A Church Seedling is Planted in Marion, IN

I first learned of Dr. Tony Webb's Gatherer Shepherd Elder (GSE) process in the church planting orientation course that my wife Sarah and I took while we were in seminary at ATS. It was during that time that God began to nudge us in the direction of unpaid pastoral ministry. It took some time finding an occupation that would pay the bills so that we could start a church that would intentionally not pay me to be their pastor. Five years after seminary, I finally arrived in an amazing career as a hospital chaplain while continuing to serve in the Army National Guard part-time as a Chaplain. This opened the door to plant a church without the added pressure of needing it to financially support our family. Once we reached this point, Sarah and I attended the 2018 Brethren Church General Conference and had the opportunity to connect with Tony Webb in his GSE Church Planting workshop. He retaught us the process, and we were hooked.


He spent most of the workshop explaining the role of a gatherer. Most of us are familiar enough with the terms shepherd and elder as needed positions in the church, but we often neglect to focus on the importance of a strong gatherer. A gatherer is a “people magnet,” the type of person who is constantly making new friends everywhere they go. This is not necessarily a spiritual gift, but it certainly is a talent that God values highly, and one that is vital for a new church. It is their job to gather people into the community of the church. The shepherd in the GSE process is someone with a similar skill-set to a person that you would trust and support leading a small group in their home. The elder then would provide pastoral leadership. 


It just seemed so much simpler than I had ever imagined. With GSE, if you have a shepherd and a gatherer on board, you can start a church in two weeks. An elder can show up later on in the process. This is an incredible method for rapid church multiplication!

Of course, it is never quite as easy as it looks on paper, but the process for our family has been quite enjoyable. We moved to Marion, Indiana in July 2018 and immediately started gathering while at the same time looking for a “professional” gatherer. Sarah and I were relatively confident that we could cover the shepherd and elder roles if we could only find the gatherer.


In the meantime, Sarah reached deep down and came in contact with her inner-gatherer. We were in the third year of home-schooling our oldest, Josiah. At first, we were dismayed to find that the homeschooling community in the county lacked a lot of leadership and did not have a great way of communicating with each other. Sarah quickly turned this into an opportunity to meet other homeschooling families. She started a Grant County homeschool Facebook group that has quickly grown to over 70 families and has become the main way that homeschool families in our county communicate. She also started a bi-weekly Lego club (Just what it sounds like, a club to play with Legos) in the public library that soon had around 30 attendees.


Another important thing to note is that we made a decision when we moved to Marion that we were going to risk everything to make friends. So, with that in mind, we started inviting people over for dinner like crazy people. Sarah would meet women and their children at the park, at a homeschool function, or on Facebook. Then, she would text me while I was at work, telling me who she met and that they were coming over for dinner that night. We were way out of our comfort zone. It felt exhilarating!


We made as many new friends in the first six months of living in Marion than we had in our entire 12 years of marriage. Transforming acquaintances into friendships became second nature. One instance that sticks out as a sign that I had lost all sense was when I received an email from a man stating that he had gotten my information from a mutual friend, that he was a retired Army Chaplain and wanted to meet for coffee. I was about to accept his invitation when I saw that his email address had the word church-planting in it. I replied to his email with: “I think we have too much in common to just do coffee. Would you, your wife, and any children you may have be able to join us for dinner this week?” He and his wife were over at our house that week, and thus we started a valuable friendship with a house-church-planter who like me, was an Army Chaplain and lived a mile away from us on the same road. Sarah and I have decided there is way more reward than risk when it comes to recklessly inviting the people we come into contact with into our homes and lives. 


Now, on to the really good stuff! We eventually “let” a gatherer gather us into their circle of friends. We will call her Pilgrim. As we grew to be friends with Pilgrim and her husband, we found that she was an incredible gatherer. We just had to get the nerve up to invite them to do church with us. Sarah and I discussed how to approach the topic with them at length and prayed a lot too. The time had come, and Sarah was going to make the pitch during a sourdough bread tutorial that she was giving Pilgrim. In planning on how we would invite her, we had an epiphany. We knew that Pilgrim was interested in the style of homeschooling called “un-schooling.” The concept throws out traditional ways of teaching and focuses on using the child's interests to lead the education process. It is incredibly unstructured and would look nothing like what you would find in a public school classroom. I suggested that we should explain that we are doing un-church, a more relaxed approach to church that would not look like a traditional church. Well as you might guess, the pitch worked, and Pilgrim was hooked. Probably the coolest part about this is that both Pilgrim and her husband did not have a relationship with Christ and had been looking for a place where they could learn about God and the Bible. During our first week of church, Pilgrim described her current place in her spiritual journey by saying “I am just so lost. I want to understand the Bible, and I am so hungry for God.”


Several days after Pilgrim's family agreed to join us in planting a church, she successfully recruited her best friend's family to what we were now referring to as Unchurch. About three weeks after that, Unchurch met for the first time, Monday night at 6:30 in our living room. Four families including ours joined together that evening, each looking for a deeper relationship with God and others. It looks like we all came to the right place.



Each week, as we have gathered together in our living room, we have met with God in marvelous ways, and we continue to grow closer to each other. From the start, we have not asked others to “come to church,” instead we have asked them to “do life with us.” In a world so starved for deep, authentic relationships, this invitation is almost irresistible. 


Following the GSE process along with our aggressive approach to making new friends has made this the smoothest church planting experience we have had so far. For those who have toyed around with the idea of starting something new in your home, office, or at the local coffeehouse, your dream is more attainable than you might think. You could very easily be two to three weeks away from the birth of a new church.

Camp Bethany "Tent Campers" Gather

By Lynn Mercer • 01 May, 2024
On Saturday, April 20th, beautiful Camp Bethany hosted a reunion of campers who slept there in the tents in Camp Bethany's earliest years! Those in attendance camped way back in 1959, the very first year that Camp Bethany hosted overnight campers. Some of the tent campers were ‘there’ via Zoom! Many brought in photos and other memorabilia from their camping days to share. Everyone had an opportunity to share their name, what Brethren Church they attended when they were campers, and a memory. Of course, much more was shared, tears were shed, and God received all the glory! Reflecting on the day, here’s a text from one of those who attended: “I can’t stop thinking about Saturday and just what a wonderful time I had. It was so very special in every way. . . . When I saw the invitation, . . . I had no idea what a wonderful time was in store for all of us; so many warm memories.” Sherry (Barnhart) Van Duyne and Sherry (Shannon) Fabian led us in singing some of the old camp songs! We remembered the Camp Bethany cooks and enjoyed a delicious lunch made by Paula Strickland. The names of many of those who volunteered as Camp Staff were mentioned. Ken VanDuyne gave a very interesting and informative presentation about Camp Bethany's early history, showing us pictures of the Camp in its earliest days! Following that, the Camp Board provided information about the many ways to support Camp Bethany, including IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions, wills or bequests, retirement plans, investment accounts, life insurance, and more. Kenton VanDuyne, Camp Director, served as photographer for the day. We want to acknowledge that the Camp Bethany Board members & the North Central Region Leadership Team of The Brethren Church cooperated together to sponsor this event, and we extend a heartfelt thank you to both Camp Bethany and the North Central RLT. If you have questions, please get in touch with me, Lynn Mercer, who thoroughly enjoyed planning this Reunion (937-441-9771 or class_of73@yahoo.com ). We thank God for bringing each one of us to Camp Bethany when we were younger & we thank God for bringing us together for a great day of celebration! As a promotional article stated prior to the camp's dedication in 1959, “(This is) an ideal place to worship God. . . . We can rest assured that many will find Christ as Savior here.” True! True! True! Lynn Mercer Pastor, First Brethren Church of West Alexandria (OH) North Central Regional Leadership Team

