In the Life of the Church
(ITLOTC)
Ordinary Time 2015
Moving Forward
Over the last few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to meet with some of you to talk about the frustrations you’ve had with the process involved in the personnel decision.
As I said on Sunday, the leadership team was scheduled to meet that day to begin to work through some of those concerns. I’d like to use this space in the newsletter to report on that meeting.
Insularity:
Most of our conversation was given to the discussion of insularity within leadership team. Here’s a section from the bylaws on “selection”
(A) Selection. When a vacancy arises on the Leadership Team the congregation shall be notified immediately at a regularly scheduled Sunday morning worship service, as well as through social media and electronic communication. At that point a call for nominations shall be made and any member of UBC will be allowed to make nominations. Not less than three weeks shall pass before the window for accepting nominations will close. All nominees shall then be vetted and selected by the current Leadership Team.
The potential criticism is that, though the community provides the nominations, because the leadership team is consistently selected from within, the community has no say in who is selected. Admittedly this is difficult problem to tackle, primarily because UBC does not have membership. In other words if we did move to letting the community decide who gets onto leadership team, how do we define the community that gets to decide.
I proposed an idea in the meeting that we’d like to share with you and get your feedback on at our next town hall meeting. Which brings me to the second point of the agenda.
Communication:
Two changes have been made to address this issue in the immediate. First, our old BMS (business management system), which is an informal document we created a few years ago to address financial needs, calls for three town halls a year. The leadership team has decided to add a fourth. These town hall meetings will occur roughly a month before the quarterly leadership team meeting. Secondly, in addition to these town halls we will do our best to provide the community with the most up to date working agenda for that leadership team meeting. The primary purpose of the town hall will be for the community to share opinions about agenda items. Our next town hall will be March 22nd after church. As will probably become normative, we will provide a half hour period for folks to grab lunch and then begin around 12:30.
Transparency:
In addition to the town halls and shared agendas, the leadership decided to do the following.
publish the bylaws and budget on our website
make minutes available upon request
Technically, this second bullet point was already true. We talked about putting the minutes online as well, but decided against that. However, I will publish a summary in the newsletter after every meeting, much like this one you are currently reading, and remind people that they can email me and request a copy of the minutes.
Moving Forward:
I realize that we have a long way to go, but I’m hopeful about our start. As I said Sunday, UBC is at its best when we name and lean into our pain. As we lean, I’m confident we will find healing.
Grace for today.
UBC Backpacking Trip - March 8-14, 2015 - Eagle Rock Loop, Arkansas
If you are interested in going on the UBC spring break backpacking trip, the deadline to sign-up is Monday, February 9th. To sign-up, you need to email Toph to confirm your spot, and turn in a $30 deposit. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org
Thailand Mission Trip Meeting - February 8th, 2015 - Brown Room
We will have our second Thailand mission trip meeting this Sunday, after church in the Brown Room. If you are interested in learning more about the work we will be doing, and the trip May 18-31, 2015, please come to the meeting. If you cannot attend, but want to know more, please email toph@ubcwaco.org. The deadline to sign-up for the trip will be February 22nd, and a $500 deposit will secure your spot on the trip. If you have any questions, please contact Toph.
Love LoveFeast - February 15th, 2015 - 6pm at UBC
This is one of our favorites: bring yourself, bring your friends, and bring the food you love the most! This is a time to “treat yo self” to the food everyone loves the most. There will be a sign-up sheet for desserts in the foyer at UBC, so if you want to bring a dessert, make sure to sign-up. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org for more details.
Meet the Mentees
As you may or may not know Truett Seminary places students at churches all across the states and world as part of the mentoring program. This semester we are honered to have two of the best.
Elizabeth [Liz] Andrasi (Rhymes with Swayze)
Born: July 19th, 1989
3 Places I’ve called home: Austin (1989 – 2007), College Station (Gig ‘em! 2007 - 2012), Waco (2012 - ?)
Education:
· B.A. in Psychology, Texas A&M University
· Master of Divinity, Truett Seminary (in progress)
I get itchy feet…
· 3 places I haven’t been but would like to visit: Hungary, Germany, Scotland
· 3 places that I’d like to return to one day: Russia, Ireland, India
Some fiction that is a part of me:
· The Boxcar Children (series) – Gertrude Chandler Warner
· Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling
· To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
· The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Some nonfiction that has changed me:
· Letters and Papers from Prison – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
· Anything – Jennie Allen
· An Altar in the World – Barbara Brown Taylor
· On Writing – Stephen King
I started coming to UBC in the fall of 2012 when I began at Truett. For a lot of reasons it took me almost a year to really plug in and feel part of the community – weekly communion in the summer of 2013 and joining a Mi Casa that fall helped me make that jump into belonging. I stay at UBC for the authenticity, the liturgy, and the people. I’m excited to be around even more this semester and hopefully get to know you all better as I serve and learn!
