From the Desk of the Superintendent |
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Welcome to the Eastern Region Newsletter.
This month my greeting and welcome comments are via video. Click on the link below to watch.
Grace,
Greg
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The Superintendent's Discretionary Fund assists with various needs (medical, glasses, dental, etc.). This is a nonbudgeted fund that is replenished as needed and used to help when opportunities arise. Please consider making a donation in February or March to help with this need. We have received $100 in donations thus far. Thank you! |
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Charlie Thiemann has accepted the call to be the next pastor of Stroudwater Christian Church in Portland, ME. He and his wife Melissa will be moving from Tampa, FL to Maine mid-March. Please pray for them and the church during this transition. Below is a video interview Greg did with Charlie to get to know him more. Click the link to get to know Charlie. |
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Can you guess which church this is? The first person to email the office (secretary@aceasternregion.org) with the correct answer will receive a small prize. If this is your home church, we ask that you refrain from answering.
The January Church was the Vernon Advent Christian Church in Vernon, VT. Rebecca Breard from Biddeford, ME was the first to guess the correct answer.
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Monthly Devotional Thought |
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Driving down the road to my house the other day I was noticing the many ash trees that lined the road. At one time they were huge, stately trees, standing tall and strong. I imagined their leaves in full display during the summer months, providing shade from the heat of the day and protection from the strong sun. But today, they are all dead, barren of any evidence of life. No, it isn’t because it’s winter. These trees are like empty towers, their bark is a sickly brown color, many have broken limbs, and there has been no leaf growing on these trees for years. This death was slow, sinister and very devastating for all the ash trees in this area. At our house we have taken down several of these dead trees, there is a large vacant spot where they once stood. Driving up our driveway looks so different; it even feels empty. It makes you wonder, what killed these stately trees? Because inquiring minds want to know, I went home and read about how the Ash Borer has devastated the Ash trees of New England. I learned about a little, very invasive beetle, emerald in color, about 0.33 inches long. These little buggers (literally!) live for only a few weeks while they feed on the leaves of the trees. It’s amazing to consider that something so very small could kill a large, mature tree that has withstood severe storms, high winds, the heat of the summer and the changes of the seasons for decades - if not centuries. While feeding, the females lay eggs under the bark on the tree and then die shortly after. It is the larvae that feeds underneath the bark for one or two years, tunneling and slowly eating away at the tree until it can no longer sustain itself. As they grow in number, the process continues slowly, unseen from the outside but is lethal for the tree within 10 years.
My mind turned from my musing over the trees to how this very thing can happen to God’s people as well. We have an enemy of our soul who is out to destroy the Christ-follower. He may come at us with all guns blazing but most often he is content to plant a little bugger in our thoughts and let the process take place with little notice until one day we find ourselves empty inside. Our witness is dead, our influence is gone, any impact is lost and our words are empty. Our relationship with Jesus is superficial at best or non-existent. There is a big empty spot where once existed a vibrant, strong Christ-follower. I think of the many times the scriptures admonish us to be careful of what we allow into our lives, the kind of things that we tolerate thinking it is “no big deal.” Luke admonishes us to “make sure the light you think you have is not actually darkness.” (Luke 11:35, NLT) I believe it is time for the church to take inventory and pay attention to those “little bugs” that we have accepted into our lives. You may be thinking that you are “mature” enough or strong enough to withstand them – yet they can have significant repercussions over the course of time. Paul admonishes us: “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.” (I Corinthians 10:12). You know the really interesting thing about this ash borer? In the Asian environment, where it originates, there is very little damage done to a tree infested with the larvae. There are factors in the Asian environment that protects the tree from harm. The symbolism is so rich here! As we keep ourselves in the “right environment,” that which is intended to harm our soul cannot hurt us. I Cor. 10:13 says that temptation is common to us but with every temptation He will provide a way of escape for us! Praise God for his “protective factors” when we keep ourselves in the right place with Him! May today find you keeping yourselves in the Love of Jesus and growing in His grace. Blessings!
~Cindy Ludwick
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A HISTORY OF WILLIAM MILLER Part 3
Information gathered from ADVENT CHRISTIAN HISTORY (Ch. 2) by Albert C. Johnson
Selections and comments by Greg Twitchell
Elder Fleming wrote as follows: at some of our meetings since brother Miller left as many as 250, it has been estimated, have expressed a desire for religion, by coming forward for prayers; and probably between 100 and 200 have professed conversion at our meeting; and now the fire is being kindled through this whole city, and all the adjacent country. A number of rum sellers have turned their shops into meeting rooms, and those places that were once devoted to intemperance and revelry are now devoted to prayer and praise. Others have abandoned the traffic entirely and are converted to God. One or two gambling establishments I am informed are entirely broken up. Infidels, deists, universalists and the most abandoned profligates, have been converted, prayer meetings have been established in every part of the city by different denominations or by individuals and at almost every hour. In short it would be almost impossible to give an adequate excitement, but an almost universal solemnity in the minds of all the people.
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As I consider the days in which Miller lived, the Civil War era, a time of many challenges on the farm, in the nation, and within the churches as many had turned away from the faith, and there was a high percentage of people who embraced Deistic, and Universalist teaching. It certainly was not an easy time to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ, or to witness any growth. But God, those two amazing words that change everything, but God, sent a movement of his spirit through a farmer in Low Hampton, Vermont to initiate a revival that would touch the entire North East and win many to Christ and have such a powerful effect on the culture all around them.
I won't pretend to have any answers regarding how we should manipulate God into action in these perilous times, but I will underline the concept that it will take a powerful movement of Holy Spirit to bring about the transformation needed to change the downward spiral we find ourselves traversing. Please join with me in praying for God to move, and be faithful in living out our Christian faith boldly and proclaiming the good news of the great redeemer, Jesus Christ! Renew this message in our hearts and on the tip of our tongues that it would be something we speak of often.
