Thank you to each one who gathered with us in Des Moines for UPGRADE, our leadership conference!  There was a sweet spirit in our gathering and we experienced a new format to facilitate training and to accommodate the busy schedule of church leaders.  On our first night, we initiated the RICHEY’s!  John R. Richey was a founder of Open Bible Churches and the first elected General Chairman.  The Richey’s is a way to honor people who have achieved something vital to their ministry or mission.  While we value every leader, we believe it is fitting to honor some of our great leaders in Central Region.  The 2012 RICHEY recipients are:

Facility-new:  Experience Church, Des Moines, IA, Pastor Charles Cole

Facility-upgrade:  Iglesia Pentecostes la Biblia Abierta, Sioux City, IA  Pastor Ricardo Ponce

Technology upgrade - church:  Waverly Open Bible Church, Pastor Marvin Talamantez

Technology upgrade - personal:  Pastor Will Hunsaker                                                                   

Best supporting spouse:  Jessica Sanford                                                               

International Missions:  Lifesong Church of the Open Bible, Des Moines, IA.  Pastor Mike Rasavanh

Turn-around Church:  New Beginnings, Brooklyn, IA.  Pastor Justin Wetering

Church Plants:  Myanmar Christian Fellowship, Des Moines, IA.  Pastor Khong Khong

                            Journey Church, Johnston, IA.  Pastor Darrick Young

We also introduced COACHING, our new leadership development initiative.  Terry Walling gave us an overview of what coaching is and helped us to experience it from both a coach’s and client’s perspective.  We have four certified coaches in the region-

Bruce Pfadenhauer, Robin Pfadenhauer, Dan Sanford, and Darrick Young

You will be hearing more details regarding coaching in the future!  We gave ENRICHMENT’s Spring 2012 journal which features Coaching to conference participants and I will send a copy to each credentialed minister who contacts our office. 

President Randall Bach introduced MVP (Mission Venture Plan) which will replace World Evangelism this fall.  You will be hearing more in the months to come.  Randall also challenged us to believe God for great things as we pursue our future with the same faith and confidence that Elijah had about the coming rain.

Camp information has been mailed to our churches.  Please note a couple of key changes.  First, we are combining our middle school and high school camps.  This was due to unexpected negotiations with the camp last year.  They need more bodies on the campground in order to keep our costs more reasonable.  They offered us several options, but the best option was to combine both youth camps into one.  Most of our churches have a combined middle school and high school youth group.  This will also allow youth leaders to lead one big week of camp instead of committing staff to two weeks during the summer.  Secondly, our Junior Camp is changing locations!  Matt Moeckl has been leading camps at Wildwood in St. Charles, IA, and we believe their set-up will be more conducive to this particular age group.

We remain committed in providing a quality camp at a reasonable cost for families and churches (last week I learned that one of Pacific region’s camps carries a price tag of $315 per camper.)  Our region continues to subsidize the cost of our camps in order to help us reach that goal. 

Pentecost Sunday Initiative

One Day and One Message through an International Movement

Empowered21--a broad coalition of churches, ministries and organizations working together to help shape the future of the Spirit empowered movement around the world--has announced plans for a Pentecost Sunday Initiative this year (http://www.pentecostsunday.tv/). It is a global initiative scheduled for Pentecost weekend and Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012, in which pulpits all over the world will proclaim the transforming, renewing, empowering truth of the Holy Spirit.  No church is too small or too large to be a part of this unified proclamation of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. Churches are encouraged to register their participation at http://www.pentecostsunday.tv/ .

Billy Wilson, Executive Director for the International Center for Spiritual Renewal and Empowered21, said, “We have always celebrated Christmas and Easter in a big way in the Spirit-empowered church and we believe that it is appropriate to celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church at Pentecost in a big way as well. We anticipate that thousands of believers will experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit around the world on this exciting day. 2012 is just the beginning as we proclaim Pentecost afresh in the 21^st century.”

Robert Morris, Senior Pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas/Fort Worth and a member of the Empowered21 Global Council said: “What could happen if we unite in preaching and teaching what the Bible says about the power, the person and the presence of the Holy Spirit? When the early church received this power they turned their world upside down. I want to encourage pastors around the world to commit to preaching and teaching on the Holy Spirit this Pentecost Sunday that we may also experience the power needed to turn our world upside down for the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

A Final Thought…

My mother experienced persecution in her teen years for being Pentecostal.  In my teen years, people had heard some strange stories about our church (99% of which were not true), but people were not hostile.  Charisma recently reported that Pentecostals now represent the fastest-growing form of Christianity in the entire world. Pentecostals make up more than 25 percent of all Christians.  Let’s celebrate Pentecost and believe God for a fresh outpouring for this generation! 

Joined with you in Heart, Health, and Harvest,

Bruce A. Pfadenhauer