The Missionary Church East Central Region Newsletter Volume 477 April 2015 Teens Learn to Anchor Their Faith This year s Keeping the Faith event, hosted by the Youth Ministries Committee, took place at the Embassy Suites in Blue Ash, Ohio, March 20-22, 2015. Dr. Marcus Warner, President of Deeper Walk International, was the weekend speaker. Marcus challenged the forty-five teens who attended to own, safeguard, and share their faith with others. Session topics included Anchoring Deep in the Faith, Breaking Free of Sin, Winning the Battle for Your Mind, and Walking in the Spirit. Mike Unser, worship leader at True Life Church in Troy led the teens in heartfelt times of worship. For a late night event, teens watched the movie God s Not Dead, while snacking on popcorn and chips. The movie encourages teens with the truth that belief in God makes good sense and that believing that God does not exist actually takes more faith than believing that He does. Over the course of the weekend, teens also enjoyed swimming in the indoor pool, socializing in the atrium areas and enjoying a pizza party together. Many groups took advantage of Dave & Busters which was in close proximity to the hotel. Regional Conference April 24: Urgent Intention Our annual Regional Conference will be held April 24 th at Newson Missionary Church. This year s theme is Urgent Intention, and the theme verses are Ephesians 5.15-16: Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. The Spirit s challenge through Paul is to live out the Christian life with purpose, passion, and intentionality in the (Continued you page 3.) Inside this issue: From Our Regional Director 2 Kid s Alive! 3 Kid s Kamp 3 New Chapter for Great Hope 3 From Our Regional Ministries Coordinator 4 Coming Events 5 Kid s Quizzing Wraps Up with Year-End Tournament 5 Camp Sharing Banquet 6 Bethel College Concert Choir to Perform 6 Your Regional Team: Dr. Jeff Kephart, Regional Director Email: jeffk@woh.rr.com Rev. Jeff Gerig, Regional Ministries Coordinator Email: jeffg@woh.rr.com Mrs. Jean Gerig, Secretary Email: jeang@woh.rr.com Mrs. Wendy Dyke, Financial Secretary Email: wendyd@woh.rr.com Regional Office Information: Phone: (937) 339-0015 Fax: (937) 339-1924 Website: http://www.ecregion.org
Page 2 From Our Regional Director Nothing to Lose As Easter passes yet again, I am grateful for the victory purchased for me by Jesus death and resurrection. These events provide God s answer to the final enemy all of us must face: death. With Jesus victory over the grave, God assures us that the Evil One s worst weapon, death, is rendered powerless. Our hope rests secure in this: If Jesus is your Savior, you are as dead now as you will ever be, and the day you die, you will be more alive than you ve ever been! Let me unpack that idea. For the Christian, at the point of salvation, we die to ourselves. Galatians 2.20 declares, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Colossians 3.2-4 adds, Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. While we live this life, we are to consider ourselves dead: dead to claiming our rights and dead to the fallen nature s allure. In the meantime, we walk among the reminders of the deadness of our brokenness. We see and experience suffering, sorrow, temptation, pain, and heartache the echoes of death at work in our fallen world. Our journey moves along a pathway marked with the evidences of sin s ravages. Still, in the midst of that journey, we experience joy, hope, laughter, love, and a thousand other reminders of blessings already received and yet to come. These gifts are ours, even as we are as dead as we will ever be. The damage we endure here will be the last we will ever experience. This is because the day we die, we Christians won t be dead: we will be more alive than we have ever been. Think of the Scriptures that declare that certainty: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far (Philippians 1.21-23) We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5.8) I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11.25-26) For Christians, death is not the end. Instead, it is the end of the beginning, and the doorway to life forever with Jesus. As C.S. Lewis writes in the Narnia Chronicles book The Last Battle : But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. Let s celebrate this incredible blessing that is ours in Jesus Christ. Let s live as those who truly have nothing to lose. Let s join Paul in declaring, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15.55-57)
Page 3 New Chapter for Great Hope The Great Hope Community Church, our Missionary Church in New Carlisle, opened a new chapter in ministry at the beginning of March. A months-long merger process resulted in the formerly independent Dwelling Place Church, located for many years on the outskirts of the New Carlisle area, uniting with Great Hope. The merged body of believers continues on as Great Hope at the 111 North Adams Street location. Curtis Taylor, pastor of the former Dwelling Place, is now credentialed with the Missionary Church and serves as Great Hope s pastor moving forward. Pray for this church family as they work together to lay the groundwork for many years of fruitful disciple multiplication in the New Carlisle area. Pastor Curtis & Ronda Taylor Urgent Intention Continued from page 1 midst of an evil time. As churches called to multiply disciples in an increasingly resistant and non-responsive culture, we must recognize that the Kingdom will not be advanced by accident, nor by repeating comfortable familiar strategies in hopes of better results. We must zealously seek God s mission and methods for engaging lost people and equipping believers in ways that bear the fruit of reproducing followers of Christ. As we share in this year s Conference, we ask your prayers for God to be present and powerful among us. Pray for the business to move smoothly, for the times of prayer and worship to be encouraging, and for relationships to be strengthened between all our churches as we gather together in Jesus name. May we all leave with fresh passion to be on mission with Jesus.
Page 4 From Our Regional Ministries Coordinator God IS with Us Most credit the idea of mountain top experiences as coming from the Bible. If you were to study a map of the Holy Land about all you d find are peaks and valleys. Several important biblical events took place on mountains; so much so that I thought it would be worth highlighting some of these mountains and the events that took place on them in future digest articles. Let s begin with Mt. Horeb. The present day location of Mt. Horeb is uncertain but the Bible records many events as having taken place there, the most important being Moses burning bush experience described in Exodus 3. The Bible tells us Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, like he had done for the past forty years. He led the flock over to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Here Moses saw the bush that would not burn. He thought to himself, I will go over and see this strange sight -why the bush does not burn up. As he approached the bush, God spoke, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. [Exodus 3:3-6] There are few who have had the privilege of seeing God s glory and then lived to tell about it. Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, the parents of Samson, and Elijah quickly come to mind. It certainly was a select club. While different situations, each individual experience could easily be described as awesome yet terrifying at the same time. It almost always included a specific call from God to action on the part of the person visited. In Moses case, it was his call to lead God s people out of captivity in Egypt into their promised land of Canaan. Several years later, Moses found himself again on Mt. Horeb, but circumstances this time were quite different. Now he had the entire Israelite community with him, grumbling at him because there wasn t enough water to sustain them all. In fact, Moses thought they were secretly planning a stoning party in his honor. He answered them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? I wonder if Moses had any idea of the significance of where he was now standing. It was here that God had called Moses out of a lifestyle of leading sheep and had called him to lead His children, Israel. He had come full circle, bringing over two million people with him. Now they are all standing on holy ground, but there is no water. Too bad there wasn t a burning bush this time for all the people to see. That might have stopped the grumbling. God did answer Moses though by saying, Walk ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink [Exodus 17:5-6]. Moses called the spot Massah [testing] and Meribah [quarreling] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord among us or not? What a question. Maybe you ve secretly wondered that very thing when in the middle of your own personal crisis. Is God with me and does he care? We know He has the power to bring water from a rock but does He care enough to lift a finger to help us with our problems? I think our mindset is often that God lives on the peaks and we go it alone in the valleys. It s easy to find God in our mountain top experiences but where does He go when times are difficult. We sometimes forget that we come before His presence every time we sing in worship, or bow our head in prayer, or when we turn the pages of our Bible. In fact, we live in His presence all the time. David wrote in Psalm 23 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me One of Jesus last statements on earth was, Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. [Matthew 28:20]. Paul said, For in Him we live and move and have our being. [Acts 17:28] Through the Holy Spirit, God impacts every facet of our lives. There is no where we can (Continued on page 5.)
Page 5 Mountain Top Experiences Continued from page 4 go that God is not there. In fact, God showed the Israelites that He is even present on Mt. Nebo, answering their need in a way no one expected, water from a rock. As we approach this Easter season we re reminded that God has answered us in a similar way. Like the rock struck in the wilderness, Jesus was struck for our sins, being crucified that we might live. Jesus said it best when he prophesied in John 7:37-39, If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit who would live within us. So, is the Lord among us or not? He s definitely with us, whether on a mountain peak or on the floor of a valley. Psalm 139 reminds us that whether we go up to the heavens or make our bed in the depths, He is there. The bigger question for us should be Are we with Him? That s the mistake the people of Israel made time and time again. They weren t on the same page with God because they tried to write their own chapter and forgot that God was the author. So if today you find yourself on top of the mountain, enjoy the scenery. But if you find yourself at the bottom of the valley, resist the urge to put God to the test, questioning whether God exists or cares for you. Instead ask the more important questions, Am I with God? Am I doing the things necessary to see God work in my life? Is my valley experience my own doing, the consequences of my own poor choices? If so, humbly ask Him to help you through the valley or possibly even lift you up out of it. Finally, watch God work in ways you could never imagine. Lord, lift me up and let me stand, By faith, on Heaven s tableland, A higher plane than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Higher Ground by Johnson Oatman Jr. & Charles Gabriel, 1898 April 18, 2015 Oasis: A Ladies Day Away Pleasant View Missionary Church April 24, 2015 Regional Conference Newson Missionary Church April 25, 2015 Camp Sharing Banquet - Dining Hall June 21-22, 2015 Kid s Alive! June 22-27, 2015 Kid s Kamp July 18-26, 2015 Camp Meeting July 19-25, 2015 Journey July 30-August 2, 2015 RENEW Kid s Quizzing Wraps Up with Year-end Tournament Kid s Quizzing wrapped up its season with a year-end tournament held at True Life Church in Troy, Saturday, March 14, 2015. This year, thirty-eight quizzers studied material from the first half of the gospel of Matthew. In our Division A, Pleasant Grove Missionary Church won the league crown finishing the season with a record of 15-1. They also went undefeated in the year-end tournament, beating a strong Crosspoint team from Lima. In Division B, Crosspoint won the league crown, ending their season 16-1. Pleasant Grove came in second place with a 11-6 record. In the year-end tournament, Crosspoint won in a nail-biter over True Life, taking the lead on the last question to win by ten points. It was the most exciting quiz of the day. Congratulations goes to our top quizzers for the year, Owen Ransom from Pleasant Grove (Division A) with an average of 83.8 points per quiz and Jillian Gerig from True Life Church (Division B) with an average of 105.4 per quiz. (Continued on page 6.)
Page 6 *Reservations are required to attend. Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2015 Sign up through your local church, call the regional office (937.339.0015), or email us at jeang@woh.rr.com. Kid s Quizzing Continued from page 3 Congratulations also goes to our Oneon-One tournament winners, Owen Ransom from Pleasant Grove (Division A) and Olivia Cox, Crosspoint, (Division B). Trophies were awarded to all quizzers averaging over 60 points per quiz and also to those who averaged over 30 points per quiz. The day ended with a pizza party for everyone. The 2015-2016 quiz season will begin in September with children studying the second half of the gospel of Matthew. If your church is interested in starting a kid s quiz program, please let the regional office know.