Setlist 8-9-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of God as gift-giver.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Because He Lives

Murdered Son by John Mark McMillan

To Be Alone With You by Sufjan Stevens

House of God Forever by Jon Foreman

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Just A Closer Walk With Thee: We sang this song to reflect on the fact that the gift of Jesus that we receive in coming to know Him is not a singular occurrence, but is something we receive afresh day by day.

Because He Lives: We sang this song to reflect on the way the gift of Jesus impacts our outlook on the future--in Christ, God gave us the gift of a hope that makes it worth getting out of bed each day.

Murdered Son: We sang this song to reflect on the cost of the gift of Jesus. Identifying Jesus as "God's Murdered Son" feels fairly blunt, but isn't this precisely what happened?  Salvation was a gift given at God's own expense.  We can dialogue back and forth over whether or not God is capable on a philosophical level of giving up any part of Godself, but this is nonetheless the picture that we have in Jesus, and we cannot ignore it.

To Be Alone With You:  This song captures a sense of mutual self-giving in the relationship between a person and God.  It also highlights that salvation is not an impersonal act in which God does what needs to be done to carry out a cosmic transaction of justice, but is instead an action with the aim of repairing the relationship between the Creator and creation.

House of God Forever: While I was out of town last week, Abby Baker played music in my stead, and this is one of the songs she led.  This is normally the part of the blog where I reference whatever was said last week, but since that quote would look like a big blank space, let's think about this song as a declaration that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift that keeps us alive--that the gifts of God are the existential place where we dwell.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 8-7-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Giving Digital Grace

I have been looking for a way to back out of Facebook.  Getting off is harder than I thought.  Two reasons keep me there.  I need to be able to edit UBC's Facebook page with my personal account.  I think I found a loophole.  The other is that as a pastor it's an incredibly effective way to keep an eye on "what's all the rage."   Karl Barth said that preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.  It turns out that Facebook, with its what's trending feature on the right side of the page, is an incredibly effective cultural newspaper.

A good question would then be--why do I want to get off Facebook?  I'm not sure how to describe it.  I think the best way would be an increasing hostile environment in the digital social sphere.  Lest I sound judgmental, let me acknowledge that I may be the one posting items that make folks roll their eyes or feel uncomfortable.   I'm sorry if you've found me to be one of those people.  

Still, my own experience has left me puzzled at times.  I'm growing less confident that the cavalier debates on the web grow people or further them in their discipleship.  Social media provides a space to publicly ridicule and even humiliate with little to no form of accountability other than retaliation.  I was reading an article a few weeks ago about cyber bullying (a different, but closely related problem)  and I saw a reference to a this video in which Monica Lewinsky very bravely and openly addresses the problem of cyber bullying/shaming.  Lewinsky makes a great point.  She asks why we've, as a culture, promoted the most humiliating moments in people's lives?  The answer is because it's a commodity.  Large internet traffic turns people's misfortunes into advertising hot spots.  Advertising means money.  

In June I preached through a series of parables.  In one of those sermons I mentioned how I was struck that the parables all landed readers in a place of humility at one point or another.  The gospel teaches us that we are the:

• the little brother
• laborers who show up at five o'clock
• the lost sheep 
• the ones locked out of the door 
• those who learn to take the seat of less prominence 
• those who gravitate towards foot washing

I think the point is that if you assume you're the one in the need of the most grace, you also understand you should give grace.  

In one of those sermons I played a clip from the beginning of the movie The Tree of Life.  Here's the dialogue from that scene.  

“The nuns taught us there are two ways through life: the way of Nature and the way of Grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.

Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things.”

Grace teaches us to the see the world a certain way.  Surely Monica Lewinsky learned thing or two about accepting slight and being disliked, and now on the other end of that experience she's offering grace.  I see this pattern over and over in the world.  Those who suffer the most are often the most compassionate.  But the difference between those who become more compassionate and those who end up bitter is nature and grace.  

Galatians 2:20 teaches that we have been crucified.  In our identity with Christ we have already suffered, therefore we are those who have been given grace to then give grace.  

I'll conclude with this.  George Saunders gave a graduation speech that got reprinted in the New York Times.  I think about it often.  Let me summarize most of it so I can get to the punchline.  Saunders raises the issue of regret and then tells student about several moments from his past that should be quintessentially regrettable.  Bad jobs, dumb choices that made him sick, an embarrassing sports moment that took place in front of a girl he liked.  He concludes that he doesn't regret any of those things.  

Saunders then goes on to describe a girl from his school that got picked on.  Her life wasn't horrible, but she was habitually teased. Here's what Saunders reports: 

Sometimes I’d see her hanging around alone in her front yard, as if afraid to leave it.

And then — they moved. That was it. No tragedy, no big final hazing.

One day she was there, next day she wasn’t.

End of story.

Now, why do I regret that? Why, forty-two years later, am I still thinking about it? Relative to most of the other kids, I was actually pretty nice to her. I never said an unkind word to her. In fact, I sometimes even (mildly) defended her.

But still. It bothers me.

So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do with it:

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. 

Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

I guess my point is this.  We all, or at least most of us, live in this digital space and we have an opportunity to be light bearers.  To be the people who have been given grace and in turn give grace.  So the next time you have a chance, offer something kind.  It makes a difference. 

Grillz & Chillz - August 12th - 6:00 PM @ the Haines 

Our next all church hang out will be this Wednesday night.  Please bring a dish to pass.  The Haines have a swimming pool that will be mostly in the shade at this time.  If you'd like to swim bring your suit and towel.  For more information contact Toph@ubcwaco.org. 

No Sunday School

Sunday School is done for the summer, looking for our Fall classes to begin on August 30th.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Denmans, McNamees, Kelsey 

Coffee Makers: Tim and Adrienne Lee 

Mug Cleaners:  Kuhls 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text:  Matthew 26:6-13  "The Worship Hour Part 2: Why We Give" 

• Last week was our last Waco dive for the summer.  Thank you for joining us for lunch this summer. 

• UBC will be having a clean day after church on the 16th from noon-two.  

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

ITLOTC 7-31-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

The Stages of Faith Development 

1 Corinthians 15:58 "your labor in the Lord is never in vain." 

A friend of mine--a mentor figure really--communicated something to me that i've repeated many times.  In fact, I've unofficially adopted it as an approach to faith.  We were talking about faith development in the life of people and he noted that,

"you want 

your children's pastor to be a fundamentalist

your youth pastor to be an evangelical

your young adults pastor to be a deconstructionist 

& 

your senior adults pastor to be a mystic"

Maybe it's because it's seemed to describe my own journey so well, I clung to what he said.  It makes sense.  I think it also gave me a sense of relief.  As someone who has moved at least to the third stage in that development I've made guessing games out of what it means to raise a child faithfully in the tradition of faith that I identify with.  

Having pulled my own suppositions apart, I was apprehensive about handing my children some of my own hurdles.  But this proposal made space for the way I grew up knowing faith, it even asked for it.  

Consequently, the person I've spent the most time thinking through this with is Emily, our children's pastor.  Very often we work together on the scriptures that we are teaching.  One of the things this collaboration reveals is the difference in the teaching points and pedagogical techniques we use for different audiences.  

Israel begins with Torah -- the rules, the concrete.  For that reason we teach our children the concrete and the simple.  This takes form in teaching them the stories and letting the questions of faith arise from that starting point.  

Still I sometimes wonder what exactly my children are learning.  Have the consistent times of prayer before meals and bed taught them anything?  Do they understand the words we sing together on Sunday mornings?  Have they heard the things I have told them about Jesus?

One of the more special moments of our vacation came at the beginning.  We sat down for dinner at my parents the first night we got there, and my dad, who is unofficially the Gandalf figure in our family asked my kids if any of them wanted to pray.  Roy volunteered.  I was slightly surprised, not because I question his faith commitment, but he's usually reluctant.  

What ensued was a thoughtful, articulate, heartfelt prayer in which my son acknowledged God, expressed gratitude, supplication and asked for blessing.  When he was finished I didn't say anything, but inside I was floored.  When, I wondered, did all of that get inside of him?  

 I listed that verse from 1 Corinthians because I believe it's true.  My, my wife's, Emily's, UBC's investment in my son's faith development has not been in vain.  But that thought within me is quickly tempered.  God is at work in my son as well.  We are teaching him the stories, the language, and movement of Christian faith, but God is bringing it alive within him.  

And God is at work within me and you and all of us even when we can't see it or feel it.  Even, I say, in moments when you feel far or distant.  Your commitment and your faithfulness are never in vain.  We are all becoming someone and leaving someone else behind.  A previous version of ourself.  Be encouraged in knowing that God is at work within you. 

Special Thank You From Waco PD

In June we raised money to support our local Waco PD and their families in the aftermath of the Biker shooting incident.  The following message was sent to me this week.  Proud of everyone who gave to this. 

Hello, 

I wanted to take a minute to say thank you to you and your church members for the Hawaiian Falls tickets that were given to our police family.  While the tickets are nice, it is the fact that you all thought about us that is the most important! 

Thank you and yours, be safe.

Sherry

August 9th -- Carter Care Blood Drive 

On Sunday August 9th, we will be hosting a blood drive at UBC, and we would love for you to participate by giving back to our community.  The mobile bus will be here from 9am-1pm for you to donate, so come before church, or give on your way out.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org

Grillz & Chillz - August 12th - 6:00 PM @ the Haines 

Our next all church hang out will be coming up in a few weeks, look sign-ups in the foyer this week.