Dan Vinzen
DOB: November 11, 1987
Born in Detroit, MI
Family: Jay (father) & Judy (mother) – Birmingham, AL; Matt (brother) & Beril (sister-in-law) – New York City, NY; Kirby (sister), Randal (brother-in-law), & Ryker (nephew) – Houston, TX; Nick (brother) – College Station, TX
Education
BA in Communications, minor in Business Administration – Texas A&M University
MDiv – George W. Truett Theological Seminary (in progress)
Favorite TV Shows
Friday Night Lights
The Office
Parks & Recreation
The Walking Dead
Favorite Movies
What About Bob?
The Lord of the Rings
The Way, Way Back
If I could be any animal I would be…
A Golden Retriever
An American River Otter
I came to UBC in August 2012 when I started graduate school at Truett Seminary. The first Sunday morning I was in Waco, I rolled over in bed, google searched “Baptist Churches”, saw UBC, went to the website and saw that it looked like a “normal” church, showed up at 9:30am and was greeted by Craig Nash saying that there was no Sunday school that day. Craig and I sat on the bench next to the coffee room, talked about Truett and then he invited me to grab coffee with him at Common Grounds. From that moment on I have considered myself a member of UBC.
Finance Team
UBC is looking for a new finance team member. If you would like to nominate someone for the finance team you can do so by emailing the name of that nominee to josh@ubcwaco.org. Here is some information about the role from the bylaws:
(A) Purpose. The Finance Team shall exist for the following purposes:
a. To serve as the primary advisory group for the Leadership Team in all budgetary and financial aspects of the church.
b. To oversee, in coordination with the ministerial staff, yearly budgetary processes, working to create a financial ministry plan in alignment with the ethos, mission and values of UBC.
c. To advise the staff and Leadership Team on any emergency financial matters that may arise with regards to the physical infrastructure of the church building, as well as those matters pertaining to compensation and benefits of personnel.
d. To assess the current financial status of the church on a monthly basis and advise the staff and Leadership Team on matters concerning changes in planned ministry expenses.
e. To advise the Human Resources/Staff Support team on all financial matters regarding new and existing personnel, including available resources concerning salaries, salary increases, insurance, taxes, etc.
f. To advise the church body on all matters relating to stewardship, financial integrity, etc.
(A) Qualifications. Finance Team members shall have been an active participant in the life of UBC for at least a year, have received at least a bachelors degree level of education (or roughly an equivalent amount of experience in business or finance,) and have at least a basic understanding of financial reports and budgets.
UBC Backpacking Trip - March 8-14, 2015 - Eagle Rock Loop, Arkansas
If you are interested in going on the UBC spring break backpacking trip, the deadline to sign-up is Monday, February 9th. To sign-up, you need to email Toph to confirm your spot, and turn in a $30 deposit. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org
Thailand Mission Trip Meeting - February 8th, 2015 - Brown Room
We will have our second Thailand mission trip meeting this Sunday, after church in the Brown Room. If you are interested in learning more about the work we will be doing, and the trip May 18-31, 2015, please come to the meeting. If you cannot attend, but want to know more, please email toph@ubcwaco.org. The deadline to sign-up for the trip will be February 22nd, and a $500 deposit will secure your spot on the trip. If you have any questions, please contact Toph.
Love LoveFeast - February 15th, 2015 - 6pm at UBC
This is one of our favorites: bring yourself, bring your friends, and bring the food you love the most! This is a time to “treat yo self” to the food everyone loves the most. There will be a sign-up sheet for desserts in the foyer at UBC, so if you want to bring a dessert, make sure to sign-up. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org for more details.
Work is Worship
Coffee Makers: Emmy & Steve
Mug Cleaners: Haines
Greeters: Ryan and Joel
Shut Down Team: The Blue Flames
Announcements:
Sunday Sermon Text: Psalm 129 … “Perseverance”
Volunteer Banquet … Sunday, February 8th @ 5:00-7:00
Feast will be Sunday February 15th at 6:00 PM
Q is coming to Waco, check out this video.
Do you have an Emergency? Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?:
254 366 9779
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
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
Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com
Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu
Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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.
Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com
Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com
Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu
Jeff Walter: jeff_walter@baylor.edu
Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com