American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region
News, Opportunities, Reflections, & Connectionsfor Growing Healthy Churches
November 16 - 18
November 16 - 18
Our Executive Minister, Dwight Stinnett, often meets with clusters of pastors througout the GRR. Two recent occasions are pictured below. These are times of greeting, Q & A, and sharing in prayer.
Special Guest, Rev. Muriel Johnson.
Download Flyer | Registration Form | GRR ABY Web Site
Register now for the 2007 Blackhawk Christmas Camp. Registration is limited to the first 50 children.
Dave Comstock (center) receives a certificate of ordination from Marilyn Wilmert and Ted Awe during Lincoln FBC's ordination service for him on Sunday, October 14.
The Rev. Dave Comstock is associate pastor of Lincoln FBC. He is a recent graduate of the GRR's Regional Ordination Program. Following his completion of the course work, application process, and ordination paper, he was invited to meet with the Council on Ministerial Standing and Ordination. This Council recommended that his church call for an ordination examination council to convene with David. Following that meeting of September 30, the Ordination Council - made up of representa-tives from churches of Area III and chaired by The Rev. Cheri Grizzard (AP, Peoria FBC) - affirmed Lincoln FBC's call to ordain David. The church then scheduled the October 14 service. First Baptist honored Dave and his wife Alice with a reception following the service.
Others who participated in his ordination service included Conner Foster (soloist from FBC), ABM colleagues John Stewart (Pastor, FBC Arthur), Mac Shotwell (ABM Disaster Relief), his pastor Robert Henderson, and Richard Ricks (GRR Associate Minister, Area III). David is President-elect of the GRR ABM. His term starts on January 1, 2008 following outgoing President Cliff Hopwood.
Dave has sensed, and is further preparing for, God's calling into interim ministry.
There will be a second Baptist Blitz to build at least 5 more houses. This is being planned for April 2008. Our Executive Minister, Dwight Stinnett, is already making personal plans to work on this project. More information is coming soon.
Thinking about Offering Electronic Giving as an Option for Your Church? Reflect on this as you read this article from Christianity Today.
Support Ministry and Mission of the GRR by giving online.
Wally Holt addresses the question, "How do we get people excited about Jesus?"
Jim Wolfe (D.Min, Ph.D), Sr. Pastor of Pontiac FBC has recently had his book American Baptist Women in Pastoral Ministry: A Contemporary Survey, published by Cloverdale.
Rev. Valentine B. Royal-Thomas writes of this book, "Through a tapestry of personal experience, theology, history, and statistics reflecting hope and challenge, Pastor Wolfe compassionately captures and relates the sacred journey of American Baptist Women in Pastoral Ministry."
This book can be purchased by ordering through your local bookstore or online.
John Grisham presents 12 short videos on stewardship by Robert Crandall and Associates. These are well done and appropriate for showing in worship, discipleship venues, and other occassions.
What is it? View a moment of the actual seminar.
Find it online at http://www.abcgrr2.org/
pastoral%20relations%
20committee/start.htm
Or, request a self-starting CD by sending an e-mail request to Debbie (debbie@abc-grr.org) There is no charge for this CD for GRR churches and pastors.
View a listing of upcoming training opportunities sponsored by GRR churches, clusters, areas, or associations and open to GRR church leaders and/or clergy.
Did you know? If you needed to view again a story that is no longer available on this home page, that you can view past home pages? Use the Archive.
Click on the dropdown arrow on the right side of the "GRR Site Index" above to view and use an exhaustive list of links to all the nearly 900 pages of this site. Or, use the "site map" link on the bottom of this column for an exploration of this site by themes.
Reid Trulson, Executive Director of International Ministries, was the keynote preacher at the recently concluded annual meeting of the American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region.
His Saturday evening sermon on our Mission response to the evil of modern slavery will soon be available on DVD for purchase. Meanwhile, try these video "shorts" (in Flash format) as they become available.
World Mission Offering Materials Update
Gulf Coast Still In Need of Help:
April 2007 Baptist Blitz Build:
Volunteers and Their Fruit
Please note: Opening any of the above downloads may require several seconds. Two processes cause this delay. 
First, your computer must open the Adobe Reader. Second, the Adobe Reader opens the file. If you do not have the Adobe Reader installed on your computer, follow this link to the download page or click on the Adobe icon above . Thank you for your patience. (Needing to produce PDFs? Read about the options.)
ABC Great Rivers Region
(217) 726 - 7366
(217) 726 - 7566 FAX
grrabc@abc-grr.org
Physical Address:
3940 Pintail Drive
Springfield IL 62711Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 3786
Springfield IL 62708
Administrative Staff:
Roland Sundberg, Executive Administrator
roland@abc-grr.org
Candy Stivers, Data Management
candy@abc-grr.org
Sharon Downs, Camp Administrative Coordinator
sharon@abc-grr.org
Debbie Naugle, Registrar & Receptionist
debbie@abc-grr.org
Program Staff:
Dwight Stinnett
Executive Minister
John Grisham
Mission Support
Stewardship
Cheryl Henson
Area I
Ministerial Recruitment
Ministerial Cont. Ed.
Max Klinkenborg
Area II
Natural Church Dev.
Spiritual Development
Richard Ricks
Area III
Multimedia
Web Technologies
Randy McNeely
Area IV
Bivocational Ministry
Costa Rica Partnership
Muriel Johnson
Area V
Church Planting
