The Missionary Church East Central Region Newsletter. also received some needed (Continued on page 3.)

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1 The Missionary Church East Central Region Newsletter Volume 472 October/November 2014 Timber!!! This year s Lumberjack Retreat was held at Ludlow Falls Camp, October 17-18, Weather was ideal this year, as over fifty men dropped trees, cut them into logs, split logs and burned brush. After the smoke had cleared, overgrown areas around the falls, the hill behind the ball field, the hill behind the lodge and the path up to the camp manager s home had been cut back. The Lodge also received some needed (Continued on page 3.) Inside this issue: From Our Regional Director 2 Regional Happenings! 3 OnMission 3 From Our Regional Ministries Coordinator 4 Coming Events 5 Highlights of Women s Fall Retreat 5 Youth Laser Web Lock-In 6 to Go Electronically In an effort to be wise stewards of God s money and time, the Regional Office has decided to attempt to send the out via to as many recipients as possible, lowering our printing and postage costs. (We currently send electronic copies to about 200 people.) This change will take place beginning with the January 2015 edition. The will be available through and via our regional website. For those without internet access, we are still happy and willing to print and send out the digest through the mail, but we want to keep those recipients to a minimum. In the next few months, we hope to gather addresses from those receiving our. We see this as a way to also expand our list to others in our region who current do not receive the newsletter. Another positive benefit is that it allows us to send the newsletter out individually instead of only one newsletter per household. If you currently are receiving the newsletter via snail mail, please contact the regional office with the address or addresses that you would like the newsletter sent. You may contact any one of us in the regional office. If you do not have internet access, please give the regional office a call at (937) and we ll make arrangements for you to continue receiving the Leader s Digest through standard mail. Your Regional Team: Dr. Jeff Kephart, Regional Director jeffk@woh.rr.com Rev. Mark Bayliff, Vice Regional Director pastormark@ucmc.us Rev. Jeff Gerig, Regional Ministries Coordinator jeffg@woh.rr.com Mrs. Jean Gerig, Secretary jeang@woh.rr.com Mrs. Wendy Dyke, Financial Secretary wendyd@woh.rr.com Regional Office Information: Phone: (937) Fax: (937) Website:

2 Page 2 From Our Regional Director Am I a Leader? This publication s title, Leader s Digest, begs an important question: what makes someone a leader? Let me suggest three critical leadership elements. First, leaders communicate vision. As Proverbs puts it, Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint. (NIV) The Message paraphrase spins that verse this way: If people can t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. Leaders communicate concisely, clearly, and compellingly what God is doing and our responsibility to join Him in that vision. Christian leaders do not create vision; that is God s role. However, leaders must passionately and repeatedly declare God s vision--what God has called His people to accomplish. For many, that vision is summarized in the Great Commission. His vision for the church is to multiply disciples people who walk as Jesus did. Should we as leaders choose not to clarify and communicate God s vision for His people, the result will be an aimless church, unsure of its direction and lacking in Kingdom fruit. The second responsibility of a leader is to evaluate to determine whether God s vision for the church is being accomplished. If vision is not clearly communicated, it is impossible to evaluate whether it is being realized. However, it s also possible to communicate vision, then neglect to ask whether that vision is being fulfilled. To illustrate, if a factory s vision is to produce wuzzies, the evaluative question is not are the workers happy at the factory or are the employees working hard or are the workers committed to the production of wuzzies or did we add more workers to the wuzzie assembly line? The evaluative question is did we make wuzzies, and if not, why not? Leaders must ensure that all we do as a church clearly contributes to the vision God has given us to pursue. If making disciples is the vision, the test is not whether we know and affirm that disciple making is important or we as a group are happy with what we are doing or we work very hard at what we do or we have many activities, programs, and people involved in our efforts. The test is whether disciples are being made. There is an inherent contradiction in claiming to pursue God s mission while neglecting to evaluate whether it is being accomplished, or worse yet, ignoring evidence that it is not being accomplished. The third responsibility of leaders is to align to ensure that all the church does contributes to the fulfillment of God s vision for that church. Alignment requires the question, How does each of our activities/programs/ efforts move us toward accomplishing God s vision for us? The temptation is to build our efforts upon what we enjoy or what we ve traditionally done or what others are doing or what brings the most people in. Leaders must instead ask, How does this effort contribute to our vision, and if it doesn t, how do we adjust to make sure it does contribute? Additionally, alignment may require that we eliminate some activities because they do not advance the vision. A phrase that has stuck with me from Sonlife training years ago is this: If your horse dies beneath you, please dismount. Alignment requires the courage to address purposeless effort. Leaders must ensure that all we do as a church clearly contributes to the vision God has given us to pursue. Leaders communicate God s vision clearly, repeatedly, and passionately. They then evaluate their ministry context to determine if that vision is being accomplished. Further, they intentionally align all ministry efforts toward achieving the vision. Join me in praying for God to raise up leaders for His Kingdom advancement purposes.

