ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Ordinary Time
Time and How to Hold It
A few weeks ago a friend posted this on Facebook. You should really click on it even if you have a habit of simply scanning this newsletter. It's the sort of revelation that will make you think "oh, yeah, that's really true." Unless you are a physics student or math nerd in which case your internal response will probably be something closer to "duh."
This is a truth perhaps so obvious it's been assigned it's own cliché. "Time Flies" or "Where has the time gone?" But now someone assigned some numerical principles that give explanatory power to my experience. I'm 34. I think that's still young in the grand scheme of things, but holy smokes is this roller coaster picking up speed.
The lunar calendar has a beginning in January, the church calendar in November and the Carney's calendar unofficially begins in August. In part because of Baylor, but more so now because all four of our kids are in some kind of school, August is the season of beginning and new.
I wrote a last week that I'm working on ditching Facebook, but now let me be confusing and sing one of it's praises. I really like that remember-when-this-happened-three-years-ago function that is always accompanied by a photo. Because we are in this phase of incessantly taking and posting picture of our kids, the photo remember thingys are always of my kids. Because my children are all eight and under, human growth hormone runs rampant and three years ago feels like yesterday which somehow mystically contains "all that change."
This post feels like I'm beating a dead horse. I think I've wrote about time going by or being in the present or embracing the now on more than one occasion this last year.
The Byrds following Solomon tell me there is a season for everything. I used to think that was cheesy and located from a questionable part of the scripture that seems internally confused. Now that time has clearly proven to me that I have no control over it, I find myself strangely comforted by the "turn, turn, turn," chorus. All of this chaos is to be expected and even belongs.
I'll be honest, I was looking for a place to land this discussion and so I key word searched "time" in the Bible. I got 1,014 results. So I used my seminary skills and narrowed my search to John. Why? Because John has a habit of taking mundane speech and infusing it with transcendence.
Here's what's interesting: If you search the NRSV, John uses the word time 12 times. If you use the NIV John uses the word time 36 times. What's going on?
John has Jesus and others using time casually in their speech, like you and I might refer to it. Examples:
3:22 "After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized."
9:24 "So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him..."
14:9 "Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?' "
In some of the cases in which the NIV supplies the word time it does so because the word time is contextually implied by the needs of the transliteration process. In some cases, as in 14:9, the Greek word is more direct word for word translation, meaning the word is derived from the root chronos, which is where we get chronology. It literally means time as the concept we mentally refer to when we think of time.
All the translations tend to converge on another usage of time. Look at what Jesus says in 7:6 "Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come." If that seems like a loftier statement it's because it is. In this case Jesus uses the word kairos. Chronos describes what's slipping between my fingers at an alarming rate. Kairos describes those moments when the world is vivid and alive and the transcendent infuses the immanent. The Greeks referred to kairos as the supreme moment.
This week like so many, flew by. My kids went back to school, I wrote sermons, had meetings, am writing this blog. You get it. But then in the midst of monotony kairos confronted me. I went to lunch with a friend who recently lost deeply. We talked. He talked mostly and I listened. I heard truth spoken infused with the meaning of the eternal and for two hours I was far from life as usual. I was sitting in a supreme moment.
It's tempting to wish that all of our lives could be one kairos moment after the next. I think that's probably impossible for my heart and mind. There's something about human experience that almost demands the mundane. But I've noticed that when I'm most tempted forget how much all of this matters, God sends me kairos encounters. So that's how I've decided to make sense of the world passing me by at such an intense rate--knowing that those moments are all around me.
Clean Day After Church
This Sunday after church we will have a church wide clean day from noon-two, for participants who help clean. we will provide pizza.
Here are five investing facts about clean day:
1. three olympic skeet shooters got their start at UBC clean day
2. more than 7 trillion germs have been killed on clean days in the past
3. three people over the last ten years have confessed to choosing to be a part of the community because of the squeaky clean bathrooms
4. early manuscripts show that helping clean the church was an eleventh commandment that got cut
5. early formulas for "scrubbing bubbles" were derived in casual conversations had at clean day
6. "create your fact to insert here this Sunday"
Mi Casa Leader Update From Liz
Mi Casa leaders - We are getting close to this year’s kick-off on August 30th…if you have served as a leader in the past year and haven’t received an email from me yet this summer would you please shoot an email to Andrasi.e@gmail.com and let me know? I have been working on connecting with each of our leaders and I don’t want to miss you! I’m excited to get things started and look forward to hearing from you! - Liz
UBC Financial Update
THE PLAN: We entered our new (fiscal) year on the first of July. This year’s budget is $309,412. Fixed expenses (staff salaries, building and office expenses) accounts for $253,373, or 81.9% of the total, and ministry expenses (the many things our church does for our community and for those who attend) accounts for $56,039 or 18.1%.
OUR EXPENSES AND INCOME: Over the first six weeks of the fiscal year, we spent $26,839. Those items considered fixed accounted for 94% of this spending and those considered ministry about 6%. Our income from tithes and offerings during this period totaled $29,762. Interestingly, we receive just about half of our tithes and offerings through the weekly collection during worship and the other half through online methods (PayPal and EasyTithe).
OUR STATUS: UBC’s cash balance is currently about $33,460, with another $85,781 in savings. We continue to carry no debt. Quick math shows that we have the cash to meet about 51 days of expenses without having to dip into our savings. So, we continue to rely heavily on weekly tithes and offerings.
Would you like to a be financial partner with UBC. You can sign up for monthly giving through easytithe.
Work is Worship
Greeters: The Walters & Leigh
Coffee Makers: Logan & Allyson
Mug Cleaners: Sara & Kayla
Announcements:
Sunday Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 "The Worship Hour Part 3: Why We Commune"
Do you have an Emergency? Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?:
254 498 2261
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- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net
Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com
Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu
David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu
Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu
Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com
Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com
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
Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com
Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@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.
Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com
Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com
Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu
Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org
Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu