BMH Editor's Blog

A Hullabaloo for Charlie

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 31, 2007  |  No Comments

Updates from Grace Brethren Military Chaplains

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 31, 2007  |  No Comments

Recent news about our Grace Brethren military chaplains comes from the Eagle Commission.

Army Chaplain Billy Graham, and his wife, Robyn, and their three children, Joy, Katie, and Christopher, are adjusting to life in Korea. Pray for them as they get used to life in a different country. They are also facing another move to a different location in Korea this summer.

Army Chaplain Mark Penfold has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel at Fort Eustis, Va. He and his wife, Robin, also anticipate a move to Fort Hood, Texas, this summer.

Elizabeth Schaefer, wife of Army Chaplain James Schaefer, recently received good news. Two years ago, she had surgery for thyroid cancer. Recently, the results of a body scan showed no evidence of cancer.

The Eagle Commission serves as a strategic link between the people of the Grace Brethren churches and Grace Brethren military chaplains around the world. It provides a means to express support for the chaplains and their ministries and to provide their latest news and prayer requests.

Continue to remember the chaplains in prayer as they minister to the courageous men and women who serve in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Jackson Book Is Reprinted

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 31, 2007  |  No Comments

Grace College to Host Pro-Life Music Festival

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 30, 2007  |  No Comments

Grace College, Winona Lake, Ind. will host the Pro-Life Music Festival 2007 from June 21-24. With more than 25 bands scheduled, the free admission festival (no tickets required) will be held on the Grace Athletic Fields. For more information, visit http://www.plmf.org/.

In conjunction with the Pro-Life Music Fesitval, the college will host a special VIP Campus Visit Day from 10 a.m. to noon on June 22. Prospective students can tour the campus and learn more about Grace – then attend the festival afterward. To register, call the Grace College Visitor’s Center at 1-866-97-GRACE or e-mail enroll@grace.edu.

Group Led by Grace Faculty Member Kicks Off Summer Concert Series

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 30, 2007  |  No Comments

A Grace College adjunct music professor leads the jazz quintet that will kick off this summer’s Concerts in Central Park in Warsaw, Ind.

The Kevin Piekarski Jazz Quintet will perform from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Friday, June 1 at Central Park.

The concert is free, and is sponsored by the Warsaw Park and Recreation Department. The park is located at the corner of Indiana and Canal streets.

The band includes bass player Piekarski (pictured at right above), guitarist George Ogg, saxophone player Rick Brown, drummer Doug Laughlin and trombonist Loy Hetrick.

Piekarski, the assistant principal bassist with the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Philharmonic since 1983, joined the faculty at Grace in 2005.

Summer in Winona Lake

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 29, 2007  |  No Comments

Equipment Being Gathered to Assist Haitian Ministry

Posted by Liz Cutler Gates on May 29, 2007  |  No Comments

Police Chaplains Help Calm Tensions

Posted by Terry White on May 29, 2007  |  No Comments

Photo by Matthew Rusling, Medill News Service

Grace Village Rehab Center Nears Completion

Posted by Terry White on May 29, 2007  |  No Comments

‘As For Me and My Mouse . . . ‘

Posted by Terry White on May 26, 2007  |  No Comments

Today I saw a thought-provoking corruption of Joshua 24:15.

A pastor’s online signature said: “As for me and my mouse, we will serve the Lord.”

Think about that!

The Wearing of Head-Covering in Worship

Posted by Terry White on May 26, 2007  |  2 Comments

Recently I was in a Grace Brethren church over the weekend and had a short but interesting conversation with a woman leader who wears a head covering–as Brethren women in years past commonly did–in response to 1 Corinthians 11. Now comes a column in WORLD magazine by respected writer Andree Seu. Here are several paragraphs from her piece–the complete article may be read at http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13011

I will write precisely one column on this, and one column is all it deserves. I have taken to wearing a head covering during worship. I expect one in a thousand readers follows this practice, so you might all be annoyed with me.

