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| Upcoming Installations/Ordinations |
| Ordination for Pastor Doug Irving February 5, 2012; 3:00 p.m. Pennway Church of God, Lansing |
Installation for Pastor Jonathan Frymire |
Upcoming Meetings/Events
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February 6, 2012 February 18, 2012 February 27, 2012 April 14, 2012 April 20-21, 2012 Girlfriends Spring Break Warner Camp, Grand Juction April 28, 2012 May 18-20, 2012 2012 APPLICATION FOR A CHURCH GRANT Church Health Ministry announces the notification of application for church grant. The purpose of the grant is to provide Church of God In Michigan local congregations with tools and resources that develop and foster Leadership Development for individuals and ministry teams. Grant applications were available beginning January 9, 2012. The deadline for returning the application is February 10, 2012. The winners will be notified by March 2, 2012. If you are interested in applying for a grant, please contact the state office and request an application or download one from our website. Healthy Growing Churches 2012 Speakers Include: Don Wilson, Leith Anderson, Paul Borden, Al Ells, Josh Surratt General Conference Schedule: Wednesday, February 29 @ 7:00pm through Friday, March 2 @ Noon Pre-Conference Events: Discernment Day: Wednesday, February 29, 8:00am-5:00pm. Don’t miss this incredible one day event with national leader and coach Jim Griffith (www.griffithcoaching.com) on Discerning God’s call for your life. Leading a Large Church: Wednesday, February 29, 10:00am-4:00pm. Pastors of churches over 1,000 are invited to spend the day with Leith Anderson as he discusses Leading a large church well as well as leaving it well. Judicatory Roundtable: Wednesday, February 29, 10:00am - 4:00pm. Judicatory Leaders are invited to attend this roundtable free of charge! Randy Spence will lead the talk on Lessons Learned Leading Transformational Movements. www.healthygrowingchurches.com
Focus 40 Dear Pastor Imagine what God would do if the Church of God movement united in forty days of prayer and fasting for specific people to come to Jesus Christ. Acts 14:23 says the apostles built the early church “with fasting and prayer.” I believe he will bless our efforts to reach people for Christ just as much, if we commit our ways to him. I invite you to join me and thousands of other Church of God people to make that kind of commitment for the forty days leading up to Easter 2012. Our Transformation Team is trusting God to lead 25,000 people to Christ during this emphasis as we ask him to use us in his Great Commission of Transforming Hearts...Transforming Lives Planning resources for this emphasis are available as free downloads from the Church of God Ministries website. Just go to www.chog.org/Focus40. Dr. Ronald V. Duncan, General Director Michigan Student Leadership Institute (MSLI) "Tune Up" Exponential 2012: Sifted Church planting is not for the faint of heart. Over 4,000 new churches start each year, which means upwards of 20,000 planters are in the trenches in years 1-5, many of whom are discouraged and have considered quitting. Sifted - the theme of Exponential 2012 - emphasizes the planter's spiritual, physical and emotional health as the very foundation for reproducing. In Luke 22:31-32, Jesus' reference to Peter being "sifted" is based on the process of sifting wheat from its chaff during harvest, a form of refining and distilling the good from the bad and removing impurities. As Believers, we have been perfectly sifted by Christ's blood and are being continually sifted to extract our chaff (sin). Life's troubles and difficulties serve in some measure like the winnowing fork. What if we could be better prepared to deal with life's troubles? Join sage and seasoned leaders at Exponential 2012 as they impart their years of wisdom to help you in your journey and lay out a plan for finishing strong. |
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ABC's of Church Management |
Links for Missional Thinking |
Healthy Growing Churches |
Jan/Feb/Mar 2012 ACTION Online |
Dr. William H. Jones The Timid Dreaming The Tremendous Ever felt awkward? When I was a boy, I was shy and always afraid of saying the wrong things, never wanting the adults to laugh at me. So I stayed quiet. When I was a teen, I did not "feel cool" and thought that if I would get ridiculed for speaking my mind. Not wanting to look foolish, I seldom ventured an opinion. In my adult years I have heard our culture say, "keep your beliefs to your self" or "you have your truth and I have my truth; don't impose your truth on me." Am I the only one who has felt these pressures, or are these the thoughts of a backwoods hick from central Indiana? I really don't want a public psychoanalysis right now, but I do want to think with you about why it is so hard for many Christians to talk with others about faith in Jesus Christ. There are some of us who are shy and find it difficult to share openly with anyone, but there are many of us who are outgoing and have never seen a stranger. My father-in-law is one of those persons and I admire him greatly. Most of us are somewhere in between these two extremes. Most of us don't have trouble talking about sports, or the newest App we downloaded from iTunes, or the most exciting new program for our Cricket. In a meeting a few months ago Rev. Dr. Milton Grannum, pastor of a mega Church in Philadelphia, and a long respected pastor in the Church of God, said that evangelism is not in the DNA of our Movement. We were established as "come-outers", meaning that we encouraged persons in other denominations, that we called "Babylon" to join us and be separated from man-made denominations. This message though powerful was one that encouraged Christians to join us. But what about the unchurched? What about persons who had not heard the gospel? They were important to us. The Church of God has for all our history sent missionaries all over the world and many people have come to Christ. When I was