No Sunday School

Sunday School is done for the summer, looking for our Fall classes to begin on August 30th.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Blaylocks, Evie,  and Gerhardt 

Coffee Makers:

Mug Cleaners:  Sara and Vince 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Exodus 20:2-4 "The Worship Hour Part 1: Why We Gather" 

• Waco dives:  We will meet at  Dubl-R Burgers, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email toph@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Setlist 7-26-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of dependence upon God.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

Be Thou My Vision

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

All I Can Say by David Crowder* Band

Come Thou Fount

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Heart Won't Stop: We sang this song for the first time last week during the offering.  On a pragmatic level, we sang this song again this week to build familiarity with it so it is more accessible in the future.  This song offers us language from Psalm 139 to bring to the forefront of our minds just how far the love of God will go to reach us.  Not even taking up residence in the deepest reaches of darkness can make God change God's mind about how radically God loves us.  In light of this week's thinking about dependence on God, we can say two things: (1) Whether we know it or not, we are dependent upon the love of God to hold us together at all times--especially when we try our best to turn ourselves against God. (2) God is dependable in God's consistent pursuit of us--we don't have to worry that we will at some point be bad enough to convince God that we aren't worth loving.  Even though there are things about us that make us seemingly unlovable in human terms, God has scandalously decided to be God for us; One who loves us. 

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to proclaim (and remind ourselves) that we are dependent upon God for our vision, wisdom, contentment, and hope.  These faculties are things that we rely on to make it through each day, and God offers them to us in abundance.  It is easy to try to generate all of these things on our own, through self-help practices, making plans, etc.--and we should no doubt spend time thinking about ways to live a purposeful and motivated life (!)--but we are ill-equipped to do these things alone.  [Note: A few months ago, it was brought to my attention that one line, "Thou my Great Father, and I Thy true son," can be a difficult/dissonant line for women to sing, since women do not typically self-identify as the son of anyone.  I was aware of this tension, but I did not have an alternative line to offer at the time.  In the months since, I have spoken to several women about the way they feel about this line, and have found that some (the majority of the group I informally polled) have no problem with singing "I Thy true son."  It is apparent, then, that changing this line is not the universal desire of women, but it is a concern nonetheless.  After giving this more thought, I chose to seek out an alternative line for the song, in hope that we could find words to sing together that we could all get behind.  After looking at that stanza intently, it seems like the point of those four lines is to convey the idea that God, the source of Wisdom, is present within us and can be our source of wisdom--that means the first two lines, "Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my True Word//I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord," and the final line, "Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one," are perhaps the most essential lines of this stanza.  "Thou my Great Father, and I Thy true son," while not pointless, does not contribute to the sense of this stanza as potently as the others.  In light of this, I chose to replace the third line with, "Thou my Great Father, Spirit, and Son."  This alternative line seems to preserve the integrity of the stanza as a whole, and focuses in on just what kind of God is indwelling us and imbuing us with wisdom.  I would love to elaborate on this further for anyone who is interested, and I would also love to talk to anyone who has concerns about this change.  Feel free to send me an email.]

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to proclaim that we are dependent upon the Spirit, and are ever in need of a reinvigorating of our awareness of the Spirit's presence within and among us.

All I Can Say:  I chose this song for the Offering song for a couple of reasons.  In keeping with the theme of dependence, this song embodies our need to take our concerns to God, and to be honest about our pain--even when that pain is in part because we feel that God has forgotten us or ignored us (This theme features prominently in the Psalms, after all, if you are looking or further permission from Scripture for this kind of candor in prayer).  The third verse reassures us that we can take our pain to God without fear that God will be angry at us for some lack of faith and give us the silent treatment.  Outside of our theme, I tend to think about All I Can Say whenever something tragic happens in the news (which seems to be at least weekly, if not daily, now)--people killing eachother, people finding ways to preserve their own faults by pointing fingers at others, people allowing their hatred of the "other" to be the wind in their sails.  Though this is perhaps a step removed from the direct language of the song, I think that it indeed carries a sense that we are upset about (insert upsetting thing), feel helpless, and don't know what to say.  Rather than attempting to fein some kind of apathy, this song lays out pain and discontent on the altar, knowing that God can take it.

Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Come Thou Fount last week: We sang this song for two main reasons: First, outside of our theme, it puts words into our mouths to call upon God to meet us in worship (God by no means conjured by us, but this is a way to express that we are open to meeting God and that we desire that God would teach us how to worship better).  The second reason, in light of our theme, was the final stanza:  Though we are prone to wander, the love of God does not abandon us.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 7-24-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Mission Partners

Throughout the year, we get dozen's of calls/emails from organizations around Waco and the world asking if we want to partner with them in what God is doing.  One of the jobs I am tasked with, along with the guidance and support of the staff and Leadership Team, is helping us discern what ministries to partner with as a congregation.  Our mission statement says this: UBC seeks to form a community of people into the way of Christ that embraces beauty and lives missionally.  As we are discerning what ministries to engage in, we recognize you to are involved in ministries that help bring reconciliation to broken families, broken systems, and broken relationships.  Many of you work in organizations that advocate for children, support/care for children, fight for justice and equal rights, etc... This week alone, I have been contacting by several organizations asking us to raise awareness for the work the Lord is doing through them.  So, I would like to a moment to highlight those opportunities this week. Below you will find a link to each organization, and the opportunity you have to help raise awareness for their ministry or to support in any way you feel led to.  If you have any questions, or you would like for our community to help raise awareness for a ministry you are involved, I would love to meet with you. You can email me here: Toph.

Jesus Said Love
Jesus Said Love is one of current community partners, and their ministry centers around working those in strips clubs in Waco and across Texas, sharing the love of Christ with them with no strings attached.  This week they contacted us with two opportunities to serve and learn. 
First, they are looking to add 3 to 5 guys to their security team for this Fall.  The security team helps drive team members to the clubs, and while the women go inside to spend time with the dancers, the security team prays for those ministering inside, for the dancers and club owners, and is available should any situation arise in which their help is needed.  If you are interested in helping with the security team, please email brett@jesussaidlove.com
Second, JSL is hosting a conference called Serve Model in October.  It is a brain based approach to working with people including those who have suffered trauma of any kind.  Bonnie Martin is the keynote.  She is an expert in the field as well as a dedicated Jesus lover.  You can find more information here: Serve Model

Grace House Waco
On August 13th, Grace House, the only residential recovery home in Waco serving women who want freedom from addiction to drugs and alcohol, will be hosting its first annual banquet and silent auction called, A Night with Grace House: Telling our Story!  Enjoy dinner while you hear the stories of women who have been set free from addiction by the healing power of Jesus.  This co-ed fundraiser is a great opportunity to have a fun evening with your family, friends or anyone from the community you think would to be a part!  You can sign up for the event by going to our webpage: Grace House Waco
Individual tickets are $40; attire is business casual; and the event is recommended for those 16+.

Every Village
Every Village is an oraganization that is committed to helping transform communities in South Sudan.  They have a number of initiatives, and recently they contacted us about helping with their radio program.  Every Village's radio network supports the work of long term missionaries, broadcasting the gospel and community development teaching through solar-powered, hand held radios distributed in local communities.  Each radio cost $20.  You can read more about their program and ways to be involved by going here: radio.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Tom and Kim Haines

Coffee Makers: emmy 

Mug Cleaners:  Haines Family 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29/1 Cor. 14:26,29-33 "Speaking Prophetically Part 3: ProphatAble Thinking and Living" Please be in prayer for Dr. John White as he prepares to preach to for us this Sunday.  

• Waco dives:  We will meet at   Taqueria El Mexicano Grille # , on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email toph@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Setlist 7-19-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of the relentless love of God.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Come Thou Fount

This Is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham

Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

How Great Thou Art

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Come Thou Fount: We sang this song for two main reasons: First, outside of our theme, it puts words into our mouths to call upon God to meet us in worship (God by no means conjured by us, but this is a way to express that we are open to meeting God and that we desire that God would teach us how to worship better).  The second reason, in light of our theme, was the final stanza:  Though we are prone to wander, the love of God does not abandon us.

This Is Amazing Grace: We sang this song to reflect on God's grace and mercy in what Jesus did for us.  Though God was by no means obligated to save us, Christ died for us.  This is a surprising love that goes against what one might consider fair or just.

Deliver Me: We sang this song to proclaim that this God who is love is able to deliver us from the depths of our depression, our anger, and the false versions of ourselves that we present to the world to feel accepted.  

Heart Won't Stop: This song uses language from Psalm 139 to talk about the fact that the love of God pursues us despite all of our failures, and all of our conditions.  One line, "I could lay my head in Sheol, I could make my bed at the bottom of the darkness deep, but there is not a place I could escape You," is pulled almost verbatim from Psalm 139, and it's profound: Sheol, while not necessarily the same as our concept of Hell, was the closest equivalent idea that they had in the Hebrew mind.  What kind of love is this, that continues to pursue even one who has not only laid down in hell, but "made a bed" in the deepest points of darkness?  It is nothing less than relentless.

