This special evening meeting is being held to accomodate pastors who normally cannot make a noon meeting.

We will be having our regular information time, prayer and fellowship with some desserts and drinks.

We are also encouraging congregations to support Sing Praise on Sunday November 14, 3 pm @ St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. 

This is a time for Christians to sing and worship together.  A City-Wide Choir and special time of fellowship has been a great time of unity in years past and we look forward to our time again this year.

Amazing freedom in worship services, people accepting Christ as Savior, a real powerful presence of the Lord and the moving of the Holy Spirit! The energy was great and the excitement was electric. Things are so totally different from 23 years ago!

I continue to be overwhelmed with what is happening among our pastors by their intentional efforts to focus on seeking God’s face.

Daily prayer times are happening at Salt of the Earth each morning at 8 am.

Daily prayer times at Wabash Valley International House of Prayer each evening at 7 pm. Marvin reports that there are some really great times of worship and prayer. Enthusiasm for just being in the presence of God and sharing with brothers and sisters in Christ.

There were 411 people and 16 churches represented.

Great time of worship led by the Wabash Valley International House of Prayer worship team with director Marvin Adams. It was an amazing time of singing, praying and sharing in the Lord’s Table.

We begin twenty one days of humbly praying and seeking a deeper intimacy with Christ. We are going to spend time distancing ourselves from the world and getting ourselves closer to the Lord of this city.

I am excited for what can happen in the lives of individuals, families, churches and our community. Could it be that when we clean up the house of the Lord that our Lord will come and clean up our messy lives and community? Yes, it could be. Historically it has been the case many times in the past and we look forward to a new experience of that transforming power.

I am thrilled with what the Lord is doing through the Wabash Valley Ministerial Association and Terre Haute Ministries. The prayer support supplied by WVIHOP has been a power infusion of intercession in our city. We are praying the price! I am looking forward to the times of prayer with pastors each morning at Salt of the Earth Worship Center and 7-9 pm each evening at the prayer room. Much much more to come, but this was a really sweet beginning. The level of the Holy Spirit is rising in our city!

In conjunction with Fusion Ministries, we agreed to pursue this objective by using a prayer guide, focused prayer and fasting for 21 days.  We have 13 congregations that have come on board.  We will begin Jan. 25 and go through Feb. 14.

Our launch will be @ Mt. Pleasant UMC on Monday Jan. 25, at 6:30 pm.

This is a continued effort to pray together, worship together and work together as the body of Christ in Terre Haute.

Wabash Valley International House of Prayer will be open for individuals and groups to pray together.  WVIHOP is located on 7th St. just past Hulman Street.

This is a great opportunity to find the heart of God for Terre Haute and lay it over our hearts.  Let’s Pray the Price!

By Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star

Vince McFarland understood what the mayor envisioned.

Several years before, McFarland and a group of local clergy tried to organize an alliance of the more than 200 churches and places of religious worship in Terre Haute. That effort failed.

Now, they were being asked to try again. Then-mayor Kevin Burke invited an assortment of ministers to meet at the Vigo County Public Library. Burke thought by joining together, the churches could enhance their community outreach — a strength-in-numbers concept. Collectively, they could better respond to the needy, disasters and emergencies, in addition to their spiritual mission.

“He challenged the pastors in Terre Haute to basically rally and unify, and start working together, and not each on their own course,” McFarland recalled of that meeting a few years ago.

Burke also saw an opportunity to build camaraderie in the ministers’ ranks, rather than competition. “I felt like they needed to feel more confident, and like they’ve got more comrades in arms,” the former mayor remembered last week.

Walking out of the library after the meeting, McFarland — senior pastor at Maryland Community Church for the past 23 years — polled his colleagues. “I looked at those guys and said, ‘I know we tried to do that several years ago, and it didn’t work. But would you be willing to sit down and rehash this?”

They agreed. Today, Terre Haute Ministries is more than a year old, with more than 40 member churches from numerous denominations. Last Monday, Ike Randolph — director of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives — met with some participating ministers. Their association’s growth and activities impressed Randolph.

“I think they’ve figured out the whole dynamic of the faith-based community working together,” Randolph said.

That enlightenment came at a disastrous moment. Just as Terre Haute Ministries was organizing, the flood of June 2008 hit. The newly bound churches wound up assisting civic emergency-response agencies as rising waters destroyed homes and businesses, and left hundreds of people without a place to live, food and transportation.

A team of churches, with all of their helping hands and resources, clearly was needed.

“The heart of it was there” for years, said the Rev. Honnalora Hubbard, director of Terre Haute Ministries. “The pastors wanted it. But what really launched Terre Haute Ministries was the disaster recovery.”

Randolph sensed that, too. “From that flood, they’ve learned how to trust each other, to share resources with each other,” he said.

The flood is a painful memory for many in the Wabash Valley. Hubbard understands. She lost her home, too. But there’s a spark in Hubbard’s voice when she speaks about the community’s reaction to that destructive event.

“People say that disasters are an ‘act of God,’” she said, “but what I’ve learned is, the way we respond to disasters is an act of God.”

