Ned Berube
Friends, Romans, countrymen and ARC folk!
Well, here it is – my annual pep talk about coming to the ARC conference. It’s true, for sure, that I get totally jazzed around this time of the year about this event, and consider it a personal high point and want to get as many of you there as possible.
For the past three years, because of finances we have used in-house speakers, and I think it has been a good move. Last April we were quite clear that the Lord gave us a path on which to proceed that has to do with the next decade, namely focusing on Making Disciples, and our focus in the fall and winter mini-conferences was on “The Habit of Worship” and how that is a central part of the making of a disciple. Read more »
Posted on 28 Mar 2012
Dear Friends,
I have a Valentine’s Day tale for all of you that will probably get me in trouble with some of you. But that’s never stopped me before, so here goes.
Tuesday was the day. Another Hallmark Conspiracy Day, as I like to name them. But romance is good, and I love my wife, so we went out to a movie and dinner. Sue especially likes to see some of the Academy Award nominated films before the big show, so I found that “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close “was playing at 4:30 and we headed out because it was playing in an area where there are a few pretty good restaurants. Perfect, right? Not so quick.
There was a large line at the theater and I thought, “Hmm…this film must be better than I anticipated”. Read more »
Posted on 17 Feb 2012
As I mentioned last month, I’ll be utilizing the next few months of vision letters to introduce and highlight some of the other leaders in the ARC.
I met Andy & Breena Holt at last year’s ARC Annual Conference inToledo. Andy came with a bit of fanfare from some of the Toledo leaders; he won the preaching award at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Boston, and so I was eager to meet this young buck and his wife. They were also in preparations for the planting of the newest ARC Church in Columbus, OH. It’s called Ember Church. I’ve attended Ember and was deeply impressed by the substantial quality of their worship. I didn’t get to hear Andy preach, because that particular Sunday he was in the nursery. That was also impressive to me. Read more »
Posted on 14 Jan 2012
I’d like to take a fresh path with these ARC monthly updates and introduce and highlight some of the other leaders in the ARC.
I recently read Mike Sares’ newsletter for December and he brought up the church calendar, Advent in particular.
I like his reference to Isaiah and festival keeping and it’s one of the things I like about the church calendar. It presses us to focus on the things that truly shape our worship—–like the Incarnation, and the Resurrection, and the outpouring of the Spirit as the new covenant community is launched on its mission. Read more »
Posted on 20 Dec 2011
Dear friends,
Rick Widener just informed me that I have spent 30 of the past 60 days in Ohio. And though I appreciate many things about the great state of Ohio, I am very glad to be home in Minnesota.
Much of my time in Ohiowas spent with Grace Fellowship Church in Mansfield, which is sorting through a tough season of leadership change. A year ago, GFC had 3 new elders and a new pastor/presiding elder. It would be both improper and impossible to go through all the details here, Read more »
Posted on 18 Nov 2011
Over the past few weeks, I have led the first 3 seminars related to the ARC 20/20 Vision that was conceived last April just before the annual conference. It sounds a bit ambitious, I know, but it has energized me and the call I’ve been given to help lead our churches into good pasture. Over a 10 years period, beginning this year and ending in 2020, we will focus on 5 major elements of what constitutes the making of a disciple. Read more »
Posted on 19 Oct 2011
Dear friends,
On the day of Pentecost, 10 days after the ascension of Jesus, God Almighty poured out the third Person of the Trinity on 120 praying believers. The new covenant realities were now in full motion. God was now indwelling those who had put their faith in Jesus. One of the immediate results of this divine impartation was the almost comical scene of 120 largely uneducated Jews preaching the gospel in languages they had never studied. Read more »
Posted on 21 Aug 2011
When we were together last April at the ARC conference, we believe we heard from the Spirit regarding the direction of the ARC for the next 10 years. We’re certainly open to adjustment as the years pass, but this will be the focus that will move us forward. We are going to engage 5 main areas that are central to healthy church mission and disciple-making. Read more »
Posted on 23 Jul 2011
During our last ARC conference in April, we met as the MMC (Missions and Ministry Council) and came to this sense of the direction of the Holy Spirit – to take a long view of the next ten years and intentionally focus on the deposit we believe that we have been given from the Lord. There are 5 central areas that we believe we must reiterate and recapture so that we can be faithful to pass on this deposit to the coming generation. Read more »
Posted on 15 Jun 2011
THE GREAT COMMISSION–Go and make disciples everywhere. And do it this way:
- baptize new believers in the Trinity
- remember that Jesus has full authority everywhere
- remember that Jesus will be with us on that mission of disciple making until always
- teach all the commandments and teachings of Jesus
- everywhere means everywhere, every nation and tribe and language
So how is the mission going in your neck of the woods? Any challenges? Read more »
Posted on 16 May 2011