How Great Thou Art:  We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about How Great Thou Art last week: This song traces the works of God that are evident through creation, the story of Jesus, and the hope of the resurrection, and declares God to be Great.  There is language sprinkled throughout this song--experiencing "awesome wonder" in observing the universe, scarcely being able to take in the sacrifice of Jesus, our hearts one day being filled with joy in the resurrection--that extends to us a chance to reflect upon God in terms that are anything but numb, and to reawaken within us an understanding of just how glorious God is.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 7-17-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Beauty

Josh asked me to write an entry for the newsletter this week while he’s on vacation.  I’ve been thinking about beauty quite a bit lately, so I’ve decided to ramble about that for a few paragraphs.  I've been thinking primarily about how I can get drawn in to looking at certain images. I'll go ahead and assume I'm not alone in this.  Isn’t it interesting that beauty grabs our attention so well?  Sure, an eye for beauty is in some sense an acquired taste (and those with "acquired tastes" sometimes disagree on what fits the bill), but I would venture to guess that most of us have found ourselves captivated by something.  For example, I can get lost staring at pictures of Space—like this image of the Crab Nebula:

There is something overwhelmingly beautiful to me about stuff like this—the colors, the light and darkness— I sometimes find it hard to look away. 

Let’s assume for a second that the gravitational pull of beauty isn’t an accident—let’s assume it was a design choice that was carefully selected when God crafted this thing we call humanity.  Could it be that God uses beauty to draw us closer to Godself?  If this is the case, does God speak to us—teach us—through beauty?  I’d say yes. 

In For All God’s Worth, N.T. Wright says this about beauty:

I want to suggest to you… that our ordinary experiences of beauty are given to us to provide a clue, a starting-point, a signpost, from which we move on to recognize, to glimpse, to be overwhelmed by, to adore, and so to worship, not just the majesty, but the beauty of God himself.  And, just as we don’t very often use the word ‘worship’ in connection with beauty in the natural world, so we don’t very often use the word ‘beauty’ in connection with God.  That is our loss, and I suggest we set about making it good. (7)

He also says:

The beauty of God is the beauty of love; love in creation, love in re-creation of a world spoiled by sin.  It is the same love; which is why all the beauty of the world, the beauty that calls forth our admiration, our gratitude, our worth-ship at the earthly level, is meant as a set of hints, of conspiratorial whispers, of clues and suggestions and flickers of light, all nudging us into believing that behind the beautiful world is not random chance but the loving God. (12)

I think Wright is. . . well…right.  And I think many people have no problem accepting the notion that beauty, as it is evident in the natural world, points us to God in worship.  But here’s the thing: in the same way that I get lost staring into pictures of Space, captivated by what it might mean, I get lost staring at beautiful things that humans made.  For instance there’s this painting called “Farm Garden with Crucifix,” by Gustav Klimt:

Or this photograph of Mont Saint Michel by William Clift:

Something in these images grabs me by the soul (or whatever I've got in there) and pulls me in.  I can’t put words to the why—I can tell you things I like about them, but those things aren’t the things that suck me in.  Furthermore, this doesn’t just happen with images: I could pull examples of poems, novels, songs, and films that do the same thing.  They grab me in such a way that I keep going back; looking, listening, absorbing every detail.

Since early June, I’ve been thinking about faith and art with the Summer Sunday school class.  We’ve been reading Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water, a book that I’ve had recommended to me several times in the past few years, but never had a chance to read.

Early on in the book, L’Engle makes a bold claim: all true art is Christian art.  It’s difficult to read this statement and not assume that she is saying that only art that brands itself as "Christian" can truly be called art, but this is by no means what she is getting at.  Instead, she is claiming, in a broad sense, that all art that contains the essence of whatever “art” is has been created out of obedience to the Creator, mirroring God's creativity—whether the artist was intending to do so or not.  Interestingly, she spends much more time talking about the role of God in Christian art than she does the artist.

“Christian” in this sense seems to mean “transformed by an encounter with God."  When and where God uses a work of art to communicate something to us, it is more than itself— it is Christian art. This means that we can’t put confidence in categories like “sacred” and “secular.”  God is “on the move,” so to speak, and we do not have the privilege of mandating where God cannot go.

We Christians are no strangers to thinking about God revealing Godself to us in humanity and divinity simultaneously—this is what happened in Jesus.  Because of this, we do not have to neglect the value of art for its own sake, as if art were only valuable insofar as God uses it to speak to us.  Exploring this further will have to wait: I'm already flirting with the TLDR line (and I've probably passed it). 

Now, the point.

In thinking about this stuff, I've been challenged to start paying more attention to art.  Though I am a musician, Worship & Arts Pastor, and the husband of an Art Historian, I do not have the most robust impulse to seek out art and think about it.   I've made more of a point to do so this summer, as we've been discussing these things in Sunday School, and I've been surprised at the difference I've noticed.  The fact of the matter is, when we engage art thoroughly--when we embrace the beauty it contains--we open ourselves to an avenue of engaging God that we otherwise miss. 

