Emmanuel Community Church is sponsoring a golf outing on Sunday, October 1, to benefit UB endorsed missionary Anna Geivett. The outing will be held at the Chestnut Hills Golf Course in Fort Wayne, starting at 1:30. A banquet will be held at 6:30. The total cost is $65 per person (18 holes, cart, and banquet). Go here for more information, or download this PDF brochure.

Gary Vanderveen, formerly a UB pastor in Michigan, is now pastor of Faith UB church in Port Orange, Fla. His first Sunday was August 13.

An article in the Jackson (Mich) Citizen Patriot discusses church names--how people view them, why churches change their name, and the use of denominational names. Two United Brethren church senior pastors are quoted in the article: Kevin Cherry from Heart O' the Lakes UB (Brooklykn, Mich.), and Scott Hardaway from Pathway Community Church (Jackson). Pathway recently changed its name from Gethsemane.

You can read the article online here.

Huntington University, for the 12th consecutive year, ranks as one of the best comprehensive colleges in the Midwest, according to U. S. News and World Report. The 2007 guide to America's Best Colleges places HU 16th among 107 institutions in the Midwest Comprehensive Colleges category. Conference rival Taylor University ranked third. Calvin College (Michigan) and St. Mary's College (Indiana) share the top spot.

You can see the entire list here.

Huntington University has made its first foray into distance learning with its Masters of Arts in Youth Ministry Leadership. The program started in October 2005 with three students, and now has 13 students. It involves a combination of distance and online courses, with courses offered in Colorado, Ohio, Florida and other locations near national conferences for youth workers.

This summer, the program earned accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

By offering master’s degree in youth ministry leadership. Each course begins with 30 days of online communication, learning activities, and fellowship. Three days of intense class time follow, giving students and faculty a face-to-face opportunity to discuss, debate, and theorize about relevant ministry topics. The remaining coursework and research activity is facilitated through an additional 60 days of online interaction.

Huntington partnered with Youth Specialties and Youth for Christ to create the program. Classes currently meet in Fort Myers, Fla.; Denver, Col.; Huntington, Ind.; and at one Youth Specialties National Youth Workers’ Convention per year. This year, that convention is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Current students come from Maryland, Texas, Oregon, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio.

Learn more about this program.

Bob Myers (right), assistant professor of Worship Leadership for Huntington University, has earned his Doctor of Worship Studies from the Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, Fla.

Myers came to Huntington in the fall of 2005, joining the Department of Ministry and Missions. He heads up the new Worship Leadership program initiated in 2004. In addition to his doctorate, Myers holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from California State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Biola University. 

Myers came to Huntington from Sioux City, Iowa, where he served as pastor of worship at Central Baptist Church. As a pastor there since 1997, he planned and led both traditional and contemporary worship, oversaw various vocal and instrumental ensembles, taught classes on worship, and instituted the "Living Christmas Tree," a program attended by more than 6,000 people each year. His professional experience also includes serving as worship leader for a Promise Keepers gathering.

Read more about the Worship Leadership program.

PraisePoint UB church of Willshire, Ohio, will dedicate its new building on Sunday, September 17, 2006. They sent this announcement and invitation:

"We are beginning a new journey in God's work with a renewed commitment to show God's love to the Willshire community and surrounding area.

"In January 2003 the Zion UB Church on Winkler Road and the Willshire UB Church on State Street joined together to become the Willshire Zion UB Church. As a result of that new venture and God's generous gift, a new facility has been constructed just west of the intersection of Ohio route 81 and US route 33 at the edge of Willshire. The congregation held the first worship service in the new facility as Praise Point UB on January 1, 2006.

"The church family would like to extend a special invitation to you to be a part of this momentous day. Events will begin with the dedication service at 9:30 am, followed by a carry-in dinner, tour of the building 12:30 - 1:15pm, and an afternoon concert featuring 'Trinity' at 1:30 pm."

