Helping Urban Hope Help Others

The Blue Crew in Action

The Grace Community Church work crew is making good progress on the Urban Hope Training Center bathroom renovations. By noon Friday, the bathrooms should be completed.

Art Bushen, CE National Maintenance and Grounds manager, is with the team. Art says that the Goshen team is "great to work with. They are very competent and skilled in their jobs." Art also commented on how good the Urban Hope Staff has been to work with. Read more and see pictures...

Help a Future OBer

Your gift to the OB Scholarship fund allows these deserving students to receive practical outreach and leadership training with “hands-on” evangelism and ministry experience as they travel on the East Coast and then participate in hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. OB Scholarships are distributed through an application process and awarded by a scholarship committee. Your contribution will impact not only the individual OB student, but also every person he comes in contact with over the summer.

Won’t you prayerfully consider making an investment in the lives of these young people by giving a tax-deductable donation to the OB Scholarship fund?

Go to the Partner With Us page of the CE National website to learn more and for ways to give.

CE National Board Enjoys Hope Community Church, Cary, NC

Left to right, Front Row: Jeff Bogue, Jim Brown, Cindy Thornley, Margie Brubaker, Lee Seese, John Kegarise, Back Row: Ed Lewis, Dave Knepper, Jason Haymaker, Dennis Russell, Steve Peters, Steve Regoli, not pictured Bob Peercy 

CE National Board meetings took place in Cary, North Carolina, at the church pastored by Mike Lee. What an exciting place to visit. The church began in 1994 as a GBNAM church plant and, just recently, has increased attendance to 4,400 people. The board was encouraged by some of the key values of the church. Our observation included the following:

1. Visionary, spiritual leadership was the key to the church's growth.
2. There is a strong emphasis on life-related, biblical preaching.
3. The worship music is uplifting.
4. The children's ministry is not just good--it is excellent. Children bring adults back to the church. Laura Lee, Mike's wife, directs the children's ministry.
5. The engine that drives the church is a heart for the lost. The board saw baptisms on Saturday of 50 new believers of all ages. Baptisms are held monthly in their worship service. The congregation is made up of 40% new believers--people who have come to Christ as a result of the church.
6. They keep listening to people outside the church, not just inside the church. That helps them to be culturally relevant.
7. The board was impressed with the solid biblical instruction. Even though the services were informal and relational, Mike Lee's messages led the congregation through a verse-by-verse study of entire passages of Scripture with life application.
8. Small groups are an important principle in the church. In fact, they begin small groups by age 2 and continue them for all ages.
9. The church values meeting the needs of people (pre-evangelism). Some of their ministries include:

Homeless Ministry: feeding homeless residents and providing laundry and shower facilities for the homeless.
Buddy Ministry: encouraging children to donate school supplies and new shoes and warm boots for other kids.
Bumper Crop Weekend: Families donate food and clothes, leaving them by the bumpers of their cars for volunteers to deliver that Sunday to a neighborhood.
Kids Night Out: to help tutor children and teens.

See pictures from the tour the CE Board took of Hope Community Church.

CE National Board Decisions

• The "CE" in CE National now stands for Church Effectivness, rather than Christian Education. The reason for this is that many people only think of Christian Education as representing Christian schools. The purpose of CE National relates to church ministries.
• We will begin using the designation byline "Here to Help" because our goal is not to get churches to support CE's programs, but for CE National to support the local churches.
• The 412 Commission leadership and site location for 2007/2008 will move to Indiana. At the end of this summer, the 412 site will move from Akron, Ohio, to Grace Community Church in Goshen, Indiana. The CE National office in Winona Lake will handle logistics.
• Re-elected CE National board officers are Steve Peters President, Dave Knepper Vice-President and Steve Regoli Secretary.

There were many other decisions that will be announced later.

Katrina Disaster Relief--
Tell Us When You Can Help During Momentum

Youth Leaders: Sign Up For Your Gulf Coast Option

Recent Picture of a Home in Gulfport

For many people Hurricane Katrina is old news, but the people in Southern Mississippi are still feeling the affects of this devastating storm that hit in 2005. That's why it's our goal that every student who comes to Momentum 2007 will have the opportunity to go to the Gulf Coast to help with the restoration efforts. This is the main reason we chose the University of Mississippi, about 60 miles north of Gulfport, for our conference location.

This year's schedule has been designed to allow teams the maximum amount of time for work projects. A work team would only miss one Power Track, scheduled after the morning Main Session, and the "free time" options during the afternoon.

Up to 500 students/youth workers will be mobilized each afternoon of Momentum, Sunday-Thursday. There will be 35-50 different work sites prepared for Work Teams in the Gulf Coast area. Each work site will have an on-site project manager to oversee a team of 10-15 individuals. This should include at least one adult from your group. If your youth group is larger that 15 students, you will need to form smaller sub-groups for the projects.

Youth leaders can now sign their groups up for work team projects happening at this summer’s Momentum conference in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Leaders can pick from four options in two towns, Gulfport and Pearlington, MS. In both towns, a daily work team will help with projects like painting, dry walling, post hole digging, and general clean up at local residences.

Also, through Convoy of Hope, both towns will host food distribution days where teams will unload, sort, bag, and hand out groceries to area families and pray with them.

For more information and/or to sign your group up, visit the Momentum website, www.buildmomentum.org, and click on the Gulf Coast Work Teams icon on the home page. Projects will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

Left in Philadelphia, Could You Find Urban Hope?

The TNI Cross-Cultural Class At Urban Hope

The National Institute, CE National’s youth ministry program at Grace College, held the module “Cross-Cultural Youth Ministry” from May 3-9, 2007, at the Urban Hope Training Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Not only did students learn about cross-cultural ministry, they experienced it first-hand. Read more and see pictures...

DRIVEN '07--Become a Catalyst for Christ

Driven exists to gather a generation to become
catalysts for Christ within church and culture
June 21-24, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio

The Driven conference is an exciting and challenging time for young adults from all over the country to be united under the person of Jesus Christ and launched into their life mission.  Whether you're single, married, or married with children, you won't want to miss it. Go to www.driven07.org to find out more.

Hmmm... The Longer You're a Christian...

The longer a person is a Christian, the fewer contacts he or she has with people who need to hear about Christ. Unless we purpose to do otherwise, we soon find that all our friends and people with whom we socialize are fellow believers.

Here are a few resource ideas for how you can build friendship with people who need to hear what you can share about Christ. Read more...