Welcome to EFC-ER's Weekly Encourager. We trust that this will become a bright spot each week in your emails. The purpose of the Weekly Encourager is to provide up-to-date information about region-wide events, prayer requests, and helpful resources from the local churches. We will close each email with a quick quote and/or survey to gather helpful resources from leaders to share with our wider Friends family.

New Things Coming in the New Year!

A Peek at 2015 from Wayne Evans

"It's time to put the movement back into our movement!" Many of you have received a letter from Wayne outlining his vision for 2015. We have received several expressions of support for his approach and news of people coming to the Lord. Wayne hopes this becomes a pattern to the glory of God. If you would like your own copy of his letter, you may download it here or in Spanish here.

News from the office:

* The apportionment for 2015 is $74. Yearly Meeting will be held at Malone University on July 18-21, 2015. We are looking forward to having Dick and Mel Tunney as our special musical guests.

* Please note that Mario Gigante's (our pension advisor) number is (330) 896-6250. This is different than what is listed in the yearbook.

Upcoming Events to keep in your prayers:

* January 23-25 - Youth Awakening at New Life Community

in Martinsville, VA. More information below.

* February 11 -
Grand Board Meeting

at Canton First Friends. Schedules have been sent to board members. Please continue to RSVP and contact Julia McDonald with any questions.

* March 21 - Taking Your Church to the Next Level: One-day seminar with Dr. Gary McIntosh from 8:30am-2:15pm at North Olmsted Friends Church. Details to the right.

Keeping Prayer a High Priority

We trust that every church is sharing these prayer requests within their local prayer community. Here are this week's requests:

1 - Pray for the WMF Sisters (and Brothers) in the Harvest group as they serve in Jamaican churches January 10-17.

Save the Date - Youth Events

January 23-25 - Youth Awakening

at New Life Community in Martinsville, VA. There's still room for more youth - if you want to travel south in January! Although the initial deadline has passed, Pastor Terry Knighten reports that they will always make room for more youth. Information, and a short video of the 2014 Youth Awakening, are available on the church website at this direct link:

http://www.nlccalive.org/30. Registration forms and more information may be found here: http://www.nlccalive.org/_modules/form.php?id=19.

March 20-22 - RE- Connect Youth Leader Training

hosted by Orange Friends Church. Reconnect is a weekend event for youth leaders hosted in Columbus, Ohio. The retreat is "designed to help youth leaders from around the EFC-ER connect with God, with other youth leaders, with their calling in ministry, and connect with training and resources that equip them to be effective in their ministry roles." The

registration brochure and more information may be downloaded from our website: http://www.efcer.org/boards/friends-youth. NOTE: There are new hotel arrangements this year. See brochure for details.

March 27-29 - Soul Blast 2015

at Battle Creek Church in Michigan. The cost for the weekend is $45 per person ($3 discount per person with groups of 20 or more). Registration forms are due by March 21, 2015 but earlier forms from youth groups will help ensure your place and allow us to plan appropriately for the weekend. Visit www.soulblast.org for more information and to download the registration form. If you have any questions, contact Director John Grafton at (269) 209-2992.

Weekly Encourager for January 14, 2015

News from the Office

Upcoming Youth Events

Church Leaders Seminar

Ickes Scholarship

Treasurers:

Please send in any remaining 2014 apportionment payments or GCB giving. We need them as soon as possible to close out 2014. Thank you!

End-of-the-year

Reports

Pastors, you should have received in your email the new Statistical Report Forms for 2014. If someone else from your church is responsible for submitting those forms, please pass them on.

You may download the end-of-year stats forms here and the CE stats forms here.

Please return the reports to Julia McDonald ([email protected])

by January 30th.

A letter and your church directory page for the yearbook

will be sent to you in the post mail, and will need to be hand-corrected and returned to Regina at the World Outreach Center.

Church Leaders,

Looking to unleash your church's ministry potential in 2015?

The brochure can be downloaded here.

Ickes Discipleship Scholarship

The intention of the Ickes Discipleship & Evangelism Scholarship is to provide EFC-ER Churches with financial resources to do evangelism and discipleship training and to purchase training materials. This scholarship is to be used to assist churches to become better trained to carry out the Great Commission. You may fill out an application on the EFC-ER website here or send the completed forms to the World Outreach Center.

World Outreach Center

5350 Broadmoor Cir., NW

Canton, OH 44709

1-800-334-8863

Julia McDonald, Editor

[email protected]

A Little Extra.... QUOTE FOR THE WEEK:

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time." - Oswald Chambers

We hope you've enjoyed catching up with news from the EFC-ER office.

More information and news will be coming each week.

Please send Julia any of your suggestions and/or ideas for weekly encouragement.