ITLOTC 4-25-14

Easter 2014

so long farewell auf wiedersehen goodbye 

I've just sat down to write.  1:51 PM on April 25th.  In two days it will be Sunday ... the 27th.  That's how I keep my time, by preaching days.

The 27th, which means the following Sunday will be May 4th.  That will be Senior Sunday.  Mr. Rogers will do what he does best and seniors will get nostalgic.

This has me thinking.  This is the last chance I have to preach to this class of seniors, which has me nostalgic.  Our seniors are a solid bunch.  The sort of kids you hope your's will turn out to be like.

This isn't my first rodeo. I've been a pastor in this college town for seven years.  Transition is part of the DNA.  And so you learn to say goodbye.  I've been thinking a lot about Toph.  Though all the UBC pastors minister to everyone, Toph has it in his job description to care for college folks.  And he does a fantastic job.  This coincides with the fact that this is the first group of freshman he's worked with.  For four great years Toph's been doing what Toph does well.  And now he says goodbye.

I mention that because I remember when my first-four-year-group-after-I-got-hired graduated.  I thought the we'd never have kids that great again.  And ... we did.

Maybe that's a long introduction to say transition and goodbyes are hard.

College is such a fantastic experience.  I was speaking with one of our great seniors a few weeks ago and he gave me a concept and language to make sense of the fantasticalness (my typing program just autocorrected to that word so I'm leaving it).  Tyler, the great senior, said that "college is the right amount of freedom with the right amount of accountability before you enter the real world."  It's like real life dress rehearsal. Some of the real pressures without all of them.

And then it's over.

They should advertise that in line camp.  I never went to line camp, so I can't really say, and I'm guessing they refer to it, but I'm certain they don't prep you for the emotional magnitude of that moment.

This place, wherever it may have been for you, forms you in these critical years when world views come apart and grow back together in the most wonderful ways.  It's a really powerful experience for the human soul.

And then it's over.

When I was a senior driving off campus for the last time I made the moment as dramatic as possible.  I wanted to sacramentalize my experience with the proper music and words.  So I drove around campus by myself listening to the Braveheart soundtrack telling the most mundane objects (like dorm carpet, cafeteria treys, speed bumps, etc) goodbye like I was Emily Webb from Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

There is something worse than saying goodbye though.  Staying when your supposed to go.

I've been reading this book called the Naked Now.  It's by Father Richard Rohr.  He's a Fransiscan Priest and mystic.  I'm reading it slowly ... and it's been exhilarating.  I've thought about why I've liked it so much and I think my answer is because I genuinely feel like I'm learning something I don't know (holy cow that sounded arrogant).  What I mean is that Father Richard is framing Christian faith in a new way for me.  I don't always agree with him, but I always love hearing.

Recently I read this, "Why so much status quo?  Once you know that the one thing the ego hates more than anything else is change, it makes perfect sense why most people hunker down into mere survival."

Which has me thinking about the Christian life and our seniors.

We have been called on mission.  We have places to do ministry, but we don't really have permanent homes.  Our lives always belong to God and the God of mission can always find another reason to send.

I think we were made to be this way.  Don't hear me saying that there's something wrong with being where you are for a long time or even for most of your life.  But the church must be defined by mission which means movement.  The gospel belongs everywhere and even where it's already been expressed again and anew.

Read this, it's one of my favorite Bible passages.

John Piper says, "Go, send, or be disobedient."

And so in week and a half we will celebrate our sending identity and rebuke the ego's need to keep things the way the are ... because Christ is on mission.  He who has come will come again.

Prayer Request

Since the inception of the newsletter last fall I have worked hard (with the wise counsel of the staff) at keeping this about the church and not, for example another, social media exchange or our version of craigslist.  Every now and then I turn down an individuals request to put something in here that is for the individual.

That being said I've decided to include this because if a letter to the church can't ask the church to pray  then something must be amiss.

First let me take this opportunity to point out that Craig keeps a running prayer guide that is used in the Mi Casas and in the Wednesday communion service.  It's a google document and can be accessed and edited by anyone.  You can find that here.

Secondly, Kara is a UBC senior.  Her brother, Carl, was in a motorcycle accident.  He lives in Colorado.  The accident was bad.  They have removed part of his skull to let his brain swell and they think there may be damage to the brain stem.  I called Kara today to check on her and when I asked what I could do to help she requested this, to ask all of you to pray for the Edmondson family in these critical hours.  In her words she "just want as many people as possible to be praying."

Thanks friends, I know you will to chose to care for Carl in this important hour.

Meet the HR Team

Meet Callie Shrank

Family: Husband Cody (37 y.o. – bench-presses 550lbs – Outdoor Adventure Enthusiast) Son Cru (1.5 y.o. – 40 yard dash in 3.54sec – Rock Collector and Break Dancer) Vocation/Job/What I do: Baylor Athletics - Personnel/Administration, Wife, Mother

Favorite Movie: I really don’t have a favorite anything except for a drink – Via Iced Coffee packet from Starbucks with milk instead of water – over ice. Oh yeah!

Best Restaurant in Waco: Again, I can’t answer this question…I am looking forward to trying Torchy’s Tacos

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: Psalm 63

Best Television Show: Downtown Abbey, Blacklist, 24, Alias…

Favorite Holiday: Christmas – birth of Christ, food, lights, decorations, music, family, festivities, Bowl games…can’t beat that.

Something you might not know about me: I grew up on a farm in the Midwest – corn bred and corn fed. We showed cows for 4H and then ate them if they didn’t get bred. Brutal, I know. Day in the life of a farm kid…

Hobbies: Loving on my family, being outside, cheering on the Baylor Bears, game nights with friends

Meet Our Newest UBCer 

Name: Wendell Lewis Carney

Birthday: April 1, 2014

Weight: 8 lbs 3 oz

Height 20 inches

Enneagram Number: 3

Dos de Mayo Date Night

Parents are you feeling like you'd like to rip out your hair?  Then bring your kids to UBC on Friday May 2nd from 6-9 PM and enjoy a night on the town.  It's free!  Interested parents need to sign their children up.  For more information email Michelle@ubcwaco.org.

Mentoring at UBC

This summer Michael Laminack will be mentoring at UBC.  Michael's mentoring is part of his program as a student at Truett Seminary.  You can read more about that program here.  We are excited to welcome Michael on our team for this summer.  He will be preaching on May 25th and again towards the end of July.  Please be in prayer for Michael that his experience is a good one and the he gains valuable pastoral experience.

We wanted to ask him a few questions to help you get to know him.

Why did you choose to do your mentoring at UBC?

There’s just something about UBC that excites me for ministry. It’s the first church I’ve attended that really pushes people’s boundaries in theology and practice. I love opportunities to grow in my understanding and experience.

Tell us something that we might not know about you and your wife Sarah.

Sarah and I have been together for going on 8 years – we started dating in high school, and were married in 2011. We have a tradition of camping with family every Easter, so we’re the opposite of C.E.O.’s (Christmas and Easter Only).

Tell us something about your faith journey.

I’m not sure I’d love God if not for Kierkegaard and Thrice. I’m not sure I’d respect Scripture or the Sacraments if not for Karl Barth. I’m not sure if I’d embrace beauty if not for C.S. Lewis. I’m not sure I’d live life to the fullest if not for Tolkien and Stan Lee.

Food?

I’m a fairly adventurous eater – I love trying new things. Good Indian food is one of my faves.

Sports teams?

I generally root for any Texas pro team, but if they play each other I lean toward the Dallas teams. I’m a big Dallas Stars fan. And Baylor of course – Sic ‘em Bears.

Senior Sunday – May 4th

If you are graduating from college or grad school anytime in 2014, we want to recognize you on Sunday May 4th. We would also like to invite you to lunch after church, so please sign-up in the foyer by April 29th, or email toph@ubcwaco.org

Work is Worship 4-27-14

Coffee Makers: Jeff & Teri Watler

Coffee Cleaner Upers: Crystal Salizar & Dylan Adams

Greeters: Linda Taft

Shut Down Team: Boys

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: John 20:19-31 
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• Our next leadership team meeting is April 30th. Please be in prayer for this meeting. If you have a concern you would like the leadership team to consider please notify a member of the team. contact information listed below.
• During this Easter season UBC is offering 1 large Sunday School class in the backside.  The class will last three weeks and have a focus on participation or experiential.  It begins this Sunday.

Do you have an Emergency? Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

(please do not send texts to this number)

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@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

Paul Taft: ptaft@extracobanks.com

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Tom McCarty: tomjmccarty@gmail.com

ITLOTC 4-18-14

 

Some Things Are More Important Than Best Thing I Could Say

 John 18:1-19:42

18:1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

18:2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples.

18:3 So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

18:4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, "Whom are you looking for?"

18:5 They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus replied, "I am he." Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.

18:6 When Jesus said to them, "I am he," they stepped back and fell to the ground.

18:7 Again he asked them, "Whom are you looking for?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth."

18:8 Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go."

18:9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, "I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me."

18:10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus.

18:11 Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?"

18:12 So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him.

18:13 First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.

18:14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.

18:15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest,

18:16 but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in.

18:17 The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not."

18:18 Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.

18:19 Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

18:20 Jesus answered, "I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.

18:21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said."

18:22 When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, "Is that how you answer the high priest?"

18:23 Jesus answered, "If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"

18:24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

18:25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it and said, "I am not."

18:26 One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?"

18:27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

18:28 Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate's headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover.

18:29 So Pilate went out to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"

18:30 They answered, "If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you."

18:31 Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law." The Jews replied, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death."

18:32 (This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)

18:33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

18:34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"

18:35 Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?"

18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."

18:37 Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

18:38 Pilate asked him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, "I find no case against him.

18:39 But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?"

18:40 They shouted in reply, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a bandit.

19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

19:2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe.

19:3 They kept coming up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and striking him on the face.

19:4 Pilate went out again and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him."

19:5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

19:6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him."

19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God."

19:8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever.

19:9 He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

19:10 Pilate therefore said to him, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?"

19:11 Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."

19:12 From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor."

19:13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha.

19:14 Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, "Here is your King!"

19:15 They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but the emperor."

19:16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus;

19:17 and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

19:18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.

19:19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

19:20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

19:21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.'"

19:22 Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."

19:23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 19:24

So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots."

19:25 And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

19:26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son."

19:27 Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

19:28 After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty."

19:29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

19:30 When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

19:31 Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.

19:32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.

19:33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

19:34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

19:35 (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)

19:36 These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, "None of his bones shall be broken."

19:37 And again another passage of scripture says, "They will look on the one whom they have pierced."

19:38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body.

19:39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.

19:40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

19:41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.

19:42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Meet the HR Team

Meet Michael Heins

Family: Married to Bridget for 21 years this May. Becca a Junior at Baylor, and Mikey a freshman at Rapaport Academy.

Vocation/Job/What I do: Unit Director/General Manager of the H-E-B on Wooded Acres in Waco...

Favorite Movie: The Bridge On The River Kwai

Best Restaurant in Waco: Baris for lunch

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and Acts 2:42

Best Television Show: The Walking Dead

Favorite Holiday: Christmas

Something you might not know about me: Raised in the country and once had a pet coyote.

Hobbies: Running, hunting, fishing, boating anything outdoors.

Lost and Found 

Just a friendly reminder that we have a lost and found under the bench in Michelle's office.  These gems showed up on the stage in the backside this week.

Sunday School

There will be no Sunday school on Easter. Starting the following week (the first Sunday after Easter). We will be hosting one big 3 week long Easter Sunday School class that will be more participational from a pedagogy perspective. Hope you will join us for that.

Embrace Beauty 

At UBC we often celebrate the work of our artists because we are striving to be a community that is given to beauty. Usually, those artists are professional artists, but we believe that all of us have an inclination to mingle with beauty. Recently Tye commissioned our friend Marcus to do a painting that is currently featured in the coffee room. We wanted to ask Marcus about the project here’s what we found out.

Marcus what do you do for a living?

I am a lawyer here in Waco. So you are a lawyer who does art for fun. How would you describe the medium used in this piece?

For this drawing I used several different colors of ballpoint pen, highlighters, and black Pigma Micron pen. What inspires you?

This drawing, specifically, was inspired by a painting by Jacopo Bassano.

In general, I mostly draw portraits so I am largely inspired by people's faces and any unique characteristics in a person's appearance. I am also inspired by other artists of all degrees of success. There are so many talented and creative people in this world that I frequently see stuff and think, "That's amazing. I really wish I had thought of that. What can I do that is cool or innovative?" How often do you sketch/paint/draw?

Not as often as I would like to, but I always try to have something in the works. How has drawing aided in your formation as a Christian?

This is a tough question. I can't say that every time I draw I feel connected God and most of what I draw is not tied to my faith in a direct sense; however, I feel immensely blessed to have drawing as a hobby I enjoy. I am a sensitive person and an introvert, so I don't always know how to express myself verbally. Drawing has always felt very therapeutic, so I feel like God has given me an appropriate outlet for those emotions. In that sense, drawing has been a reminder that God takes care of us and has equipped us to deal with our experiences here on Earth in so many different ways, and for that I am very thankful.

Meet Our Newest UBCer

Evelyn Mae Bates

Birthday : Feb 26, 2014

Height : 20 inches

Weight : 8 lbs 1 oz

Enneagram Number: 7

Leadership Team Nominations

UBC is governed by an executive body which we call the leadership team. The leadership team is made up of 7 non-staff members of the UBC community. Leadership team terms last 3 years. A year term runs from July-June. The existing leadership team selects new members as old members rotate off. The leadership team meets once a quarter (July, October, January, April) and for any other emergency sessions. In the April meeting nominations for new leadership team members will be reviewed and voted upon. A new leadership team member’s first meeting is the July meeting. There is one spot being vacated this year. We are now accepting nominations for leadership team members. Nominees can be self-nominated or nominated by someone else in the community. Those wishing to nominate themselves or someone else should send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org. We are taking nominations between now and April 20th.

Senior Sunday - May 4th

If you are graduating from college or grad school anytime in 2014, we want to recognize you on Sunday May 4th. We would also like to invite you to lunch after church, so please sign-up in the foyer by April 29th, or email toph@ubcwaco.org

Work Is Worship

4-20-14

Coffee Makers: Sarah Kelm

Coffee Clean Up: Kim & Tom Haines

Greeters:

April-June sign ups are now posted. Please consider signing up for our new quarter.

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Matthew 28:1-10  (Easter Sunday)
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• Our next leadership team meeting is April 30th.  Please be in prayer for this meeting.  If you have a concern you would like the leadership team to consider please notify a member of the team.  contact information listed below.

Do you have an Emergency? Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

(please do not send texts to this number)

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@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

Paul Taft: ptaft@extracobanks.com

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Tom McCarty: tomjmccarty@gmail.com

ITLOTC 4-11-14

Why All the Hoopla? 

 Moment 1: Skybox

As a youngster my parents offered a pretty loaded Easter basket on Easter morning.  Did yours do that?  Most years it was candy.  A large amount of candy.  Easter put it's pagan holiday cousin Halloween to shame in our house.  As I got older and older the Easter bunny myths disappeared and the treasures found in Easter baskets became more sophisticated.  My older brothers and sisters had almost no candy.  Instead they would get one big item like a Body Glove color change t-shirt or Oakley Blades.  Eventually my own palate for Easter goodness became more sophisticated.  One year I decided to aim for the moon.  As an avid basketball card collector I was constantly buying packs of cards.  Packs of cards ran one to two dollars and if I had birthday money I might live on the edge and spend an entire $2.50.  There was the one kid that my friends and I didn't like.  Dan.  We thought Dan was spoiled because he'd routinely roll into Augie's Collectibles Trading Card store and drop a cool $30 on an entire box of cards.  An entire box full of about 20 packs of cards!

I envied that entire-box-of-cards-purchasing-experience so I decided to ask my dad.  Dad, because my chances with him these sorts of these things were always better.  I had one picked out.  Skybox.  They seemed high end and the colors! Oh, the colors in the background.  It was the best of the 80's and 90's combined.

I had a problem though.  My dad was a terrible shopper.  Though I was making a direct request this was supposed to be a surprise.  I couldn't go with my dad to get the cards.  To make matters worse, a box of Skybox basketball cards was only available in Rhinelander, a metropolis just 18 minutes to the northeast that had their own Wal-Mart (a novel treasure in northern WI back in '92).  Wal-Mart!  Do you know how many things exist in a Wal-Mart store?  My dad was terrible with these sorts of details, I was sure he was going to get the wrong thing.  So I walked him through exactly how to find the cards over and over and over.  I even called ahead to make sure they hand't been moved since the last time I was there.  I desperately wanted to get those cards.  During my 407th time explaining to my dad where the cards were, he, the most docile and laid back person I know, lost it.  I can't remember, but cards might have even been modified by "damn."  As in I'll get you your "damn" cards.

I was floored.  I had never seen my dad do that, much less to me.  But that experience was a good one.  It sent me on introspective journey in which I began to realize that I hadn't even given Easter any real thought.  I had fallen prey to the War on Christmas's primary concern.  I really had forgotten that Jesus was the reason for the season.

Moment 2: March/April 2014

The Carney life has been filled with a series of no small events.  We sold our house and moved into an apartment, where we welcomed home our fourth child and where we have also hosted a smorgasbord of family (all here to celebrate baby Wendell).  To make matters more interesting I've found myself among one of the busiest Springs at UBC since I can remember.

As an enneagram three I live in the deep irony that though I exist at the center of what is called the heart triad, and can be extremely intuitive in detecting what others are experiencing and feeling, I often cannot connect with how I feel.  When stoicism is needed it can be a gift.  When life circumstances intimacy and emotive response it can be a curse.

Lindsay and I put a contract on a new house this week.  Objectively ... rationally I'm so excited.  But as was the case with my new born son, I feel like with all that's going on I haven't really had the time to connect with what has happened and in some way I'm missing out on these moment's celebrations.

It has been 22 years since I got that box of Skybox basketball cards, but my circumstances seem to similar. I've found that almost everything is begging me to ignore that Easter is a week away.

Moment 3: Holy Week

After I finished my introspective journey inaugurated by my dad's rebuke, I decided to begin my Easter morning by reading the gospel of accounts of the resurrection.  I wasn't sure what church was going to hold, but I felt like I owed it to Jesus.  That was what I was offering back to God for this gift He'd given me.  Five minutes of my eleven year old time to remember that I live, move and have my being is because of His sacrifice on Friday and His gift on Sunday.

As Baptists or whatever you grew up as many of us didn't know about the church calendar.  You may or may not have had a good Friday service, but I suspect that for most of us Easter Sunday was a great Evangelical celebration day surrounded by a few days off of school for good measure.

The church calendar is a gift to us.  It orients us.  It demands that we push past Skybox basketball cards, new houses, and yes even the arrival of our own children to remember that there is something more precious than all of that.  Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ in coming again.

I hope you'll join us for our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday services this week.

Meet the HR Team

Meet Jeff Walter

Family: Husband to Teri (40 years now--lucky me), Father to Erika, Logan and Mason (all grown and living in Austin), father-in-law to Chris, Maddie and Rachel. (I’m counting Rachel because she said “yes” to Mason last weekend), and – drum roll please – Grandfather to Walter, who is – quite possibly – the greatest 7-month old on planet Earth. Vocation/Job/What I do: I take care of the Rec facilities at Baylor, a four-year university here in Waco.

Favorite Movie: Trains, Planes and Automobiles (I like the Planes part best, but Trains and Automobiles are funny too.)

Best Restaurant in Waco: El Cuecero (UBC’s other fellowship hall)

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: …the one I’m reading at the moment, I hope.

Best Television Show: Live Sports. (and – like all intelligent people – The Good Wife.)

Favorite Holiday: March Madness. (on a side note: I think Scott Drew is a good coach.)

Something you might not know about me: I was raised in Roswell, New Mexico, by aliens. (funny stuff right there)

Hobbies: Baylor Sports, popping popcorn on the stovetop, and trying too hard to be funny.

Holy Week Schedule

 Saturday April 12th

UBC and SWCC Present: Epic Easter Egg Hunt

What: An Epic Easter Egg Hunt

When:  11:00 AM

Where: South Waco Community Center (2815 Speight)

Who: both UBC families to participate & everyone else to volunteer. (Last year the SWCC served 400 hundred kids with 4,000 Easter Eggs. This year they are expecting more kids and so they need to prepare 7,000 eggs!!! Please come help make our neighborhood better).

Thursday April 17th 

Maundy Thursday Service

6:00 PM

If you have not been to one before, the Maundy Thursday service is a pot luck gathering in which we read scripture and eat while fellowshiping in the Lord.  At the conclusion of the service, we will celebrate the Lords supper together.  It will be located in the backside.

Friday April 18th 

Good Friday Service

Will also be located in the backside.  It will start at 6:00.  Please enter silently.  Service will last about 40 minutes.

Sunday April 20th

He is Risen!!!  Come and join us for our normal sunday worship hour as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Picnic In the Park

This Sunday we are scheduled to make our way to Miss Nelly's Pretty Place in Cameron Park after church.  Grab or bring your lunch and join us for some fellowshiping in the Lord.  As of right now there is a 50% chance of rain so please be checking this blog, and the twitter feed for an update on Sunday.

Sunday School

This is the last week of spring Sunday School.  There will be no Sunday school on Easter.  Starting the following week (the first Sunday after Easter).  We will be hosting one big 3 week long Easter Sunday School class that will be more participational from a pedagogy perspective.  Hope you will join us for that.

Work Is Worship

4-13-14

Coffee Makers: Sarah Joyave & Vince Cooley

Coffee Clean Up:

Greeters: Charlie Shores & Gabbie Pucket

April-June sign ups are now posted. Please consider signing up for our new quarter.

Leadership Team Nominations

• UBC is governed by an executive body which we call the leadership team.
• The leadership team is made up of 7 non-staff members of the UBC community.
• Leadership team terms last 3 years.
• A year term runs from July-June.
• The existing leadership team selects new members as old members rotate off.
• The leadership team meets once a quarter (July, October, January, April) and for any other emergency sessions.
• In the April meeting nominations for new leadership team members will be reviewed and voted upon.
• A new leadership team member’s first meeting is the July meeting.
• There is one spot being vacated this year.
• We are now accepting nominations for leadership team members.
• Nominees can be self-nominated or nominated by someone else in the community.
• Those wishing to nominate themselves or someone else should send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org.
• We are taking nominations between now and April 20th.

Announcements

• Marriage Ministry Presents: Game Night.  Where: UBC.  When: 6:00 PM/Saturday April 12th. Who (should I contact)?: Alwilhite@gmail.com.  Childcare: Provided.
• Sunday Sermon Text: Matthew 21:1-11 (Palm Sunday)
• John Sunday School:
• Christians in the Headlines: TV Church.  Good idea or Bad idea? 
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: Psalm 132-133
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• If you’d like to purchase a children’s ministry t-shirt for you or your child, please email Emily@ubcwaco.org or find her at church on Sunday. The shirts cost $8.

Do you have an Emergency? Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

(please do not send texts to this number)

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@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

Paul Taft: ptaft@extracobanks.com

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Tom McCarty: tomjmccarty@gmail.com

ITLOTC 4-4-14

Raising Wendell

I've said a few times before, both in this newsletter and in sermons, that the enneagram has been extremely helpful for me in my formation.  It has exposed within me: my strengths, weaknesses, propensity for sin, how I behave under stress, how I behave when I'm healthy and so much more.  It's also helped me understand a question I have about myself that will probably seem to you both arrogant and humorous.

In my second year of seminary I went to Baylor's chapel service to hear Tony Campolo speak.  Campolo begin his sermon/lecture by stating that Freud thought everything was about sex, but that was later corrected by Nietzsche who said that everything was about power.  Campolo agreed.  Human behavior he said could be described by the human need for power.  I disagreed.  I thought to myself "I really don't care about power I just want to be famous.  If I'm famous and poor ... that's fine.  If I'm famous and powerless that's fine ... I just want to be famous."

The question in my head went something like this, "Does everyone want to be famous or is that just me?"  The enneagram helped me understand my question.  I'm a three.  Though I think some of us, even a majority of us might enjoy some fame, the three loves to be adored.  Their need to be praised is a form of idolatry in their lives.  It's why they do what they do and why their biggest fear is of being useless.

Many times I have stood with the good people of UBC pondering the notion that I'm gathered with a community of people who have come together to confront their own idolatry by gathering for God's glory and not their own.  Father Richard Rohr says that America is a three country.  Consequently I belong to a society where my ambitions are often deemed good.  I think it's healthy then, that the one place I can go to hear the truth is the church.  The church is the sole voice in a self-help, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps society that will tell you/me that in fact, "this is not your story, it is God's.  Grace has given you a part in it.  You can't meaningfully be anything other than who you already are in Christ."

This week Lindsay and I welcomed our fourth child into our family.  Wendell Lewis is a 8 lb 3 oz champion for the Lord.  Because of the recent chaos we've found ourselves in, I hadn't reflected much on Wendell's coming.  So I did while I was in the hospital.  I began dreaming the narratives that involve me, my foxy wife, and our four kids.  In these milestone moments, like having a new child, I usually slow down to take inventory of my own life. I ask the meta questions.  I think about all that has happened.  I dream about where to go.

One night while I was rocking Wendell in the wee hours of the morning I began thinking about my oldest son Roy.  Roy recently turned 7.  I thought back to all the advice I got from those eager to share it with first time parents.  Of everything that was said I only remember one thing.  When Lindsay was pregnant with Roy I was a park ranger.  My park ranging partner, Lanny, offered this, "I'm sure everybody's giving you all kinds of advice, so I won't save to say this, it goes so fast."

That was nearly eight years ago and Lord has it gone fast.  There was something in that moment when I caught a glimpse of the speed of life that made me reflective of the kind of parent I want to be.  What kind of parent I want to be to my oldest son Roy, my newest son Wendell and my two girls in-between.  I decided I will not ask them to strive to be famous.

Of course few parents would put that on their children.  But we do want them to be great or at least as great as they can be.  That is the language we've given ourselves permission to use.

I don't know what your experience with social media is like, but mine seems increasingly dismal.  Still, in world of snarky comments, food pictures, and unfiltered political memes I sometimes find little gems.  This week one came from my friend Brett.  On his wall he posted a photo of a page from William Martin's book "The Parents Tao Te Ching."

There is this quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel that I love.  He says: “Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.”

Often I'm questioned about what it means to raise children in a Godly home.  From now on I think I shall tell people to teach their children wonder.

