Ohio Association Spring Meeting Minutes
May 19, 2026
9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
First Congregational Church, Lodi, Ohio
Attendance: Jim Marshall, Jonathan Cheatham, David Dake, Donna Edsall, Brian Egleston, John Hood, Dayle Kiefer, David Kimberly, Alix Robbins, Wes Blood, Betsy Brocklehurst, Willy Keiser, Gary Eno, Steve Clifford, Doug Knighton.
From 9 a.m. to 9:30 we had conversation and refreshments.
David Dake led us in a short devotional. We sang two hymns, and the meeting opened with prayer.
The speaker was Chad DeBos, retired Major, U.S. Army. He spoke about leadership and said leadership is inspiring people to do things they may not want to do. A leader should do his best to deserve to be followed.
The goal of the meeting was to allow us to connect his military leadership material to our ministry. We need to honestly evaluate our leadership attributes and competencies and develop a plan to build practical leadership and teamwork skills.
To do this, the leader has to care about the people he/she is leading. The army motto is Be, Know, Do. What leaders do emerges from who they are (character) and what they know. As pastoral leaders, we must remember to put the mission first. We were given a Leadership Assessment Report and an adaptation of it for the OA, explaining character, presence, and intellect, and what a leader does: leads, develops, achieves. We ran out of time and did not get to watch a video about the Johari Window, but that information can be found on You Tube.
After lunch, we had a business meeting.
David Kimberly gave a report on the Barnabas Ministry. Almost $13,000 was raised to support this program this past year. Although we were pleased to exceed the $10,000 goal, Jonathan pointed out that when Barnabas was founded we were expecting more like $100,000. Sixty percent of 4C’s ministers are over 60 years old. The 4C’s is planning to balance the budget this year, and has a budget cut of $120,000. David proposed the creation of a website with a donation tab so those being counseled through the Barnabas Ministry could decide to donate in this way. The money would subsidize Barnabas but through a different name. He would like to be under ecclesiastical law, not civil law.
A discussion ensued. Many members felt it was not needed. The website he proposed already exists; this would add a Barnabas donation tab to it. Therefore the wording of the proposal was not accurate. It was pointed out that the original vision for Barnabas was to provide counseling and support for missionaries, church planters, and pastors, but now the Barnabas ministry seems to be drifting into Christian counseling in general. It was suggested that guardrails be put in place so that counseling of non-church officials not crowd out the original purpose of Barnabas. Finally the proposal was deconstructed and found to be unnecessary. People said we have discussed this matter already at other meetings. We voted to receive David’s proposal with appreciation and to defer this matter to the officers. A zoom meeting will be held soon.
David Dake reported on member churches: Parkman Church is leaving the Four C’s and joining PCA.
We will have a Fall Meeting on October 20, 2026, with Rev. Dr. Marc Gauthier. It will be scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
By the time we got to elections of new officers, very few people were still in attendance and everyone was tired. David Dake introduced Jim Marshall as our new Moderator. We elected Dayle Kiefer as Vice-Moderator. Donna Edsall agreed to yet another term as secretary because no one else wants this job. Jonathan Cheatham agreed to another term as treasurer.
We were then informed that the OA Constitution requires someone to deposit the checks, and that David Dake does that. He has chosen the title of Financial Secretary. He and Jonathan said that this office should have a vote. The motion passed.
The final business was to authorize the officers to conduct business online, via zoom meetings, email, and other remote media technology. This was accepted unanimously.
The meeting ended with prayer.