-JM

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Leigh

Coffee Makers: Emmy

Mug Cleaners:  Sara & Vince 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Ezekiel 15:1-8 "Prophetic Voices Part 2: Prophetic Identity and God's People"  Please by in prayer for our guest preacher Christina Gibson as she prepares to preach to us this Sunday  

• Waco dives:  We will meet at   Captain Billy Whizzbang’s , on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email toph@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Setlist 7-12-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of glory.  This word is kind of hard to pin down.  In the context of these songs, our theme of "glory" points to the aspects of our experience of God that we struggle to even begin to wrap our minds around, and that leave us confessing that God is greater than we can even hope for God to be.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

How Great Thou Art

Holy, Holy, Holy by Sufjan Stevens

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Noise by Jameson McGregor

You Were There by Jameson McGregor

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

How Great Thou Art: This song traces the works of God that are evident through creation, the story of Jesus, and the hope of the resurrection, and declares God to be Great.  There is language sprinkled throughout this song--experiencing "awesome wonder" in observing the universe, scarcely being able to take in the sacrifice of Jesus, our hearts one day being filled with joy in the resurrection--that extends to us a chance to reflect upon God in terms that are anything but numb, and to reawaken within us an understanding of just how glorious God is.

Holy, Holy, Holy: We last sang this song on Trinity Sunday as we thought about God's Otherness.    There are many different layers of what it means to say that God is Holy, but a sense that God is above and beyond our wildest dreams about who God might be is at the center of all of them.  This holiness points to the Glory of God.

Future/Past: The verses of this song offer overwhelming and beautiful pictures of the way that God relates to the cosmos.  God's holding the reigns on the sun and moon, covering the greatest geological structures of Earth in the breadth of God's wings, and holding the movement in intricacy of the constellations in God's mind--these are all images that communicate something intimidating, overwhelming, and (strangely) beautiful about who God is.  These images are contrasted with the line "In this fortunate turn of events, You asked me to be Your friend." I'll admit: this language comes off as trite.  But let's not miss the fact that it is nonetheless true: God entering into a relationship with humanity is about as unbalanced as possible, yet that is precisely what God has done.  This category-defying action is perhaps the most glorious image explored in this song.

Noise: This song carries a similar theme to the last song in that it highlights the distance between what it is to be human and what it is to be God.  Our words fail to capture an accurate description of what God does or what God is like, and our actions consistently fail to live up to "proper"conduct in dealing with God, yet God has promised to be God for us--God with us.  In Christ, God took on the depths of the human condition, and because of this, God understands our struggles. This is a miracle, and it is most certainly glorious.

You Were There: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last weeks' songs.  Last week, we said this about You Were There: This song is an exercise in perspective:  God was there before there was anything evil, God is there despite our present anxiety, and God will be there after everything here is gone (Everything in the universe has a clock that's running out, but God does not).  While God is present in the midst of our pain, and understands our pain, God is more real than everything we experience in the world.  We can confidently fix our eyes on God in the midst of anxiety, having faith that God is unhindered by the things that overwhelm us.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 7-10-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Vacation 

I leave for vacation tomorrow.  More than a few people have asked me if I'm excited.  "Yes, yes I am!"  Note my use of the exclamation point.  It's appropriate here.  That seemingly natural question has sent me reflecting on my excitement.  This may sound like I'm being a brown noser, but that's not my intent.  When I started this job, I was elated.  It never felt like I came to work.  I still feel that way.  This really is one of the best jobs out there.  For that reason, for the first few years I had my job, I honestly did not care about vacation.  If i was at work reading and studying what I wanted or at home doing the same thing, it was all winning.  Honeymoon periods come to an end.  Now in year eight, despite my passion for this job, I love my vacations.  

I looked in the personnel file and aside from a few days I've taken off here or there, mostly to care for sick children, I haven't been on vacation since last summer when I returned from sabbatical.  I can feel it.  I'm a little worn.  

After an overnight stint at Lindsay's sister's house we will drive the three and half hours to my parents house which is fixed in my hometown, Tomahawk, WI (AKA the Shire).   My parents have three acres on a Wendell Berry lake (Mabel Lake).  There I will watch my kids paddle around in the canoe I used growing up.  I will watch them chase frisbees and balls with their cousins on the ground I used to play home run derby with my friends growing up.  I will watch them dip their feet in the same wash-up-tub that I used to clean yard debris from my feet. 

Sometime during the middle of the week, we'll use one the rainy days to drive to town to the theatre that features the one movie that made it that far North.  On the way there, we'll stop at the one stop light that came to the town in the late nineties.  There will be two or three buildings that will either be new or renovated.  Those changes will represent the death and life of a few businesses.  Because the town is about 3,000 people, I'll likely know the families of the failed businesses.  That will be cause for disappointment and start a thirty minute discussion that happens any time you talked about the tangled lives of Tomahawk.  