Meet the HR Team

 Meet Lacy McNamee

Family: Douglas (husband of 6 years); Campbell & Basey (certified Grade A mutts)

Vocation/Job/What I do: Assistant Professor in the Communication Department at Baylor

Favorite Movie: Shawshank Redemption; Gone Baby Gone

Best Restaurant in Waco: George’s, of course. Wait, does Baskin Robbins count as a restaurant?

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: Matthew 6:25-34 (“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life…”)

Best Television Show: Sherlock; Walking Dead ~ high functioning sociopaths and zombies = high quality entertainment.

Favorite Holiday: Christmas!

Something you might not know about me: As a kid, I used to cry after Christmas was over (I wish that were a lie).

Hobbies: Volunteering, cycling, cooking….planning survival tactics for the zombie apocalypse.

UBC Marriage Ministry Presents: Game Night

Where: UBC

When: Saturday April 12th @ 6:00 PM

Will there be childcare?  Yes.

John Sunday School Class

This week is the last week we will have our awesome teacher Lindsey Trozzo with us.  Lindsey would love to use her last week here to field questions you might have about John.  You can email her your questions ahead of time at lindsey_Trozzo@baylor.edu.

 UBC and SWCC Present: Epic Easter Egg Hunt

What: An Epic Easter Egg Hunt

When: April 12th @ 11:00 AM

Where: South Waco Community Center (2815 Speight)

Who: both UBC families to participate & everyone else to volunteer.  (Last year the SWCC served 400 hundred kids with 4,000 Easter Eggs.  This year they are expecting more kids and so they need to prepare 7,000 eggs!!! Please come help make our neighborhood better).

Families @ Baylor Soccer Field 

As many of you know, the weather is looking a bit spotty for our afternoon gathering.  As of now we are still planning on having our families at the Baylor-Soccer-Field-Day after church this Sunday.  Please check the twitter account on Sunday for cancelations or listen for it in the announcements.

What do I need to bring?

1. Drinks for your family

2. Clothes to play in/get dirty in

Who do i contact if i haven't already singed up?  josh@ubcwaco.org

Work Is Worship

4-6-14

Coffee Makers: Jess Hinshaw & Sarah Welch

Coffee Clean Up:

Greeters: Jeff and Teri Walter

April-June sign ups are now posted. Please consider signing up for our new quarter.

Leadership Team Nominations

• UBC is governed by an executive body which we call the leadership team.
• The leadership team is made up of 7 non-staff members of the UBC community.
• Leadership team terms last 3 years.
• A year term runs from July-June.
• The existing leadership team selects new members as old members rotate off.
• The leadership team meets once a quarter (July, October, January, April) and for any other emergency sessions.
• In the April meeting nominations for new leadership team members will be reviewed and voted upon.
• A new leadership team member’s first meeting is the July meeting.
• There is one spot being vacated this year.
• We are now accepting nominations for leadership team members.
• Nominees can be self-nominated or nominated by someone else in the community.
• Those wishing to nominate themselves or someone else should send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org.
• We are taking nominations between now and April 20th.

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: James 5:13-18 (Get excited as Brother Toph prepares to bring the Thunder)
• John Sunday School: Q & A with Lindsey (her last sunday (insert sad face emoji))
• Christians in the Headlines: The Gospel Coalition and World Vision 
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: Psalm 130-131
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• If you’d like to purchase a children’s ministry t-shirt for you or your child, please email Emily@ubcwaco.org or find her at church on Sunday. The shirts cost $8.
• Marriage Ministry Presents: Game Night. April 12^th @ UBC. Child care provided. Email craig@ubcwaco.org if you have questions.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

(please do not send texts to this number)

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@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

Paul Taft: ptaft@extracobanks.com

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Tom McCarty: tomjmccarty@gmail.com

ITLOTC 3-30-14

Casting Stones

John 8:1-9

while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’

This week World Vision, a nonprofit Christian organization whose vision it is "for every child to experience life in its fullness," caused a firestorm when they first announced that they would employ individuals who are part of legal same sex marriages and then just two days later reversed that decision.

U.S. World Vision President reported that by Wednesday the organization had already lost over 2,000 financial supporters equaling $840,000 annual shortfall.

I made a decision to read just one opinion piece this week.  It was from the blog of Russell Moore who is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.  You can read his piece here.  I picked Moore because he is a lot smarter than I am and I find that I consistently disagree with him on most things.

In his blog Russell Moore says that, "At stake is the gospel of Jesus Christ." I agree (with some nuancing), the gospel is at stake when the church makes judgements about whether or not to same sex couples can marry.  It's also at stake when we decide to take away money from children in need.  The only difference between the two issues is that Jesus explicitly says that the gospel is at stake when you take away money from children in need.  That I don't find ambiguous.

UBC has a history of radioing silence on issues that are controversial.  Part of that stems from our belief that UBC is not Josh or Craig or Tye or Toph or Emily or the leadership team.  UBC is all of us and i promise you that "all of us" is very diverse.  But despite this diversity and my ambiguity I do think there is a right answer to the question is homosexuality wrong.

When president Obama came out in favor of homosexual marriage a few years back I was interviewed by a local TV station.  As you might have guessed they wanted to know what the church thought.  My answer was that I'd give an answer when the church had won the right to speak into the lives of the LBGT community.

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more," but only after placing himself between her and those ready to cast stones.  I find that i'm part of a 21st century church that loves to tell people to go and sin no more, but rarely loves to stand between them and flying stones.

This week the church didn't do anything to win the right speak into the lives of the LBGT community.  In fact we took 840,000 steps back and I think it's important that we know ...

the world is watching.

Meet The Finance Team

 Meet Tom McCarty

Family: The greatest sales job I ever did was getting my wife Beth to marry me! I definitely married up and feel lucky every day that I get to spend life with her. We have two wonderful little boys that keep us constantly moving. Aiden is 4 years old and loves to climb, run, and jump on everything. Asher is 3 and has far and away the best sense of humor of any of us.

Vocation/Job/What I do: Beth has often described my job as similar to Chandler on Friends (I explain, but nobody quiet gets it!). I work for Intuit running strategic planning & project management for our Small Business Sales group. Basically, I try to figure out ways to fix broken processes, or how to implement new things to improve the business.

Favorite Movie: Wow - that’s tough. I really love movies, so a little hard to only pick one. I’ll go with my favorite sports movie and say The Natural for now.

Best Restaurant in Waco: 1424 for the occasions that Beth & I get to go out without the boys!

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: Admittedly, I’m not the best at spending time here. That said over the past couple years I have enjoyed spending time in the Psalms because I always found something the resonated with where I was in life.

Best Television Show: I like to keep it light right now, so Modern Family & Big Bang Theory. Of my favorite series ever was HBO’s Band Of Brothers.

Favorite Holiday: Definitely Christmas

Something you might not know about me: I spent my college years in a band and had long sideburns, a terrible goatee, and multiple ear rings. Not some of my best style choices.

Hobbies: Running, traveling, St Louis Cardinals baseball, watching any Baylor sports, poker, and my favorite is just sitting on the coach with Beth!

DR T-Shirts

Friends, would you consider buying a DR shirt to support our missions team in May?  T-shirts will be on sale through March 31st.

http://thesimpleengine.com/store/ubcwaco/UBCWacoDR2014

Families @ Baylor Soccer Field

Has been rescheduled for Sunday April 6^th. It will occur at the Baylor soccer field and pizza will be provided.  Bring play clothes because we are going to throw Frisbees, footballs and kick European footballs.  Interested? Email josh@ubcwaco.org.

Love Feast

This Sunday (March 30^th) @ 6:00 PM. Bring food and sign up

 Work Is Worship

3-30-14

Coffee Makers: Jess Hinshaw & Claire Cole

Coffee Clean Up: Katherine Ellis & Rea Cleamons

Greeters: Bonnie Dennis

Also, this Sunday brings this quarter to a conclusion.  That means our April-June sign ups will be posted. Please consider signing up for our new quarter.

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Psalm 23
• John Sunday School: John
• Christians in the Headlines: Divergent (the movie)
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: Psalm 127-129
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• The Empty Nesters will be meeting for dinner (TONIGHT) Friday March 28^th @ 6:30 at Don Carlos.  Please contact Linda Taft taftchef@gmail.com if you are interested in more information.
• If you’d like to purchase a children’s ministry t-shirt for you or your child, please email Emily@ubcwaco.org or find her at church on Sunday. The shirts cost $8.
• Marriage Ministry Presents: Game Night. April 12^th @ UBC. Child care provided. Email craig@ubcwaco.org if you have questions.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

(please do not send texts to this number)

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

UBC Garage Sale 2014!

UBC GARAGE SALE 2014

Saturday August 16th-- 7:00a.m. to 2:00p.m.

Monday August 18th-- 7:00a.m. to 2:00p.m.

Tuesday August 19th-- 7:00a.m. to 2:00p.m.

- - -

Why August and not June?

It's Back to School Time!  Parents will be seeking out good deals on school clothes and university students will be looking for items to furnish their dorms and apartments with.

Why are we telling you now?

So you can put it on your calendars and make plans to be in town on those days.  We will need at the very least 25 people on each of these days to help work the sale.  Email craig@ubcwaco.org if you already know you can make one of those days.  Otherwise, expect me to give you a personal invitation to help out! :)

What do we need?

Whatever you've got.  As you get ready to pack up for the summer, make it easier on yourselves.  Downsize!  We will take clothes, dishes, books, and any assorted junk you can load up.  We would ESPECIALLY love to take your furniture, large appliances and electronics off your hands, as these can add up very quickly.

What else do we need?

If you have any amount of time to give during the week between now and August to help sort and organize, we would be able to use you.  In addition to this, we would love if a group of you (a Mi Casa, group of roommates, etc.) would volunteer to help clear out and get part of our storage building cleaned up and ready to load stuff in.  This will be a several hour job.

What is our goal?

The largest we have ever made at a garage sale is $10,000.  We are hoping to top that this year.  Since we are a church with a nontraditional giving base (a fancy way of saying that about half of us are broke college students,) we rely on our garage sale to help pick up some of the fiscal slack.  If it is difficult or impossible for you to give financially, this is a great way to give of yourself and of your things.

 What will you get out of helping?

In addition to the satisfaction of having contributed to the life of the church in a valuable way, many people over the years have cited the summer Garage Sale, both the actual sale days and the time spent helping out, as the thing that was most instrumental in them getting connected to the community of UBC.

- - -

(anything below this line is an advertisement.)

__________

ITLOTC 3-21-14

It's Good Music

There are a million things/people that go into making churches great.  Because of this it's easy to overlook or begin to expect the great things that just are.

A little context before I share my lived experience.  As I've often said, I grew in a small town in Northern Wisconsin.  The church my dad pastored was a small church with a small budget.  The role of the "worship leader" was often volunteer and in seasons when it was paid, it was miniscule.  For many years this task fell to my mom.  My mom would be the first to tell you that she's not a worship leader.  But something about her realization that this was the case combined with her willingness to do it because she loved serving the church made her efforts all the more admirable.

The church, Prince of Peace Christian Church, I often describe as a small community full of Flannery O'Conner characters; salt of the earth people that reveal the best and worst parts of being in a small town church.  The worship leader would get the latest music from Vineyard, Hillsong, or whoever else was doing something worth hearing at the time, and translate these audio masterpieces into something our 5-6 piece ragtag worship band could manage.  And we would sing, fervently.

Church is a tricky business because with everything you do, you have to bring a second set of tools to evaluate the worth of something.  In business, it's about success and making whatever choices are needed to make something successful.  In the church we define success differently.  We care as much about the person performing the music as we do the performance of the music.  For this reason, I always loved the efforts of the music band at the church I grew up in.  They were earnest and sincere if not abundantly talented.  And that matters.

My parents, who are currently in town, often marvel at the massive amount of talent that exists in one place when they visit UBC.  There are 20+ seminary students with more religious education than most pastors in rural settings.  There are hundreds of eager Baylor students every year with a desire to bring their musical talent to the stage.  There are Ph.D. students of all disciplines to bounce ideas off of and sharpen thoughts.  There are  business school professors to serve on the finance team and folks with extensive management experience to serve on the HR team.  There are all kinds of people with years of their own ministry experience who are content to lead a mi casa.   We all have Baylor to thank for this.  Waco is a wealth of Christian resources.

I was reminded of this, this week.  I've posted in this newsletter the last few weeks that UBC has been involved with some other churches in planning ecumenical services downtown for lent.  Our first one was Wednesday and it happened to be the day that I/UBC was leading worship.  A few months back, in preparation for this moment I asked Tye swing by and play a ditty.  Fast forward to this last Wednesday ...

In my car on the way to church a half hour before I'm supposed to meet the other pastors to be begin setting up for the service ...

click contacts ... select tye barrett.

Me: Tye, first i have i have tell you something, and then I need to apologize for not reminding you sooner.

Tye: what?

Me: today is that lent thing you were supposed to play for.

Tye: oh crap, you're right, that's even on my calendar

Me: (surprised tye keeps a calendar) shoot are you out of the state?

Tye: no, on my to Fort Worth to pick up some music equipment stuff.

Me: Awesome.

Tye: let me check I might could get Jameson to play.

5 minutes later ... phone rings.

Tye: yeah, Jameson is going to do it

Me: Awesome.

I interrupt this story to bring you a picture of Jameson

(this is my favorite one)

And Jameson (Tye's equivalent of the Edge who often plays on Sunday mornings ... in case you don't know him by that name) played ... and it was fantastic.  And then I reflected on how  effortless that was for Jameson and his comparative superiority to all the musicians that came through the church I grew up in ... and how Jameson is just one of the many talented people who make our Sunday mornings so fantastic ... I thought to myself, "we are so spoiled."

