God is Doing Some
Good Things in Our Midst

Dr. Ray A. Seilhamer
Bishop, 1993-2001

April 1996

Every year at this time, I write my annual report to the General Board, which is our highest governing body (except for General Conference, which meets once every four years). I noted a number of good things which are happening across the denomination. You need to know about these things, too, so I decided to touch on some of them here.

Hong Kong

In January 1996, I visited Hong Kong, China, Macau, and Thailand. This was an educational and inspirational trip for me. I probably won’t make this journey again for five years, but my knowledge about those fields has expanded a hundred fold.

Our Chinese pastors are an inspiration. Peter Lee, the superintendent, provides quiet but persistent leadership for Hong Kong Conference. They started a new church in February, and I am impressed with the scope of their social work through the youth centers they operate. Hong Kong Conference is committed to planting churches in other countries. Their vision has already led to mission work in Macau and Thailand. Now, they are considering possibilities in Burma and Vietnam. I was privileged to visit the mission church in the mountains of Thailand and dedicate their new church building (you can read about it in this month’s Impact). This work is running over 100 people among the Akha villages.

Macau

I was highly impressed with our mission work in Macau. Our mission team there is young, but they are a blue chip group—highly committed and very hard-working. I was pleased to see the great unity among the staff. The fall enrollment in the English Language Program reached 250-plus students, and the spring semester has over 200 students.

New Ministers

In 1993, we began praying that during the next five years, 50 persons would respond to God’s call to the ministry. I’m delighted that God has called 49 men into the ministry during the past three years. So, we elevated our goal to 75 new ministers by 1998. I have also been receiving a growing number of resumes from ministers outside the denomination. Some are not good candidates; we don’t need dysfunctional ministers. However, several are excellent people with a servant’s heart, and I’m glad they want to serve God through the United Brethren church.

As a general rule, 10% of our churches receive new pastors each year. During the past year, we had about 20 pastoral changes, which is about 8% of our churches. Right now, we only have five open parishes in North America. As ministers retire (as nine did this year) and more churches move to multiple staffs, we will need the ministers God is calling to lead our church. We also need ministers with a vision for starting new churches.

One other note: six churches closed their doors during the past year. Many others are in the critical care unit and need radical therapy by the Great Physician in order to avoid death.

Huntington College

I have never been more encouraged regarding our denominational school—the growing enrollment, the fine faculty, the quality evident in all aspects of the college, the spirit of Christian service being taught to young people. This year, the college begins a year-long celebration of its 100th year. As a church, we need to support our college at a new level and also use the resources of our college to enhance what we do in our churches.

Church Planting

As a denomination, we have a vision for planting 100 new congregations by the year 2005. This vision is ahead of schedule. Since 1993, we have started or received into our ranks 49 new churches, both in North America and overseas. Four were cross-cultural congregations in the United States (Jamaican and Sierra Leonean) which joined the denomination in 1995.

This fall, 40-50 ministers will be invited to Huntington to participate in a Parent Church Seminar. We want to enlarge the vision of individual churches to start new congregations—to be the parent to daughter congregations.

We are being conscientious in selecting church planters. Not everybody has the gifts needed to start a new church. We have in place a church planter assessment process. A church planter may not be used for several years, but we want to create a "farm system" for church planting so we can tap qualified people when opportunities arise.