North Central Region

North Central Region Announces Brethren Pastor/Elder/Leader and Spouse Dinner

If you are a Brethren elder, pastor, minister, commissioned or licensed person, or a member of our NCR Leadership Team, you & your spouse are invited to enjoy a Buffet Dinner with us on Sunday, February 16, in the Banquet Room of the Black Dog Tavern at Deer Ridge Golf Club, 900 Comfort Plaza Drive, Bellville, OH 44813. If you have children, they're welcome to join us as well! We'll gather at 4:30 pm and plan to eat around 5:30.

The NCRLT is subsidizing dinner, so the cost is $15/person. Children under 4 eat free, and the NCRLT will pay for dinner for older children. Children may eat from the buffet or from a kid's menu. The NCRLT will also cover the tip! The Buffet includes St. Louis pork ribs in BBQ sauce, baked chicken breasts topped with a white cream sauce, salmon topped with a white butter sauce, a fresh fruit salad, broccoli salad, roasted red skin potatoes, sweet potato souffle, and roasted asparagus blend. You may also choose rolls, coffee, lemonade, iced tea, & water.

Following the buffet, everyone is welcome to enjoy a fellowship in the lobby of the Quality Inn & Suites.

You may also choose to stay overnight at the Quality Inn & Suites, 1000 Comfort Plaza Drive, Bellville, Ohio 44813. Please call them at 419-886-7000 by Wednesday, January 15 to reserve your room. The room cost is $86.00 plus tax. Please let them know that you are with the “First Brethren Pastors” group in order to obtain this special price. If you should need to cancel your room, please call the hotel before 3:00 pm on February 15 to avoid a cancellation penalty. Check-in at Quality Inn & Suites begins at 3:00 pm on February 16. Check-out on February 17 is at 11:00 am. Monday morning just after 11:00 am, you are invited to join a group of us who will be going to Der Dutchman Restaurant, just down the road, to enjoy lunch before heading home.

To register and pay for dinner, click the button below. If you have any questions, please reach out to Lynn Mercer!

Reserve Your Place at the Brethren Leader and Spouses Dinner!

Grants Available for North Central Brethren Churches

Grants are now available to support North Central Region Brethren Churches to support your mission and work. Please click the button below to read or download the guidelines for grants to support church renewal and leadership as well as congregational assistance grants.

The church renewal grant and the leadership development grant have specific time periods during which proposals need to be submitted. The congregational assistance grant has no such guidelines, as we want congregations to reach out whenever they are in need. Please read these guidelines and email northcentral@brethrenchurch.org if you have any questions or with any proposals you may have.

Read or Download NC Region Church Grant Guidelines

STORIES FROM THE REGION

Brethren Academy Comes to Ashland

By Lydia McCullough • November 20, 2024

Brethren Academy 2024 took place November 8-10, and Ashland, OH was graced with the presence of 16 high school-aged, up-and-coming leaders of The Brethren Church! The weekend was full of teaching, fellowship, and communion with the Lord and the Body of Christ. The future of The Brethren Church looks brighter with these students in it! This year marked the last of a 3-year rotation of Brethren Academy themes. The first year of the theme rotation, students learn about their identity in Christ and their identity as members of The Brethren Church. In the second year, they learn about their God-given calling and how they are able to live that out in a uniquely Brethren way wherever they find themselves in life. This year, as the third year of this rotation, students learned what it means to have a Kingdom Witness and why it's important to share it with others. Students learned from Executive Board member and pastor of Gretna Brethren Church, Rob Starnes, and even had the opportunity to practice sharing their Kingdom Witness with the group. Students were led by mentors who walked alongside them, through the weekend, and helped process what the Lord was teaching them. These mentors included Brianna Freel, Chyann Mackey, Shelby Morris, Lydia Smith, Amanda Carriere, and Sarah and David Miller. Patrick Sprague also led students in worship. This is the second year Patrick has led worship and set the tone for the weekend in this meaningful way. Sara Moore, Ryan Smith, and Lydia McCullough also planned and orchestrated the weekend. Thank you, mentors and leaders, for being an integral part of Brethren Academy! On Saturday, students had the opportunity to learn what a Kingdom Witness looks like in unique contexts. They visited the Ashland Public Library and heard from their Community Engagement Manager, Lindsay Brandon-Smith, about how she can share her Kingdom Witness through her day-to-day work as a public library employee. Then, students were joined by a panel of speakers with different backgrounds and understandings of what sharing their Kingdom Witness can look like. Students learned that even though their Kingdom Witness may be different from others, it is still powerful to share because it might be the exact message someone else needs to hear to learn about God. Thank you to our panelists: Cory Smith, Ron Waters, Tony Basham, Louis Mancha, Sadie Vanderzyden, and Amber LeMaster! To end our time, students joined Park Street Brethren Church for their Sunday morning service and heard a timely message from Pastor Nate Bebout about the promises of God’s New Covenant in times of tension. Then, students were joined by local Brethren, Steven Cole, Dale Stoffer, and Alex Hill, to name just a few, who heard highlights from the weekend and prayed over the students as they prepared to return home, equipped with the confidence to share their Kingdom Witness with their friends and family. It was a beautiful time in which The Brethren Church's current and future leaders could gather and support one another. Thank you to all who participated in this beautiful, impactful weekend! The Lord is certainly raising up the future leaders of The Brethren Church, and we are so excited to see what He does in the lives of these students in the months and years to come! Starting in 2025, Brethren Academy will be fully funded by The Brethren Church. At General Conference 2025, our offering will go toward funding Brethren Academy so we can continue the work of raising young leaders for many years to come. Please consider donating to this worthy cause! Lydia McCullough Executive Assistant The Brethren Church

