Southeast Region Gathers in Oak Hill West Virginia
On the evening of Friday, April 14th, Brethren from across the Southeast Region were welcomed to an open house meet and greet at Pistos Coffee Shop. Pistos Coffee is an outreach ministry of First Brethren Church of Oak Hill, West Virginia - and it's right across the street from their sanctuary. Everyone had a great time fellowshipping and seeing what God is doing through the coffee shop and the youth area that is being renovated upstairs. We enjoyed the evening so much!
Then on Saturday morning, sixty-one Southeast Region Brethren gathered at First Brethren Church of Oak Hill. Over half of our Southeast congregations were represented! We were treated to the biggest spread of breakfast (and later, lunch) that you can imagine provided by volunteers at Oak Hill. We were so blessed and full! Thank you to all who were involved in making the meals happen!
After a welcome message and prayer from pastor Mike Meadows, we were led in worship by the Oak Hill adult and children's choir. The morning meeting consisted of a welcome from our Regional Leadership Team Chair Pat Gravatt, our Regional Resource Coordinator Gail Heiston, and Global Partners Coordinator Scott Soden. Scott gave us an update on what is happening nationally and worldwide. He also filled us in on how the Southeast Region maintains strong ties with our Global Partners!
We have a lot to celebrate regionally! Those include:
- Crossway Church is preparing to move to a new location that has been renovated to support its needs.
- Centerpoint Church on Kent Island has been standing room only. When it became clear that the church gathering needed more chairs,
Cult Classic Brewing (which hosts Centerpoint Church) purchased them for the church to use.
- Drushal Memorial is preparing to hold its first service in the building since the severe flooding last year. The repairs are almost complete except for a little bit of work still going on in the basement.
- The GSE (Gatherer-Shepherd-Elder process of church planting and growth) Maryland Cohort has been going well, and there are talks of two possible church plants from this cohort.
- We will kick off a Virginia GSE cohort in the coming weeks.
- Everence plans to host a pastors and spouses retreat in the fall.
- In the past month, we have added six new leaders to the licensure/ordination track, with three more people to add soon!
- Pastor Don White of St. James Brethren Church is going before the NBO for the ordination exam in May.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what God is doing in the Southeast!
After lunch, we had a short plenary session, followed by a town hall session where we had a great conversation.
Thanks to all who attended, thanks to Oak Hill for their gracious hospitality, and we are most thankful to God for His presence and His love! We hope to see as many people as possible at our regional gathering during General Conference in July. When you register for Conference, make sure you check the Thursday supper option (it's free!) and let us spend more time together this summer in Grand Rapids!
Gail Heiston
Regional Resource Coordinator
Southeast Region







