Over the past three weeks, the churches of our Region participated in record numbers in three Area meetings to discuss the strategic direction and restructuring of the Region. Participants affirmed the general direction of the leadership to bring about changes that would enable the Region to communicate better, build authentic relationships, provide assistance and support for our churches and spiritual leaders, facilitate opportunities for common mission and ministry, and develop a vibrant camping and youth program.

The attendees expressed their minds on two specific proposals. The first was to move from three Areas to six Ministry Clusters. This idea was supported unanimously with the understanding that we will make adjustments as we implement this process. The final proposal will come in the form of bylaw amendments to be adopted by the delegates at the Annual Session in October. The churches have the freedom to indicate their preference as to which cluster they would like to belong.

The proposal that received the most intense attention was the recommendation to sell Black Forest Camp and Conference Center. I am happy to report though people had many questions, suggestions, and conflicting ideas, the tone of the debates was, in the main, civil and respectful. The overall picture is that a large majority of attendees—70%—endorsed the proposal to sell the property immediately. Between 75% and 80% of participating churches voted to support the idea. More that 85% of the top 20 United Mission-giving churches who provide 70% of our budget supported the idea. We now wait for the Region Board to exercise its spiritual, legal, and leadership obligations this weekend in fulfilling that desire of the churches.

Notwithstanding this overwhelming mandate to sell, I have heard some concerns and ideas that I would like to incorporate into the proposal to the Region Board and in the implementation of the proposed management strategy. I believe that if we implement the following ideas, we would allay the anxiety of some.

• Allow for the possibility of the purchase of another camp
  
  A number of people have suggested that the section of the investment policy dealing with principal protection include the provision that the principal can be used to purchase another camp.
  
  
• Increase the Carl Bennet Youth and Camping Fund
  
  Participants wanted to ensure that adequate money be realized to support camping and youth ministry not just at the present level but to expect an increase in youth ministry in general and camping in particular. I am proposing that this endowment be increased to at least $2 million.
  
  
• Memorial for Black Forest at the site
  
  In two of the three Area meetings, we heard a moving tribute by Vickey Bennett giving a tribute to her dad and the family’s acceptance of the honor of having an endowment fund named after their husband, dad, and grandfather. In her presentation, she mentioned that his ashes were scattered at High Vespers. If the Board should vote to sell the property, we will pursue the idea of an appropriate memorial to honor the many people who have labored to make Black Forest a possibility.
  
  
• Future Church at BFCCC site
  
  We will pursue the retention of five to ten acres as a potential site for a new church. We are mindful that the Region tried to start a church in this geographical area in the past. This arrangement would give the Region the opportunity to try again, if so desired.
  
  
• Other alternatives for camping
  
  We encourage you to suggest alternate sites for future camping experience. We have received at least one additional possible location, and would appreciate hearing of other places that should be considered.
  
  
• Protect the name—Black Forest Camp and Conference Center
  
  We will register the trade name Black Forest Camp and Conference Center to become the exclusive property of ABCRM.

We have heard the nervousness and discomfort that people have when the possibility of such large amounts of money come into a system. There are fears that the money will not be spent as intended, or that the principal assets will be spent away in no time. Another fear is that constituents will not give because of the perception that the Region has enough money. We will not be able to do what needs to be done with just the money from the endowment. We have heard your concerns loud and clear.

I am more aware that, for this to work, we have to behave in a manner that will instill trust. For the time I am here, I will assure you that if we should sell that we will:

• sell the property for the maximum value.
• invest the principal according to the investment policy adopted by the Board.
• use the interest to provide the absolutely necessary support for our churches and spiritual leaders.
• build an vibrant, exciting, meaningful camping ministry.
• expand the base of our youth ministry.
• plant new churches especially among Hispanic people.
• build a global Region that will declare the good news of Jesus Christ to the uttermost parts of the world.

I hope that in the next weeks we will bring closure to this chapter of our Region’s life. I hope that we will be able to be healed from our grief and loss, and embrace the joy of what will become a new tomorrow. I believe that our unity is strong. Let us now get into the spirit of hosting the Biennial with all our might. We cannot escape the big and controversial debates that are raging in our society and denomination. These may have far-reaching implications for our life together.

