ITLOTC
(In The Life of the Church)
Ordinary Time
ISIS and the Church
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,
I'm struggling. I get my news in car through my radio and almost everyday for the last two weeks it has been headlined by ISIS and its threat to America. I'm struggling because as I hear reports come in about what is happening I get angry. I want justice. I want to see my enemies punished. But my angry need for justice is tempered by Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere.
- You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matt. 5:38-39)
- Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Matt. 5:43-48, Luke 6:27-28)
- Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. (Matt. 26:52)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matt. 5:9)
My dad was and my brother is in the military. I'm proud of both of them. No one hates war more than soldiers and their families. For all the talking I do about sacrifice Christians should make/I should make, my brother and dad have made more. Here's something else, I don't think America is a Christian nation and thus I do not hold her to my Christian expectations. Whether or not the United States goes to war, is a decision that the church doesn't make. But I am concerned about my response. I'm concerned about what's happening to my heart.
Whenever I have a conversation with someone and I bring up the words of Jesus, inevitably someone asks something like, "so if someone broke into your house and threatened to hurt your family you'd just stand there?" No I wouldn't, I'd probably hit them with a baseball bat. And then I confess my sin and pray for God's forgiveness. And had I seen the horrors of the Holocuast or all the other forms of injustice between now and then, I'd probably have picked up a gun and fought. I want to own how complicated this question is. How strong the propensity to defend, even if with violence, is within me.
The truth is I'll most likely never confront someone from ISIS and statistically speaking no one will break into my house. I'll take that form of grace. But even if those events never occur, I'm always having a chance to respond. There's an adage floating around that says something like, "Thoughts become words. Words become actions. Actions become habit. Habits become character. And your character becomes your destiny." I think this why Jesus so gingerly connects anger with murder and lust with adultery. The road between them may be long, but there are no exits.
You know what will happen to me this week? Someone will cut me off on the road. My children will deliberately disobey me. Someone will make a remark that I think is wrong and will really make me mad. In all of these scenarios I hold something precious. A choice. The ability to plant that seed of anger in my heart or not. I have the choice to let those thoughts become words. Or I can pray for my enemies and bless those who persecute me.
I don't know if there is a war that God would ever have us fight, but I do know that I have million choices to make before I come to that one. I don't know if I'll ever come face to face with my enemies across the Atlantic, but there's plenty of people in my life here that give me choices to love or hate. And those matter.
Do you have an enemy in your life? Someone who really angers you?
If so I consider you to spend some time meditating on these verses:
Ask God for the grace to love your enemy in the small thing so that you might the character to love them in a big thing.
Meet The Newest UBCer
Name: Roxy Reese Parker
Birthday: 9/2/114
Weight: 10 lbs 6 oz (extra full of the Joy of the Lord)
Height: 22.5 inches
Enneagram Number: 7
Family Breakfast This Sunday!
Join us this Sunday morning, at 9:30am, for our annual Family Weekend Breakfast! If you are a student, and you have family in town (or you just want a free delicious breakfast), come to the backside at 9:30am Sunday morning for a delicious meal. This will be a time to meet other UBC'ers, fellowship, and learn more about UBC. If you have any questions, please email toph@ubcwaco.org.
Satan Slayers
In a valiant effort the Satan Slayers dropped a pair of games on Monday night. Jacob "God bless You Please Mrs." Robinson and Byron Roldando both recorded "L's" on their stat books. Coach Miller: "neither of them could find their command tonight ... it happens. I started signaling to Will [Knight] to call for the stinky cheese and mustard, but those guys insisted on throwing change ups." Offensively the slayers had trouble getting going as well. Aside from a par 3rd inning there wasn't much to get excited about. Injuries might have had something to do with it. The Slayers suffered about 4-5 injuries and had trouble filling a full roster with healthy ballers. It seems that front office didn't do enough when they picked up veteran, mennonite 1st baseman Andrea Kramer off of waivers, the Slayers could have used a few more abled bodies. Coach Miller: "Great teams don't make excuses, but our players were dinged up tonight. All we can do is learn from this. We'll get in the film room tomorrow night and Rod [pitching coach] will work with our rotation this week. We compete. We win. We are the Satan Slayers."
The Slayers will be in action again this Monday night as they get set for another double header.
UBCKids Volunteer Training
Volunteer training time has arrived! On September 21st, we will be talking about The Nurture Room (0-Walkers) and the Sprout Room (Walkers-Young 2’s). These rooms don’t have curriculum, but there are still sign-in, play-time, diapering and general-care procedures that we need to cover! On September 28th, we will be training those who want to work in either the Bloom Room (Older 2’s-Young 4’s), the Branch Room (Older 4’s-Kindergarten) or the Root Room (1st Grade-4th Grade). These rooms have curriculum, so we will be talking about their formats, helpful hints for each age group and other procedures. In each of these trainings we will be putting teams together. Each room has four teams of 2 or 3 people who rotate on a 4 week cycle. If you have someone you’d like to work with, make sure that they are at the training, too! Afterwards, I will send out the new dates and a calendar link for reminders! We will be holding the trainings RIGHT AFTER CHURCH and I’m hoping to keep them under 30 minutes so that we can all enjoy lunch with our friends, so please make your way to the BACKSIDE quickly so that we can get started!
Work is Worship 9-21-14
Coffee Makers: Michael Scott & Kayla Larvins
Mug Cleaners: Byron Roldan & Jacob Robinson
Greeters: Tessa Chevlin & Leigh Curl
Shut Down Team: Golden Glitter Girls
Announcements
- Sermon Text:1 Samuel 3:1-11
- Sunday, October 5th, Jesus Said Love with join UBC for an announcement and a Q/A lunch after church
- Friday, October 10th, Guys Night at Michael Heins' lease on the Brazos River (men of all ages including dads and little boys are welcome/encouraged to come)
- Fall Break Weekend (October 16-19) UBC will be taking an Embrace Beauty trip to West Texas. Those interested should contact Tye@ubcwaco.org. More information to come.
- Wednesday, October 29th, UBC partners with South Waco Community Center for Halloween Festival. Those interested in volunteering should contact toph@ubcwaco.
- Friday, October 31st Jesus Said Love Outreach ... more information to come.
- MADE in Waco will be Saturday, November 15th more information to come.
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: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com
Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com
Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net
Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com
David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu
Jamie McGregor: jameson.mcgregor@gmail.com
Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@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.
Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu
Paul Taft: ptaft@extracobanks.com
Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com
Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu
Tom McCarty: tomjmccarty@gmail.com
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.
Lacy McNamee: Lacy_McNamee@baylor.edu
Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu
Jeff Walter: jeff_walter@baylor.edu
Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com