It means launching out and putting a symbol of “glory” on my head at church because I think 1 Corinthians 11 tells me to, even if I may turn out in the end to be wrong. That’s because I will definitely be wrong if I don’t do what I think God is commanding.

To disobey what I think God is telling me is to disobey God. There is nothing more a man can do at any given moment than say yes to God as he hears Him. It is God Himself who gently steers our boats, and corrects their course, but only as we’re moving toward Him (Philippians 3:15-16).

I read in 1 Corinthians 11 that the woman’s head is to be covered in worship. The modern Christian consensus tells me that is a relative and obsolete command, dealing with some first-century problem in the city of Corinth. My high-school literary skills tell me otherwise: The command is rooted in creation (verses 7-9) and in nature (verse 14). And if that weren’t ironclad enough, I am to cover my head “because of the angels.”

Simi Valley Students Earn $$ for School

Posted by Terry White on May 25, 2007  |  No Comments

From today’s Simi Valley (Ca) Acorn:

Church & School Purchase Former Crossroads Ford Property

Posted by Terry White on May 25, 2007  |  No Comments

Hope Community Church and Grace Christian School New Owners

Hope Community Church, a Grace Brethren church in Cary, N.C., and Grace Christian School, also of Cary, have jointly purchased the former Crossroads Ford dealership property in Cary. Located at 1101 Buck Jones Road, the 48,000 square foot property will be shared by the church and the school, institutions who operate independently of each other.

Already sharing a 14.7 acre parcel adjacent to the Ford property, Hope Community Church, located at 821 Buck Jones Road, and Grace Christian School, located at 801 Buck Jones Road, will share 50/50 ownership of the new site. As the school and church already work in tandem sharing current facilities and parking, the purchase of the new property will allow both institutions to expand their presence and influence within the surrounding area and continue to offer unique opportunities to the Cary and Raleigh communities.

Grace Christian School is a private K-12 college preparatory Christian school with an enrollment of 392 students. This purchase will allow future school enrollment to reach approximately 700 as well as provide a separate campus for grades 6-12.

“The acquisition of this new campus will usher in one of the most exciting times in the 23-year history of Grace. The new facilities will better enable Grace to effectively equip students with a quality, Christ-centered education to impact the world for Jesus Christ,” Don Payne, school administrator, explains.

For their part, Hope Community Church has cast a vision for a new community youth and teen center in addition to expanding their already overflowing student ministries. Upon relocating their middle and high school youth facilities and programs to the new building, work will begin on a community after school drop-in teen and outreach center. Hope purposes to significantly impact local youth by organizing positive, proactive student venues in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of Cary.

“We want to be a dynamic and compelling force in meeting the needs of our local community,” says Senior Pastor Mike Lee. “We feel one of the most proactive ways to do so is by reaching out to the burgeoning youth community that surrounds us.”

Renovations to the property to make the best possible use of space by both the school and church are expected to be completed by June 1, 2008.

Prayer for The Boss

Posted by Terry White on May 25, 2007  |  1 Comment

Jesse Deloe, senior editor at BMH Books, center, leads the staff (and friends) in prayer this morning for Terry White, director of the Brethren Missionary Herald Company. Terry leaves next week to teach writing and journalism classes in Cameroon and Central African Republic. (See blogpost of May 24, 2007.) Seated to Jesse’s right is Ken Herman of Evangel Press, whose office is in the BMH building.

Penn Valley Church Begins Multi-Site Venture With Suburban GBC, Hatboro

Posted by Terry White on May 25, 2007  |  No Comments

Left to right on the photo: Dan Balmer, chairman of Penn Valley elders, Larry Orme, executive pastor of Penn Valley, Al Kidder, pastor of Suburban GBC, and Tony Osimo, campus pastor at Bucks County Campus

Equip07 Planners Tour Conference Headquarters

Posted by Terry White on May 24, 2007  |  No Comments

FGBC Fellowship Coordinator Tom Avey (right) led national conference planners from the various Grace Brethren national organizations on a tour today of the new $9.1 million Orthopaedic Capital Center (OCC) on the Grace College and Seminary campus in Winona Lake, Indiana.