So thank you to all of you musicians who so often could be elsewhere making money and living the big life, but have decided instead to stay here and lead us.  And thank you to our fearless leader in this department, Tye "Tiger" Barrett, who one day a few years ago decided to put on these shoes that everyone thought were going to be just to big to fill and started walking just fine.

Meet The Finance Team

Meet Paul Taft

 

Family:  Married to Linda; Children: Chelsea (27) and her husband Stephen, Jon (25), Lillie (20) and Callie (17)

Vocation/Job/What I do:  Compliance Officer for Extraco Banks

Favorite Movie:  Rainman

Best Restaurant in Waco:  Home

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me:  John 14

Best Television Show:  romantic comedies on Netflix

Favorite Holiday:  Christmas

Something you might not know about me:  I am a preacher's kid, and I was a volunteer fireman in college.

Hobbies:  reading, watching movies, playing board games

Leadership Team Nominations

• UBC is governed by an executive body which we call the leadership team.
• The leadership team is made up of 7 non-staff members of the UBC community.
•  Leadership team terms last 3 years.
• A year term runs from July-June.
•  The existing leadership team selects new members as old members rotate off.
• The leadership team meets once a quarter (July, October, January, April) and for any other emergency sessions.
• In the April meeting nominations for new leadership team members will be reviewed and voted upon.
• A new leadership team member's first meeting is the July meeting.
• There is one spot being vacated this year.
• We are now accepting nominations for leadership team members.
• Nominees can be self-nominated or nominated by someone else in the community.
• Those wishing to nominate themselves or someone else should send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org.
• We are taking nominations between now and April 20th.

DR T-Shirts

Friends, would you consider buying a DR shirt to support our missions team in May?  T-shirts will be on sale through March 31st.

Click here to check them out.

Christ in the Dessert Experience

As many of you know, Craig led a trip of UBCers to the Christ in the dessert monastery for spring break last week.

Hunter Schroer wrote about it and it was posted on the UBC blog earlier this week.  Please take a moment to read about it if you haven’t.

Lost and Found

• A children's black Hanes hoodie, size M
• a pink/blue/yellow play phone that talks in Spanish/English
• a small tan bible
• brown soft cover message bible

Children’s Ministry T-Shirts

We have t-shirts left for children and adults

Children and other UBCers can purchase them for $8

UBCKids Volunteers get a free shirt as a token of our thanks for their help

People can email me (emily@ubcwaco.org), come by the office during the week or find me in the foyer after church Sunday (I'll be sure that I have someone their to collect money and hand out shirts!

Work Is Worship

3-23-14

Coffee Makers:

Coffee Clean Up: Kaley Eggers & Emily Driscoll

Greeters: Michael Scott & Kelli Gunter

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Exodus 17:1-7
• John Sunday School: John 10:1-21
• Christians in the Headlines: Obama Care & Christians
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: Psalm 126 & 127
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• The Empty Nesters will be meeting for dinner Friday March 28^th @ 6:30 at Don Carlos.  Please contact Linda Taft taftchef@gmail.com if you are interested in more information.
• The UBC families will be meeting at the Baylor soccer field after church this Sunday the 23^rd.  Pizza will be provided for lunch.  We’ll be playing games and hanging out.  Bring your “can get dirty” clothes.  Email josh@ubcwaco.org if you are interested in more information.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

(please do not send texts to this number)

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

Monks Eat Corndogs Too: Monastery Reflection by Hunter Schroer...

To get an idea of what a Benedictine monastery is like (at least from my experience over spring break), I would encourage you to try something before you continue reading: try sitting in silence for as long as you can. Don’t check your email, FaceBook, or browse the web; don’t check your phone or talk to a friend. 15 seconds or 15 minutes, just be alone and embrace silence…go Different, huh? In a guest book at the monastery of Christ in the Desert, there was a passage that urged guests to respect the silence of the monks. “The monastery strives to have silence within its walls, as equivalently as the world has noise,” it read. “Sit back and enjoy the lack of activity.” At first, this was admittedly a little jarring, despite the fact that our group knew what we were getting into. I expected to love the silence and slow pace, and I did for two and a half days. I jumped in head first, attending all seven services both Sunday and Monday (these start at 4a.m., mind you, and the schedule can be seen here). I was starting to get the hang of chanting the psalms together, and bowing at the correct times. But eventually, the routine wore me down. I was surprised at how tired I was, despite being able to nap throughout the day. Looking back, perhaps it was the silence itself that tired me. I was spending more energy than usual listening, thinking, and reflecting.

One of my favorite realizations from the trips is that the monks are normal people like us. One day, when we entered the dining hall – that’s refectory to you – I was caught off guard to see corndogs and Taquitos laid out with the other dinner choices. I chuckled at the time, but seeing our “guest master,” Brother Andre, chowing down on three corndogs had a more profound impact than I realized. The monks weren’t too different from us after all. In the few interactions I was able to have with the monks, I really enjoyed getting to see their personalities, and hear a little about their lives before the monastery.

The most important lesson I learned was to wait in silence for God. As St. Benedict said himself at the beginning of his Rule: “Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart.” I would challenge you to spend five minutes a day, listening, waiting, enjoying the silence.

Check out this link to meet two of the monks, get some good views of the monastery, and hear some psalm chanting at 4:49.

_________________

Hunter Schroer is a senior at Baylor majoring in Environmental Engineering.  He is from Jefferson City, Missouri.  After graduating from May he and his soon-to-be-wife Audrey will attend graduate school at the University of Iowa.

(Anything below this line is an advertisement.)

________________________________

ITLOTC 3-14-14

Rest

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Exodus 20:8

"According to the rabbis, those who observe the Sabbath observe all the other commandments."

Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar In The World

This is the Friday at the end of spring break for most of Waco.  The Carneys have probably spent more of them in Waco than not since we got married nearly ten years ago.  Some years that was due to fiscal constraints.  Some years that was due to a lack of planning, but I think most years it had to do with a lack of motivation.  I talked with a friend this week who suggested I think correctly, that spring in Waco is the one season when you really want to be here, so he and his family save their vacation dollars for our beastly summers.  That makes sense to me.

Confession:  I love being in Waco when all of you leave.  Christmas and spring break are two my favorite times of year in Waco.  Everything seems more peaceful.  The traffic seems slower.  The restaurants are emptier.  It's as if the local cosmos has communicated that we can let our hair down.  And so the city does.

Even the church is empty.  Toph was in India doing scouting work this week.  Craig led a group of UBCers to a monastery.  Tye went to Amarillo to do a funeral and Michelle and Emily have been in and out.  What surprises me most is that as much as I'm an extrovert and conditioned to thrive in the presence of others, I come alive in my solitude.

By all means this should have been a week of chaos for me.  We are in the midst of HR reviews.  The annual budget is being finalized.  My wife is 38 weeks pregnant.  Our house is a complete disaster because we are moving this weekend and most of our belongings are now inaccessible in a 300 square foot storage unit and all regular pastor duties remain.

Despite all of this, somehow, Waco's week of rest has found me.  There have been fewer phone calls, fewer emails, I really didn't have any meetings this week, no impromptu staff conversations, no mi casa and all weekly events have been cancelled for the week.

I know myself well enough now to understand what is happening.  When the chaos of life subsides the parts of myself that I enjoy the most get to surface.  I browsed books recalling things I've underlined.  New ideas have started to pop in my head.  I begin to do a little bit of dreaming.  It's life giving.

Jewish Rabbis understood this process.  It's the reason they took the sabbath commandment so seriously.  Contrary to popular understanding, the seventh day of creation was not a day off, rather it is the most vibrant and vivid day of creating.  It is the day when the best part of is allowed to come out and play.

Abraham Joshua Heschel says this in his book The Sabbath:

After the six days of creation--what did the universe still lack?  Menuha.  Came the Sabbath, came menuha, and the universe was complete.  

Menuha which we usually render with "rest" means here much more than withdrawal from labor and exertion, more than freedom from toil, strain or activity of any kind.  Menuha is not a negative concept but something real and intrinsically positive.  

What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose. 

Sabbath is a space in time that humans are given to "work" on themselves.  To cultivate the best parts of themselves, the God given parts, so that we become even better vessels of peace, joy, serenity and all the attributes that should translate into worship for God's glory.

The problem with spring break is that often we come back needing a vacation from our vacation.  This week I was reminded about the importance of cultivating Menuha.  I was reminded about why it is important to love myself enough to give the best part of me a chance to flourish.

I pray that as chaos settles and life returns with it's routine you find a way to make menuha a priority.  Grace, Peace and rest friends.

Meet The Finance Team 

Meet Chris Kim

 

Vocation: I am an auditor for Jaynes, Reitmeier, Boyd, & Therrell, P.C. I perform accounting procedures to determine if financial statements are free of material misstatements whether due to fraud or error. It’s WAY cooler than it sounds.

Favorite Movie: Airplane (Surely you can’t be serious!)

Best Restaurant in Waco: El Crucero

Bible Verse: Matthew 5: 1-12 (The Beatitudes)

Television Show: Shark Tank

Favorite Holiday: Thanksgiving (because our family gets to express the spirit of thankfulness with a “friendly” game of touch football)

Something we may not know about you: For the first 13 years of my life I wanted to be a garbage man.

Hobby: Hiking, camping, fishing, soccer, aka anything that gives me an excuse to be outside.

Lost and Found

From: Michelle

“Hi. Will you add these things to the newsletter, please?

Lost & Found Items: A children's black Hanes hoodie, size M, a pink/blue/yellow play phone that talks in Spanish/English, a small tan bible (pic included).”

 

Empty and Empty Nesters Dinner

Friday, March 28^th @ 6:30.

Don Carlos

4651 Interstate 35-S

If you are interested email Linda @ taftchef@gmail.com for more information

Families @ Baylor Soccer Field Day

Families, we will be meeting at the Baylor Soccer Field after church on March 23^rd from 12:30ish to 2:30ish.  We’ll eat lunch together (pizza provided) and then spend some time playing Frisbee, soccer, and other games with our kids on the field.  Interested persons should email josh@ubcwaco.org for more information.

Lenten Ecumenical Services: For the Love of the City

I have been working with some downtown churches to put together a series of noontime Lenten services for the larger Waco community.  They will be held at Turner’s on Austin Ave (723 Austin Ave) from 12:00-1:00 for four consecutive Wednesdays.  There will be food trucks stationed outside if you need eat.  The services will be about 20 minutes.  Would love to see you there.

• Wednesday March 19^th
• Wednesday March 26^th
• Wednesday April 2^nd
• Wednesday April 9^th

Sunday School

A Reminder that during the two Sundays during Spring Break, March 9^th and 16^th there will be no Sunday School.

Work Is Worship

3-9-14

Coffee Makers: Kayla Larvins & Michael Scott

Coffee Clean Up: Sara Joyave & Vinie Cooley

Greeters:

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Genesis 12:1-4
• John Sunday School:  No Sunday School during Spring Break
• Christians in the Headlines: No Sunday School during Spring Break
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: No Sunday School during Spring Break
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

ITLOTC 3-7-14

Holy Ground

Two qualifying statements:

1. This is more about me and less about the church.  An apology on the front end for self-indulgence.
2. I might suggest this as an auditory companion for your reading.

“Each place is the right place--the place where I now am can be a sacred space.”

- Ravi Ravindra

Lindsay and I spent our honeymoon on the north shore of Lake Superior.   Married just one week we returned home eager to pack and move to the whimsical Waco, TX.  After we put the last thing in the moving truck we said goodbye to her parents.  Lindsay cried.  I did not and not because it was my in-laws.  I didn’t cry when I said goodbye to my parents a week earlier either.  I don’t cry at a lot of things that most people do.  It’s part of my enneagram 3ness.  It’s difficult for me to connect to what I’m feeling.  On our way out of town we stopped by the house I grew up in.  My excuse was that I needed to grab something … an item I can’t remember anymore.  It was empty.  My parents were out of state for my cousins wedding.

I entered the house one last time.  I say one last time, but I’ve been back a few dozen since then.  But it was goodbye.  It was the last time my relationship with that house was what it was.  I wouldn’t return to that as my “home” ever again and my heart knew that even if I had failed to process it with my head.   I hadn’t planned on this trip being a sacramental moment, but it was. Time slowed down and everything became vivid.  I noticed blemishes that had become part the houses character in the 18 years that I lived there.  Stains in the carpet.  Loose bricks in fireplace.  Chips in the paint.  Each of those scars … a marker of memory full of what felt like limitless meaning.  Objects would remind me of stories, which would remind me of people.  That house held so much and was so full, and I had to let it go.

As I was guided through that house and towards the door by the Holy Spirit (I really believe that), I flicked off the lights and I collapsed.   Literally collapsed.  Lindsay rested her hand on my shoulder and cried with me because she’s good at compassion like that.  I gathered myself and made my way to the picnic table that sits on the top of hill overlooking the Thomas Kinkaid lake that my parents three acres rest on (Lake Mabel by the way).   And there I mourned the end of that relationship.

We moved to Waco.

Our first apartment was God-awful, the perfect environment for exacerbating year one marriage fights. Our second year we lived an apartment in North Village on Baylor’s campus because I was a resident chaplain.

After that year was up, with ambitions to start a family, we decided to roll the dice and buy a house.  And we did, a brand new brick home on N 14^th St. with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and 1,400 square feet.  We felt like millionaires.

