member of the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America, the Evangelical Homi-letics Society, and the Evangeli-cal Theological Society. He and his wife, Mary Jo, have four daughters.

Dr. Brown is preparing to teach from Matthew 16:13-20 as a three part series under the theme, The Resurgent Church.

Information and registra-tion forms are available on the

We are looking forward to great meetings this year in Will-mar with the people of Corner-stone Baptist Church, and host pastor, Bro. Dave Rogers. Our guest speaker this year will be Dr. Daniel Brown.

Dr. Brown has been Asso-ciate Professor of Pastoral The-ology at Central Seminary since 2004. He also serves as director of the DMin program. Before

coming to Central, Dr. Brown was senior pastor at Kendall Park Baptist Church, Kendall Park, NJ. He has also served at churches in Michigan and Texas and at camps in Texas and New Jersey. He received a BS from Faith Baptist Bible College, an MDiv and ThM from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, and a DMin from Westminster Theological Seminary. He is a

MBA Annual Meetings June 24-25 in Willmar

Pastors & Wives Fellowship Review Pastors and wives from

several MBA churches met at First Baptist Church, Baxter, for the Annual Minnesota Baptist Association Pastors & Wives Fellowship. The event took place on April 28 and 29. Host Pastors were Dave Grotzke, Senior Pastor and Wayne Erick-son, Assistant Pastor.

Guest speakers for the fellowship included Pastor Jim Pearce, of First Baptist Church, Park Rap-ids and Jim Geurink from the Baptist Children’s Home in Valparaiso, IN. Several from First Baptist spoke on various minis-tries of the church. They

A PUBLICATION OF THE MINNESOTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

June 1, 2008 Volume II, Issue 6

North Star Update

Calendar

June 4: Allen Ministries Concert at First Bap-tist, Baxter

June 23-24: MBA Annual Meeting at Willmar

July 22: PBBC Board Meetings

August 4-8: MBA Family Camp

Fellowship Foundations 2

GCBA Track Meet 2

MBA Family Camp Baptist Booster

2

Berean Brooklyn Park 40th Anniversary

2

New Pillsbury President 3

Pillsbury Commencement 3

Pillsbury Camps 3

Inside This Issue:

Concert at First Baptist, Baxter

4

Continued on page 4

I am privileged to have completed one year as the In-terim State Missionary of the MBA. It has given my wife and I the joy of visiting and preach-ing in many great churches in our Association. I am also an elected Trustee of the MBA, but my position as ISM allows me to attend the Board of Trus-tees meetings for Pillsbury Baptist Bible College. It is a privilege to sit in on the delib-erations and decisions of those

great servants of the Lord. On May 4 I was invited to

provide pulpit supply for Pastor Dan French at Rockford Baptist Church for a second of two consecutive Sundays. In addi-tion, I led the singing and my wife, Rhoda, accompanied on the piano.

On Monday evening and Tuesday, May 19 & 20, I at-tended the PBBC Board of Trustees meeting on the Col-lege campus.

That brings my report to May 25 as we visited the Ser-vices of Bible Baptist Church in their facilities on Highway 10, between Elk River and Anoka. The church, under the pastoral leadership Doug Roman, is able to rent very pleasant and ade-quate space, arranged in a won-derful way for all of their church's activities.

If I can serve your church in any way, please let me know.

Fellowship Foundations By: Rev. Robert Fuller, Sr., Interim State Missionary

versary Service with Pastor Jerry Stephens preaching; the Noon Anniversary Meal; and the 2 p.m. Mortgage Burning Service with Dr. Richard Paige preaching. We thank the Lord for His faithfulness in establish-ing this local church ministry

Berean Baptist of Brook-lyn Park will celebrate its 40th Anniversary on June 21-22. The events will include a 6 p.m. cookout at the church on Satur-day, June 21; a special 9:30 a.m. Sunday School hour on Sunday; the 10:30 a.m. Anni-

and we look forward to any former members who wish to join us for this special time of celebration! Please contact the church for more information at (763) 425-2244 or (763) 425-4053.

Berean Baptist Brooklyn Park 40th Anniversary

Granite City Christian School Track Meet

Baptist (Rosemount) was un-able to participate due to a scheduling conflict.

Prior to the track meet a wrestling clinic was conducted for kindergarten through 12th graders, with nearly 20 young men participating. Everyone had a great time throughout the day which closed with a fun banana relay.

The Granite City Baptist Academy Annual Invitational Track Meet was held May 9, after being postponed one week due to weather. Participants were from five schools: Calvary Baptist (Cambridge), Grace Baptist (Mankato), Immanuel Baptist (Menomonie WI), and Woodcrest Baptist (Fridley). With the change of date, First

Page 2 North Star Update

A twenty-five dollar ($25) donation toward MBA Family Camp will make you a Baptist Booster. What IS a Baptist Booster, anyway? It is someone who gives $25.00 to help with expenses of our Family Camp--which this year is August 4 - 8, at Woman Lake, Longville MN. This is not a new program, as most of

Baptist Booster for MBA Family Camp you know, but it has not been used for the Family Camp recently.

Family camp has great spiritual benefits. It is a week of building friendships across the state with folks from sister churches. In addition we want to strengthen our local churches and the testimony of the MBA. The stronger the

MBA is, the more churches we can start, as we labor to-gether for the glory of God.

You can help with these purposes: Be a Baptist Booster. Make your check out to the MBA and send it to Pastor Lenard Huebscher, 12525 75th Street North, Still-water MN 55082. Thanks! And, God bless you.

Dr. Robert Crane has served as President of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College with faithfulness to the Father for the past 12 years. During his tenure as President, he has led the school through many chal-lenges into new opportunities of ministry. Recently, he has been helping the Board of Pillsbury seek out his successor. On May 20, 2008, Dr. Crane resigned the Presidency and Dr. Greg Huffman assumed the Presi-dency of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College. A retrospective on Dr. Crane’s ministry will come

soon. The following is a brief biography of Dr. Huffman.

Dr. Greg Huffman was

born in Wisconsin and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. He comes from a very godly family who taught him at an early age to love God and serve him with all his heart. He was saved at the age of six, and dedicated his life to full-time Christian service a few years later.

He met his wife, Ruth, as a student at Tennessee Temple University in 1967. They mar-ried in the summer of 1968.

After graduation from Temple Theological Seminary, they moved to Florida to assume a position as an assistant pastor in a thriving ministry. But after two years, the Lord led them to relocate to Albany, GA, where they started a church. After twelve years of ministry there, they moved to Atlanta where Dr. Huffman served as senior pastor. During his five years there, Dr. Huffman began his work on a Masters Degree in Biblical Counseling, which he

Each athletic camp will feature a strong spiritual em-phasis as well as advanced skills training for both begin-ning and experienced players, led by Pillsbury’s coaching staff. Each camper will receive a camp T-shirt and there will be awards given for participation throughout the week.

Music Camp will offer students the choice of a piano, vocal, or instrumental track. Each track will include private lessons and master classes with

Pillsbury will offer five weeks of summer athletic and music camps starting on July 7, 2008. The schedule is as fol-lows:

Girls’ Basketball July 7-11 Boys’ Basketball July 14-18 Girls’ Volleyball July 21-25 Music Camp July 28 - August 1 Boys’ Soccer Camp August 7-9

Pillsbury’s music faculty or special guest instructors. En-richment classes will include topics including music theory, conducting, and more. Ensem-bles will include camp choir, handbell choir, and instrumen-tal ensembles.

Additional information and registration forms for each of these camps is available on-line at pillsbury.edu, or call the College toll-free at (800) 747-4557 to learn more.

Pillsbury Baptist Bible College Calls Dr. Greg Huffman To Be President

Summer Camps at Pillsbury College

Pillsbury Commencement Activities

Summa Cum Laude. Ranae Ross graduated Magna Cum Laude and Deena Grabau and Dan Mielke graduated Cum Laude.

Service awards were pre-sented to the following faculty and staff members:

Twenty Years Deb Boldt Sherry Segal Ten Years Glenn Brownewell Joan Brownewell Five Years Ginny DeNeui

Faith Gaskell Ken Marsh Ernie Miller Connie Seidler Stephen Seidler

Family members and friends of Pillsbury’s graduat-ing seniors gathered on May 3 to celebrate the accomplish-ments of the class of 2008 at the fifty-first annual commence-ment exercises of the college. Dr. Carl Herbster, Pastor of Tri-City Ministries and President of the Heart of America Theologi-cal Seminary, was the guest speaker. Elise (Allen) Williams was named Valedictorian of the class and Robert Johnson was named Salutatorian. Elise, Bob and Holly Moline graduated

Page 3 Volume II, Issue 6

Continued on page 4

sociation of Christian Schools during some of those years. For the past four years he has served as senior pastor of a thriving ministry in Virginia, leading the church in missions and Christian education, as well as camping and outreach minis-

received in 1984. The Lord then redirected

them to Macon, GA for the next fifteen years, serving as a senior pastor and the president of the Georgia Association of Chris-tian Schools. He also served on the board of the American As-

tries. Dr. and Mrs. Huffman

have three sons, all of whom are also serving in full-time Christian ministries.

More information is avail-able at www.pillsbury.edu.

New PBBC President, from page 3

A PUBLICATION OF THE MINNESOTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION PO Box 527

Willmar, MN 56201-0527

We’re on the web! http:www.mbaoc.org

MBA Contacts Minnesota Baptist Association

Dr. Julian Suarez, President

Faith Baptist Church

1365 Westminster St.

St. Paul, MN 55130

(651) 771-5567

pastors@frontiernet.net

Interim State Missionary

Rev. Robert Fuller, St.

1549 118th Lane NW

Coon Rapids, MN 55448

(763) 568-4078

rjfsr4@juno.com

MBA Office

Minnesota Baptist Association

PO Box 527

Willmar, MN 56201-0527

Send Contributions to:

Mr. Brian Veth, MBA Treasurer

c/o Coon Rapids Baptist Church

11164 Hanson Blvd.

Coon Rapids, MN 55433

Send Update Articles and Pictures to:

drjfjr@comcast.net

Or

North Star Update Editor

315 S. Payne St.

New Ulm, MN 56073

Pastors & Wives from page 1 were Cindy Grotzke, Second Harvest; Pastor Gary Peterson, Extended Care Ministries; and Dave Goedker, Soul-winning.

Special music for the event was provided by a string ensemble and various vocal groups.

Attendees also enjoyed a

wonderful banquet Monday evening as well as delicious lunches and coffee breaks throughout the two day event.

Allen Ministries Concert at First Baptist, Baxter The Todd Allen family

will present a concert at First Baptist Church in Baxter on Wednesday, June 4 at 6:30 p.m. Todd and Michelle Allen and their eight children travel across the United States and Canada

365 days a year and are a favor-ite family group of thousands across the continent. Everyone is welcome. There is no admis-sion fee. A free will offering will be received. Dave Grotzke is the senior pastor. The church

is located at 7398 Fairview Road, just west of the highway 210 & 371 junction, across from Home Depot. Telephone (218) 829-5767.

Presorted Std. U.S. Postage

PAID Permit No. 225

Osseo, MN