As a result, the coalition of churches now helps the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency train disaster-response volunteers. Among other efforts, about half of the member churches participate in Charity Tracker. Using an online software package, Terre Haute Ministries can refer the needy to churches offering resources matching their specific need. Lifeline — a 24-hour crisis hotline — refers callers to its 211 number to a church. The Charity Tracker helps the Ministries document those requests, and connect people with needs such as groceries, gas cards, home assistance and family counseling. (It also prevents abuse of the individual churches’ generosity, such as someone calling six different churches to ask for the same commodity.)

The Ministries churches have less unnecessary duplication of their efforts. “Each church wouldn’t have to have a food pantry and six other things that they do,” McFarland said. “They could just contribute one thing to the pot.” Rather than maintaining a food pantry, Maryland instead provides as many $25 gas cards and emergency bus tickets as it can afford each month.

The idea of churches assisting their community’s hungry, homeless and despondent is not revolutionary. Before the Depression of the 1930s spawned government relief programs, “the faith community was doing the work,” Randolph said.

“Churches have always been there to help,” McFarland said. “So this isn’t anything new. But it’s expanded.”

And timely. The recession and the unemployment problem lingering in its aftermath have increased the number of people seeking help from churches. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last month that 49 million Americans — more than 16 percent of the population — lacked reliable access to adequate food in 2008, an increase of 13 million people over 2007. Undoubtedly, with unemployment nearly doubled since ’07, that percentage is even higher this year.

An association of churches eases the pressure to respond, somewhat.

“Pastors and ministers sometimes feel isolated, because they have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of people turning to them,” Hubbard said. “It’s been a huge benefit.”

She’s been on the other side of those requests for help. Hubbard grew up humbly in West Terre Haute and said, “I know what it is like to live in the situations [needy people] live in.”

After graduating from West Vigo High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in sales and marketing from Indiana State University, and a master’s in theology from Trinity College and spent several years traveling the country in a sports ministry. Now 39, Hubbard is focused on helping Terre Haute Ministries grow.

The one-fifth of local churches involved already bolsters the association’s abilities, she said, “but if we had 200, oh my goodness. And that’s what we want to do.” Current Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett, as well as the governor’s office, have discussed local projects involving the Ministries, Hubbard said, adding, “They really want to make some investments in our community.”

Terre Haute Ministries’ assistance following the flood has raised awareness that the city does, indeed, have a faith-based community. In cities such as Indianapolis and Louisville, that presence is apparent, in McFarland’s view. As for Terre Haute, “I think the visibility was kind of poor” in the past, he said. “We haven’t solved it, but I think it’s beginning to turn around.”

Their ability to improve and influence lives inspires Hubbard.

“I know there’s hope, that just because that’s where you started, that’s not where you’re going to end up,” she said.

The summit was attended by 50 people representing about 20 congregations.  About 15 pastors attended.

There was great anticipation and excitement about learning together and working together to see God transform our city!

Steve used Ephesians 2 and 3 along with II Chronicles 7:14 to build a foundation for us.

Supernatural transformation takes place when the presence of God changes the spiritual climate of a city.  Transformation is building a resting place for the manifest presence of God by unity and working togethe. It is building your own character; life-style, that is conducive for His presence.

Transformation is the fruit of life-style; not a goal.  It is arrived at by pastors and Christians building relationships based on Kingdom issues and not their little kingdom issues.

Transformation begins when each local church sees itself as a part of the Church of Jesus Christ in the city.  The Church of Terre Haute.  It happens as pastors see themselves as co-pastors in the City Church.

When we asses the condition of our city it is pretty obvious we need the things of heaven to descend here on earth.  This happens as we humbly repent and pursue a holy relationship with God and each other.  The Church is directly responsible for the deplorable condition of the city.  We need to take responsibility for these sinful conditions and not just blame non-believers.

IF we build our house out of holy stones we will reap holiness and transformation in our city.  There are over 600 cities int he world that could be called transformed.  None in the U.S.  Several are making good progress.  They are engaged in what Fusion Ministries calls “A Divine Experiment.”  A time for congregations to seek holiness and direction from God together.

We anticipate doing that here in Terre Haute!  Pray as leaders pursue this course.

Come join other churches as we do some service work in the parks of Terre Haute.

They will meet on Tuesday February 17th at 7 pm at Maryland Community Church.

My encouragement is for all our WVMA churches to join soon and send a board representative to this important meeting.

You can get the paperwork from me (Vince McFarland) or Honnalora Hubbard the Director.

All we need is a commitment from your congregation to support financially and with human resources.

We have some exciting plans about our we can cooperate, communicate and coordinate community ministry among our churches to our community.

Make sure you join our Facebook Groups!  Wabash Valley Ministerial Association and Terre Haute Ministries.

You can contact Honnalora at 234-7100 or 243-0600

This is a huge answer to prayer and a lot of hard work by the Coalition Staff and Board.

Our congregations will be helping Terre Haute Ministries in volunteering in the construction phase of this project.

If your congregation hasn’t joined THM why not jump on board now!  We need you now more than ever!

Give Honnalora Hubbard a call at 234-7100 and sign-up now!

Marvin Adams from Wabash Valley International House of Prayer will be leading the worship and prayer.  He is a great worship leader and you will be blessed!

We will take an offering that will be shared with the WVIHOP and Terre Haute Ministries.  Come and bring a blessing for these wonderful ministries.