of them being staff members. Michael and his wife (Michael is our co-worker in the ELP and Church), the Chinese tutor that Jen Blandin and Naomi and I are studying under, and his wife came along with the American staff. So we had 4 Chinese and 5 Americans. We are working to put together a worship service that will minister to the Chinese congregation that we are trying to build. Our tutor is very open to help us evaluate the services and how they relate to the culture here.

“After church they all come over to our apartment for a waffle feed and fellowship. We are still working to make the ‘center’ look more inviting for worship, and we are making some headway on that. We have put up a cross made of stone for ‘Living Stone’ church and we are dealing with a sink that is located in the front corner of the sanctuary space. It’s not big enough to be a baptistery unless we baptize cats or other small animals.

“Next Sunday we are planning to go out for Yum Chow after church. The group is bonding and we will probably invite in a few other Chinese folks we are coming across before the actual launch on February 28. We want to have a good core to greet and work with the newcomers at launch time. We are printing literature to mail before the launch date and have some outreach events planned. Our goal is to develop a Chinese church so that the American missionaries can back out and it will continue and multiply in the future. We may find that there are enough English speaking people on Taipa who are looking for a church that we will need an English service also, but our plan is to not make Living Stone primarily dependent upon English speaking people.”

21 Dec

December 21, 2005 |

Jim Woodward was honored by the county sheriffs department as their man of the year. This is the highest award given to any citizen by the sheriff department in Hancock County, Ohio. Jim is the owner of Razor’s Edge barbershop and a member of the First United Brethren Church of Findlay, Ohio.

In 2004, First UB did the Purpose Driven Life program. Rick Warren’s challenges gave Jim a vision to minister to the prisoners of the county jail. First, he challenged the church to make Christmas packets with socks, a New Testament, a candy bar, and a stamped envelope with a Christmas card to be handed out to the inmates during the week of Christmas. After that, Jim organized a monthly program where the inmates received a homemade cookie and a cup of soda. During that time, speakers would come and shares their testimony, song, or message with the inmates. In December, three inmates gave their lives to Christ as a result of the message given. One inmate was even released for a few hours to attend church with Jim.

When Jim received this award, Sheriff Mike Heldman told the entire department, “This award is given to someone who saves a life during the year. Jim has not saved a physical life. He has saved many spiritual lives this past year.”

21 Dec

December 21, 2005 |

For the past couple months, local churches have been organizing into “clusters” of 5-7 churches. A good share of our churches are now identified with a cluster. Bishop Ron Ramsey plans to announce the cluster leaders by the end of the year.

06 Dec

December 6, 2005 |

The ten annual conferences in the United States are in the process of discontinuing their cooperative ministries. Here is a quick status report on some of the conferences.

Mid-Atlantic. Mid-Atlantic Conference voted unanimously during its mid-year session on November 12 to discontinue the conference as of the end of 2005. Most of the conference’s 55 churches are expected to be functioning in clusters by that time. Legal ownership of the Rhodes Grove Camp and Conference Center will be transferred to its board of directors, but the National Conference will establish a meaningful covenant relationship with the ministry. The Mid-Atlantic Foundation will be used to provide group health insurance and stewardship services to churches on the East Coast and elsewhere. Mid-Atlantic includes churches in Pennsylvania, Virginia, W. Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.

Central. Central Conference has been closing down its cooperative ministries and helping churches make the transition to the cluster arrangement. Because of pending legal action involving the conference, Central Conference cannot dissolve the corporation. Until a lawsuit is settled, Central Conference will continue as a legal entity, with a downsized (six person) conference council providing oversight. Superintendent Tom Brodbeck will continue as fulltime superintendent until the end of 2005, and will then continue in that role on a part-time basis at $100 a month, mainly to provide general oversight and handle whatever legal details are needed to formally dissolve the conference. Central Conference includes churches in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Michindoh. The Michindoh Annual Conference voted 72-10 to empower its conference council to care for all of the details of dissolution. The conference council meets this week.

Sandusky. Sandusky Conference approved disbanding as a conference during the 2005 annual meeting, which came after the National Conference. Conference administrative activities will be handled by the Conference Council through 2006. Currently there are nine churches in the East District and 7 in the West District. Over the last two years, Sandusky has lost or closed four churches (most recently the Jerry City, Ohio, church). Most of the churches were already involved in a cluster group.

California. Most of the churches of California Conference have withdrawn from the denomination and started their own group, which they are calling the United Believers in Christ. Only the UB church in Pixley, Calif., and the Hispanic Cellular Church in Canyon Country remain.

Michigan. Michigan Conference will hold a mid-year conference in February, and will make decisions then about the future of the conference. Most of the churches are already organized into clusters.

06 Dec

December 6, 2005 |
  • Ron Evans was assigned as the senior pastor at the Mt. Zion Church (Decatur, Ind.), effective October 16.
  • Kent Maxwell was assigned as interim pastor at the Lancaster Church (Lancaster, Ohio) for the period of October 30, 2005 to January 31, 2006.
  • Dennis Rowe has been assigned as the senior pastor of the Hillsdale church (St. Marys, Ohio), effective December 4.