North Central Brethren Gather at Gretna Brethren Church

By Ron Waters • November 6, 2024

Over 40 people from the North Central Region met Saturday, October 19, 2024, for their annual regional gathering. They represented nine of the region’s congregations. Gretna Brethren Church, Bellefontaine, Ohio, hosted the event. Jack Radcliffe, Radial Church lead staff and adjunct professor at Malone University, presented two training sessions: “Starting [Small] Kingdom Works” and “Mission and Discipleship in the Rhythms of Everyday Life.” He shared principles to help churches and individuals shift their focus toward their communities and answer the question, “What is our posture toward the world today?” In the first session he addressed leading congregations through a transformational process in their relationship with their communities. He used examples from his experience of helping a traditional church transition into a network of house churches. He emphasized, however, that the principles can be used in any model of church organization and size. In his second session, Radcliffe focused on how we, individually and in small missional groups, can implement engagement in mission that enhances our personal growth in discipleship. He also involved participants in table discussions on the principles he had shared and how they might implement them in their own lives and churches. Drew Meziere, Regional Resource Coordinator, served as the MC. Cory Smith (Smoky Row) and Amber LeMaster (Five Stones/Garber) led the group in worship. Reports on regional activities were shared by Sarah Wells (Park Street), Regional Leadership Team chair; Cory Smith (Smoky Row) and Ken Van Duyne (Park Street), Camp Bethany; and Lynn Mercer (West Alexandria), regional golf outing. The morning’s activities concluded with a catered box lunch and fellowship. Ron Waters Donor Care Team The Brethren Church

Matthew Boyd Reflects After Ministering in Slovakia

By Matthew Boyd • October 9, 2024

Being a missionary was never on my mind. I always thought, "Living overseas is for other people," or "Missionary work is for someone else. I want to stay in the U.S. and stick with what I am used to." I wanted to get through college with my Early Childhood and Elementary Education degree, begin my career, and establish myself wherever I got a teaching job. My plans changed during the spring and summer of my fourth year of college at Ohio University. During my five years at Ohio University, I was actively involved with an organization called Cru, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. Through Cru, I was allowed to live as a missionary in Bratislava, Slovakia, for a year. I went on a mission trip with Cru at OU to Bratislava, Slovakia, for a month in the summer of 2022, between my fourth and fifth years. On the summer mission, I had the opportunity to interact with and initiate conversations with university students studying in Bratislava. I shared the gospel with them and how my relationship with God has impacted me. During the trip, I felt the Lord soften my heart towards Slovaks and grow my heart for the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). While on the trip, two of the staff members with Cru at OU approached me about the idea of living in Bratislava for a year as an intern with Cru. At the time, I was very unsure and intimidated by the idea, but as I prayed and laid this decision before the Lord, I felt a strong pull toward being a missionary in Slovakia. So, in the fall of 2022, I applied to go to Bratislava for a year with Cru and was accepted. I left for Slovakia on August 18th, 2023, and stayed there until June 26th, 2024. Being in Slovakia for nearly a year was one of the most fruitful and difficult years of my life. It was, of course, challenging to be so far from home, but there were also many other difficulties during my year in Slovakia. My team and I faced challenges acquiring temporary residency, navigating cultural barriers, and communicating clearly. I also faced many personal challenges. I believe one reason the Lord called me to Slovakia this past year was to remove me from the crutches and distractions I had back home in the U.S. The way I describe this is through the image of treating a bullet wound. For a bullet wound to heal properly, first you need to remove the bullet, then clean the wound, and bandage it. In my case, the bullet represented the hurt, brokenness, or trauma I had experienced in the past. While I was in the U.S., I felt like I left the bullet in, put a bandage over the wound, and pretended everything was fine. All the crutches I had at home distracted me from the hurt I was dealing with. I didn't process things well and would force down the hurt I was experiencing, moving on without addressing it. While I was in Bratislava, God really slowed me down and brought my brokenness to the surface. He removed the "bandages" I had put over my wounds, and He brought forth proper healing. While the process of healing and addressing past hurts and trauma was difficult, it was also freeing. So, even though different things were difficult, I wouldn't change anything about this past year because of the healing and growth I experienced. As I mentioned, I also experienced a lot of fruit this past year. God is doing amazing things in Bratislava and Slovakia as a whole. There has been a Cru movement in Bratislava, Slovakia, for a little over 30 years now. But when COVID hit in 2020, the movement in Bratislava dwindled. So, Cru at Ohio University and Ohio State University partnered with Cru in Bratislava to help revive the movement there. When my team and I arrived and joined the team already established in Bratislava, there were zero students involved with the ministry. By the time we left in June, we had a solid group of about 20 students involved. I met one-on-one with three guys on a weekly basis. One of the guys I met volunteered with Cru in Slovakia at a camp they host each summer. He invited his brothers to the camp, and one of his brothers accepted Christ into his heart! One of the other students I was meeting with was not a believer when I initially met him, but before I left in June, he accepted Christ! We also established a weekly meeting where we would worship, watch an episode of a TV show called "The Chosen" on Jesus' life, and then discuss the episode afterward. We also established a weekly men's Bible study. We went from having zero students involved to having two weekly events and a strong core group of students excited to deepen their relationships with God. Praise the Lord! While leaving Slovakia was sad, I trust that the Lord will continue to move and work in the lives of Slovaks. I trust that the students I invested in this past year are in the Lord's hands and that He will lead and guide them. I pray that a community of faith would continue to develop there and that revival would take place. God is good all the time. I am now in Athens, Ohio, working with the Cru team at Ohio University. It is such a blessing to be back at my alma mater and with the staff team that had such an impact on me when I was in college at OU. I do not know what is next beyond this year, but I trust that the Lord will lead me to where He wants me, just as He has always done. Matthew Boyd Five Stones Community Church Ashland, Ohio