The OCC will be headquarters for this summer’s Equip07 national conference, which will be held July 29-August 3. All exhibits will be in the OCC, as well as some of the classes on the Equip07 roster.

The first session of conference will be in the OCC at 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 29. Full information and conference registration information is available at http://www.fgbc.org/equip07/.

Brethren ‘Cousins’ Gather for Annual Conference

Posted by Terry White on May 24, 2007  |  No Comments

One of the Brethren groups descended from the Alexander Mack (seal at right) baptism in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, is the Old German Baptist Brethren group. It is one of six groups which, along with the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, participates in the Brethren Encyclopedia Project and is cooperating in organizing a 300th year celebration in Germany in August of 2008. These “cousins in the faith” are meeting this coming week for their annual conference. Here is an excerpt of an article in today’s Carroll County (Indiana) Comet–to see the entire article click on http://www.carrollcountycomet.com/news/2007/0523/Front_Page/005.html . For more information on the OGBB’s Heritage Center in Brookville, Ohio, go to www.brethrenheritagecenter.org.

Fellowship and encouragement among brethren will be a running theme throughout the Old German Baptist Brethren Annual Conference May 26-29 on the Donald L. Hufford farm, 8101N. CR600W., two miles southwest of Rossville in Clinton County.

Each year, brethren from across the nation arrange a weekend of renewal of spirit and friendships to commemorate the anniversary of the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the church. The event is held in different regions of the country on a rotation basis.

Preparations for the four-day series of meetings began more than two years ago with the formation of a seven-member committee of arrangements. Since then, 30 more committees were formed, each designed to handle a specific function of the conference.

Before the conference officially gets under way, worship, dining, rest and meeting facilities will be put in place on tentraising day, May 24. More than 35 acres of land surrounding the Hufford farm was sown in grass last year to provide meeting room for the anticipated six to seven thousand visitors. Church members will put final details in place the rest of the day Thursday and all day Friday.

Public welcome to attend

Members of the public are welcome to attend services during the conference that begins at 10 a.m. Saturday and continues each day at designated times. Visitors are asked to wear modest attire and that no photographs be taken inside tents during worship services.

Services on Pentecost Sunday will be held at 7 a.m., 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the council tent. Additionally 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. services will be held in the auxiliary tent and Middle Fork meeting house, one-half mile south of the conference site.

A Love Feast involving self examination, foot-washing, Lord’s Supper, observation of the Holy Kiss, and Holy Communion will occur Sunday at 5 p.m. in the dining tent. Only active church members may participate. However, the public is welcome to observe.

Visitors may also attend Monday preaching services held at 7 p.m. at area churches – Middle Fork, North Fork near Pyrmont, Bachelor Run in Flora and Deer Creek near Camden.

Late addition: Our friend Craig Myers over at Dunker Journal has posted some interesting photos of the tent-raising in his May 24 posts, which may be seen here: http://www.brfwitness.org/Journal/journal.htm

Blogus Interruptus

Posted by Terry White on May 24, 2007  |  No Comments

The next three weeks will be a bit unusual for this blog, though you may not notice much difference.

YIB (Your Intrepid Blogger) leaves the day after Memorial Day for nearly three weeks in sub-Sahara Africa, where we’ll be teaching and training young African journalists.

If all goes well, we’ll spend a few days in Cameroon, and then fly by small plane to the Central African Republic, where we’ll be working with a group that is starting up a new African youth periodical.

Organized and under the direction of Greg Burgess, who works with GBIM and Editions Cle’ (French publisher) in France, the trip is part of an outgrowth of a group which informally calls itself TAG or “The American Table Group,” named for the restaurant in Warsaw, Indiana, where the group first convened several years ago. (see blogpost of August 1, 2006)

Comprised of individuals who have a special interest in the literature ministry in Africa, it includes Mike Taylor and Ted Rondeau of the GBIM staff, missionary appointee Jim Momeyer, ICDI founder Jim Hocking, Greg Burgess of Editions Cle’, Terry White of the Brethren Missionary Herald Co., and occasional others, including a representative from the mission agency SIM.

