18 Apr New Church in Shirley, New York

Roy Scott is the pastor of a new church in Shirley, New York, called Omega Family Church. He is also pastor of Bethel African American Church in Somerset, N. J.

15 Apr Family Conference in Harrisburg, Pa.

Devonshire Memorial UB (Harrisburg, Pa.) held a Family Life Conference this week. It began on Easter Sunday morning, and continued with services each night through Wednesday (with a buffet dinner before the Wednesday evening service). It was led by Home Fire Ministries.

15 Apr Arizona Church Hires Children’s Director

Hilltop Community UB (Lake Havasu City, Ariz.) hired a Children’s Director in April. Erika Gloeckner has experience working with children, and she possesses a passion for helping children know the Lord. There has already been a healthy increase in attendance for Sunday school and the weekday children’s programs.

Pastor Michael Tucker writes, “The church has successfully operated a preschool for several years, and now has announced plans to add a kindergarten class for next fall. Although the announcement of the new class is only a week old, the class is already full, and there are eight students on the waiting list. Plans to build an educational building are being discussed as the church anticipates that additional grades will be added to the school next year.

“New video projection equipment has been installed in the church auditorium since Easter. The church makes extensive use of PowerPoint slides each week for the worship. There are 80-100 slides used each week, and often video is incorporated into the service.”

15 Apr Purpose Driven Life Campaign in Ontario

Grace UB (Sherkston, Ontario) is getting ready for week one of the Purpose Driven Life Campaign. Sheldon King writes, “We have been praying about this and deliberating over it a lot, and a lot of hard work has gone into preparing the campaign for the church. We have great hopes for the church and its spiritual growth and ‘people growth’ as well. This campaign will bring much change to the way we do things at Grace. We kick it off with the National Simulcast Video on April 18. The whole service will be a video of Rick Warren in his service for Saddleback’s launch of the 40 Days or Purpose.”

15 Apr A Big Easter at Sunfield UB

The Community Easter Egg Hunt at Sunfield UB (Sunfield, Mich.) drew almost 100 children from the community, and the church was able to share with the children and their parents the true meaning of Easter. Three families came back the next day on Easter Sunday, and the parents in one of those families received Christ. The two morning services had a combined attendance of 322.

Some other news from the church:

• Judy Atherton, wife of Assistant Pastor Roy Atherton, has been diagnosed with cancer.
• This summer, the youth are taking a mission trip to Mexico with Teen Mania.
• Five babies will be dedicated in May, and they will also bring in 15 new members.
• In June, 30 people will spend four days working at the Laurel Mission in Kentucky. Pastor Mark Ralph will be traveling with Gary Dilley to Honduras so he can see the new kitchen built in El Carril by the Sunfield church.

15 Apr Hillsdale Church Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary

On January 25, Hillsdale UB celebrated its 100th anniversary. State Sen. Cameron Brown delivered the invocation and Bishop Paul Hirschy gave the benediction. Nearly 600 people attended the two morning worship services. The first service concluded with the baptism of 12 people, while the second service ended by taking 37 into membership, which broke a record that had stood for a century.

On January 24, 1904, thirty charter members formed the church. Hillsdale UB connected its Centennial Celebration with the historic first flight of the Wright Brothers and their UB background. The Centennial motto is, “Soaring with Christ, we see the world from a different perspective.” During the first service, Bishop Paul Hirschy was introduced to a man bearing the same name as the Wright brothers’ father, who was a former United Brethren bishop. Milton Wright began visiting Hillsdale UB last fall. Each of those who were baptized or joined the church that day were given one of the new quarters depicting the Wright brothers conquest of the air.

Over the last five years, Hillsdale’s ministry has averaged one conversion per week. Through the first quarter of this year, the average was two per week, partly as a result of the response to the Passion of the Christ film. The church purchased all the tickets for five showings of the film at the local theater. Pastor Les Smith instructed the congregation not to buy the discounted tickets unless they also bought one for an unsaved or unchurched person. All 1,000 tickets were sold, and approximately half of those attending the five showings were not from the church. Each of the four pastors at Hillsdale took a turn at presenting an invitation at the conclusion of one of the showings, and a dozen people responded.

Pastor Smith preached a Lenten series on the Passion from Isaiah 53, the fifth verse of which appears on the screen at the beginning of the film. There was a definite impact on attendance for Easter, when nearly 800 attended the two services, a church record.