Over the next weeks we will seek to answer the question: What does it mean to be an American Baptist? We need to do so in order for us to develop a collective identity of what holds us together. What are those values that make up our collective DNA?

Let us walk together in unity as brothers and sisters who are part of the larger family of God.

Shalom,
Desmond Hoffmeister
Interim Executive Minister
ABCRM

The churches of Area III met on April 22-23 at First Baptist Church in Pueblo, Colorado. Ninety people representing 14 churches gathered for worship on Friday night followed by discussion of Region ministry and mission on Saturday morning, moderated by Tom Wheeler (FBC/Fort Morgan.

An Area III initiative, Pastor to Pastors, was launched with the announcement of the hiring of Richard Bowermaster (FBC/Fort Morgan). He will assume this position on June 1, 2005.

Kathleen Logan, pastor of The United Church in Los Alamos, NM, traveled the most miles to participate in this year’s gathering. Area III consists of churches as far north as Sterling, CO, and south to Albuquerque, NM.

The attendees accepted the proposal to form Ministry Clusters, and rejected the motion to recommend to the Region Board that Black Forest Camp and Conference Center be sold. Details of the meeting follow.

Desmond Hoffmeister and Kathleen Logan.

The Area III session opened with music and an offering of praise by a liturgical dance team from First Baptist Church of Pueblo. The preacher for the evening, Desmond Hoffmeister, ABCRM Interim Executive Minister, chose Revelation 3:7-13 as his text. After affirming that it is God who opens doors that no one will shut, and shuts doors that no one opens (verse 7), Rev. Hoffmeister applied the open door/closed door image to our present day situation.

What is God saying to the churches of the Rocky Mountain Region today?

God has and will be around long after we are gone. We don’t meet in despair, but in the joy that we serve an awesome, mighty, magnificent God.

God’s movement among us is seasonal. God shuts some doors because the season for that particular "thing" is over. When God shuts a door, another one opens.

God transforms our challenges into new opportunities. God takes our small vision and transforms it into something much bigger.

How we walk with God is our choice. Churches may die as a result of their resistance to change or die in order to live.

Following responses from the attendees and brief discussion of the formation of Ministry Clusters, the group participated in a Concert of Prayer, led by Ingrid Dvirnak (FBC/Pueblo).

Missionaries Dan and Estella Schweissing	Moderator Tom Wheeler and Host Pastor Wayne Dvirnak

In introducing the subject of camping in our Region, Desmond Hoffmeister related experiences from his personal journey. Camping has been a vital part of his spiritual formation. His introduction to camping in the Rocky Mountain Region was the Senior Adult Conference at Black Forest Camp and Conference Center. "I had imaginative dreams about a glorious future for Black Forest," he said, "until I began to be overwhelmed by the tsunami of facts surrounding this particular camping ministry."

The facts have been communicated in various formats over the past several months. If you want more details about the background work that has been done, please read the BFCCC newsletter and Area I and Area II newsletters, available on the homepage of the Region’s website, www.abcrm.org.

To the challenge of "Why must we decide now?" the following clarifying questions were given in response:

• Can we afford the ongoing uncertainty?
• Will the facts change?
• Have we seen a viable plan?
• Can we afford to continue hemorrhaging financially?
• Can we continue to lose out on new opportunities for ministry?
• Do we have the luxury of time to prepare for the next challenges?
• Can we afford more lost time to help our churches and spiritual leaders?
• Do we want to risk a property bust?

Mike Oldham, Manager of Black Forest Camp and Conference Center, gave an overview on the future of camping in 2006. "We believe that camping is unique in the way that it can have a life-changing effect on the lives of campers," Mike said. "We are in the process of developing new partnerships with other camps and ministries to provide a new day for camping in ABCRM. Our intent is to provide a better camping experience for our youth and children."

Richard Salcedo, Associate Director of Business Administration for the Region, reported that the Region’s staff persons have heard the concerns of the ABCRM constituency regarding the management of funds. An Investment Committee will be elected and an Investment Policy is in the process of being put in place. To explain the makeup of the Committee as well as the contents of the policy, Richard introduced Ann Mills (Calvary/Denver). Ann created the recommended policy and is being recommended as chair of the ABCRM Investment Committee.

The policy sets forth a total return approach. Investments will be made in bonds and equities. Five percent of the value of the fund will be used for mission and ministry purposes. It will earn more than 5%, but the rest will be left in the fund in order to produce fund growth. The policy clearly protects changes to the principal as well as to the policy itself.

Following Ann’s presentation, Vickey Bennett related her family’s approval of the establishment of the Carl Bennett Youth Endowment Fund. Her speech appears in a separate article in this electronic newsletter.

Discussion followed with each Area III church being allotted five minutes to speak. The motion was made to affirm the motion by the BFCCC Board and Executive Committee to sell BFCCC. Thirty five (35) people voted in favor of the motion; 47 opposed the motion, and six abstained.

After a communion service and lunch, the Area III meeting came to a close.

When Richard Salcedo asked me to write my memories about Black Forest for the newsletter, I agreed. When Desmond Hoffmeister called to ask me to come to the Area meetings and share my memories, I was not as responsive. I told him I would pray about it. I wasn’t sure someone as emotional and someone with her heart on her sleeve should be up front speaking about memories. Desmond assured me this would be a good thing. I wrestled with the decision, talked with God, sat down to write, cried a lot, asked friends from my church family to pray for me to be an instrument of peace as I finally agreed with Desmond to make this presentation.

In my opinion [Black Forest and Carl Bennett] are one and the same. I don’t think of Black Forest without remembering my dad. We moved from Grand Junction when I was five years old to Colorado Springs. When I was six, Daddy found a fox farm outside of Colorado Springs in Black Forest. How it happened or what took place are for the record books, but what I remember that first summer is going to the fox farm, having picnics, playing in the fox pens, swinging on a swing, and seeing lots of chicken wire on the ground. I remember a group of men (there could have been some women in the room), but I remember lots of big men sitting in a circle in the fox farm office building and they were meeting and being very serious. I remember going home from a picnic that summer and Mom and Daddy finding three or four ticks in my hair. They told me it was because my hair was so soft and fluffy from the permanent mother had just given me. I never wanted another perm. They also told me I had ticks because I was climbing in the trees!

We made many trips to the camp that summer after Daddy finished work, and a lot of Saturdays were spent there. I believe Daddy was serving as Acting Manager of the camp. Actually some obituary material says that Carl and family lived at Black Forest for a summer. I do remember living in the back rooms of the old office and sleeping on the bunk beds. Sometime that fall my Dad’s mom and step-father came to Colorado Springs and moved to Black Forest to serve as camp manager and cooks. I remember that as being a wonderful time. That winter we made many trips out to camp to see Grandma and Grandpa. We played in the snow and rolled down the hill from the manager’s cabin.

. . .I attended camp as a camper the first year I was eligible. One of the requirements by my Mom and Dad to attend was that I be able to crack a soft-boiled egg myself since they served a lot of soft-boiled eggs for breakfast. During that camp at a campfire in the meadow I made a decision to become a medical missionary to Africa.

Other random memories, and I’m not sure when they occurred, include being allowed to shoot the rifle my father was using to take down the porcupines that were destroying the trees, walking the perimeter of the property, playing in the white rocks, going to Low and High Vespers, walking to the showers to take a shower, bee hives in the walls of a cabin, Daddy delivering clothes to camp when I didn’t have a skirt for dress up night, helping in the kitchen when my grandparents were cooks, and peeling pots and pots of potatoes.

The winter of my sixth grade year, my family moved to Southern California where Daddy had a new job. Again Daddy became very active in men’s work and camping in Southern California and my brothers, Leon and Terry, and I attended Thousand Pines Baptist Camp during our junior and senior high school years.

My parents moved back to Colorado 33 years ago. They became active members of Calvary Baptist Church, and Daddy again became active in the Region and at Black Forest.

Thirty-two years ago my family moved to Englewood, Colorado. My children, David and Dianna, attended camp at Black Forest when they were eligible and Dave Hunter served as a camp pastor for several years. David and Dianna attended tent camps and loved them. During this time I was working as secretary in the Region office. Dianna also worked at camp for a summer.

For a number of years my mother’s family, the Pollards, held family reunions at Black Forest. I remember those [great] times. [Our] relatives from Texas could not get over the beauty of the area and voted to come back year after year.

Another wonderful memory is that of serving with my dad on the Black Forest Board for several years. I also remember that we wrestled with making Black Forest financially sound at that time.

Daddy’s prayers were answered on January 9, 1993, when he was released from his unbearable pain caused by cancer. On January 14th on a clear crystal day with snow on the ground at High Vespers at Black Forest, we held a celebration service of Daddy’s life and scattered his ashes.

Before he died, his request was that memorial funds go to Black Forest Baptist Assembly and the American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains. He had also requested that his ashes be scattered at High Vespers.

During the spring of 1995 we used memorial funds to improve High Vespers. I remember working with a group of youth on a workday when we added more steps to High Vespers from the road so that it would be more accessible to more people. I remember working with Ralph Adkins earlier in the year to determine the positioning of the benches that were added that day along with a platform for the speakers. It was a powerful moment for me when the cross was pulled into position. A podium built by Gordon Seeker to honor my father was put in place. On September 12, 1995, we held a dedication of High Vespers in memory of Carl M. Bennett.

Before the dedication service in September, a Pollard family reunion was held in the middle of July at Black Forest and we had a family tribute for my father at High Vespers. My uncle wrote, "Your tribute to your Dad was beautiful! And the view from the high vespers was breath taking."

Another memory of Black Forest is going back after Daddy’s death to High Vespers and sitting and talking with him for several hours. I remember that day the butterflies were everywhere and several lit on my shoulders as I quietly sat and reflected. This may not be an admission I should make, but I took several small rocks from High Vespers that day and have them in my fountain; my physical reminder of a wonderful earthly father and of Black Forest.

It has been several weeks now since I learned from Richard Salcedo that the Black Forest Camp Board and ABCRM Executive Committee have voted to recommend the sale of Black Forest with assurances that camping continue as a youth ministry throughout the ABCRM Region. As part of the assurance, it is proposed that a million-dollar fund from the proceeds of the sale be established as a Youth Camping Fund. Richard’s call was to ask the family’s permission to honor Carl for all his hard work and dedication in making the youth ministry at Black Forest possible for so many youth. With our permission they asked to name the youth fund the Carl Bennett Youth Fund.

This request came on a Wednesday when my daughter, Dianna and her four girls were visiting from Crystal Lake, Illinois, and we were having dinner with my son, David, his fiancée, and my children’s father and his wife. Through many tears of sadness, loss, and happiness I told Dianna about the request before we went to dinner. When I started to share the news at dinner, my granddaughter Hannah looked up at me and said, "Are you going to cry again, Grandma?" I said I would try not to.

The news brought up tons of memories, some shock that the camp would be sold and yet understanding of the reasons. David’s immediate reaction was, "I want to go back and visit High Vespers before it is sold." I agreed with him. We then had a discussion about what would happen with the cross and pulpit and memory plaques for Grandpa Bennett.

I took the easy way out and faxed my brothers the letter from Richard with some additional information and asked for their responses to this honor on behalf of our father. Terry and Leon both called to talk about the honor and readily agreed to it. After their positive responses, I called Richard to say that we as a family were very honored that they would name this fund after our father.

On the following Friday when I picked up Mom, we were driving down Hampden and I told her of the sale of Black Forest and the honor being bestowed in the memory of Daddy. I told her they had asked the family’s permission. Her immediate response was, "You have said ‘yes,’ haven’t you?" I told her we had. I told Mom of her grandson’s request that we visit Black Forest and High Vespers one more time before it is sold. She immediately said, "I want to go, too." Mom understands, but doesn’t always remember the immediate. [However,] she does know that something in the past will be missing when Black Forest is gone. I told her yesterday that I was coming to Pueblo today to share and she said, "I’m glad. Tell them hello from me."