Skilled Brethren Community-Builders

By Stephen Longenecker • 01 May, 2024
Brethren excel at community. Traditionally, Brethren emphasized a tight-knit community as an alternative to the corrupt world. During Threefold Communion, or Love Feast, the height of the Brethren church year, members demonstrated their commitment to the faith community, especially through feetwashing. The early Brethren were an intense, intimate community. The old Brethren, however, did little to enhance community in the larger society, which they considered soaked in sin and best avoided. They even steered clear of the temperance and abolition movements although they philosophically agreed with them. But later generations of Brethren became more active in the world. The branch of the German Baptists that evolved into The Brethren Church pushed the Dunker envelope on contributing to the global community, especially through temperance, mission, and, later, disaster relief. Enhancing the larger community became part of the faith journey. Thus, the old Brethren built community from within, and newer Brethren added an outward, activist perspective. Combining the two gives Brethren a special talent for community-building. Contemporary society needs the Brethren sense of community. The strains on our social fabric are painfully obvious. Pessimism, for example, has often become the default response, especially among young people. They are gloomy about their future, think that society is stacked against them, and consider success increasingly unattainable, often because outside forces suppress their aspirations. They feel alone, and whatever community they recognize, they consider hostile. From another perspective, we have become a society of angry, aggrieved minorities. Almost everybody, even many white people, regard themselves as a member of an oppressed subgroup. Some define Americanism so narrowly that they exclude numerous groups, while others come close to rejecting the concept completely. Surely, many minorities have legitimate concerns, but a countervailing commitment to American society has all but disappeared. On and on. Everybody has their favorite instances of an unraveling society. I hesitate to offer more examples, for surely almost every one will offend someone. The challenge, then, is to bring the Brethren sense of community to the larger society. True, we cannot change the world by ourselves, but normally that is a positive. When powerful individuals send seismic shocks through society, it’s usually bad -see Vladimir Putin. The call, then, is not for individual Brethren to single-handedly change the social trajectory but to keep their little corner of it clean and orderly. Do what we can in our own way. A friend has been organizing Sunday afternoon community programs at a public library for over ten years. She reasons that “if I can get my neighbors together once a month to talk and enjoy a program together, maybe it will help us see our community and neighbors as ‘people of value.’” Recently, a prominent liberal pundit (Mara Liasson) and a well-known conservative (Jonah Goldberg) appeared shoulder-to-shoulder at my home institution, Bridgewater College, to make the point that we can disagree with civility. But rather than supply quick suggestions, let me challenge Brethren to develop their own strategies. Pastors, give your congregants a list of concrete steps they can take to heal our society. Along with basic theology be specific. No bromides. We may not get Congress to work, but we can brighten the corner where we are. In sum, society needs us. Admittedly, the inward-looking old Brethren are a poor blueprint for ministering to the world, but their skilled community-building nevertheless inspires us. They treated all within the fellowship with love, respect, and equanimity. Later generations more aggressively applied this to the larger society. Hence, with a deep tradition—first inward, then outward—Brethren know community. May we share it with a world that needs us. Steve Longenecker is Professor of History, emeritus, at Bridgewater College (VA).

A New Library Developed in Pucusana, Peru

By Scott Soden • 01 May, 2024
Last Christmas, Your partners in Pucusana, Peru, began working on a new project that would not only update the building but also add more opportunities for children and their parents in the surrounding areas to work on their education and discover a love for reading and exploration. Thanks to an investment on your behalf, the library has been completely renovated and updated with new shelves, tables, desks, and more books. This Christmas gift for the community will impact not only families today but also families yet to be a part of this incredible ministry. Elena, Isaac, Alli, and Topher are thrilled to offer the library as a resource for children. While the kids are busy discovering all new worlds in the pages of so many new books, their parents are discovering better parenting strategies in specialized classes and learning to cook as Isaac takes groups of adults through the basics and beyond. These small things create real impact and transformation, bringing hope and love throughout the region. Your donations to the Brethren Church and Brethren Global Partners continue to have the real-world effects seen and felt for the kingdom each and every day! Thank you for making this happen! Please continue to pray for your partners in Pucusana and around the world! Scott Soden Global Partners Coordinator