3 Page 3 Timber!!! Continued from page 1 attention with new stairs being constructed on the east side. A big thanks to Jeff Warner for coordinating this event and to Keith Berger and his crew in the kitchen who provided the wonderful meals. Also, a huge thanks goes to the men and women of our region who sacrificed a weekend to serve the Lord through the ministry of Ludlow Falls Camp. Regional Happenings! Rev. Ted Wilson was installed Sunday, October 12, 2014, as the new pastor of Newson Missionary Church, located outside St. Paris, Ohio. Pastor Ted and Beth come to us from the North Central District of the Missionary Church, where they served as Associate Pastor at Wakarusa Missionary Church. The second installment of OnMission: Disciples Making Disciples, took place at Union Chapel Missionary Church, October 24-25, Forty-six people from eleven regional churches and several non- Missionary Churches attended the two-day training. At present we now have 19 regional churches who have had leadership attend at least one of the basic OnMission training sessions. The region hopes to offer an advanced OnMission training in the Spring of Crisis Relief Team in Action September The Crisis Relief team rolled up to the work site early Thursday morning. They were greeted by several members of Redeemer Missionary Church, who together with the team, climbed up on the roof and began tearing off shingles. This first crew consisted of approximately 20 people from various regional churches as well as Redeemer. Around mid-afternoon, a group from the local high school student council showed up and went to work cleaning up debris on the ground. That first work day ended around 5:00 PM, with the ladies from the host church providing a dinner for the crew. Bright and early Friday morning, additional members of the Crisis Relief team showed up. Work continued tearing off the rest of the shingles while another team began putting on the new roof. The student council arrived again to help with clean up. The day again ended with another wonderful meal by the ladies of Redeemer. Saturday morning was a frenzy of activity as all the needed repairs to the roof were completed and the final shingles were put in place. An area boy scout troop showed up to help with clean up. By 2:00 PM the project was complete and the church held a celebration party.

4 Page 4 From Our Regional Ministries Coordinator Jars, Pots, and Bowls of Clay I was riding in the car the other day with my two girls and Jillian popped the question, When are you going to preach again, dad? This got my attention right away because I know usually she could care less when I preach, so I asked her, Why do you want to know when I m preaching? She replied, Well the next time you preach I want you to preach about us being made out of clay. Once she said that I knew immediately why she wanted me to preach on 2 Corinthians 4:7, but I asked her anyway. Sweetie, why do you want me to preach about us being made out of clay. She replied, Because I want you to take my pottery around to show people. You see, Jillian took a Pottery Class this past summer and was actually quite good at it. She made a couple of bowls, a pinch pot and a vase. Jillian is our little artist. Other kids in class come to her and ask her to draw them pictures. Anyway, I answered her, You know what, instead of a message, why don t I write a digest article and put pictures of your pottery in there. Lots more people will seem them. She seemed content with that so here goes. 2 Corinthians 4:6-8 reads, For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. For we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this allsurpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. These verses tell us that we are clay on the outside and the light of Christ on the inside. As a container, we may be somewhat common and ordinary, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, but our contents are invaluable. Scripture calls it treasure. We call it the good news of the Gospel. Let s look first at the clay pot we call our body. There are some who think a bit too highly of their body and others who take it for granted. As I age, I realize that my body won t be around forever. It s also not a masterpiece, but like pottery, I am unique. I m a one of a kind, molded into the person God wants me to be. For some of us, that molding process is often quite uncomfortable and sometimes even painful. Before a ceramic vase or bowl comes to be, it must undergo a pretty intense process. After coming from the ground, the clay is first wedged, which is the mixing of the clay by hand, turning it over and over to remove air bubbles. Once it is thoroughly wedged, the clay is formed into something special, then dried over a period of several days. Once dried, the piece of pottery, now called greenware, is fired in a kiln to 1800 degrees. After cooling the greenware has now become bisque ware. It is ready for the glazing process which puts the personality and color onto the piece. Once glazed, it goes back into a kiln to be fired up to 2350 degrees. It then sits for three days cooling off before it can be handled and used for it s created purpose. I think there s a pretty good parallel here that often we must go through the refiner s fire before we can really be used by God. Romans 5:3-5 tells us, we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Peter also acknowledges this fact by writing, These [trials] have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:7. No one likes refining, but for Christians, the end result is a useful vessel that has integrity and character. It has proven genuine and is now capable of letting the light of Christ shine brightly from within. Because the refining process is difficult, some look for shortcuts and never fully develop into the pot or jar that God intends for them to be and thus the light of Christ shines dimly and God is limited in what He can accomplish (Continued on page 5.)

