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Congrats to Tim Hallman
Congratulations to Tim Hallman, pastor of Anchor Community Church in Fort Wayne, Ind. On Saturday, May 10, he received his M.Div from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. He wrote about the experience on his blog.


Rest for Pastors and Spouses
Tom Blaylock, our Director of Church Multiplication, describes his wonderful five-day vacation courtesy of Broom Tree Ministries in Delafield, Wisc. This ministry provides a free getaway retreat for pastors and spouses. Perhaps you could benefit from this.


A Pastor "Gets" Healthy Ministry Resources
Scott Hardaway, pastor of Pathway Community Church (Jackson, Mich.), used his blog to explain Healthy Ministry Resources to his people. Did a fine job, too. 


LEAD Teams: an Insider's View
Mike Caley, senior pastor of Banner of Christ UB
The most effective way to start a church is for churches to cooperate in starting new churches. Banner Church (Byron Center, Mich.) has been part of a LEAD team, the first one in Michigan. The other members are Howard Matthews (HomeFront UB, Grandville), Scott Hergert (First UB, Lansing), Thurm Payton (Lighthouse UB, Williamston), and Darrel Bosworth (Kilpatrick UB, Woodland). 

Our LEAD team gathers every 6-8 weeks to support the work of Gordon Kettel, who is planting a church in Grand Ledge, Mich. Tom Blaylock, the director of Church Multiplication, also meets with us. Our experience has been good. Gordon is so fun and entertaining; we have a great time together.

The initials stand for learn, encourage, achieve, dream. It's a group of pastors getting together for the specific purpose of thinking and praying together about the most strategic places God might have us plant a new church.
 
The commitment of that team and church, by the pastor participating, is:
  • Identify a potential church planter.
  • Pool resources.
  • Set goals for how often to start a new church.
  • Do everything possible to support and encourage the planter. 
We commit for a period of 2-3 years to start a church and see it through. We're a committed group of guys who serve as a sounding board for Gordon. He shares struggles and asks questions, and we agree to always laugh at his jokes.
 
In the 1980s, I became a church planter. I felt entirely alone, even though I received a regular paycheck from the conference treasurer and was told the conference backed us. God used that experience to teach us, as a family, some amazing things, and we learned how to share Christ without any real support. But the LEAD team concept excites me, because I feel it'll lead to some real success stories.


Relief for Myanmar
When disaster strikes somewhere in the world, our typical practice is to plug into organizations that specialize in relief work, rather than try to organize something as a denomination. People in your church may be interested in helping the people of Myanmar devastated by the recent cyclone. 

Jeff Bleijerveld, the Director of Global Ministries, suggests that you might point them to Samaritan's Purse, a Christian relief organization. He writes, "I've worked with them in Darfur and Ethiopia when I was with World Partners, and they are excellent." The Samaritan's Purse homepage has much information about their relief work in Myanmar.


Filipino Smiles
children_philippines_200.jpgJeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries
Everywhere we go in the Philippines we are met with smiles. This morning Pastor Prudencio Lim, superintendent of the Philippine Conference, took Pastor Mike Brown and me to visit pastors and churches around the greater Manila area. 

Our day ended in Sucat Paranaque, a Manila slum area where Pastor Noel Bartolata, his wife and six children have been serving for 19 years. The church, along with all other homes and shelters, is built on squatter's land. The neighborhood is a maze of alley ways and stairways. Cooking is done over small fires and families sleep together in the same bed or on floors. Yet Pastor Noel and his family wouldn't think of leaving their community. 

If you saw these smiles each day, you may not want to leave either.


Huntington University Alumni Portal
Huntington University has launched an internet portal for alumni. If you're an alum, you may have received an email about it. That email contains your HU ID number, which you need to register. One neat feature: you can view your entire giving history to Huntington U. 


Hit the Bullseye Reflections
Adam Will, pastor of Eden UB (Reedsville, Ohio), wrote on his blog about the Hit the Bullseye Conference, which he attended with about 30 other UBs.


Dim Sum in Hong Kong
dimsung_500.jpg Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries
I learned a couple of important lessons about eating out in Hong Kong. Ajiax Woo (center) and Mark Choi (right) were tremendous hosts, but someone should have told me before we started to leave my tea cup full if I didn't want more. I believe Mark had refilled my cup at least 15 times before David Kline quietly leaned over and told me to stop drinking the tea if I wanted him to stop.

Otherwise, Dim Sum with our Hong Kong leaders was a great experience. We finished off with Mango Jello. Why don't they sell that at Krogers?


Thoughts on Being Bishop
Ron Ramsey, bishop

At the Michigan "Hang with the Bishop" meeting, someone asked, "How are you doing in this new position?"

Being bishop has been an eye-opening experience. The amount of conflict a bishop must referee is more than I expected. Some situations have been tense. It's probably a good thing that I'm big.

But it's an honor to be elected by your peers. I sometimes struggle with wearing the title "bishop," but I'm okay with it.

Someone asked me if I enjoy the job. I don't think this is something you enjoy, but I appreciate the opportunity to serve. I just believe in the sovereignty of God. He put me here, and he knows what he's doing.



One Prayer
oneprayer.jpgA couple days ago, an email to the UB constituency mentioned the OnePrayer.com emphasis being directed out of LifeChurch in Oklahoma City. This is a very unique thing that has been promoted almost entirely through the internet. And it's free.

One Prayer will occur for four weeks in June, focusing on the question, "If you could pray one prayer for the church, what would it be?" A number of the most prominent pastors in America are providing video sermons to answer that question, using the title "Make us ___." Make us one, make us creative, make us dangerous, make us obedient, make us wise, make us audacious--those are some of the sermons available.

As of today, 720 churches are signed up, and the list grows by the hour. At least four UB churches plan to participate: 
  • New Hope Community Church (Bryan, Ohio). 
  • Eagle Quest (Columbia City, Ind.). 
  • Anchor Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.). 
  • Grace UB (Sherkston, Ontario). 
We're not pushing this as a denomination--just letting you know about it. To participate, you need the ability to download and show a video in Quicktime or AVI format. You can read all about it at the OnePrayer.com site. The video by Craig Groeschel explains everything.



Two Pastoral Appointments
Here are two new senior pastor appointments:
  • Greg Helman will become senior pastor of Blue Rock UB (Waynesboro, Pa.), on May 17.
  • Josh Kesler, an ordained UB minister currently on staff with a non-UB church in Minnesota, has been named senior pastor of Good Shepherd UB (Huntington, Ind.).


"Hang with the Bishop" Meetings
Ron Ramsey, bishop

During April, Pat Jones and I held "Hang with the Bishop" meetings in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. These were agenda-less meetings. People showed up, we asked them what they wanted to talk about, and that was our agenda. About 70 people came for the last meeting, held at the East Washington UB church in Ashley, Michigan. We plan to hold a couple more, and will let you know when and where.

One question people wanted to know at each place was, "How are we doing as a denomination?"

It depends on who you talk to and on what day. We're making progress slowly. We have churches that haven't reported any conversions for a long time. There are barren altars and barren hearts, and yet the people are satisfied. We have so many places where people are being disobedient to the Great Commission. In some places, the Great Commission is not even on their radar.

But in other places, exciting things are happening. There are people in churches catching the vision. That's exciting to me. We're seeing some good fruit coming from the consultations we have held, and you'll be hearing much more about those. So I'm optimistic about what God wants to do. 



Carlson and Naomi Becker Honored in Macau
Carlson and Naomi Becker 
Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries
This past Sunday, May 4, Carlson and Naomi Becker (left, with David Kline on right) were honored by the Living Stone United Brethren congregation in Taipa, Macau. Visitors for the packed-house afternoon gathering included the Living Stone congregation, English students, neighbors, friends from the Living Water Church, and a delegation from the Hong Kong Conference.

The Beckers are wrapping up three years of ministry. They arrived in Macau in September 2005 and have contributed to the ministry in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most enduring contribution will be the leadership mentoring they offered to the church family of Living Stone. Carlson and Naomi have worked closely with Pastor Michael Chan, and just this past Sunday morning presented to the congregation its first five-member leadership team. 

It was an honor for me to express gratitude to the Beckers on behalf of Global Ministries and the entire United Brethren family for their years of service. Carlson and Naomi tell me this will be their third and final retirement. We'll see!


LET'S TALK: About Denominations
Denominations take a lot of flack, and it's not necessarily undeserved. The pro-denomination and anti-denomination sides have their fan clubs. What do you think? 

  • Is being part of a denomination a useful thing?
  • Does a denomination help, hinder, or otherwise affect what happens in a local church?
  • If you're a pastor, what's your perspective about being part of a denomination? Would life be better for you in a non-denom church?
  • Does the average person in the pew give a hoot about denominations?
  • What's the proper role of a denomination?
  • Are denominations dinosaurs that should just go away?
Please use the Comment feature to give your views. We have an authentication process (spam makes it necessary), but when you get authenticated once, it'll be easy to leave comments in the future.


May HU Prayer Letter
The monthly Huntington University Prayer Letter went out today. You can subscribe to receive it by email. Follow the link to read it here.
Continue reading May HU Prayer Letter.


New Healthy Ministry Resources Sign

Healthy Ministry Resources sign
Today is the public launch day for Healthy Ministry Resources. With that, Steve Dennie and Cathy Reich took down the old sign in front of the building and unveiled the new sign. We like it.



Jeff Bleijerveld Headed to Asia

Jeff Bleijerveld

Jeff Bleijerveld, director of Global Ministries, speaking to the 70-some persons who attended the "Hang with the Bishop" meeting on April 16 at East Washington UB church (Ashley, Mich.).

Jeff Bleijerveld, our new Global Ministries director, leaves today on his first overseas trip. He'll be in the Pearl River Delta part of China (which includes Hong Kong, Macau, and the surrounding province) until May 7, and then travel to the Philippines May 8-12 to take part in the 25th anniversary of the Looking Unto Jesus church, which is how our Philippines churches are known in their country.



Survey: Online Programs at Huntington University
Huntington University is exploring the potential of offering online programs as early as the fall of 2008. What interests people? To determine that, they posted an online survey. There are just four questions. How about taking the survey? The University would appreciate the feedback.


A Forum for UB Interaction
The new BishopBlog has several purposes:
  • A vehicle for me, as bishop, to cast vision.
  • An informational Grand Central Station (as already described).
  • A forum for interacting over UB-related issues.
We've needed a forum.
  • The United Brethren magazine was a forum...until we discontinued it in 1993.
  • Annual and midyear conferences were a forum...until we discontinued them in 2005.
  • The national conference isn't a good forum. Not with several hundred delegates, and meetings only once every two years.
But good interaction can occur via the Internet. That's what we want here.
  • I want your honest reactions to what I and others write.
  • I want to know what's on your heart.
  • I want to know how you perceive things.
  • I want to learn from you.
  • I want us all to learn from each other.


Let's Talk

This page is designed for interaction. You'll find posts on a variety of subjects from me, and from other people.

Please post your comments, good or bad. I value your honest reactions. I'm not looking for warm fuzzies, but for dialogue that can sharpen us all.