News and information from around the Ohio Conference
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Timely Sabbath School Theme for Swanton Church Pastor
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During their virtual meeting earlier this week, Ohio Conference pastors shared how God was working in their respective areas. This story was shared by Pastor Patrick Mazani about the Swanton church, one of his four churches.
"During this pandemic I visited an old lady who used to come to church many years ago. She is deaf, frail and can hardly walk. I just wanted to drop a Sabbath School quarterly in her mailbox. The church usually mails the quarterly, but I decided this time to take it there in person." he said.
"I found her visiting grandson mowing the lawn. He stopped mowing and we talked. The grandson had never been in church before. We talked and he showed quite some interest and I planned for Bible studies with him. He lives with his mom but comes to help grandma. I gave him two sets of Bible lessons, as I always have some lessons in my car. One was for him and the other for his mother, who has never been an Adventist."
Mazani continued, "After this visit I tried to get in touch with the young man but to no avail. When we opened church, to my surprise, the young man came with his mother, and two boys. They both decided to be baptized and they are preparing now for that. The mother brought a check for tithe $6,000. So the church treasurer at Swanton called me when she was doing her books and asked if the visitor lady knew what she was doing by returning such a big amount. I said to the treasurer, 'if the amount written in words matches the numbers then she should go ahead and deposit it.' She did as instructed, and it was okay. This lady and her son, along with the two boys have never stopped coming to church ever since. This is God's doing!"
Mazani commented further, "What touches our hearts is that this lady drives a very old, rusty, dented van and she lives in a small mobile home, but she is so joyful that she now comes to church! Her son has no car!"
Our pastors and departmental team have all been blessed by this story of God continuing to work, even amidst a pandemic. How appropriate that the theme for this quarterly is "Making Friends for God: the Joy of Sharing His Mission!"
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Three Give Lives to Christ at Tween Camp
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“Summer camp is one of the most effective ministries in reaching our children, youth, and young adults,” shared Pastor Edward Marton, youth director in a recent article in
Faithpoints
.
While running a COVID-19 compliant summer camp program this season, the seeds of Christ’s love continue to be sown. Thus far, eight young people have given their lives to Christ and been baptized during junior and tween camps, with dozens more opting to continue Bible studies with a pastor from their local church and/or making the decision to prepare for baptism in the future.
The three pictured above were baptized during Tween Camp last week. They are Avery Wisecup, Laila Wisecup, and Abby Moreno.
This is the final week of teen camp, where there are 23 campers. Please keep this important ministry in prayer, as more young people may be making decisions for baptism.
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Till Plains Seventh-day Adventist Fellowship
by Michael Stough II, Pastor Pastor, Till Plains Fellowship
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Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result.
The beginning of the year marked some changes in my ministry. Instead of pastoring the Springfield First congregation half time and leading out in Disciple Ohio the other half, I was asked to pastor the Delaware, New Carlisle, and Springfield First congregations. This is the first time these three churches have ever been districted together.
Prior to the end of 2019, several of us at the Conference office were looking at if there were some better ways to create districts. With the formation of this new district and familiar with district ministry, I knew this was an opportunity to put into practice some of the ideas learned if ministry was to be successful in an age when the largest culture shift, especially in how we communicate, is taking place as we speak.
As plans started to come together, a more unique identity was needed to meet these challenges, and then COVID-19 hit. Little did we realize, the structure being put into place would help meet the needs of the moment.
But, why the name Till Plains Seventh-day Adventist Fellowship?
Those who are familiar with Ohio geography, will instantly recognize that the Till Plains are one of the five geographical regions. In this case, all three congregations, Delaware, New Carlisle and Springfield First all share being located in this region. Another factor which played a part in this name, no other church, Adventist or otherwise was found to have this name, so it truly is unique. Here are some other reasons for the choice and existence of Till Plains.
1) No one church is better than the others.
- Typically, districts are known for the church with the most tithe, members, programs, etc. It was felt no one church of the three was better than others.
- It helps to eliminate the silo effect districts typically have of we deserve the more of the pastor’s times, conference’s resources, etc.
- We are able to show each congregation for their own uniqueness.
2) United fellowship as Seventh-day Adventists.
- By being a fellowship, members are encouraged to know everyone, especially through prayer requests and activities.
- With livestreaming the faces and names of others become a visualized reality.
- A realization we are a part of a worldwide movement, which starts at the local level.
3) Scalability.
- Should the need arise to adjust which congregations are a part of the fellowship the singular identity easily accommodates additions or deletions (they also don’t need to be right next door either and can be adjusted more by personalities than localities.)
- As congregations shrink and grow, pooled resources (personnel and financial) allow for better responses to needs.
- One person can serve the needs of multiple locations (i.e., we have a member who works for Amazon in developing networking solutions for major customers, this expertise is being used in all three locations to get our technical levels up professional standards.)
4) Livestreaming.
- Springfield First has livestreamed for the past 2+ years.
- The addition of Delaware and New Carlisle meant a need existed to be able to livestream from those locations as well, since I am on a three-week rotation between all three locations.
- A single online identity helps to better focus viewers into content being provided online.
Although this approach may not be for everyone, and there certainly is a lot of work in continuing forward, we felt the necessity to move this direction to stop the insanity and to get different results in working together to grow God’s kingdom instead.
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Opening for Administrative Assistant at Ohio Conference Headquarters
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The Ohio Conference announces an opening for the position of Administrative Assistant for their headquarters in Dayton.
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Did you know that the North American Division Children’s Ministry department has both English and Spanish children's Sabbath resources available on their website?
The entire program is available to print out. Help remind your children (and your congregation) that Jesus gives us the strength to be brave - even during troubling times!
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The Ohio Conference Women's Ministries department invites you to a three-part event: "You Are Enough."
This is a free event. Purchasing a copy of Tamyra's book "Enough: Discovering A God Who Is Enough When You're Not" is not required, but will help you as we discuss the sections each Sunday.

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Registration is now open for the Ohio Conference Men’s annual retreat at Camp Mohaven with special guest Nicholas Hill, scheduled for October 9-11, 2020.
New this year – online registration and payment!
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August 22 is the 2020
end
it
now
®
Emphasis Day—and it is just around the corner. This is a worldwide church initiative.
Resources are available in multiple languages on the GC Women’s Ministries
website
.
May God bless the
end
it
now
®
Emphasis Day as we together, with God’s help, make this world a better place to live—for the children, boys and girls, women, men, and the elderly who suffer abuse and violence.
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Ohio Conference pastors and departmental leaders came together earlier this week for a virtual meeting that was filled with encouragement, support and information. This is the first such gathering since Ohio Conference churches reopened their facilities.
Pastors shared stories of ingenuity in how they are remaining connected with members, while others shared about online evangelistic series and unique programming in their regions. Reports of baptisms across the state were prevalent. All were thankful for the faithfulness of our conference family and their dedication in helping to continue God's work in all ways - through their time, talents and financial generosity.
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Inspirational Quote of the Week
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Read the Current Issue of
Mission Ohio
in the Columbia Union Visitor
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Highlights of this issue include the Worthington Church growing younger as they fuel a warm community, and Kettering Church youth leadership uniting during a crisis.
Read these articles and more in the current issue of
Mission Ohio
in
Visitor
magazine.
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Heidi A. Shoemaker, Communication Director
Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
1251 E Dorothy Ln, Dayton, OH 45419
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