Our house is in a neighborhood that a lot of people would not be comfortable living in.  It’s part of why we could afford it.  I’ve watched over the years as polite friends and acquaintances have bit their lip or subtly winced as they’ve discovered where we live.   I don’t think my neighborhood is rough, but that’s because I live here … but I also understand why other people do.

I’ve always thought that those opinions and a few of my own have kept me from falling in love with this house.  I’ve appreciated this house, but never felt attached to it.  I didn’t think twice about it when we listed it a year ago.

A few weeks ago we got a call from our realtor that our house of eight years had an offer.  We negotiated and found a price that worked for both parties.   Our house is under contract.

On that evening when I got the call with an offer and old friend came to visit me.  Someone whose presence I hadn’t felt since I fell apart in the foyer in the house I grew up in.

This house which I have spent the last eight years and dismissed as “just as a house” on so many occasions became vivid.  It was about 8:30 PM when I got the phone call.  I moved to the bedrooms in which my children slept and watched them.  I remembered.  I remembered a million memories that came together to make this place so special to me.

I brought three children home from the hospital in this house.

I watched my dad fight and overcome cancer in this house.

Lindsay and I received phone calls telling us that that grandmas and grandpas had died … in this house.  (don’t misplace the modifier :) )

I got my first job living in this house.

We held parties to celebrate new life and say goodbye to old friends in this house.

On March 20^th this will no longer by my house.

And I am sad.

In Exodus three Moses meets God in the form of a burning bush.  At one point God tells Moses to kick off his sandals because Moses is standing on holy ground.  Holy Ground.  In a world that is already good because it was created by God, God told Moses something like “this place you are standing is set apart for the time being.  Different than the dessert that surrounds it.”

Do you know why it was different?  Because God was uniquely present there.  Before that moment that bush as just a bush and after that moment it was the place Moses talked with God.

In Matthew’s gospel the curtain in the Holy of Holies is torn.  A symbol communicating that God’s bush burning presence has now been proliferated.

After the curtain tore you could find God’s presence all over the place.  In crazy places like N10445 Pine Shore Ln. Tomahawk, WI.   And 805 N. 14^th St. Waco, TX.  And I have found the presence of God in those places.

S. Kelly Harrell says that “Sacred space” is another way of saying “with intention.”  I think that that’s probably correct.  The bricks in mortar that hold my house together are no more special than yours, but here in this place my family has found God.  With intention we have looked for Him, and He was found.

And I trust that He will move with us again.

Meet The Finance Team

Meet Tom Haines

Family:  Wife of 30 years, Kim; twin 18 year-old daughters, Abbey and Caroline; 11 year-old Golden Retriever, Lucy

Vocation/Job/What I do:  I teach healthcare administration and healthcare finance in Baylor's MBA program

Favorite Movie:  the ones that I watch sitting on our couch between my daughters, eating pizza

Best Restaurant in Waco:  Lula Jane's

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: not a whole chapter, but I love how simply and succinctly Micah 6:8 tells what God wants from us:   The Message says it this way:  "But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women.  It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously."

Best Television Show:  I've lived through too many to pick just one, so: 60s: Batman; 70s: M*A*S*H; 80s: Hill Street Blues; 90s: Star Trek: TNG; 00s: Law & Order, Criminal Intent; now: Chuck

Favorite Holiday:  can't choose a favorite; our family has developed and enjoys traditions at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas which make them all special

Something you might not know about me: I served in the Air Force for 33 years and retired as a Colonel in 2010

Hobbies:  whatever my daughters are involved in

A Note of Thanks from Pastor Emily

A sincere THANK YOU to all of the kids, parents, staff and volunteers who worked so hard to make the UBCKids Service happen this past Sunday!  I am SO proud of our kids…they constantly amaze me and last Sunday was no exception!  Each one of them inspired me, and our congregation as a whole, to be people of the Spirit!

Parents, thank you for your support and for allowing us to share your kids!  Thanks, also for putting in the time to listen to music endlessly, make sure your children were otherwise prepared and invest in the UBCKids program as a whole!

Our staff, as always, rallied around the UBCKids Service and each contributed their gifts to the program!  Thank you for your time and investment into this ministry!

To our volunteers, whether you teach week-in and week-out or only did your part for the UBCKids Service, thank you for your faithfulness!  You are VITAL to UBCKids, but from a more big-picture perspective, your commitment to sharing God’s love and creativity with these kids will change their lives forever!

I would also like to thank one volunteer specifically…Katie Smiley, my faithful intern-turned-friend-turned-devoted-UBCKids-Volunteer!  You may recognize her as the girl who greets the Bloom class every Sunday and who was sitting by me on stage-right, but Katie began interning with Toph and me in the fall for a class and, even after the class was finished, she has continued to meet with me weekly and to pour into the curriculum for the UBCKids Service and every single Sunday!  Not to mention her INVALUABLE help on Sunday mornings, making sure teachers have arrived, kids are happy and curriculum is prepared and delivered!  The next time you see her, give her a BIG thanks for all that she does for your UBC and your children!

All in all, I am SO blessed to be a part of the UBCKids Ministry…I love this church and the beautiful people (little and big) who make this their home!  And to the greater UBC Community, whether you spoke, sang, practiced, played, recorded, ran sound, tie-dyed, taught, drove, dropped-off, clapped, prayed, or even just CAME to the UBCKids Service…Thank You!

Sincerely~

Emily

Lenten Ecumenical Services: For the Love of the City

I have been working with some downtown churches to put together a series of noontime Lenten services for the larger Waco community.  They will be held at Turner’s on Austin Ave (723 Austin Ave) from 12:00-1:00 for four consecutive Wednesdays.  There will be food trucks stationed outside if you need eat.  The services will be about 20 minutes.  Would love to see you there.

• Wednesday March 19^th
• Wednesday March 26^th
• Wednesday April 2^nd
• Wednesday April 9^th

Christ In the Desert Monastery Trip

As many of you also will be this week, Craig and a group of UBCers are traveling today.  This group is spending a few days at Christ in the Desert Monastery.  Please be in prayer for their formation and safe travels as well as all of those who travel over spring break.

Sunday School

A Reminder that during the two Sundays during Spring Break, March 9^th and 16^th there will be no Sunday School.

Work Is Worship

3-9-14

Coffee Makers: Nathaniel & Emily Mosher

Coffee Clean Up:

Greeters:

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
• John Sunday School:  No Sunday School during Spring Break
• Christians in the Headlines: No Sunday School during Spring Break
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: No Sunday School during Spring Break
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• Michelle has started a lost and found.  If you are missing an item please check in the box under the bench in her office.
• Families: We will be having a game day at the Baylor Soccer Field after church on March 23^rd.  Bring your lunches and join us for some frisbee football, soccer and many other exciting things.

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

ITLOTC 2-28-14

An Update on the Membership Process from Craig

It’s a question we get often:  “What do I need to do to be a member?”

In the past, when our Sunday morning attendance was larger, but the amount of people involved in the life of the church much smaller, the answer was simple:  “Well, just come hang out with us for a bit. Share life with those you see hanging around here and that’ll make you a ‘member.’”

Slowly, though, as those ratios began to change (fewer people in worship on Sunday mornings, more people involved in “everything else,”) the question of what constituted belonging became more complicated.  There were far more people “hanging around here” than ever before.  And that also begged the question of what “sharing life,” (which became as buzzed a word as “community,”) meant, and how one went about “sharing life” with “those who hang around here.”

2011 came and through a series of important conversations we decided we wanted to be more than a church that housed spiritual refugees who do “hanging around here” quite well.  Though we knew we would continue to be such a place, we wanted spiritual refugees to find in us a place to call home and to practice citizenship in the Kingdom of God being lived out here in Waco, TX.  The best way to communicate this was through the ancient, oft-misunderstood but ever-relevant word: Discipleship.  This movement toward a more intentional practice of discipleship led us in 2013 to re-tool our mission statement—

UBC seeks to form a community of people in the way of Christ that embraces beauty and lives missionally.

It was never our intention during these conversations over the years to make membership the “next step” in our journey as a community.  We didn’t sit down in 2011 and say “Alright, first we will stop being a ‘college church,’ then we will start talking about discipleship and beauty and living missionally, adopt bylaws and then in 2013 we’ll change our structure and mission statement and then, finally, institute a membership policy as a bow on top of the package.”

But the subject kept coming up.  Usually in passing, sometimes with deliberate intent, in all these conversations “membership,” and our lack of any real definition of what that may mean for UBC, always seemed to be peeking its head around the corner.  Eventually we decided it was something we should tend to.  So we created a team, led by myself, to pray about and explore healthy ways to move forward with what I have deemed a “codified system of belonging” at UBC.

We have met several times already this semester assessing the need and looking at models of church membership.  We have been sorting through things that are not consistent with our ethos and things that fit perfectly within it.  We are consulting with other churches and trying to be creative. Above all, we are keeping our mission in front of us, to form a community of people in the way of Christ that embraces beauty and lives missionally.  Our goal is to have something to the leadership team by their meeting in April to look over and approve (or disapprove.)

What we have all discovered in our meetings is that this adventure we are embarking on is a bigger deal than we first envisioned.  It is both more exciting and scarier than we first thought.  And if this is the case for us, we imagine it will be the case for you as well.  With this in mind, I’d like to offer observation about our work up to this point by telling you a couple of things that membership at UBC will probably NOT look like, and a couple of things that it WILL look like.

NOT….

• Rules to follow, “or else…” Most of the current writing and theological thinking around church membership tends to be by fundamentalists and those who have a vested interest in exercising some semblance of power and control over congregations.  If you’ve been around UBC any amount of time, you know this is not in our DNA and, frankly, wouldn’t “fly” if we wanted it to. (Which we don’t.) We are, however, interested in encouraging practices and rhythms of life that help us all become the people God most wants us to be.
• A weekly opportunity to “join…” Many of us grew up in church traditions where the opportunities to join, or to become a member, were plentiful. You could basically “join” whenever you wanted to join.  The flip side of this is that you could also leave whenever you wanted to leave. There was really no encouragement to spend time in discernment  about whether this church was the place we needed to be or not.

WILL BE…

• Costly…  We are not planning to start a commune or a cult that manages the daily affairs of its people from above and keeps constant tabs on how members are contributing to the life of the church.  (Waco has had enough of those.) But we do recognize that life in community, ANY community, whether it be a family, a country or a friend group, requires something of us for it to be meaningful and transformative.
• Counter-Cultural... (Alliteration unintentional.) We live in an over-involved but under-committed culture.  Many of us give a little of ourselves to a million different organizations and groups, but not much of ourselves to any one of them.  If we do, it’s likely that it isn’t to the one entity that God placed on the earth to be his body—the church.  Again, we aren’t concerned with demanding absolute allegiance to UBC or being enablers to “church rats,” people who sign up for every opportunity the church offers. (This would actually be antithetical to the “lives missionally” part of our mission.) But part of living in Christian community, as opposed to being a member of the Rotary Club or Sam’s Club or a Greek organization, is that the church becomes (at the very least) one of our most life-defining associations.  This is not the world we live in, but we believe it is the world God has called us to.

It’s likely that once we create a system of membership, you may see very little change.  We visited last week with Gideon Tsang, who was the interim teaching pastor between the death of Kyle Lake and the hiring of Josh Carney, whose church instituted a system of membership several years ago.  He showed us all the materials they use and the processes by which one becomes a member at Vox.  But in the middle, he stopped and said that all of this is stuff that Vox was already doing, but had no way of formally moving into.  I imagine this will be the same for many of us. A large number of you will “move into” something you’ve already been living into for quite some time.  For all of us, hopefully, it will be an exciting opportunity to join with the people of God for the purposes of being formed in the way of Christ, embracing beauty, and living missionally.

Below are the names of the folks on our membership team.  Please spend the next few weeks in prayer for each of them as we do this important work.  And feel free to contact any of us with questions, concerns or contributions you may have to this process.

Elizabeth Andrasi

Rachel Larrabee

Craig Nash

B.J. Parker

Kareem Shane

Anna Waldrop 

Meet The Finance Team

Meet Josh McCormick

Family:  Jessica and I met at Baylor a very very long time ago and dated through college.  We’ve now been married for 10 years and have two sons, Jake (5) and Drew (3).  We have a good time!

Vocation/Job/What I do:  I am the Commercial Sales Manager for the Dwyer Group Franchise System.  My job is to recruit, train, and manage the commercial sales force for 150+ Mr. Electric locations across the U.S. and Canada.  It is more interesting than it sounds (has said no one ever).

Favorite Movie:  Shawshank Redemption or Joe Dirt, I like it when the good guys eventually win

Best Restaurant in Waco:  Baris is so good.

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me: Exodus 20 (ten commandments)

Best Television Show:  Game of Thrones … new season April 6^th!

Favorite Holiday:  Memorial Day Weekend.

Something you might not know about me: I am an introvert, which seems to surprise a lot of people.

Hobbies:  I’ll have to find one someday.  For now, family, kids and Baylor Soccer.

Lenten Ecumenical Services: For the Love of the City

I have been working with some downtown churches to put together a series of noontime Lenten services for the larger Waco community.  They will be held at Turner’s on Austin Ave (723 Austin Ave) from 12:00-1:00 for four consecutive Wednesdays.  There will be food trucks stationed outside if you need eat.  The services will be about 20 minutes.  Would love to see you there.