By going back and reading my dad’s notes from 1934 to 1939, I found that in 1935 he served as Acting President at Grand Mesa Camp Grounds and in 1936 served as President. I have always felt my father was a visionary in terms of youth work and camping and was not surprised to know that as a young man still in college he had a heart for serving God and being part of a camping program. Young lives won for Jesus were very important to him. Following God’s plan in his life was extremely important.

Again, that vision for starting a camping program for children and youth on the east side of the state once he moved to Colorado Springs shows to me an entrepreneurial spirit, lead by God. I have a feeling if truth be known, buying the fox farm and starting a camp was probably not popular with everyone in the state of Colorado. But because those founding fathers persevered, we have had 50 plus years of camping at Black Forest with lots of wonderful memories.

If Daddy were still here, I know that he would have sadness at seeing Black Forest sold, but that he would be excited for the new beginnings of the camping program with a new emphasis on what Baptist youth need and want in today’s world. He would be particularly excited about the mission trips for youth sponsored by the Region. He and my mom participated in several mission trips to Arizona with Calvary youth and also served as short-term missionaries in Guatemala.

Daddy would put first the value of an attractive youth program and winning young people to Christ ahead of keeping something that was struggling and not meeting current needs. Again, to me, he would applaud the entrepreneurial spirit, lead by God, of the Camp Board and the Executive Board to meet the needs of the times even though it might not be the popular idea. He would understand the emotions, but would want to do what was right for the whole body.

I personally applaud the various boards for making the very tough decisions and yet, in my opinion, thinking outside of the box to find a new way to conduct camping and youth mission trips for the Region.

Memories are memories in our hearts. We don’t have to go back to the place to conjure up memories, but rather memories reside inside of us. Yes, it is wonderful when we can go back and say, "Remember when. . .". We as the Bennett family will want to go back to remember Black Forest and its impact on our lives, but also to remember our father, grandfather, and husband and where his ashes were scattered at High Vespers. But even when Black Forest is not there, we will have our memories. We will have a sadness when mother dies and we cannot honor her wishes to scatter her ashes at Black Forest, but I know there will be an appropriate place for her ashes.

In closing, I would like to read a litany that was read as a responsive reading at the Dedication of High Vespers in Memory of Carl M. Bennett on September 12, 1995 and a portion of the tribute I wrote to my father for the Pollard reunion in July and again shared on September 12th.

Litany

In the beauty of this place, we celebrate the gift of memory.
     Lord, we dedicate this sacred place to your service.

We celebrate our memories of Carl Bennett, his love of camping ministry, and his vision for Black Forest Camp and Conference Center.
     Lord, we dedicate this sacred place to your service.

We celebrate the many lives, young and old, who have had life-changing experiences at this camp and the many who will experience God’s beauty and grace in this High Vesper circle.
     Lord, we dedicate this sacred place to your service.

Lord, we think of the lives of those who will sit here, hear the message of your transforming love, and look at the beauty of your creation. We offer those lives into your hands.
     Lord, we dedicate this sacred place to your service. Bless it and all who come here. Amen.

Portions of the Tribute I gave to my father at the dedication of High Vespers
and the Pollard Family Reunion in 1995.

Praise the Lord for a father —
Who with other people had a vision and who listened to the Lord’s direction to buy the Black Forest property for a camp to teach and train young people for the Lord’s service.

Praise the Lord for a father and family —
Who were willing to come to Black Forest to live for a summer to help manage the property and to make trips in the winter to check on the grounds and take care of the porcupine population that was hurting the trees.

And for the times we helped peel potatoes in the kitchen for camper’s meals when my grandparents were the cooks.

Praise the Lord for a father —
Who faithfully served on the Black Forest Board for so many years, who had the vision for what this camp could do in the lives of those who come here.

Who had the vision for water lines, property to be sold, conference center, new tent camp area and so many more things involving the physical aspects of property.

Praise the Lord —
For this place of inspiration and memory for one who has left a legacy not only to his child, but to so many other children.

Praise the Lord!

My prayer is that my memories and reflections on my father will be of service as we all struggle with memories and the loss of the physical place called Black Forest Camp and Conference Center. Thank you for your invitation and for the honor to my father.

Around the Region