Philippine Brethren Launch New Church in Caypombo

By Scott Soden • 24 Apr, 2024
Praise God for all the fantastic blessings he pours down on his people! Sunday, March 24 th, marks a significant day of praise and celebration as the Brethren Church in the Philippines officially launched a brand new church plant in the community of Caypombo! Pastors Rolly and Efren both set up new leadership in their previous churches so they could concentrate on this rapidly growing community. In fact, the church launched in Pastor Rolly’s own covered garage area. The opening day began with the inaugural message by The Brethren Church in the Philippines Executive Director, Gary Castro. It was punctuated by tons of praise, laughter, and joy as families gathered to participate in this new ministry! Our new church is not just a building but a community filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The people and the community are being transformed, and it's not hard to imagine that they will quickly outgrow their current location. Let us all pray that the spirit continues to use them to impact the lives of the community for Christ in miraculous ways!  By Scott Soden Global Partners Coordinator

Season of Lent and Easter Lead to Baptisms in India

By Scott Soden • 17 Apr, 2024
Easter is such a critical time for the church. Not only do we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus for our sins, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to share our faith with the world around us. In India, the season of Lent begins a 40-day period of significant prayer and fasting, during which many lift the needs of their neighbors, friends, and the world before the throne of grace. Each morning, groups of men and women come to churches throughout the region to pray and hear the word proclaimed. Lent is a serious time for your brothers and sisters, too. They pray for you and lift you in prayer as well. Each year during this season, many are convinced that Jesus is Lord and make a significant decision for themselves that will have profound implications here on earth and in eternity. This is especially important to note because once a Hindu chooses to profess faith in God and God alone through Jesus, his son, they take all other idols out of home and heart. This can lead to shunning, persecution, and even death, especially when their statement of faith is followed by entering into the waters of baptism. A decision to follow Jesus is never taken lightly. This year, we have the profound joy of announcing that at least 21 new brothers and sisters have joined the family! On Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, the services of your partners at the churches in Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam, India, served not only as a call to the world that Jesus Christ is King but also marked that fact with baptisms. Hallelujah! Praise God! Please keep your partners in India in prayer as they continue to serve the Lord with unwavering dedication and perseverance. They are witnessing lives being transformed daily through the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit. Despite the high levels of persecution in the country, their spirit remains unquenched, serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration for us all. By Scott Soden Global Partners Coordinator

Southeast Region Gathers at Maurertown Brethren

By Gail Heiston • 17 Apr, 2024
On Saturday, April 13th, Brethren from across the Southeast Region, representing Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky, gathered for the Southeast Region Annual Meeting. This year, the meeting was hosted by Maurertown Brethren Church of Maurertown, Virginia. Approximately seventy people were in attendance for a day of worship, teaching, fellowship, and service.  Our morning began with corporate worship and messages from Steven Cole, Executive Director of the Brethren Church; Gail Heiston, Southeast Regional Resource Coordinator, and Pat Gravatt, Chair of the Southeast Regional Leadership Team. Scott Soden and Miles Larson sent video updates on Brethren Global Partners and Brethren Church Vitality, respectively. Everence spoke of the partnership and opportunities for congregations, and Nate Riddle from Mt. Olive Brethren Church invited others to participate in a mission trip to Riverside, Kentucky, this coming June. After lunch, various breakout sessions were held. The sessions focused on regional networking and collaboration, church health, and church planting with the GSE (Gatherer-Shepherd-Elder) principles of Vision USA. This year, for the first time in many years, we invited our youth to attend. They were certainly busy, decorating cookies for our lunch, hosting a Jesus-themed egg hunt, and even undertaking a service project. The project was to package cake supplies and a card to be taken to local churches to be distributed to those in need in their local communities. Some of the youth spoke at the end of the day and did a wonderful job sharing about their morning. We appreciate those who attended for the morning; it was great seeing each and every one of you and those who came to share. And thank you to Maurertown Brethren Church for their warm welcome, generous hospitality, and delicious lunch. Gail Heiston Pastor, Bethlehem Brethren Church Southeast Regional Resource Coordinator

Bethlehem Brethren Celebrates Easter, New Members, and Baptisms

By Gail Heiston • 17 Apr, 2024
March and April were truly months of celebration for Bethlehem Brethren Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As our family grows at Bethlehem, we had the joy of celebrating Easter together, both longstanding members of our church as well as new families we've been blessed to have added recently. Resurrection Sunday was filled with flowers and singing from our Bethlehem Kids. God's message of His death, burial, and resurrection over 2000 years ago resonated with us, reminding us of His continued work in our midst today. We were blessed to celebrate two baptisms in March! Praise God! What a moment of joy to welcome these souls to God's family! Thanks to the portable baptismal provided by the region for our regional churches, we were able to baptize in the church. Ten people were received into membership the following Sunday, and two Sundays ago we received three more people into membership! Three young boys were dedicated to the Lord in March as well. The week before Easter, we held an egg hunt and breakfast. Most of those attending were from our surrounding community. We had a packed house for breakfast, and the egg hunt (which we had to move indoors due to the weather) was a success as those children collected over 640 eggs in about ten minutes! We are grateful to God for how He is moving in our midst and look forward to what He has in the future! Gail Heiston Pastor, Bethlehem Brethren Church Southeast Regional Resource Coordinator

Everyone Needs a Good Doctor - Even a Church!

By Dan Acker • 09 Apr, 2024
I have a friend who says that every person needs to have a good barber/hairdresser and a good mechanic. Let me expand that advice to also include a good doctor. I thought about this piece of advice after having recently attended the Natural Church Development (NCD) training in Orlando, Florida. Finding a doctor is not fun. After all, who enjoys having to endure the tedious repetition of going from one doctor’s office to another, trying to find a doctor that is right for you? Answer: No One! And when you do find a doctor, it is often not a rip-roaring good time to go! However, it is necessary for our health and longevity. We need someone in our lives to share with us what we are doing well and what we could improve. Even if we are healthy, an occasional check-up is still a good thing. I believe this is also good for a local church to do. The local church needs a way to assess what it is doing well and what it could improve. Like people, churches can struggle with being healthy. As one author observed, “People do not drift towards holiness, and churches do not drift towards good health.” While there are certainly many church assessments to choose from, I want to share with you some compelling reasons why I believe Natural Church Development is a valuable tool for your church's health assessment. It is used extensively. NCD has been around for over 20 years and has been used in over 70,000 churches on six continents in 84 countries. Put simply: That’s a lot of churches in a lot of places! That means NCD has a track record and extensive data by which to effectively measure church health with a great deal of accuracy and reliability. It measures church health, not church growth. It is easy to equate church growth with church health, and along with it, assumptions such as if your church is growing you must be healthy, and if you're not growing, then you must not be healthy. NCD does not focus on church growth measurements but health measurements. Think of it like health vitals for the church. Here are the vitals the NCD measures: ● Empowering leadership: How well does church leadership empower others to become all that God wants them to be? ● Gift-based ministry: How well are people matched with their gifts to ministries in which they can use their gifts? ● Passionate spirituality: How well are people's faith actually lived out with commitment, fire and enthusiasm? ● Effective structures: How effective is the way your church is structured at achieving your church’s purpose? ● Inspiring worship service: Is the worship service an inspiring experience for those who attend? ● Holistic small groups: How well are people involved in groups where the Bible is studied and applied to everyday situations? ● Need-oriented evangelism: How well does your church identify and help meet the needs of pre-Christians? ● Loving relationships: How well do people in your church practically love one another? It is more than an assessment. Yes, the NCD is known most notably as a tool to measure church health, but it also offers much more. In addition to the church health assessment, Natural Church Development digs deeper into many of the eight factors described above. The NCD offers such things as a spiritual gift assessment, leadership assessment and practical ideas and ways to incorporate each factor into your church. My church has used it. What good would a recommendation be if my church didn’t use the NCD. My church has used the NCD assessment several times, and each time we have found it helpful in assessing our church health, including areas where we need to improve and areas where we are doing well. Recently, we have decided to utilize NCD more fully in helping us achieve our purpose. As I shared at the beginning, we all need a good doctor, and so does the church. It’s not always fun to see a doctor but it is oh so necessary for our health. We often find a doctor on the recommendation of a friend or family member. So, as a fellow church leader and co-laborer, let me recommend Natural Church Development. No doctor is perfect and neither is the NCD. However, I believe the NCD is a great option to help measure the health of your church!

New Sign and Cross in Rajahmundry

By Scott Soden • 27 Mar, 2024
A Light in the Darkness! Your partners in India continue to work to let the world know that God loves them through services, special projects, relief and development programs, and lighting up the way. In March 2024, the Brethren Church in Rajahmundry celebrated the upgrading of the cross and sign that hangs over the main road right outside the compound. This sign symbolizes the words from John 14:27 that Prasanth spoke when he purchased the land previously seen as cursed: “My peace I give unto you.” For many years, a cross and sign have been hanging, greeting the traveler with this message of peace; now, the entire sign has been cleaned up, and the cross also lights up the night to guide the weary traveler to a place of hope, peace, and light. The cross and sign were hung and dedicated by the laymen's group and prayed over by Nirmala Kumar to mark a significant day and the hope the message brings. Although this makes them a bigger target for radical Hindu groups, the church and its leadership believe that they must continue to shine as a beacon of hope in word and deed for all who seek life, peace, and belonging. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5: 14-16, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Please keep your partners in India and worldwide in your prayers as they continue to be salt and light to their communities. Enjoy the video they created to mark this special day for the church in Rajahmundry. Scott Soden

If the Lord is My Shepherd

By Michael Cook • 06 Mar, 2024
While walking through the woods as a family recently, we fell into a dispute about the water we had brought along to drink. And by “we” I mean my oldest and youngest daughters. The center of this disputed water claim was the hydration backpack that my eldest was wearing. The problem wasn’t wearing the backpack; the issue was that our youngest wanted another drink every four steps or so. It was a classic power struggle between the youngest child and the oldest. Solutions were offered. “Maggie, stop being annoying,” was one. I wasn’t sure how helpful – or likely – this solution would be. “Ellie, just let me have a drink and stop complaining,” was another possible but unlikely way forward. Finally, I realized that this was a self-limiting problem. Maggie isn’t very big; how much water could she possibly drink? “Ellie, stop and let her drink all of it she wants. Then she won’t want any more for a while, and she’ll leave you alone.” Ellie was indignant. “She’ll drink it all!” she exclaimed. “She won’t drink it all. There’s plenty of water there for everyone.” “BUT SHE’LL DRINK IT ALL!” Ellie would not be convinced, even though she wasn’t wearing some kid-sized hydration backpack that only held a thimble of water. She was wearing my pack, which holds close to two liters of water. All three of my daughters could have drank until their bellies and bladders were full to the top, and there would still have been water left over. But the fear of not having enough runs deep, doesn’t it? Electric cars typically have a range of approximately 10x the average daily commute. But we stick with internal combustion power because we’re afraid electricity might not have the “juice” when we need it. People are filling storage units as quickly as they can be built. There’s a candy dish calling my name from the next room. I’ve already had a few pieces out of it. Certainly, I’ve had enough. Why do I still want more? What is it inside of us that remains unsatisfied? Why does it so often seem like there’s not enough? Before he was King David, he was simply David, the little brother. As the little brother, he got stuck watching sheep because his older brothers had better things to do. While watching sheep, he came to one of the most profound truths about God recorded in Scripture. Just as David was a shepherd over his sheep, God was the shepherd caring for David. The LORD is my shepherd. I lack nothing. What did David have while shepherding? Probably little more than a bit of food, a big stick, his sling, and a few rocks. And yet he lacked nothing. Why? Because the God of the Universe, the creator and sustainer of all things, was his shepherd. He wasn’t worried about the things he didn’t have. He knew what he did have: a Shepherd-God who had delivered him from a lion and a bear. The LORD is my shepherd. I lack nothing. The fear of not having enough is a tool of the enemy. It keeps us from making big plans and dreaming big dreams. Are we afraid to ask God for audacious blessing? Is it a fear that God won’t give us what we need? Or are we afraid that he actually will? Is God the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills, or is he not? Is Jesus the master of the fish and loaves, or is he not? In my own life, I’ve felt the Spirit’s conviction that I’m not dreaming big enough. And I suspect I might not be alone. If the Lord is your shepherd, you lack nothing. Go boldly in the assurance of his care, and seek out the dreams he has for you, your church, and your community.
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