ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Lent
Lent and the Fullness of Life
We’ve spent the last five weeks in the wilderness of Lent. Our time in this season will come to an end one week from today on Good Friday. This season is always difficult in one way or another—the introspective, penitent work of Lent is grueling, as is sticking with it at all—but it is important because it ultimately charts our personal spiritual growth for the coming year. Now, charting out growth is by no means the most central purpose of Lent, but it functions this way nonetheless.
Some of you, through your lenten practices, have learned a lot about certain parts of your life that the Spirit is working to transform, and that work is likely not finished yet (is it ever?). Others of you have stepped in and out of some sort of practice, and you are left wondering if you even have the ability to make a consistent effort to lean into the work the Spirit is doing in your life (you are not alone!). Those two outcomes aren’t really all that different. One way or another, Lent teaches us something about ourselves.
Like every season of the Church calendar, the emphases that Lent brings to our worshipping lives are not meant to be relegated solely to the 40ish days preceding Easter. Instead, Lent provides some structure—or an excuse—by which we might devote our attention to an aspect of the Christian life that is always relevant.
Jesus always stands as a mirror before us, both showing us who we were made to be and revealing how far we fall short. Lent gives us the opportunity to practice looking in the mirror. It helps us learn to accept the truth about who we are (or who we are not), to let it sting, and to lean into the pain of transformation. This process isn’t fun, but it saves us. And I don’t mean from an eternal hell, but instead from an empty existence, a temporal hell. [Side note: How did Christianity, a faith centered around a Christ whose recorded ministry is basically a string of narratives about him saving people from any number of things (false self narratives, illnesses, social stigmas, broken relationships, weddings without wine, hunger, etc.), ever become so hijacked by the idea that the saving effect it has on one’s life kicks in after we die?] Jesus came that we might have life, and life to the fullest.
The path to life to the fullest is the space between our eyes and the Mirror. It’s the place where our sin is laid bare before us. Our narratives of scarcity, our sense that there is lack within us that we could remedy if only we had x, y, or z, and the dance between selfishness and self-loathing that takes place just beneath our conscious thought, are all keeping us from truly living, and they are all confronted in the person of Jesus. Learning to accept this painful realization about ourselves offers us the ability to speak the truth about ourselves, which the recovery movement champions as the first step toward healing.
Thus, Lent interrupts our lives with a renewed grip on who we are and what exactly Jesus is saving us from, but is also part of that very salvation. It forms a crack in any self-righteousness that we have accumulated; a crack that we desperately need as we enter Holy Week. Because on the other side of the darkness that waits on Friday and Saturday, there is a Light. And that crack is going to be the way this Light reaches us.
If you want to discuss any of this further, feel free to email jamie@ubcwaco.org.
TOWN HALL
We will be having our quarterly town hall this Sunday after church. Among other things we will be discussing the future use of space in our building and possible solutions outside of our building. Please be thinking of these questions:
1. how can UBC use the space we currently have better?
2. would I be for or against a building project on the land we own across the street on Flint?
3. what are some specific strategies for all of our kid's space needs?
this town hall will be a little different. we will be breaking up into small groups and discussing our ideas with leadership team members.
Meet Our Newest UBCer
Marguerite "Maggie" Grace McNamee
Birthday: 3/16/17
Birth Height: 7 lb 8 oz
Birth Weight: 20 inches
Enneagram Number: 7
Holy Week Schedule
Maunday Thursday Potluck Dinner and Communion. Bring a dish to share and join your fellow UBCers as we make our way through the communion liturgy. It's a time to reflect and fellowship. Service will be located in the backside and starts @ 5:30. Please email josh@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions.
Good Friday service will take place on Friday evening @ 5:30. This is a tradition Good Friday service that is somber in nature. Children are welcome and wanted, but there will be no childcare. The liturgy will last about 30 minutes. That service will be located in the sanctuary and will also begin at 5:30. Email jamie@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions.
Thailand Shirts - http://www.ubcwaco.org/new-page/
Help support our team going to Thailand to work with UBC’s missionary partners in May. The shirts are $20, and all proceeds go to help the team member you select from the drop down menu. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org
Graduate Luncheon
If you are graduating anytime in 2017 (may, august, or december) we would love to have you stay for lunch after church on April 30th. This is for all who are finishing hs, college, grad school, or phd. There will be a sign-up sheet the next three weeks in the foyer, make sure to put your name if you want to come to lunch. This will be a special time for us to say thank you as a staff, and for you to reflect on your time at UBC. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org
SWCC Easter Egg Hunt
It is that time of a year again, we are helping our friends at the South Waco Community Center through one of Waco’s largest Easter Egg Hunts. We are dropping over 8,000 eggs this year, so we definitely need your help. The Easter Egg Hunt is on Saturday, April 8th, at 11am. If you would like to volunteer, you can email toph@ubcwaco.org . Volunteers will need to be at the community center by 10:30am, and we will be done by noon. I’ve heard, anyone who volunteers receives extra candy in their easter basket! If you have any questions, contact Toph.
UBC Volunteer Party
Do you volunteer at UBC, or volunteer with any of our community partners? If so, please join us for a party after church, on Sunday, April 23, from 12-2:30pm. We will provide the lunch, and the good times. Be looking for more information about the location/details of the party in the near future, but go ahead and mark April 23rd as the party of the year.
Work is Worship
Greeters: Ricky & Juliet
Coffee Makers:
Mug Cleaners: Cooleys
Money Counter:
Announcements
- Sunday Sermon: Philippians 2:5-11
- April 7th and 8th - Spring Retreat (Freshman/Sophomores)
- April 13th - Maundy Thursday
- April 14th - Good Friday
- April 16th - Easter
- April 22--The Middle Ages Baylor Theatre production of the comedy NOISES OFF—
- April 30th - Mr. Rogers Sunday
- April 30th - Graduate Luncheon
- May 2nd - Study Hall
- May 5th - Rend Collective @ UBC
Do you have an emergency and need to talk to a pastor?
254 413 2611
Leadership Team
If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members.
Chair- Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com
Byron Griffin: byrontgriffin@gmail.com
Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu
Adam Winn: adamwinn68@yahoo.com
Bridget Heins: bheins@hot.rr.com
Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com
Emma Wood: emmaj.wood@yahoo.com
Student Position: Samuel Moore: samuel_moore2@baylor.edu
Student Position: Leah Reed: Leah_Reed@baylor.edu
UBC Finance Team
Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.
Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com
Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com
Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com
Anna Tilson: Anna_Tilson@jrbt.com
Doug McNamee: douglas_mcnamee@baylor.edu
UBC HR Team
If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.
Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com
Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com
Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu
Ross Van Dyke: Ross_Vandyke@baylor.edu
Jared Gould: jared.gould1@gmail.com