Randi Walle

Kurt Miller, director of church planting for Grace Brethren North American Missions, presented a stimulating and challenging report on the urgency of increasing church-planting on the part of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches.  

Stacey Mayne (left) and Davada Irons (right) of Thurmont, MD, clap along with the Hagerstown Grace Brethren Praise Band at In God’s Hand Coffeehouse in Thurmont. A story in today’s local paper marks the one-year anniversary of the coffee house. (Gazette photo) Here are several selected paragraphs from the story. To read the entire article

The Blog has carried several stories this past month about Chad Kackert, the standout running back from Grace Brethren High School in Simi Valley, CA. This week it was announced that Kackert has accepted an offer from University of New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell to play at UNH. Here is the announcement from the UNH

Twelve Grace College seniors have been selected for inclusion in the 2005 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, according to a release from the Winona Lake, IN, college. The 12 were selected as outstanding campus leaders based on their academic achievement, service to the community, leadership in extracurricular activities, and

TIME Magazine released its list of The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America as a special feature to its Feb. 7 issue. The feature, which is prominently displayed on the magazine’s front cover, focuses on “those whose influence is on the rise or who have carved out a singular role,” according to TIME. Topping the

A special highlight of this year’s Southwest Focus Retreat was the baptism this afternoon, by trine immersion, of Pastor Oscar Chavez of Northridge, CA. Chavez pastors the Iglesia Biblical De Fe, an independent Hispanic congregation, which he would like to bring into the FGBC as a Grace Brethren Church. In his comments prior to being

Fellowship Coordinator Tom Avey (left) and Bellflower, CA, pastor Tom Hocking (right) congratulate Oscar Chavez after his baptism by trine immersion Tuesday afternoon in the the pool at the Rancho Capistrano as part of the Southwest Focus Retreat. 

About 80 pastors, church staff members, and lay leaders have gathered the first three days of this week at Rancho Capistrano near San Juan Capistrano, CA, for the Southwest Focus Retreat. The retreat concludes Wednesday at noon. 

Robert MacMillan, pastor of the Tracy, CA, Grace Brethren Church, led off the early-afternoon session of the Southwest Focus Retreat today with a talk on “Others and My Heart…Friends and Family.” The retreat is focusing on various aspects of the leader’s heart and tomorrow will discuss “How to Run and Not Lose Heart.”

In a just-for-fun singing time, attenders of the Southwest Focus Retreat this morning sang “His Banner Over Me Is Love” complete with hand motions.