young I remember going to church every night for two weeks while our church was in revival meetings. A really good revival might last four weeks! Reaching lost people was something that the evangelist or a missionary did, not the person sitting in the pew. Dr. Grannum is a man with whom I am not worthy to compare myself, but I would want to tweak his observation. I would suggest that personal evangelism, done by the average person in the pew is not in our DNA. We believe in reaching the lost, we just don't think that it is not our job. The pastor, the evangelist, and the missionary are the ones called and equipped to do that heavy lifting. It is critical that we change our mind. Jesus said in the great commission that we are all his witnesses. A witness who is silent is no witness at all. A witness who is timid is not a very good one. With all this said, our world needs a witness from every Christian. If we have experienced Christ's freedom, his joy, and his peace, then let's share it. Jesus does not want us to be an obnoxious church, and he does not want us to be a silent church. He wants us to be His Church, sharing his message of salvation, freedom, power, and joy. It is a wonderful message! Please pray in the days ahead that God will give you the boldness to love someone who does not know him and pray that through that loving relationship you will have courage to share what you have discovered about Jesus. This year's Focus 40 fasting and prayer emphasis is build around the audacious dream that this year through the Church of God 25,000 people will come to know Jesus. That is a God sized vision. You and I can help make it happen if we are not afraid. Send your comments/thoughts to Bill regarding this eAction article. Institute for Servant Leadership Leadership Essentials Doctrinal Track It is hard to believe this is the last day of January and winter has finally arrived these last two weeks! In our area our school kids had Monday, January the 16th off as we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Then the following two days were closed for "snow days." They went to school on Thurday and then had Friday and the following Monday off either from more snow or icy roads!! In June of 2010 at the North American Convention of the Church of God in Anderson, Indiana, I bought a paper back book on sale for twenty-five cents entitled POSITIVE PRAYERS FOR POWER-FILLED LIVING by Robert H. Schuller. I would like to share one of the prayers, entitled "Make Me a Christian." It says: Holy Spirit, fill my life by May we always keep that prayer in mind as we "interact" with others!! May our words be as a "sweet aroma." Our state treasurer, Aletha McNeilly, just called to let me know that we have received, so far, $54,829.69 from the Christ's Birthday Offering. She said it keeps coming in! Thanks!!
My love, Ann Hawkins, President Best Practices Conference- Saturday, March 24, 2012 With the support of the Lilly Endowment, Indiana Ministries has assembled a group of Christian professionals and the financial support to help both pastors and their congregations discover financial freedom in these difficult times. Now there is help for both pastors and congregations as they strive to find financial freedom. There are some clear “Best Practices” that can help pastors and congregations to live out God’s plans for their financial health. Professional Speakers: A team of consultants who are experts in the areas of clergy budgeting and tax, congregational budgeting, government regulations, pensions, educational loans, and human resource issues will be on hand to present valuable information to every pastor and church in attendance. Sessions include: Clergy compensation planning for congregations; Church budgeting Health care; and Tax Consideration There is a charge of $45 per person as long as registration is completed by 3/9/12. If registration is after 3/9/12 or at the door, fees are $50 per person. We will provide hotel information at your request. We can get nice rooms for around $100 per night for a king room or 2 doubles. Breakfast (continental) and lunch will be provided on Saturday. Second Half of Life Ministry 2012 Event Once again Pastor Bob Confer is working with Kirk Bookout on a great event set for Thursday, May 17, 2012 at the Essenhaus Restaurant near Middlebury, Indiana. Middlebury is just a few miles east of Shipshewana...so that would be a good combination to spend some time in Amish filled Shipshewana...to make a full day trip. Our event will begin with a delicious Amish lunch served family-style at 12:00 p.m. The menu will be: 2 meats - baked Swiss steak and roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread dressing, corn, home-made noodles, tossed salad, rolls, and apple butter, beverage, and a selection of home-made pies to choose from...all for $23 per person.
Church of God congregations from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio are invited! Registration deadline will be May 7, 2012. Make checks payable to "First Church of God" and mail them to: First Church of God, Attn: Fun and Feast, 2627 Niles Ave., Saint Joseph, MI 49085. Any questions please call Pastor Bob Confer at 269-983-1524 or e-mail him at bob.c@myfirstchurch.com. State Youth Convention
Our Friday Night Guests
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Please start planning now to attend our 2012 State Convention which will be April 27th and 28th at the Lexington Lansing Hotel with Bev Michielson from Holland, Michigan as our "special" speaker. We also have the singing group "Sweet Spirit" from the Midland area who will be closing out our convention with a concert. The local presidents should receive, the Lord willing, the convention packets by the end of this week with much more information included. Looking forward to seeing you there!
After lunch we will be treated to a wonderful musical program and some sharing from several Church of God leaders from Anderson, giving us up-dates on some of the exciting things happening in the Church of God nationally. 