Lord Jesus we have anticipated your coming for thousands of years! We continue to welcome you through the Second Advent and pray that you will use us in powerful ways until that day comes. MARANATHA! Come quickly Lord.
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Titus Chapter 1
KEY VERSE
"The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you." (Titus 1:5)
OBSERVATION
Paul gives Titus a warm greeting by calling him his "true son in the faith." This shows tremendous love for this young man from a spiritual leader who had no physical family of his own (v.4). He goes on to remind Titus of why he was left on Crete. What his function there was as part of the Apostolic Team. Perhaps this is Titus's first solo assignment. Perhaps he is still a young man dealing with older men who are strongly opinionated and want to do things their way. So Paul encourages him in his task and warns Titus about those who are rebellious cretans (liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons, who reject the truth).
Paul mentions the qualities of leaders in this passage briefly. He doesn't go into great detail here as he does in 1 Timothy 3. He also alludes to the House Order when he mentions the leader's relationship to each of the members of their household. Finally, he points out how corrupt some of the church members are. In the paragraph above, I mentioned them and how Paul called them Cretans. He goes on to say that they upset whole households (v.11). He tells Titus and therefore all of us that we should be guarding against this type of division/false teaching and be prepared to silence them (v. 11). I imagine that his would be a difficult assignment for a young man and that it wouldn't win him many friends, but laying a firm foundation in the truth of the gospel is not about winning friends, but about proclaiming truth and rejecting false teaching. By his example, just as he learned from Paul, he will be setting the standard for the Elders that he will be appointing in how to deal with false teaching within the church.
I selected verse 5 as my Key verse as it shows us the principle for New Testament leadership in the Church. Paul directs Titus as he has done himself in establishing leaders and appointing Elders based on their character qualities. We see in this verse that they are appointing Elders in every town. I believe that this was actually in every place where they had a church. Every home church was led by the spiritually mature elders who had proven themselves as Godly leaders in their own families and could therefore do a good job of leading church families. Also, notice that the word Elder is plural. Paul recognized that there should be more than one Elder leading the church. I believe that there are a few different reasons for this:
- Everyone has different skills and spiritual gifts
- If one Elder isn’t available, others can fill in to teach or meet needs
- This is the model that Jesus used when he sent out the disciples 2 at a time
- This is the model that Paul followed with Barnabas, Timothy and others
- Along with multiple leaders comes accountability
- As the Spirit speaks into the church, more leaders will be able to discern his voice
- Multiple voices to speak against false teaching
APPLICATION
We need to also have "sons in the faith" that we are investing in like Paul did for Titus and Timothy both in apostolic ministry and the local church. We should set up our churches with Elder Teams who fit the calling. Finally, we should defend the church against false teachers. We will be able to recognize them because they:
- Disrupt families
- Teach things they shouldn't
- Seek dishonest gain
- Are liars, evil, lazy, gluttonous
- Follow human commands
- Minds and conscious are corrupt, detestable
- Deny God by their actions, disobedient (Titus 1:10-16)
We must be prepared to rebuke these false teachers with Godly Elders leading the way. These false teachers are in the church and may have been there for a long time.
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Maranatha Conference 2021 Year of Bible Interpretation and Exposition continues on February 20th from 1-4 p.m. There is no cost for these sessions. Click the link below to register or read more about this event. |
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Click on Willie's picture to visit his website for upcoming events. |
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ONE HOPE A CALL TO MISSIONAL UNITY
Online Triennial Convention
April 21-23, 2021
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The Way of Christ and His Apostles
Many churches have gone through the First Principles series with their leadership put out by our Ministry Partner, BILD International. Below is a testimonial from Crossing Life Church in Windham, NH.
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Time to fill out Pastor and Church reports. |
Pastor Reports Received:
Heritage: 8%
Maine: 30%
Maranatha: 4.5%
New Life: 40%
New York: 100%
Nova Scotia: 50%
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Church reports received:
Heritage: 0%
Maine: 19%
Maranatha: 10%
New Life: 10%
New York: 100%
Nova Scotia: 0%
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Visit our website to make a donation online.
You can now donate through Venmo as well.
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Online Prayer Meeting Fridays from 12-1 p.m. |
Previous copies of the monthly newsletter, the 2020 Convention, and helpful articles on Covid-19 are now on our website.
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ERA Board of Directors
Rev. George Karl, President - sumkarl@yahoo.com
Rev. Frank Jewett, Vice President - frankrjewett@gmail.com
Rev. Allen Latimore, Clerk - aclatimore@netzero.net
Mr. Howie Munday, Treasurer - mundayhk77@gmail.com
Rev. Doug Tourgee, Heritage Conf. President - dougin401@aol.com
Mr. Kent Davis, Maine State Conf. Vice President - kdavis@pgagnon.com
Rev. Josh Rice, Maranatha Conf. President - jrice@emmanuelacc.net
Rev. Derek Irvine, New Life Conf. President - drick1221@gmail.com
Mr. Adam Facteau, New York Conf. President - afacteau@twcny.rr.com
Rev. Ken Perkins, Nova Scotia Conf. President - Ken.perkins@EastLink.ca
Mr. Charlie Merrill, ERA Representative to ACGC - cmerrill7967@gmail.com
Rev. Steve Lawson, ACGC Executive Director - slawson@acgc.us
The Eastern Regional Association Newsletter is published as a ministry of the Eastern Regional Association of the Advent Christian General Conference.
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Eastern Regional Association
32 Four Rod Road, Rochester, NH 03867
Phone: 603-332-1412 / Fax: 603-332-1648
www.aceasternregion.org
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