Phil Whipple (right), senior pastor of Colwood UB church in Caro, Mich., recently participated in a trip to Mozambique. He writes:

"On Wednesday evening, July 16, I joined three people from the Lamotte Missionary Church on a journey to London, England. There we met up with nine others from three different Missionary Churches in Indiana and flew on to South Africa and eventually to northern Mozambique. We arrived on Saturday evening safe and sound and ready for almost anything but a plane ride.

"I preached the first Sunday in Montepuez, a city of 65,000, at a church that was going to work with us to plant a new church in the village of Massigir located 13 kilometers from this church. On Monday and the rest of the week, my teammate and I went to Massigir to do an hour of training, and then we hit the streets of our village to share the story of God’s love to a precious people.

"In our village, over 260 people came to faith in Jesus during the week. The last Sunday I had the privilege of sharing in the brand new church in Massigir. Our total team saw over 1200 people come to trust in Jesus Christ."

The Van Wert Times-Bulletin published an interesting article about the gym floor which has been installed at the Praise Point UB church in Willshire, Ohio. The floor came from the old Parkway High School in Rockford, Ohio. Parkway was demolished earlier this summer, but not before the parquet gym floor could be removed.

Praise Point hosted an appreciation dinner on August 12 for the volunteers who helped move and install the parquet floor in the church's gym.

Praise Point bought about two-thirds of the gym floor for $150. The other 18 feet were bought for a new fitness center in Columbus, Ohio.The floor was actually fairly new, having been installed in the school just a few years ago.

The wood floor was cut into sections 45 inches wide, with lengths ranging up to 72 feet (teams of nearly 30 volunteers were needed to carry the long sections). The pieces were then hauled to the new Praise Point building. They were short some volunteers for the last few loads, so they recruited a baseball team to help.

Altogether, over 60 volunteers spent two weeks cutting out the pieces in Rockford, moving them to Willshire, and reassembling the floor at Praise Point. The church event took the wall plaques which thanked the people who donated money for the Parkway floor; the plaques now hang at Praise Point. Each free throw lane includes big black panther paw prints.

Three new cluster leaders were recently named by Pat Jones, Director of Healthy Church Ministries. Due to other responsibilities, Randy Carpenter and Steve Smith asked to be relieved of their cluster leadership responsibilities. Lee Hiney has been appointed to lead the Northern Ohio cluster formerly led by Randy. Don Gentry, pastor of the New Hope UB church in Camden, Mich., has been appointed to lead the Southern Michigan cluster formerly led by Steve.

Also, one new cluster has been formed in the border region of Indiana and Ohio.  This cluster includes: Tom Datema (Zanesville, Ind.); Ron Evans (Mt. Zion, Bobo, in Ohio); Stu Dennie (Convoy, Ohio);  Paul Fetters (retired); and Jim Gillette (unassigned). Tom Datema is serving as the cluster leader.

The Lansing State Journal's online website has an article about a homeless mission opened by Jim and Tammy Watson, who attend the Trenton Hills UB church in Adrian. Mich. The Watsons have spent 18 years living with their children in inner cities and working with homeless pesons, and pesons with drug and alcohol addictions.

When a mission they started in Toledo, Ohio, closed because of a lack of funds, they moved to Adrian to "rest up" before moving to the South Bronx to start a new mission. But in Adrian, they were surprised to find a need for a permanent homeless shelter. In May, they opened a rehab program called LifeChange and opened an emergency homeless shelter with bunks for six men. Some of the board members for this new organization come from Trenton Hills.

The full article can be found here.

• Randy Carpenter has resigned as pastor of Oak Harbor UB church in Oak Harbor, Ohio.
• Ron Gonzales has resigned as pastor of Faith Community Church in Findlay, Ohio, effective at the end of August.
• Roger Burk, former fulltime superintendent of Michigan Conference, has been hired part-time to work with worship and small groups at East Washington UB church in Ashley, Mich.

Nathan Baumann has been hired as fulltime Assistant Pastor for Youth at Heart O' the Lakes UB, Brooklyn, Mich., effective June 12.