Part of the group’s mission is to help Dounia Marc and other Central Africans whose literature ministry, supplies and equipment were destroyed in the civil strife, get back “on track” with printing and publishing in the CAR. BMH has been contributing $500 a month for this purpose since January of this year. All BMH corporation membership contributions ($25/year or more) are going toward the Africa literature ministry this year.

In addition, we desire to help train and encourage journalists and writers not only in the CAR, but also in other countries where there is a Grace Brethren heritage, with Brazil and Argentina likely next.

In Africa, several of us will be teaching from a curriculum we have used in other countries which was developed by the Colorado Springs-based Magazine Training Institute.

Session topics include “The Christian Writer,” “Understanding How to Communicate,” “Finding and Refining Ideas,” “Gathering Information,” “Organizing Your Material,” “Article Types,” “Writing the Lead,” “Keys to Powerful Writing,” “Writing the Conclusion,” and more.

On the advice of missionaries and seasoned travelers to Africa, I have given up hope of staying in constant contact with the blog and e-mail while I’m gone. So Liz Cutler Gates, the editorial director for BMH, will be posting to the blog in my absence. She has already begun—and I’ll bet you haven’t noticed the difference! News items may be e-mailed to her at lcgates@bmhbooks.com

I expect to return June 16 and should be back in the office June 18. Obviously, your prayer support for this effort will be greatly appreciated. Our dear brothers and sisters in sub-Sahara Africa are working under the most dismal of conditions—and yet the ministry of the printed word is so powerful over time and over distance.

God, after all, chose the printed word as His way to reveal Himself to us. Join us in praying that many Africans—who can effectively communicate in their own language, own thought patterns, and in the ways God has uniquely taught them through the Scriptures—will develop into effective communicators and writers in the years ahead.

You’ll get a report when I’m back.

Pastor Paul Rhodes Installed at Chico, Calif.

Posted by Terry White on May 23, 2007  |  No Comments

Paul Rhodes was installed as the pastor of the Grace Brethren Church of Chico, Calif. during a special service on May 20.

Previously, Paul served as an associate pastor of the Neighborhood Church in Chico. It was fitting that the pastor of that church began the service with comments of releasing Paul to another church in the community. Pastor Larry Lane expressed how hard that was but reminded us that we are not to think in terms of our own little empire but in terms of the kingdom.

Pastor Joel Richards, representing the Nor-Cal District of Grace Brethren Churches and the Association of Grace Brethren Ministers, was the keynote speaker. His message centered in Acts 13 and how the Holy Spirit calls us, sets us apart for particular ministry and confirms that call through various means. Since Paul had served in the Chico church many years ago under the ministry of Lloyd Woolman, it seemed only fitting and a work of God that he was now called back to be the senior pastor.

Pastor Rhodes call was officially certified by a reading of the minutes. After various pledges by both Paul and his wife Andrea, and by the congregation, the leaders of the church laid hands on their new pastor. They were joined by Pastor Lane and Pastor Richards.

Pastor Rhodes gave a brief challenge to the congregation and promised that he would lead them without oppressing them.

Camp Conquest to Dedicate Lodge June 9

Posted by Terry White on May 23, 2007  |  No Comments

Sprecher Lodge at the Grace Brethren Retreat Center (Camp Conquest) in Denver, Pa., will be dedicated at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 9. The service will be followed by an open house and a light lunch.

The lodge is an expansion of an existing boys’ cabin.

“We added two bathrooms, a large meeting room, and a small kitchen to the cinderblock dormitory structure,” says Michael Gehlert, who has been camp director since 2002.

The building is named in honor of Bob and Josie Sprecher, who served faithfully at the camp for many years.

The Retreat Center is a ministry of the Northern Atlantic Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches.