What happens when a church throws a party? For the last five years, Auburn Grace Community Church, a Grace Brethren congregation in Auburn, Calif. (Phil Sparling, senior pastor), has done just that. Directed by Lorin Miller, music pastor at the church, the congregation has reached out to the community by offering a festive Independence Day concert. The event, called Homeland, is a collaboration between the church, Placer [&hel[...]
A recent blog post on the SEEDnet site announced a new initiative to reach the city of Cleveland with the gospel. SEEDnet works in spiritually, emotionally, economically, and developmentally oppressed areas in Ohio, primarily low income communities. Meet the SEEDnet Field Team A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps. (Prov.16:9)” We were not actively looking to […][...]
She wasn’t the kind of girl one would single out to train for leadership. Quiet and shy, she was content to teach a Bible story to an imaginary Sunday School class, using her mother’s flannel-graph figures. She didn’t look like a leader who would direct a national organization into a new era. But as Janet Minnix retires August 1 after […][...]
Since assuming the role of executive director of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC) in July 2013, I have spent time considering the essence of our movement. That fall, we began discussions around our identity at our Focus Retreats. This Identity Initiative, led by Dave Guiles, is instrumental in reviving the important and ongoing discussion of who we are as […][...]
Students at Iglesia Comunal la Esperanza (Hope Community Church), a Grace Brethren congregation in Valrico, Fla. (Javier Forero, pastor) are gearing up of a Saturday night concert to raise funds to attend Momentum Youth Conference, which will be held at Wheaton College from July 22 to 27. The concert begins at 7 p.m. at 401 S. Saint Cloud Av, Valrico, Fla., on […][...]
Three new congregations will be considered for membership in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC) this summer. (Click here to learn more about them.) Each group is dedicated to the five functions of a church — worship, fellowship, teaching, preaching, and serving — and is committed to the FGBC, a highly cooperative, missional, Bible teaching group of churches in […][...]
Each year, Auburn Grace Community Church, a Grace Brethren congregation in Auburn, Calif. (Phil Sparling, pastor) hosts a patriotic concert in celebration of the Fourth of July. The Auburn Journal included an article last week in advance of the concerts. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article. Homeland concert is fireworks for the […][...]
Groups from four churches in Ohio and Maryland participated in the 2014 Great Canadian Adventure, which is sponsored by GBCanada. Held from June 29 – July 5, 2014, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the focus of the week was training in evangelism, providing exposure to the ministries in Canada so individuals know how to pray, and serving in various ways throughout […][...]
Three congregations will be considered for membership in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches during the business meeting at national conference in July. Grupo Amor Cristiano, a church based in Dublin, Ohio, serves the immediate Spanish-speaking community in both Dublin and Columbus, Ohio. Lead by Pastor Phil Guerena, Grupo Amor Cristiano provides English as a Second Language (ESL) classes through the […][...]
Five organizations will be considered as cooperating ministries during national conference. A cooperating ministry is an organization that recognizes a mutual obligation of encouragement and cooperation with Grace Brethren churches, districts, national ministries and/or other cooperating ministries. Prospective cooperating ministries include: Design Outreach (DO) combines humanitarian engineering with Christian non-profit work[...]
The national conference of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC) has long been termed a “family reunion.” Opportunities to connect with people from other churches and ministries abound amidst annual corporation meetings, challenging speakers, and opportunities for outreach. During this year’s FellowShift Vision Conference, held July 17 to 21 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C., that focus […][...]
Materials normally available to students of the Great Commission Bible Institute are now available online to the general public. Dr. Randy Smith, founder of GCBI and pastor of Grace Church, a Grace Brethren church in Sebring, Fla., has announced that a new opportunity for Bible education became available this week as they published the first book that contains notes used […][...]
The AWANA blog, Life Threads, carries a story today that features Brenda Wilcoxson, a member of the Winona Lake, Ind., Grace Brethren Church (Bruce Barlow, lead pastor). Written by Terry White, the former executive director and publisher at the Brethren Missionary Herald Company, the story tells how she felt led to begin a ministry to children in the tiny community […][...]
“Conference” is a long tradition in Grace Brethren history — it predates the founding of the Grace Brethren movement in the late 1930s. In fact, you’ll find an annual national meeting on the calendars of most of the other branches of the Brethren family tree. For those of us in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC), conference is a […][...]
For the 15th year in a row, the Southview Grace Brethren Church, Ashland, Ohio (Mark Abel, pastor), hosted the Wifflefest this past weekend. This year it was complete with a commemorative coin and professionally hand-turned bats as prizes. WMFD.com reported on the event. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article. The church has […][...]
My family and I harvested three quarts of wild black raspberries recently. It was fun! It was a treasure hunt! We would start picking berries in one patch, move some leaves aside and “bam” another patch would appear!! We were in different parts of the woods and every now and then someone would yell: “Holy smokes, look at the size […][...]
BMH Books author, Dr. John C. Whitcomb, was part of a ceremony in early May that signified the launch of the Ark Encounter themed attraction at Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio. A full-sized Noah’s Ark is expected to open in the summer of 2016. Dr. Ken Hamm, CEO of Answers in Genesis, recently lauded Dr. Whitcomb, […][...]
The Aiken, S.C., Standard recently carried a story about Grace Brethren Army chaplain, Capt. James Murray, when he spoke at Grace Church, a Grace Brethren church in Aiken (Steve Taylor, pastor). Murray served as youth pastor at the church prior to entering the chaplaincy. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article. Army chaplain […][...]
Now with his Savior, Jesus Christ, Dick Battis died Monday evening, June 23, at home following a battle with cancer. He was 81 years old. Services were held Saturday, June 28, 2014 at El Camino Baptist Church, Tucson, Ariz. The son of Hiram and Mildred (Grubb) Battis, Dick was born in Wilmington, Del., on July 16, 1932. While a student […][...]
In the opening session of FellowShift (national conference) this year, the planning team wants to show a short video montage of various pastors and leaders in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. Designed to create some energy in the session and let people get a quick picture of the many leaders and churches that are represented in the FGBC, the montage will […][...]