Wednesday March 19^th

Wednesday March 26^th

Wednesday April 2^nd

Wednesday April 9^th

Fat Tuesday Family Pancake Dinner

Hey families.  This Tuesday we will be having a Fat Tuesday pancake dinner @5:30.  It’s a time set aside to hang out and fellowship in the Lord.  If you are interested in coming please contact josh@ubcwaco.org

Ash Wednesday Service

 Will be held in the backside this Wednesday at 6:30.  Please join as we begin our journey towards Good Friday.

Work Is Worship

3-2-14

Coffee Makers: Jen Hinshaw & Claire Cole

Coffee Clean Up:

Greeters: Sarah Picken & Leigh Curl

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Galatians 5:22-3
• John Sunday School:  John 9
• Christians in the Headlines: Cancelled this week
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: 125 & 126
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• Michelle has started a lost and found.  If you are missing an item please check in the box under the bench in her office.

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: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

ITLOTC 2-21-14

Money

You may have heard me mention "the enneagram" in a sermon.  The enneagram is something fantastic and complicated that Toph & Emily make fun of, but for simplicity sake, we'll call it a personality profile thingy.  That feels blasphemous to me because it's really so much more.  It's a tool for growth and reflection, but for this conversation it's personality profile thingy.  It includes 9 numbers of which I am a 3.  That means a whole bunch of things that I won't go into here, but you can read about here if you'd like.

If you do work with the enneagram eventually you move beyond just learning about your number to learning how to grow in health.  One of the things you learn about in that growth process are the instincts.  There are three of them.  Here's a paragraph from the Enneagram Institute website.

"The three Instincts (often erroneously called "the subtypes") are a third set of distinctions that are extremely important for understanding personality. A major aspect of human nature lies in our instinctual "hard wiring" as biological beings. We each are endowed with specific instinctual intelligences that are necessary for our survival as individuals and as a species. We each have a self-preservation instinct (for preserving the body and its life and functioning), a sexual instinct (for extending ourselves in the environment and through the generations), and a social instinct (for getting along with others and forming secure social bonds)."

Of these three I'm dominated by the self-preservation instinct.  That's a lot about me especially since this is not really about me, it's about the church,  but I wanted to share about the self-preservation instinct so I can make a confession.  I hate dealing with money. It gives me anxiety.  You can ask my wife and she'll confirm that on more than one occasion I've been accused of being cheap.  When it comes to money, I'll always make the safe bet.  I cringe if I feel like our savings are getting to small.  Fiscal conservatism is probably a form of idolatry in my life.  But, again, the reason I am this way is because of my self preservation instinct.

Because this is a source of fear in my life, it's a source of sin in my life.  The real reason I'm telling you about all of this, is because we are in the season in the life the church when it's time to put together the budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Here's the tension.  Churches need vision.  Vision needs money.  Part of growing is believing that money will be there to do things that support the vision.  Proverbs 29:18 says that without vision the people will parish.  On the other hand Proverbs 22:7 says "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."  I'm present to both of these truths in the moment.

Last week I had a meeting with the staff in which we all submitted budget proposals.  They did a good job.  It was fun to hear them dream and hear about where their hearts are longing to take the ministries of the church.  No one's asking for anything obnoxious.  It was a great meeting.  The sad truth is that we can't afford to do everything that everyone wants.   And this process will kill me because the enneagram 3 wants to be loved by everyone and consequently wants to please everyone.

Do you see what I'm doing here, I'm taking you to the vortex of my stress!

A bible verse that has been very meaningful to me this spring is 1 John 4:18.

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

I have not been called to fear.  1 John could care less about my need for self-preservation or that I'm a 3.  He insists that I rest in the love of God.  And so this has been my meditation.

This week in our staff meeting I was naming these anxieties and then I read from Exodus 16.  You know the story.  Israel complains.  God responds with manna from heaven.  And the punchline in v 15 "Moses said to them, 'It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.'"

God provides.  I want to ask that y'all join me in caring for the church during this season of planning.  That you will join me by believing the God of Man for provision.  You can care by praying the following:

1. That the finance team would hear the discerning voice of the Spirit as we make cuts.

2. That we would not operate out of fear, but out of joy and vision.

3. That we would not covet things we don't need.

4. That God would be glorified with how we use the money people graciously give.

Thanks friends.  I love all of you.

Meet The Leadership Team

Chair: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

Meet Jana Parker

Vocation:  Speech-Language Pathologist

Favorite Movie:  close tie between Sleepless in Seattle and Anne of Green Gables

Best Restaurant in Waco:  Amelia's on the Avenue (Amelia's trio is the best!)

Chapter from the Bible that is meaningful to me:  Phillippians 2:1-11 I love what this passage has to say about God's character--Our God, the "Servant King".

Best Television Show:  Parks and Rec

Favorite Holiday:  Christmas of course!!

Something you might not know about me: I've studied opera.

Hobbies:  jogging, cooking/baking, organization, spelling error analysis

Children’s Service Reminders

Parents a few reminders for our children’s service, which is coming up on March 2^nd.

1. We will be getting T-Shirt sizes for the kids and helpers this Sunday for the UBCKids Service.  The cost will be $8.00 a shirt (if the cost is a problem, they can contact me!)  We will be tie-dying them at the evening practice and would love for each child to have a shirt for the service!

2. Also, our big UBCKids Service evening practice will be Thursday, February 27th from 4:00-6:00!  Pizza will be served and we will be tie-dying shirts, so wear something that can get messy!  If you can’t make it, let me know and we will tie-dye your child’s shirt for them.

3. The Roots class will meet in the campers room this Sunday for the full duration of the service.

Thanks Sean DelBeccaro

 

Because Toph (our normal big events guy) is in India, Sean DelBeccaro graciously agreed to take the leadership role in overseeing this last Sunday’s Love Feast.   If you see Sean and were at the Love Feast, please take a moment to let him know how much you appreciated his contribution to our community.

Meet Our Newest UBCer

 

Name: Nash Hall Jobson

Birthday: 2-12-14

Height: 19 in

Weight: 7 lb. 1 oz.

Enneagram Number: 8

Work Is Worship

2-23-14

Coffee Makers: Bex Flannery & Becky Fowler

Coffee Clean Up:  Haines Family

Greeters: Josh Blake & Joben David

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Matthew 5:39-49
• John Sunday School:  John 7 & 8
• Christians in the Headlines: The Noah Movie 
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: 124 & 125
• If you feel like the music is at times too loud, we have earplugs available next to the mints out front.
• Michelle has started a lost and found.  If you are missing an item please check in the box under the bench in her office.
• Marriage Ministries Presents: Round Table Discussions February 23^rd at 6:30 PM.  Child Care provided.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

Getting to Know You(BC): Monike Garabieta...

Age? 16, going on 17. Or, 27.

Where do you call home?

Waco, Texas… It’s on my license, so it must be true.

What do you do in Waco?

I’m a Speech & Language Pathologist working at Scott & White. I spend my spare time finding random blocks in my scrubs pockets, daydreaming about writing really funny blogs and finding ways to trick Facebook, and, most recently, illustrating a children’s book.

What do you love most about UBC?

Craig Nash. Just, Craig Nash.  (Editor's Note: On a one of Josh's recent Facebook posts, Monike wrote "Josh, You're the Best," making the editor question the veracity of this answer.)

Favorite Movie?

It has to go to It’s a Wonderful Life. I feel like this is a hard question, though. I’ll probably always be thinking about Looper. Lars and the Real Girl is always going to restore my faith in people. I will always quote Lord of the Rings as I watch it, to Everyone-I-Know’s dismay. I suppose a good movie just has to be incredibly memorable and moving (and may or may not include Elijah Wood crying…a lot).

Favorite Book/Author/reading material?

All-time favorite has to be East of Eden. I recently finished Neverwhere, and now I’m onto a 600-pager about a woman who travels back in time to 16^th century Scotland. Needless to say, I’m overjoyed.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A paleontologist, like all the cool kids whose grandfathers gave them subscriptions to National Geographic when they were 4.

What do you want to be now when you grow up?

Something with people, art, and literature. For now, being an SLP is making me very happy.

Favorite artist/band/musician?

Top 5, in no order: Sigur Ros, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Ryan Adams, The Beatles.

Best Burger in Waco?

I’m not sure – ask me about BBQ. And if you were to ask me about BBQ, I would definitely say – BUNKHOUSE (to Chad’s chagrin).

What do we HAVE to know about you to really know you?

I’m in a cover band with one of my best friends. I get too attached to animals. I would most likely rather be sleeping. Oh, and for all of you Myers-Briggs fans, I’m an ENFJ.

Favorite YouTube Video?

This is obviously the one I quote the most:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh0NLQJfAYU

ITLOTC 2-14-14

That word “Love”

Every time I’m asked to a do a wedding, I’m thrilled.  I recently heard a friend say that weddings are the closest thing a pastor does that resembles magic.  He or she says something like “I now pronounce you man and wife,” and in the sphere where Christians locate meaning, those words matter.  The couple really is married and a spiritual reality is present after those words that was not before.  It’s a great privilege.

Since I began pastoring seven years ago weddings are something I’ve learned to love again.  Given the awesome responsibility of shepherding that moment in people’s lives has caused me to think more deeply about what’s happening and what I’m saying.  I want to give care to that moment.  Part of that process of care is inviting the couple to think through what the ceremony looks like.  At some point we talk about the text and I ask them to help me pick one.  Usually the couple will defer and I’ll do my best to listen the voice of the Spirit and think about the couples personalities and needs to determine what to use.  Whenever I ask though, I hold my breath hoping they won’t pick 1 Corinthians 13.

It’s probably not fair, in fact I know it isn’t because it’s a form of judgment, but for years when I would go to weddings and hear 1 Corinthians 13 read, I would think to myself “you have no idea what those words really mean.”  The truth is neither did I.  Stanley Hauerwas has suggested that when a couple confesses their vows theres no way they can really know what they are saying in that moment.  We can hear and see and feel what a covenantal relationship looks like and might cost us, but we only know those things in their essence when we experience them.  For this reasons, when I do premarital counseling I’ll ask a couple to imagine a worst case scenario.  Something like … she gets in a car accident and becomes quadriplegic for the rest of her life.  Or he falls into a deep depression at 35 and never really comes back from it.  And then I ask them, “do you really want to be committed to that?”

This week friend asked me to watch a movie called The End of All Wars.  It came out in 2001.  I didn’t remember hearing about it and it stars Kiefer Sutherland.  Two strikes against it, but my friend’s enthusiasm was enough to convince me to give it a try.  It was so good at points that I forgot to breathe.  The story is about a group of Scottish soldiers who end up in a prisoner of war camp in Thailand run by the Japanese.  One of the soldiers persists in bitterness and resentment.  He grows to hate his Japanese captors and comes up with a plan to take the camp and kill them.  His plan fails and he’s sentenced to death.    This is what happens.  It’s more powerful if you know the back story, but as I was watching the guy get crucified one of the thoughts I had was, “that’s the sort of love that makes marriage work.”

I guess the issue here is what I detect in the flippancy of our use of the word love, especially on holidays like this one.  To my surprise that’s not unique to America in 2014.  I was recently rereading some NT Wright and came across this.

“It isn’t simply a matter, as some people used to think, of getting back to the “true” meaning of the Greek word agapē.  That word, actually, had almost as much of a checkered career in the centuries before and after Paul as our word “love” (and, for that matter, “charity”) has had in the last three hundred years … The specific meaning of agapē which we find in the New Testament isn’t the result of the early Christians discovering a word which already said exactly what they wanted to say and latching on to it.  Rather, they seem to have settled quickly on this word as the best available one, and they then gave it fresh privilege of carrying a new depth of meaning in which some aspects of its previous career were highlighted  and others were set aside.  The early Christians, in fact, did with the word agapē pretty much what they did with the ancient notion of virtue.  They picked it up, soaked it in the message and achievement of Jesus, and gave it new life, a new sort of life."

On this Valentines Day I pray that the love you give to relationships will be soaked in the message and achievement of Jesus.

Meet The Leadership Team

Chair: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

Meet Austin Tiffany

Vocation (could be your job or something you love doing that you believe you were made for): I am a senior at Baylor studying religion and sociology. I'm especially interested in how and why different faith groups interact with each other, and I've been accepted to Cambridge to study that kind of thing.

Favorite Movie: Dark Knight Trilogy

Best Restaurant in Waco:  El Crucero

Bible verse/chapter/book that is meaningful for you:  Genesis 32:22-32 (where Jacob wrestles with an angel)

Best Television Show: Parks and Rec

Favorite Holiday: Thanksgiving (because that's when I get grandmother's pumpkin pie)

Something we might not know about you: I am obsessed with the Olympics to an unhealthy extent (I love the winter and summer games equally)

Hobby: Reading, day hikes, road trips/traveling in general

How Can You Support Our Mission to the DR?  Read This.

This May we will be completing the school in Batey 50, and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the team.  Please be praying for us as we prepare to go, and as we complete the school in Batey 50.   Our team is: Toph Whisnant, Melissa Rowland Whisnant, Caitlin Closeen, Kareem Shane, Jihye Lee, Kim Shine, Byron Roldan, Kristi Goff, Tucker Doiron, Rick Lhotan, Justin Partridge, Laura Tobey, Leigh Curl, Alyssa Lorfing, and Rachel Vaughn.  
If you would like to support one of our team members, please consider buying a shirt through the link below:

http://thesimpleengine.com/store/ubcwaco/UBCWacoDR2014

A message from Tye

First of all I would like to thank The Digital Age and Wes Bulter for leading us these past two weeks. We are so fortunate to be a part of a community that has such talented artist who are willing to lead us. Be sure and find each of them on Facebook and let them know how much you appreciate them.  

