ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Epiphany
My Favorite UBC Thing in 2018
This has probably been one of the most rewarding weeks of pastoring in my life. If you don’t know why, see the next item on this newsletter titled “1/13/19.” It was a good week filled with hard and beautiful work. I will talk more about that on Sunday, but in this newsletter I actually want to take a break from the hard and beautiful and talk about something that was just beautiful to me in 2018.
December 24, 2018 marked just the third time UBC celebrated Christmas Eve by having a service. In that regard I think we are still finding our legging. It’s a hard day in that staff is already busy with the normal Sunday worship schedule both before and after that date and are also usually playing catch up on finishing our own personal Christmas needs. To be frank, sometimes Christmas Eve doesn’t get my best effort. A few months ago Taylor mentioned doing something like a Christmas Padget with the kids. I was immediately intrigued but remembered my own Christmas play experiences that took what seemed like months of weeknight practices, parents sewing ridiculous costumes at all hours in the night and a collective reluctance from the cute little kids who were forced to do it.
I forgot about this suggestion until about the 2nd week of Advent when the costumes came in. Taylor was excited and I was confused. We had costumes, but I hadn’t heard of any Padget practices or been stressed by midnight runs to Wal-Mart to buy glitter. Surely, I thought, Taylor has miscalculated the preparation needed to pull this off. Taylor, being the cool cucumber she is, gave me a Calvinist like assurance that this was all going to be fine.
So I decided not to sweat it. Jamie then reported that he was going to be gone. “Who cares,” I thought, this is going to be a disaster anyhow. Then lo, an angel of the Lord descended on our Christmas Padget process. Ryan Richardson, Jen and Paul Carron came through on music. I created a worship guide with Taylor’s directions, three brief group emails and the no idea of what was really happening. And THEN a group of about 40 of your wonderful children and youth showed up on Christmas Eve. Somehow the thing blew my apart my expectations in the best way possible. We sang carols and told the Christmas story. Your adorable children put on donkey hats, Christmas stars and angel halos and the presence of God spread through the sanctuary.
1/13/19
In the event that you were unable to make it to church last week we would like to reiterate the imporantance of last Sunday. During the worship service last week UBC announced that she will be engaging a conversation about her relationship with the LGBTQ community. The formal letter that was crafted by the leadership team can be found here. The podcast that includes the reading of that letter and a sermon that address the topic can be found here.
Meet Our Newest UBCer
Name: Jude Thaddeus Balk
Birthday: September 22, 2018
Birth weight: 8 lb 5 oz
Birth height: 20 3/4 in
Enneagram Number: 1
End of the Year Giving Statements
Will be available for pick up starting after church this Sunday and will run through the end of January. If you have not or are unable to pick up your giving statement before then, it will be mailed. If you have had a change of address this last year and need to update that information, please email kim@ubcwaco.org.
Parishioner of the Week
Kathy Krey for saying yes to be on leadership team even after she heard what we are doing right now.
Announcements
Sermon Text: Daniel 3 “But even if He does not …”
Backside 1-25
Spring Sunday school starts on 1-27
Mi Casa Chili cook off 1-27
Parents Night Out 2-9
Work is Worship
Greeters: Richardsons
Coffee Makers: Clark & Co.
Mug Cleaners: Cooleys
Money Counter: Ballas
Welcome Station:
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- Adam Winn: adamwinn68@yahoo.com
Byron Griffin: byrontgriffin@gmail.com
Kerri Fisher: Kerri_Fisher@baylor.edu
Bridget Heins: bheins@hot.rr.com
Jeremy Nance: Jeremy.J.Nance@L3T.com
Joanna Sowards: jo.sowards@gmail.com
Kathy Krey: kathykrey@gmail.com
Student Position, Samuel Moore: samuel_moore2@baylor.edu
Student Position, Anna Carol Peery: anna_peery@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.
JD Newman: JD_Newman@baylor.edu
Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com
Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com
Doug McNamee: douglas.mcnamee@gmail.com
Catherine Ballas: catherine@refitrev.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.
Josh Blake: joshnblake@gmail.com
Ross Van Dyke: Ross_Vandyke@baylor.edu
Jared Gould: jared.gould1@gmail.com
Rebekah Powell: rpowell671@gmail.com
Kristen Richardson: wacorichardsons@gmail.com