5 Page 5 Jars, Pots, and Bowls... Continued from page 4 through that person. Proverbs 31:30 reminds us that beauty is fleeting. Our bodies weren t meant to last more than 100 years. You can be the prettiest vase in the room, but it s going to be a limited time only type of thing. Also, keep in mind that you may be the most handsome bottle but if you contain poison or something smelly, no one is going to want to pick you up. What s on the inside will dictate whether you are used or if you just sit on a shelf for appearance sake. So the question is not What kind of jar are you? but rather, What s on the inside? At our first ministry, the church welcomed us by throwing us a pantry shower. The only problem was that they took the labels off the cans. I would grab what I thought was corn or peas and it would be baked beans, or even worse, carrots. I hate carrots! What do people see when they look at you? What do they see when they really get to know you? Does your contents match your label? Does the light of Christ shine through you? You are to be the light of the world so let your light, or more specifically, Christ s light through you, shine so that others may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. November 14-15, 2014 Youth Laser Web All-Nighter Laser Web, Dayton November 15, 2014 Kids Quizzing Pleasant Grove Missionary Church December 5, 2014 Pastors & Wives Christmas Dinner Union Chapel Missionary Church December 20, 2014 Kids Quizzing Grace Community Church, Lima February 5-7, 2015 Pastors & Wives Retreat Amish Door, Wilmot March 20-22, 2015 Keeping the Faith Embassy Suites in Blue Ash Highlights of Women s Fall Retreat This year s Women s Fall Retreat was held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Beavercreek, Ohio, October 3-4, 2014, with 103 women from eleven regional churches attending. Retreat speaker, Jennifer Shaw, took the ladies on a journey with the Apostle Peter, challenging the women to go where God leads them, to listen to His nudgings, and to move confidently in the direction of His will for their lives. The evening was topped off with a fondue bar loaded with sweet treats to dip into warm white and dark chocolate, along with chips n salsa and warm breads. On Saturday the ladies continued with their journey through the life of Peter. Jennifer also shared some of the trials and experiences of her own life, tying everything together through the use of Scripture and song. She also shared about her trip to Africa, interacting with children there from Compassion International. Several ladies have pledged their support by adopting a child. During the event the ladies had opportunity to bid on silent auction items and make donations on white elephant items donated by the ladies of Sidney. Proceeds from the auction and donated items went towards guest missionary Katie Riley, who is raising support to go on staff with Hope for Home Ministries in Guatemala. After the final session, Jennifer shared about her experiences with her son Toby and his sensory processing disorders during a breakout workshop. Women came away refreshed, renewed, inspired and challenged. The Praying Hands prayer ministry was again offered this year. Women were encouraged to trace their hand on a sheet of paper and list their prayer concerns. They then dropped off their prayer concerns and picked up someone else s to pray for throughout the year. This has become a tradition for retreat (Continued on page 6.)

6 Women s Retreat Continued from page 5 and will continue as the Women s Ministries Committee has now begun a region wide prayer ministry. For more information about East Central Region women s events, visit the ECR website at click on the Ministries Tab and scroll down to Women s Ministries. If you have a prayer concern that you would like to share, you can do so at the Women s Ministries website. If your church would like to participate in helping with Women s Fall Retreat, please contact Julia Brown at (937) or the regional office. 533 Miamisburg Centerville Road (937) FRIDAY NIGHT,, NOVEMBER 14, N 14 TH 14 10:00 pm at Agape Family Worship Center (4111 Mapleview Drive in Beavercreek) 6:00 am at Laser Web in Dayton As Jennifer shared with us Asante Sanu Jesu, Thank you Jesus! The Missionary Church East Central Region 1509 West Main Street Troy, Ohio U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 325 Non-Profit Organization Troy, Ohio RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED