The 2011 Men’s Fellow-

ship provided an enjoyable time

of enrichment and encourage-

ment for all who came. Thirteen

different MBA churches were

represented in the attendance for

the weekend event. Several men

reported how they appreciated

the sessions presented by Chuck

Hervas. Friday’s session, “Jesus

is My Attorney,” drew on his

perspective as a trial lawyer,

helping us understand how

Christ serves as an advocate

before the Father on our behalf.

Another session presented his

personal testimony of how God

used a pastor from Bemidji (Jim

Heinz) to bring Chuck to saving

faith. “(Chuck’s sessions) …

were heartfelt, theologically on

track, and spiritually encourag-

ing,” observed Pastor Tim Barr

of Adrian.

Many also remarked how

they benefitted from the pres-

ence of the missionaries in atten-

dance. Ron Caasi, serving in

Java, Indonesia, shared the tri-

umphs and challenges he experi-

ences as the pastor of a small

independent Baptist churches on

an island of over 135 million

people. Troy Manning, chief

language consultant with Bibles

International, shared the needs

of people around the world to

have the Scriptures in their own

2011 State Men’s Fellowship By: Greg Linscott

LRCS Starts a New School year

The new school year has

begun at Lake Region Christian

School. The school is a ministry

of First Baptist Church, Baxter,

and under the direct leadership

of Steve Ogren, Principal. As we

watched the eager children re-

port for class on September 6th,

it brought back so many memo-

ries of our first days in school!

Remember the anticipation,

wondering what things were

going to be like, the new shoes

and desks to get used to? The

teachers were ready and happy

to welcome the students in to

this new phase. Men from the

church were ready with tools to

adjust the desks to accommodate

the summer growth spurt.

This year the school is

looking forward to the challenge

of new hand bells. They are the

result of a major fund raising

project that ended in the spring.

This year there will also be a

Middle School band. We are

enjoying the expanded music

program and hope that the stu-

dents are able to use these skills

for ministry outside of school.

A PUBLICATION OF THE MINNESOTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

September 21, 2011 Volume V, Issue 5

North Star Update

Calendar

October 1: SW Association

Ladies Meeting, see

the poster inside the

Update

October 22: 11:30 a.m.,

Twin City Association

Ladies’ Fall Luncheon

at Normandale Baptist

January 23: 10:00 a.m.,

MBA Executive Com-

mittee

1:00 p.m., Full Board

January 27-28: Parent-Teen

Conference at First

Calvary Baptist

April 20-21: MBA Ladies

Retreat at Camp

Friendship

June 22-23: MBA Annual

Meeting in New Pra-

gue

Inside This Issue:

Fellowship Foundations 2

State Men’s 1st Person 2

Grace Owatonna

Remodel 2

Count It All Joy 3

Flash News 3

Lighthouse Family Camp 3

language. Roberto Coelho, min-

istering in Sao Paolo, Brazil,

took the time to reflect on the

impact that believers from Min-

nesota had on his spiritual devel-

opment. The singing, corporate

prayer, and fellowship filled out

a refreshing experience for all

who came.

Please mark your calendars

for next year. Dr. David Doran

of Inter-City Baptist Church and

Detroit Baptist Theological

Seminary, Allen Park, MI, has

been scheduled to speak on Sep-

tember 14-15, 2012. His minis-

try will be a blessing to you!

Continued page 4

I concluded my last Up-

date report by including re-

marks about a family trip to

Indiana. Upon our return trip

we took occasion to visit the

campus of Maranatha Baptist

Bible College. One of our

granddaughters who is a gradu-

ate of that school, Emily

Haynes, is employed by the

School all year. That was a

great side-light to our trip as

she took us on an extensive tour

of Watertown, and that general

area of Wisconsin. Another

granddaughter, Megan Haynes,

is in her 2nd year there.

During the summer our

activities in behalf of our con-

gregations in Minnesota Baptist

Association have been minimal.

