ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Pentecost
Our Next Phase (by Josh)
There are certain Christian cliches that while oftentimes true, get so overplayed that that truthfulness feels threadbare. Here is one for you. “The church is the people.” I affirm that statement. Am even inspired by it in places of the world where the luxury of a building is not optional. But in defense of building let me now remind us how we all felt when we learned that Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire. Place also matters. Buildings matter. It just so happens that we are in a season of life when the value of public shared space is not a hard sell. You also have come to appreciate the church as a building because, to borrow another cliche, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Well boy do I have good news for you. My friends, the time has come. Our grand opening is June 6th. On June 6th UBC will gather as a community in our building and we will be together in worship to: sing, hear the word of the Lord, exchange fellowship in whatever way we are comfortable with, and celebrate. After church has concluded we will have an outdoor cookout in which we will consume hamburgers, hot dogs and vegan substitutes. But wait there's more! This coming sunday we are doing a soft opening? What is a soft opening you wonder? Well, it is like a normal worship service, but we may not have figured everything out, like how to stream seamlessly and pull off a live service. Where to best put air purifiers? How loud will those be? What do we do if in fact we’ve become so introverted that we no longer like people. So if you would like to witness our first, and likely clunky attempt at worship this Sunday, May 30th, you are welcome to do that as well.
I should name what might be obvious. UBC has erred on the side of caution in most ways this past year. So now, as we move forward, we do so knowing that we are creating an environment in which we can’t guarantee everyone’s safety with regards to COVID. Perhaps one of the silver linings of this past year is that we have discovered that so many who have moved beyond Waco still yearn for a UBC connection and so the online feature of our service will become a permanent one. So if safety remains a concern, please know that you will alway have the Facebook live option for worship.
Now I would like to say a word about what we are asking of you, our beloved parishioners, and how we have come to the conclusion that we have. First, the one safety precaution we will continue to take is that we are asking everyone to be masked while indoors. Jamie and Taylor attended a webinar with epidemiologist Dr. Emily Smith who recommended groups as large as ours continue to do so. But what does this mean? It means we can sing. It means that we can be together in the same space. It means that even though our ventilation and cave like interior existence is less than ideal, we can still meet.
The other relevant piece of data was the vaccination rate of our community. In an anonymous survey that had 144 replies, which represented over 200 persons, over 90% of our eligible community has been vaccinated. Can you believe that? Way to go UBC. The data that continues to come out about the effectiveness of the vaccine is very good. So yeah science!
The other number that we are paying particular attention to is the new infection rate for McLennan county. Note, Dr. Emily Smith advises that local communities such as ours pay the most attention to that number at a local level. So while that number stays at or below 10 persons per 100,000 we are good to go. As of the webinar that number was at 8, and now it is at 6. Yes, great job Waco!
The other question you may have is, “how long are we going to ask congregants to wear masks?” Good question. As with so many things this year, we are trying to honor one another in policy making by paying attention to local guidelines and work with the larger Waco community to achieve goals. To give you hard numbers, if local vaccination rates (read McLennan County) near 80% and/or that new infection rate moves from 6 to 1, we will be maskless. To make a guess about when that might happen? We have July in the back of our mind.
Friends, thank you so much for ‘enduring all things,’ as Paul might say in 1 Corinthiains 13. We know this has been a hard year and one in which we retrospectively look back at mistakes made and the things we did right. Regardless we are grateful to have done it with such an understanding and hopeful community. Y’all really are the best.
Meet the UBCer(s)
Jill Reilly
June 6th Cook Out
Hello friends, to celebrate our being back together in the building, we are having a cookout after church on Sunday June 6th. To that end we are looking for some volunteers to 1. bring grills to church and 2. cook hamburgers, hot dogs and vegan burgers during the service. if this is something you could do, that would be great. Please email josh@ubcwaco.org.
Chair Help
In light of our move back into the building (see the post above) we are looking for able and willing helpers to come up to church at noon on wednesday (tomorrow), to help us set chairs and get the sanctuary ready. We love your muscle power or precision power. We are taking all kinds of skill sets.
Parishioner of the Week
All of our teachers who are in their last week. We are so proud of you and grateful for you. You did it! You did this year.
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: Kerri Fisher: Kerri_Fisher@baylor.edu
Luci Hoppe: lhoppe@gmail.com
Jeremy Nance: Jeremy.J.Nance@L3T.com
Joanna Sowards: jo.sowards@gmail.com
Kathy Krey: kathykrey@gmail.com
Jose Zuniga: jzgrphix2002@yahoo.com
Taylor Torregrossa: Taylordtorregrossa@gmail.com
Student Position: Davis Misloski
Student Position: Maddy O’Shaughnessy
UBC Finance Team
Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.
Catherine Ballas: catherine@refitrev.com
Jen Carron: jen.carron78@gmail.com
Mike Dodson: financeteammike@gmail.com
George Thornton: GeorgecCT1982@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.
Erin Albin: erin.albin1@gmail.com
Sam Goff: samuelgoff92@gmail.com
Craig Nash: Craig_Nash@baylor.edu
Kristen Howerton: khowerton94@gmail.com
Patrick Broaddus: patrickjbroaddus@gmail.com