These past two weekends I have been away with the Gladsome Light leading the music for D Now weekends, discipleship retreats for youth. I was able to visit First Baptist Church Tyler, home church of our former Pastor Kyle Lake. It was a very meaningful weekend to say the least. In many ways FBC Tyler looks upon our band and our church as a familial extension of the ministry of their beloved Kyle, because of this many of them are more open to hearing from a rock and roll band than almost any other place we visit.

Last weekend we were at my home church in Amarillo. It was a great joy to get to lead in worship Sunday morning all of those that led me and helped develop me into a leader. We were also invited to sing at the high school. It was terrifying!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support. It is great to see how God is using music and UBC to form and influence students.

Peace,

Tye

P.S. This next Saturday afternoon, I will be playing a show at Royer Pie Haven in Round Top, Texas. If you want to join us for the day there should be plenty of room in the van. Yes, there will be free pie.

Vacuum Cleaner

Still looking for extra vacuum cleaners if you have a spare. email josh@ubcwaco.org.

Work Is Worship

2-16-14

Coffee: Marshall Hinders & Tyler Clark

Coffee Clean Up: Jess Hinshaw & Leigh Curl

Greeters: Sarah Picken & Claire Cole

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: John 7:37-39
• John Sunday School:  John 7:37-39
• Christians in the Headlines: Religious Violence and Conflict
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School: 123 & 124
• Love, Love Feast this Sunday Night, February 16^th at 6:00 PM
• Marriage Ministries Presents: Round Table Discussions ... February 23rd 6:30 PM.  Child care provided.
• Please be in prayer for my friend Lindsey Trozzo who will be preaching Sunday.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

Getting to Know You(BC): Tye Barrett...

Name: Tye Barrett

Age: 29

Where do you call home?

Waco, but I am from Amarillo, TX. The greatest medium sized rural city in America.

What do you do in Waco? I create music for our church and with my friends.

What do you love most about UBC?

The people here are family to me.

Favorite Movie?

Rushmore

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A cowboy

What do you want to be now when you grow up?

A chef

 Favorite artist/band/musician?

Wilco

Best Burger in Waco?

Double R

What do we HAVE to know about you to really know you?

Pie is my love language. Buttermilk Pie is the strongest expression of that love!

What is your dream vacation?

My dream vacation would be an around the world trip with my wife Katie or a road trip across America with Katie and our dog Tillie!

ITLOTC 2-7-14

New Roman Women:

We are now two weeks into February.  As such Baptist are celebrating Martha Stearns Marshall month.  Last week we were blessed by the preaching talents of Natalie Webb and next week, February 16th, my friend Lindsey Trozo will bring the thunder.

Something I have never done from the pulpit is establish why UBC has taken this position.  I can't really do that here, but I did want to say a few things and address one text in particular that I think is problematic for this position.

Though there are some texts that speak restrictively against women being in positions of authority in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34 & 1 Timothy 2:12), there is also a substantial amount in the Bible about women doing just that.  Whether it's Huldah interpreting the Deuteronomical material recovered by King Josiah, Deborah the Judge, Mariam the sister of Moses, Lydia, a successful business woman, providing space for the church in Thyatira, Priscilla, Junia, Phoebe in Rome, or Syntyche & Euodia in Philippians, the Bible is full of women leading in significant ways in the church.

Still, troubling texts remain.  One such text that has always struck me as not just odd, but downright crazy is 1 Timothy 2:15.  It reads, "But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety."  Yikes!  What about the protestant belief of justification by faith alone.  And what about women who struggle with infertility?  What on earth could have possibly been meant by this?

There is a chapter in Scot McKnight's book The Blue Parakeet that deals with this issue eloquently and exhaustively.  I recommend reading it if you get a chance.  From his chapter on the New Roman Woman I want to quote two things extensively.

Scot says:

"When Paul wrote his letters to the Christians in Corinth and to Timothy in Ephesus, a gender and sexual revolution  was observable in many of the major cities of the Roman Empire.  What many today are calling "new Roman woman" describes an aggressive, confrontational public presence on the part of women during the very time Paul was writing these letters... Three features of the new Roman woman set our passage in its historical context.  

First, the new Roman woman was expressing her newfound freedoms in immodest, sexually provocative, and extravagant dress.  Rome was not terribly conservative, but those women were flouting even the limits of the Romans. 

Second, the new Roman woman was noted for snatching the podium for public addresses and teaching. 

Third, especially in Ephesus, alongside the presence of the new Roman woman was the Artemis religious fertility cult.  The worship cult not only favored  the freedom of women in public religion as did the new Roman woman movement, but it also surrounded these worshipers with eunuch (castrated males) priests.  Part of their worship was the elimination of normal sexual relations; these women despised marriage and childbearing.  Furthermore, this fertility cult extended their sexual and gender freedoms into open practices of abortion and contraception."

McKnight uses these suppositions and some texts from antiquity to argue for an understanding  of Paul's command that "women need to be silent" not a generalization of his beliefs about women in ministry, but as addressing a specific problem created by women from this movement.  McKnight would suggest that the command to "keep quiet" is there so that the new Roman women could learn and (admittedly an argument from silence) eventually have a voice in the community.

As to the specific issue of Timothy 2:15?  McKnight suggest, "I doubt very much that Paul is demanding that all women everywhere marry, have children, and manage their homes.  But if we factor in the new Romans woman's desire to end marriage and childbearing and to pursue instead a sexually promiscuous life, Paul is countering those ideas with the virtue of marriage and managing a home." 

Perhaps you are female reading this and you don't think this goes far enough.  I'm sensitive to that critique and have found some versions of Christian feminism compelling.  That being said I think McKnights work with this text helps locate the whole of the hermeneutical trajectory of women in ministry in a healthy place.  It is a movement towards, I think, Christ honoring liberation for women and a vision of the kingdom to come.

Meet the Leadership Team:

Chair: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

Meet Teri Walter

Vocation (could be your job or something you love doing that you believe you were made for):  Speech Pathologist

Favorite Movie: Currently Midnight in Paris and Elf

Best Restaurant in Waco: 1424

Bible verse/chapter/book that is meaningful for you: Be Still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!'  Ps 46:10, because I need this, I need to be still.

Best Television Show: Downton Abbey, this season of American Idol

Favorite Holiday: Thanksgiving, all of my family comes to Waco, I love it.

Something we might not know about you: I have ridden in the Goodyear Blimp

Hobby: my new grandson Walter!, Zumba, reading

Meet Our Newest UBCer:

Name: Averie Grace Kitten

Birthday: 1-30-14

Height: 20.5 inches

Weight: 8 lbs. 12 oz.

Enneagram Number: 1

Speaking of new UBCers, Averie's mom Crystal, is responsible for coordinating all the meals that all the other new moms received from all you great UBCers.  So I say it's payback time darn it!  If you haven't signed up for a meal yet, please consider blessing the Kitten family this way.

Church Need:

UBC is in need of a few healthy vacuum cleaners.  If you have a good one that you are planning on garage saleing or if you looking for the way to bless the church, we could use one.

Family Ministries Spring Calendar:

1. Marriage Ministry Presents: Round Table Discussions (February 23 @ 6:30/childcare provided) 2. Children’s Service (March 2nd) 3. Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner and Lent Workshop Kickoff (March 4th @ 5:30 PM) 4. Game Day at Baylor Soccer Field (March 23rd After Church) 5. South Waco Community Center/UBC Easter Egg Hunt (April 12th, 11:00 AM) 6. Marriage Ministry Presents: Game night (April 12th, 6:30 PM/childcare provided) 7. Picnic in the Park Palm Sunday (April 13th, After Church) 8. Dos de Mayo Date Night (May 2nd, 6:00 PM)

A Message from Emily: 

We will be getting T-Shirt sizes for the kids and helpers this Sunday for the UBCKids Service.  The cost will be $8.00 a shirt (if the cost is a problem, they can contact me!)  We will be tie-dying them at the evening practice and would love for each child to have a shirt for the service!

Also, our big UBCKids Service evening practice will be Thursday, February 27th from 4:00-6:00!  Pizza will be served and we will be tie-dying shirts, so wear something that can get messy!  If you can't make it, let me know and we will tie-dye your child's shirt for them!

Thanks~

Emily

Work is Worship: 

2-9-14

Coffee Makers: Marshall Hinders

Coffee Cleaners: Kaley Eggers, Monike Garabieta, & Marcus Mataga

Greeters: Joben David & ????

Announcements:

• Our bible verses for Sundays sermon are Matthew 5:1-12.
• John Sunday School Class: John Chapters 3 & 4 with particular attention paid to the difference in Jesus conversations between the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus. 
• Psalms of Ascent Sunday School Class: Revisiting Psalm 121 and introducing Psalm 122.
• Christians in the Headlines Sunday School Class: This Article.
• UBC Love, Love Feast February 16th at 6:00 PM

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?:

254 366 9779

Marriage Ministry Events...

Last fall we began to be more intentional about nurturing the health of the marriages in our congregation.  Between our marriage seminars, Hitched Dinners and Emerging Parents, we saw a lot of great movement in this area.  We wanted to make you aware of a couple of events in the coming months to put on your calendar.  These particular events are for ALL married couples-- newlywed, oldywed, with kids or without.  Childcare will be provided.

---

Marriage "Roundtable"

Sunday, February 23rd @ 6:30p.m.

Similar to the marriage seminars we held last semester, this will be a time to get together and discuss several aspects of marriage.  Couples will join each other around a table working through "case studies," and will share their findings with the entire group.  This time will be facilitated by Josh Carney.

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Game Night

Saturday, April 12th @ 6:30p.m.

There will be one agenda for this time together-- FUN! We are currently working on a spot off-site for games, so you can drop your kids off at the church and not worry about them for a bit.  (This is the same day of the Easter Egg Hunt, so just put on your calendar a great big UBC FUN DAY in the April 12th square.)

ITLOTC 1-31-14

The importance of Owning a Mistake

As a child I grew up tucked away on three acres on Mable Lake.  Cable television would have never (and still hasn't) reached that remote part of the universe and a satellite dish was, at the time, about 13 feet in diameter and a luxury that a small town pastor's family could not afford.  Our sole chance of being entertained was provided by a spotty antenna that delivered ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS in the spring.

As antennas improved I was able to eek CBS on a small TV in my room.  Though it was scrambled I could hear and clearly and made a habit out of listening to David Letterman.  It became a ritual for me.  Though I generally thought Leno had better guests, I loved Letterman's timing even if I didn't understand the socio-political state of the world sometimes required to get his dry humor.

Ever since then I have been a Letterman person and so was disappointed back in 2009 when he was accused and found guilty of having an affair.  It's not like I thought he was an upstanding moral citizen, but I was still slightly disappointed.  I'll never forget when he come on the air the weekend after the story broke and apologized.  He was so direct and to the point.  He didn't try and pad the news or offer an excuse.  He just owned it.  Though his mistake remained, his apology was an anomaly in the world of celebrity.  I found it inspiring.  With professional athletes denying PED allegation and politicians covering up scandals here was a guy who completely accepted his problem fully and publicly from the get go.  Growing up when I'd witness something similar I'd note to myself how I felt and determine that if I was ever in a position to offer an apology I would.

This last Sunday I preached about the unity of the church.  In that sermon I wanted to point out that in order for diversity to exist together long enough for unity to emerge, that diversity must be protected even when it's difficult.  By way of illustration I offered my marriage with my wife as an example.  After exploring the topic of marital strife and fighting I stated that those fights worked because we never said the word divorce nor it was an option.

On Monday I got a generous email from an individual who has been divorced.  This person humbly shared their experience and cared enough about the issue and me to help me see the situation from another angle.  After reading the email I thanked them and asked if I could share an edited version with you, to which they graciously agreed.

Thank you friend, for your courage on behalf of yourself and those who have shared your experience.

Hey Josh,

I wanted to mention something that I’ve been thinking about from your sermon today. You were making the point about unity and used an illustration from your marriage where you said that one thing that fosters unity (even during fights) is you and Lindsay’s agreement to never talk about divorce.  I did hear what you said before this illustration – that you know that there are some situations where divorce seems to be unavoidable. Your intentions in caring for people who have been in unhealthy and unsustainable marriages is clear, and I really appreciate that. It was thoughtful (and risky, I know) to say what you did.

Anyway, it dawned on me that I don’t think I ever really talked to you about my previous marriage and the end of that marriage. Of course, I did talk to the pastor of the church where I was a member at that time. Anyway, after church today, I feel like I’d like to share just a little bit about that, in relation to your illustration.

Before we got married, my ex went out of his way to make sure to make sure that we would never ever talk about divorce, never even say the D-word. I thought this was a good idea - seems pretty obvious. But I think now that this was a way for him to create a safe space, not for our unity, but for him to be increasingly abusive. I’ll spare you the details. For two years, I never talked to anyone about the way that he treated me, and I really thought that if I just kept trying harder, things would get better. In the end, when I finally did go to talk to someone and get help, he decided it would be better to not be married than to acknowledge and address the brokenness of our marriage. After it became clear that reconciliation was not possible, I finally asked him if he wanted a divorce. He said, yes. And that was it - the extent of our conversation on the matter.

I'm telling you this because I want you to know that not talking about divorce doesn't really do anything to keep it from happening. In fact, what I've found from my experience and from the experiences of others, is that many abusers are very intentional about taking divorce off the table so that the people they are with are effectively trapped. This is especially so when they can give it the force of piety or religious obligation. In my situation, when I finally told someone for the first time about what our marriage looked like, the jig was up and he cut all ties with me and anyone who knew me.

Now, I really think that most people have very good intentions in not talking about divorce. And I don’t think it is healthy to use divorce as a threat, which I know is another way some people manipulate and abuse their spouses. But even for the happiest and healthiest of couples, denying the fragility of our relationships can also be a way of neglecting the maintenance that all relationships need.

I’m betting that in actuality, what makes for a safe space for you and Lindsey’s fights is not the absence of the word “divorce” (although I think that is good), but the presence of ten years of practicing love and patience. Years of children who you care for together, of meals cooked and shared, ten years of proving your trustworthiness to each other fight after fight after fight. Ten years of apologizing for broken dishes and for yelling and ten years of working together to clean up the mess and reconcile through the fights.

So, the rational, happily re-married, friend-of-the-pastor part of my brain understands your illustration today and gets what you meant. But I also have the part of my brain that will always hear everything as a devoted wife to an abusive husband. And what that woman takes away from illustrations like that is: “Well even the preacher throws things, so my husband probably isn’t that bad. Maybe the way he treats me is normal.” She is affirmed in her inability to even consider getting help or talking to anyone. And her husband is affirmed in his ability to do whatever he wants with no fear of her leaving. I know that is not at all what you meant to convey, and you probably didn’t convey that to anyone. But that’s what I would have heard.

There’s also a part of me that is still very wounded by my first marriage and insecure about my place in the church afterwards. What that part of me thinks is, “Well, Lindsey yells at Josh and Josh breaks things and they are still together. Why couldn’t I make my marriage work? Is there something wrong with me? Did I not try hard enough?” When it seems like not talking about divorce is a guarantee of marital sustainability, I feel like people around me are staring at me thinking, “Wow, if only she hadn’t talked about divorce, then she wouldn’t be divorced,” or “Wow, she and her ex-husband must have talked about divorce all the time.” Now, I know how ridiculous that is. And I know that probably no one is thinking about me at all. But somehow, in that moment I still feel kind of small.

This is not a big deal for me. I can shake that kind of thing off and remember where I am and what I believe and that I know you personally and know what you were getting at. But it makes me start thinking about other faces in the congregation who don’t know you and whose loss is much more fresh than mine. People whose spouses continue to threaten them with hellfire and damnation while at the same time physically and emotionally abusing them. These people are in our church. And these spouses and ex-spouses are in our church. And I’m betting there are one or two seemingly happily married couples (or dating couples) in the church for whom this is an underlying dynamic. I know we can’t help stepping on some toes when we preach, but I also know that the last thing you want to do is affirm an abuser while stepping on the wounded toes of the abused.

Anyway, know that I think you are great and I’m so glad you’re my pastor! I’m not upset with you or even asking you to change anything. I just feel like I might be able to provide some insight into a section of the congregation that I hope you will never have to be in.

Meet The Leadership Team

Chair: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

Meet David Wilhite

Vocation (could be your job or something you love doing that you believe you were made for):   I teach early Christian history and theology at Truett/Baylor.

Favorite Movie: The Last Dragon (1985), featuring "Bruce Leeroy" and "Sho Nuff"

Best Restaurant in Waco:  Mi Taquilla

Bible verse/chapter/book that is meaningful for you:  2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Best Television Show: The Muppets

Favorite Holiday: 4th of July (if you're on the lake; otherwise, Thanksgiving).

Something we might not know about you: I have a 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do

Hobby: Anything with family, friends, and/or involving the outdoors.

Empty Nester and Almost Empty Nesters

Are your kids way past Sponge Bob and Dora?  Do you pay more for car insurance than health insurance?  Do folks ask if you qualify for the senior citizen discount?  If so you might be eligible to be part of empty nester and almost empty nester group.

The next event will be dinner.  It held on Friday, February 14^th at 6:30 in the home of Jim & Mindy Wren.  Their address is 1700 Royal Oaks Drive, Waco, Texas 76710.

Please RSVP (call or text) to Linda Taft if you plan to attend, 254 717 8191.

Church Need

There is a fence on the backside (northeast) of the church that is made of bamboo.  A few of our fence pieces have gone missing.  I fear these missing pieces will only invite more mischief.  Would you be willing to find a few pieces of bamboo and repair this fence?  If so email josh@ubcwaco.org.  Thanks.

Work Is Worship

 2-2-14

Coffee: Katie Wilson & Daniel Lairmore

Coffee Clean Up: Dan Picken

Greeters: Paul & Linda Taft

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: Luke 2:41-52
• John Sunday School Class: John 2:13-25
• Love-Love Feast: February 16^th at 6:00 P.M.
• The Culture Sunday School class has posted an article on our website.  Even if you don’t go to that class, Toph is encouraging folks to read the article and give feedback.  Read it here.   Comment on the Facebook thread on the UBC Facebook page.
• Penny Lynn Duke will be dedicated this Sunday.  Please be in prayer for her and her family.
• CDs for the children's service will be available in the children's rooms after church this sunday.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779

Getting to Know You(bc): Will Knight...

  Name: Will Knight

Age: I am 30.

Where do you call home?

A small little town known as Belton, TX. It has that small town feel with a lot of great people. The longer that I have been in Waco it is becoming more and more home.

What do you do in Waco?

I am the Operations Manager for Heart of Texas Produce. We sell fruit and vegetables to restaurants, schools, hospitals, and nursing homes.

What do you love most about UBC?

How outgoing everyone is. No matter where you are in life everyone makes it a mission to make all feel welcome. On Sunday morning, Wednesday for Communion or Pub Group, at Home Group, or just running into each other around town.

Favorite Movie?

There are so many great movies. If I have to pick one it would have to be Hunt for the Red October.

 books/author?

My favorite book of all time is Being George Washington and anything scifi. Author is a little harder. It would be a tie between Brad Thor and Vince Flynn.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Astronaut. I always had a fascination about space and exploring it.

What do you want to be now when you grow up?

A spy or maybe a critic so I can try a lot of different stuff.

You say you might want to be a critic.  What do you want to criticize?  

Food.  I love good food.  They also talk about service and cleanliness of restaurants. It is about the combination of all three.

Favorite artist/band/musician?

Flyleaf. It is kind of cool cause I went to high school with some of the band members. Being able to watch them grow to what they are today is epic.

Best Burger in Waco?

Smashburger.

What do we HAVE to know about you to really know you?

I enjoy comic books. It is what has kept my interest in scifi and started my fascination with superheros. If you have not picked up already I'm a scifi fan. Everything from Star Wars to Doctor Who to Battlestar Galactica and beyond. If it's scifi I'm in.

Who is your favorite superhero?

Gambit. He is always laid back and cool about everything.

ITLOTC 1-24-14

How Much Does A Pastor Really Make? On one of my visits to Facebook world this week I spotted this article, which was posted by my friend.  If you didn’t click the link, the premise/the title is “Why Your Pastor Doesn’t Make Enough Money.”

There’s a checklist in the article that explains why Pastors leave the ministry.   It’s a “hazard” list.  As I went through the list in my head I silently replied “nope” to most of them.  UBC really is a great place work.  I’m not sure, but I think that most of us on staff probably make less than we could elsewhere.  It’s really important that you understand I don’t list that as a complaint or even to try solicit raises for everyone.  Rather I want to point out the powerful pull of the ethos, that I suspect is a big factor in making UBC a place we love to work.

When Dave and Chris cast a vision for the church almost 20 years ago, they did with specific language and ideas that have protected the church all these years.  We  are not a church that argues over carpet colors or choir robes.  Those sorts of things have never been an issue.  Of course the institutional structures that give space for those sorts of arguments come with their own advantages, but again we’ve never been blessed and/or cursed with those issues.  Here’s a succinct way to put it.  If we are going to call a spade a spade, then carpet colors and choir robes are “BS” issues.  I’ll let you decide how to fill out the abbreviation.  UBC is a great place to work because we don’t deal with a lot of BS issues.

Lest I leave the impression that it’s perfect, let me be clear that it is not.  As a staff we’ve had our fair share of arguments and occasionally we receive complaints (usually indirectly) from someone in the congregation who is frustrated.   But I’ve often reflected that the things we fight about are things that are worth fighting about.  They are issues of ecclesiology and theology and the process we use to make decisions and the decisions we come to know matter deeply.

I have a lot of pastor friends who I've heard lament their situations.  I would take my problems over theirs most days.

But there is a better reason that makes pastoring at UBC great.  There is a richer form of intangible currency that ends up in our proverbial pockets every month.

I sometimes reflect on how long I will do what I am doing.  The blessing and curse of what I would refer to as “a call” is that there is part of your decision making that you don’t really think belongs to you.  The conclusion to this journey evades me, but I do know this, every time Lindsay and I have made a major decision in our life there seems to be a transcendent peace that comes with it.  I cannot see the end of my road, but that doesn’t stop from reflecting from the place of telos from time to time.  When I enter that mental space I think about what I might miss most about this job.  What I have discovered has surprised me.

It is the profound privilege of being invited into your suffering.  A lot of jobs have their own perks.  Athletes can compensate friends and family with tickets.  An editor gets to see amazing work before the rest of the world.    A car dealer always has something new to drive.  Teachers get summer (kind of).

The pastor gets invited into the recesses of the human heart.

And why should that be such a gift?

Philip Yancey writes this, “For some time I accompanied a friend to a life-threatening-illness support group, which met monthly in a hospital waiting room.  I cannot say I “enjoyed” those meetings, yet every month, walking home, I had the sense that the evening was one of the most meaningful I had spent.  We skipped trivialities and faced into the issues most urgent to everyone in the room—death and life, and how best to spend what time remained.”

Every time someone walks into my office with their pain in tow I’m floored that they have invited me to share it with them.  About a month ago someone came into to confess that he and his wife had a miscarriage.  I did what I always do.  I listened, talked without trying to say more than I actually know, and prayed and when they left I think I probably felt more ministered to by their invitation to care than they did by the care I gave.

In that moment, and in so many like it, I did not doubt that my work had immense meaning.  I will never get over that.

Empty Nester and Almost Empty Nesters

Are your kids way past Sponge Bob and Dora?  Do you pay more for car insurance than health insurance?  Do folks ask if you qualify for the senior citizen discount?  If so you might be eligible to be part of empty nester and almost empty nester group.

The next event will be dinner.  It held on Friday, February 14^th at 6:30 in the home of Jim & Mindy Wren.  Their address is 1700 Royal Oaks Drive, Waco, Texas 76710.

Please RSVP (call or text) to Linda Taft if you plan to attend, 254 717 8191.

Meet The Leadership Team

Chair: Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Austin Tiffany Austin_Tiffany@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

Teri Walter terijan@gmail.com

Meet Kaley Eggers

Vocation (could be your job or something you love doing that you believe you were made for):   I'm a social worker- the site coordinator for Communities In Schools at Connally Elementary School. It's sort of complicated to explain, but essentially I get to provide a wide variety of services to help support the students and families at my school. It's pretty hectic, but I feel very honored to have the opportunity to be a dependable, encouraging and loving presence in the lives of these kids.

Favorite Movie: This is a really tough question. I've been really into documentaries lately (A Place at the Table and Miss Representation are excellent and available on Netflix if you're interested), but I think if I had to pick one all-time favorite it would be Baby Mama. I probably quote this film at least once a day. Seriously. You just can't beat the combination of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.

Best Restaurant in Waco: Once again- really tough question. I love D's Mediterranean Grill, but I think Homestead Heritage would probably win as my favorite. (Or Homestead Cafe? I'm not sure what the actual restaurant is called?)

Bible verse/chapter/book that is meaningful for you: Two come quickly to mind. OT: Isaiah 61:1-3 and Mark 5:35-42. I feel very strongly connected to passionate calling described in the Isaiah verses. If someone were to ask me why I became a social worker, the simplest way for me to respond would be to quote this section of Scripture. That passage in Mark is the story of Jesus healing Jairus' daughter. To me, these verses communicate so much about who Christ is and the immense hope we have in him.

Best Television Show: Parks and Recreation.

Favorite Holiday:  Toss up between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Something we might not know about you: In high school I went through a really serious Lord of the Rings phase. Fact: I dressed up as an elf when I went to see The Two Towers in theaters. Follow-up fact: It was not the midnight showing. It was probably 2 weeks after the premiere. Obviously my coolness peaked in high school.

Hobby:  Ukulele-playing. Crafting. Baking. Hanging with my dog, RG IV.

 

Work Is Worship

 1-19-13

Coffee: Emily Driscoll and Michael Scott

Coffee Clean Up: Kara Edmondson, Jacob Robinson and Byron Roldon

Greeters: Dan Padgett and Jeff Latham

Announcements

• Sunday Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
• Love-Love Feast: February 16^th at 6:00 P.M.
• The Culture Sunday School class has posted an article on our website.  Even if you don’t go to that class, Toph is encouraging folks to read the article and give feedback.  Read it here.   Comment on the Facebook thread on the UBC Facebook page.

Do you have an Emergency?  Do you Need to talk to a Pastor?

254 366 9779