What we were able to do, we

enjoyed completely!

August 21 – Rhoda and I

made a special visit to Adrian

First Baptist, very ably pastored

by Tim Barr (Elayna). The

enthusiasm of the folks at that

church is always infectious, and

they were receptive to my re-

ports on MBA happenings

along with the update on cur-

rent progress toward the sale of

the Pillsbury College campus. I

thank the pastor for allowing

me time to make those reports.

Pastor Tim and Elayna demon-

strated for us a new way (new

for us, anyway) to eat corn on

the cob. If you want to know,

you will have to ask them.

September 4 – At the invi-

tation of Pastor Bart Goetz

(Carol), I was privileged to act

as pulpit supply at Calvary

Baptist, Pengilly. Pastor was

away on family errands and I

was able to minister in Sunday

School and Morning Worship,

and report on current progress

of the MBA resulting from the

Annual Meeting held at St.

Francis. Also, I gave an update

as I knew it on the progress of

the current activities regarding

the sale of Pillsbury College

campus. As is always delight-

ful, the church served a buffet

luncheon.

Due to family and personal

circumstances I was not able to

attend The State Men’s Fellow-

ship this year.

If I can be of service or

help to you or your congrega-

tion, please let me know.

triple pane windows (59 of

them) will be installed. We will

also remodel the restrooms.

The exterior will receive a

makeover as well with the rock

board facing being replaced

with steel siding. The total

dollars being spent will be

around $125,000. Last summer

The Grace Baptist Church

of Owatonna is updating the

entire interior of their building

except for the auditorium. The

auditorium will be done at a

later date. Nearly every wall

and ceiling has been painted

and 23,000 square feet of new

carpet has been installed. New

the parking lot was resurfaced

for about the same amount of

money. It was exciting to see

the large work crew show up to

work for the three weeks it took

to get the building ready for

new carpet. Please pray as the

church continues its search for a

new pastor.

Fellowship Foundations By: Rev. Robert Fuller, Sr. ISM

Grace Owatonna Remodeling

State Men’s First Person Report By: Shad Vork

sharing his personal testimony.

There were a number of

other highlights that were per-

sonally uplifting. One was the

singing. We didn’t have a piano

player, so we sang a cappella. It

was a beautiful and joyful

sound that came from this

men’s choir!

A second highlight was the

rich fellowship. Not only did I

connect with the men from my

church as well as fellow pas-

tors, but I also saw two former

seminary classmates who are

I was privileged to attend

the Men’s Fellowship this year

with two young men from my

church. We all attended last

year. We were blessed by the

experience - the beautiful lake

setting and coziness of the cab-

ins - and we highly anticipated

returning this year. We were

not disappointed.

The speaker was Chuck

Hervas, a Christian lawyer from

Illinois. It was refreshing to

hear his insights about Jesus,

our Advocate. He spoke with

conviction in opening God’s

Word to us and humility in

Page 2 North Star Update

Continued page 4

fore the Scripture challenge.

There were so many op-

portunities we had while to-

gether. Nancy Palm provided a

Christian book table to update

our Christian resource centers

at home and church. Missionary

Doug Bachorik made instru-

mental music and congrega-

tional singing a real ministry as

he led us in the worship of our

Savior. We viewed the new

Unusual Films movie: Milltown

Pride.

Thursday and Friday

nights everyone found out

Lighthouse Baptist Church

is rejoicing over such a wonder-

ful family camp August 11-13.

We enjoyed the fellowship of

the saints, the challenging mes-

sages from area pastors and

itinerant missionaries, and the

fellowship of all ages. We set

up tents around the grounds on

Thursday afternoon and then

officially began with dinner.

We were surprised to have 65

people for dinner (only 28 pre-

registered). After feeding eve-

ryone we enjoyed a singspira-

tion praising God together be-

whether their family tent could

withstand rain and lightening.

Almost everyone stayed dry.

(Some folk retreated to the solid

foundation of home.) We all

enjoyed great weather for after-

noon and evening activities. We

opened the Bounce Castle and

10 foot blow-up water slide and

slip and slide while the sun was

up. Then in the evening we

played some Wiffle Ball and

capture the flag.

The congregation of Light-

Lighthouse Baptist Family Camp 2011

Page 3 Volume V, Issue 5

Flash! News

Fall Help at PBBC Campus The Update has heard that there are a lot of

tasks that local churches could help with on the

campus of Pillsbury College. If individuals or

groups from your church could help, contact

Stephen Seidler at 507.413.3334 or email him at

pbbc.seidler@gmail.com.

Meetings at St. James, Highland

Park Baptist October 2 - 6, 2011, Highland Park Baptist

will hold meetings with Ev. Brian Clay. The meet-

ings will begin Sunday, 9:30, 10:30, 6:00; nightly at

6:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. The church is

located at 1300 10th Ave. N, St. James, MN.

Phone: 507.375.4025 or 507.640.1531.

Pulpit Supply Churches in need of pulpit supply may contact

Rev. Tobe Bolles at 25011 Mail Route Road,

Brainerd, MN. 56401. His phone numbers are

320.692.5812 or 218.208.8186

Parent-Teen Conference First Calvary Baptist Church will be hosting

the 6th annual Parent-Teen Conference on January

27-28, 2012. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Les

Ollila, Chancellor of Northland International Uni-

versity. He will be speaking to teens and their par-

ents on the theme "Adding to Your Faith...”

The conference will include a meal, book

package, quartet music (provided by Maranatha

Baptist Bible College), and much more. Registra-

tion information can be obtained by contacting

Pastor Chris Juvinall at 651-451-6487, cjuvi-

nall@1stcalvary.com, or www.1stcalvary.com.

.

Continued on Page 4

now on the mission field. Addi-

tionally, there were men from

other churches who I had met at

previous meetings, and we had

opportunity to catch up on what

the Lord is doing in our lives.

A third highlight was the

Friday night prayer time. After

the message, pastors and mis-

sionaries shared prayer re-

quests, and then we dispersed to

our cabins to pray. Our cabin

consisted of men from St. Fran-

cis and Stillwater. I was desig-

house Baptist Church rejoiced

on Friday as Assistant Pastor

Jason Nicholson and his wife

Sherri were able to purchase a

home in the area. We moved up

the final service of camp so

everyone could help them clean

the home and get it ready to

move in.

Lighthouse Baptist Church

looks forward to Family Camp

2012. We invite you to come

join us.

nated to pray after everyone

else had finished. What a rich

season before the throne of

grace as man after man lifted

his voice to the Lord. There

seemed to be no hurry - just

genuine devotion and patient,

heartfelt petition, adoration, and

thanksgiving.

In my opinion, the Men’s

Fellowship was well worth the

time and cost considering the

tremendous spiritual refresh-

ment it provided.

Family Camp 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

Rev. Gerald Stephens, President

Community Baptist Church

PO Box 212

New Prague, MN 56071

(952) 758-3287

pastor@npcbc.org

Interim State Missionary

Rev. Robert Fuller, Sr.

1549 118th Lane NW

Coon Rapids, MN 55448

(763) 568-4078

rjfsr4@juno.com

MBA Office

contact@mbaoc.org

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

North Star Update Editor

315 S. Payne St.

New Ulm, MN 56073

(507) 354-3323

State Men’s First Person page 2

Lake Region Christian School, New Year page 1

positive leaders in the school.

There are great challenges for

our youth these days and we

take the ministry of a Christian

school as a serious and commit-

ted responsibility.

Please pray for our Chris-

tian Schools in Minnesota that

they will make a positive im-

pact on the students and bring

honor and glory to God.

We always begin the

school year with Leadership

Camp for the 11th and 12th

graders. This is a time to chal-

lenge them to step up to the

plate in their responsibility as