ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Easter
Easter Peace
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. John 14:27
Sometimes I get confused by the church calendar. Take this week for example. One of the alternative readings is from John 14. This is the beginning of the priestly prayer. Jesus is in the middle of a pretty lengthy farewell address with all kinds of good information. But it strikes me that this should be holy week material, the kind of thing you’d read on Good Friday. And yet here it is in Easter week six. For six weeks we’ve been doing the discipleship with the confidence the Golden State Warriors. Jesus came back from the grave, what else you got Satan?
On the other hand we know the story. The Ascension of the Lord takes place next Thursday followed by one last Sunday and then the Holy Spirit shows up on Pentecost. That turns out to never be safe. If you scan the extracanonical literature you’ll find that the tradition includes gruesome deaths for Jesus followers. So … perhaps these words from Jesus are the right place. He’s promising peace for his followers hours before He will be crucified. The more I follow Jesus faithfully the more I find that the only kind of peace that will do me any good is the kind that can be promised hours before a torture death.
Peace feels like one of those almost too-large-of-an-idea-to-put-into-a-definition topics. So this week I decided to use one of my sophisticated research tools to help make sense of the term, namely I put it out there on Facebook.
I got all kinds of answers ranging from internal congruence, following the Lord’s will to knowing the one true ring has been destroyed and a Don Williams song. I got a pretty sophisticated treaty on pacifism and a lot of answers that suggested some form of inner tranquility despite circumstances. One person included this illustration, which seems to embody all those comments.
If I were to attempt some kind of intertextual exegesis, I might point myself to 1 John 4:18 where the author maintains that peace’s close cousin love casts out all fear. It seems like regardless of the attribute, life in Christ is concerned with removing fear.
But the pragmatic part of me always wants to ask, “yeah, but how do you do that.” One answer I’m learning is that it means moving through the storm, not around it. I was listening to a discussion between Rob Bell and Richard Rohr last week. At one point Rob talked about suffering and how suffering is lessened as you move through something again and again. So for examples, emails that used to keep up him for hours he now no longer thinks twice about. How did he get there? By experiencing that email over and over and eventually learning it didn’t really matter.
This is why, in my opinion, cruciformity is such a prominent part of the discipleship. It’s not that we are immune to pain, but rather that we are taught how to move through it by volunteering to move through it. How are you dying today?
Meet Our Newest Finance Team Member
Anna Tilson
Name/Family: Anna Tilson; Husband - Adam Tilson; Dog - Bauer Tilson
What do you do?: I am a CPA and work at Jaynes, Reitmeier, Boyd & Therrell (JRBT) here in Waco
Favorite Waco Restaurant: Lula Jane's
TV show you love: Comedy - Friends; Drama - 24 (Hence the name of our dog above), House of Cards, First two seasons of Homeland (Sorry - couldn't choose just one!)
Bible Verse, Chapter, Book you love: The gospels - Again, can't choose just one :)
Something we might not know about you: I LOVE musical theatre, which actually played a role in me marrying my husband. We played opposite of each other in Little Shop of Horrors our senior year of high school and became good friends in the process. We stayed in touch, I secretly loved him, and two years later we started dating. :)
Sumer SS
Instead of having regular Sunday School classes this summer, starting June 5, we will be having Sunday Breakfasts. These breakfasts will be potluck. Please consider joining us each morning at 9:30 in the Backside for a time of food, company, and prayer. Our hope is that this will be a good time for our community to form relationships with one another over the course of the summer.
Thank You To Bekah!
I would like to take a moment to say a HUGE thank you to Bekah West! Bekah has been volunteering with the Bloom class this entire year, but she also gave of her time during the week to help in any way…and I do mean ANY way I needed! Without her help and others like her, the UBCKids Ministry would not be possible! Sadly, She and her husband Ben have been called to serve at another church in our area which means that this coming Sunday will be their last at UBC. The entire community will feel their loss, but UBCKids will miss Bekah and her faithful, willing and generous heart deeply! Thank you Bekah and Ben for giving of yourselves for the betterment of our community…especially the smallest among us!
Sincerely~
Emily Nance
UBCKids Pastor
Study Hall
It is that time of year again, and study hall at UBC is back. The church will be open from 10am till midnight on Monday and Tuesday. We will have snacks, coffee, and drinks all day. On Tuesday at 10pm, we will have our pancake extravaganza! If you study at UBC, you will be a #championforthelord during finals. #yourbestfinalsnow
Work is Worship
Greeters: Blaylocks
Coffee Makers: Chad & Joel
Mug Cleaners: Madi
Announcements:
- Sunday: Acts 16:6-15 "Keep Moving"
- Study Hall Days: May 2nd and 3rd
- Trip to Franklins BBQ. Will Knight and Rick Lhotan will be leading a trip to Franklin's BBQ on Thursday May 19th. The trip will meat at and leave from UBC @ 6:30 A.M. If you have questions please email Will @ will.ray.knight@gmail.com.
- if you are interested in playing softball next fall please email will @will.ray.knight@gmail.com. The cost should be around $30.
Do you have an emergency and 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
Joy Wineman: joy.wineman@gmail.com
Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu
David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu
Bridget Heins: bheins@hot.rr.com
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.
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
Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu
Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu
Ross Van Dyke: Ross_Vandyke@baylor.edu