And all the while, when I spend a week filling my life with the seemingly mundane, something will happen to me.  My soul will be  mended by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  

UBC has embedded her identity with the theological concept that the sacred and secular are poor categories to describe a world created and pronounced good by God.  Sometimes selling people on the sacred nature of everything can be difficult.  That is the not the case with vacation.  It's not hard to convince people that vacation is good for them, even that it is spiritually good for them.  Perhaps that's because vacation, which so often leads to rest, has a theological bedfellow in Sabbath.  

Vacation is not a theological term and taking one does not guarantee a spiritual experience.  But, slowing down and setting aside a time in our lives that reminds us our primary purpose is not work, is in fact a deeply theological concept.  

There is no way I can tell you exactly when someone jotted down the oral tradition of the creation story, but it's likely that it was given a louder voice while Israel found herself in the oppressive circumstances of exile.  Genesis 1,2 & 3 were probably written down when the reigning foreign ideology (of either Egypt or Babylon) taught that people were dispensable machines used for making things. It's in light of those circumstances that the fact that God took a day off is so astounding.  It also make sense of why this seemingly odd command landed itself in Moses' top 10 list.  Taking a rest after a hard week of work is an idea that's found in the fabric of the way things are supposed to be.  

I read a book on Sabbath by a Jewish Rabbi named Abraham Joshua Heschel.  In it Heschel argues something unique, namely, that Sabbath is not a day off for God.  That even on this day God is creating.  What?  

Menuha 

What is Menuha?

"Menuha which we usually render "rest" means 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.  This must have been the view of the ancient rabbis if they believed that it took a special act of creation to bring it into being,  that the universe would be incomplete without it.  'What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose.'"

Here's to tranquility, serenity, peace, repose and the conviction that humans are most fully themselves when they find rest in the God of Sabbath.  

Meet Our Newest Leadership Team Member

Joy Winemann 

Vocation or what you are currently doing with your life: Student at Baylor University.

Favorite Holiday: #DIA 

Best restaurant in Waco: Raising Canes. Once the name has been spoken I can't rest until I've eaten it. That sauce...my goodness.

Bible verse/chapter/book that has been formative for you: Ephesians 4:1, so much so that it is tattooed on my shoulder. Also, Psalm 40 and 2 Corinthians 12:9. 

TV show or movie that you love: I will address these separately. I have a deep affection for Gilmore Girls as a series, matched only by my feelings for The West Wing. Regarding movies, Tommy Boy is the best of all time. 

Something we might not know about you: I have never been apart of an a cappella group.  

Mi Casa Information 

Fall is coming at us FAST - that means that it's time to start getting things rolling for Mi Casa! 

In related news, I am hoping to start a few more groups. SO, if you think you might like to lead/co-lead a Mi Casa this coming year - or if you don't necessarily want to lead but you would like to host - I would love to connect in the next few weeks to talk about what all that entails and get to know you! If this paragraph describes you (or you think it might) then email me at andrasi.e@gmail.com 

If you have always wanted to be in a Mi Casa - or you're wondering when groups officially start meeting again - then mark your calendar for August 30th. We will have a sign up that day in the foyer and groups will start meeting that week!

In Family News

Lest someone think think this is self promotion I would like to make it clear that one Jameson McGregor did not ask me, nor does he know now that in this moment I'm writing this.  That being said, I'm proud of his gifts.  Should you be interested, he occasionally works on a demo, which you can find here. 

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Kelsey & the Denmans 

Coffee Makers: Haylee Loudenslager 

Mug Cleaners:  Tim & Adrienne Lee 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Job 13:2-9 "Prophetic Voices Part 1: Questioning God" Please be in prayer as our friend, Dr. David Wilhite as he prepares to preach for us this Sunday. 

• Waco dives:  We will meet at   Taqueria El Crucero, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email jamie@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

• July Grillz and Chillz will take place at the Monroe house on Wednesday July 22nd.  More information to come.  

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Setlist 7-5-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of providence.  "Providence" can be a kind of ambiguous term, and you can probably find a variety of different takes on what it might mean.  When I say providence, I mean God's interweaving of the stories of our lives into a greater story--a story we believe by faith to be the best kind of story.  This means that God is drawing us toward Godself and, in a broad sense, taking care of us.   Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

House of God Forever by Jon Foreman

Oceans by Hillsong United

You Were There by Jameson McGregor

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Wandering: We humans are gifted at seeing something great (such as God) and attempting to use this great thing to our advantage--to harness its power.  When we try to do this to God, God slips our proverbial leash.  Instead of moving in the direction we want, God insists that we go the way God wants.  But God does not abandon us because of this--God is faithful to us, even when we try (and fail) to take control.  In the context of providence, we sang this song to reaffirm that we worship a God who does not cut ties when we try to be god-wranglers, but instead continues drawing us toward Godself.  God's providence is possible because God does not turn away from us.

House of God Forever: This song is built around Psalm 23, and uses the image of God as a Shepherd to talk about God's care for us--specifically that this means we don't have to be afraid in the face of danger.  This is not to say that if one is afraid, one does not have faith, but rather to say that God will not abandon us to fend for ourselves.  God has drawn near to us in Jesus, and God is still drawing us toward Godself.  

Oceans: We sang this song to think about the fact that, though much of what we face in life may seem chaotic or overwhelming, we can trust that God is not overwhelmed.  Because of this, we can trust that God is able to help us navigate the troubled waters of life.

You Were There: This song is an exercise in perspective:  God was there before there was anything evil, God is there despite our present anxiety, and God will be there after everything here is gone (Everything in the universe has a clock that's running out, but God does not).  While God is present in the midst of our pain, and understands our pain, God is more real than everything we experience in the world.  We can confidently fix our eyes on God in the midst of anxiety, having faith that God is unhindered by the things that overwhelm us.

Wayward Ones: We sing this song every time we take communion to remind ourselves of a couple of things.  First, we are a broken people--though we are seeking to become more like Jesus, we often fail at this.  Second, Christ has given Himself for us despite our brokenness.  We take communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, even though we did not, and do not, deserve it.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 7-3-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Keeping Your Voice

"I am the way the truth and the life." - Jesus

John 14:6

I'm on a summer schedule, which means that instead of taking off Thursdays, I now take off Fridays.  As such, my work week comes to an end of Thursdays.  In that regard you should know that both the newsletter and sermon I wrote last week were complete before Friday.  Before the SCOTUS decision was finalized.  

However, I'm not sure the timing would have made a difference for me.  The older I get the more wisdom has taught me to temper my response with time and reflection.  I owe it to all of you to be honest.  UBC has feigned agnosticism on this issue.  That is not because I/we do not have convictions, it is because we all have convictions that are, from my vantage point, so different.  I suppose even that confession will make some of you uncomfortable (on both sides of the issue).  But it is nonetheless the truth.  I anticipate that not being intentional about addressing the issue is a disposition with an expiration date.  

I do want to say something though, and that is to speak to what it means to exist in a community of ambivalence; either at UBC or in the wider church full of diverse believers.  

I have probably clicked on more articles to read this week than I have at any other point.  At one point I was taken by an interesting title without knowing who the author was.  It turns out that the author was Matt Walsh.  I will say some kind things about Matt first.  Matt is smart and he is a good writer.  He had a personal blog that was so successful he was picked up the The Blaze.  I almost never agree with Matt Walsh and not even because of his content, but more because of his inflammatory language, which though I'm sure aptly depicts his position, I'm convinced is used to create drama and sustain his popularity and readership.  Matt uses language that hurts people and promotes degenerate discussion.  Sometimes when I read Matt I feel myself getting angry.  My former self would have expressed my anger by engaging in spirited discussion and likely commenting in a way aimed to hurt back.  

I now have the belief that the most effective thing I can do is not click on, or in anyway promote his writing, so I simply steer clear.  But alas, I was not carefull in my curiosity and found myself reading an article he had written.  Matt was responding to responses from an article he wrote in light of the SCOTUS decision.  

Brief Interlude to discuss poignant discoveries

 I remember the first time I watched Schindler's List.  My just now google search reminded me it was released in 1993.  I was 12.  I wasn't usually allowed to watch "R" movies, but I was allowed to watch this.  Probably because my parents weren't opposed to exposing me to truth.  Good for them.  

As the film started I remember being annoyed that it was in black and white.  Other than subtitles that demand I read a whole movie, filming in black and white when color was clearly an option, was just about the largest cinematic mistake you could have made in my 12-year-old-film-critic mind.  But I was soon taken with the method.  Why?  There are two scenes in the whole movie that feature color.  Both scenes feature the overcoat worn by a young Jewish girl that I would describe as red (you can disagree on the color, but you should know I don't care what color it really is).  In the first scene, depicted in the picture below, she is alive and walking.  

The second time we see this coat, it is still on the girl, but now she's being wheeled on a cart with another dead child.  

I've read up on this, but my guess is that Spielberg did this to remind us, who were watching thousands of Jews be slaughtered, that this really happened and each and everyone of these deaths was personal and infinitely tragic.  

When I saw the coat the second time, I couldn't breathe.  Even at the confused young age of 12, the use of color was so powerful, that I forgot I was watching a movie.  It was poignant. 

Back to Matt Walsh 

So the article I accidentally clicked.  Matt Walsh began writing about the responses that showed up on his feed.  They were terrible.  They lacked humanity.  They were distinctively not Christian.  And then after about 20 or so of these comments that used language not appropriate for a church newsletter and that called for Matt to take his own life, Matt simply wrote "#lovewins." 

Hashtag "lovewins" has been the victory cry of the LGBT advocates.  Matt's placement of this phrase, after a plethora of comments that were clearly showing that in this particular case, love was not winning, was poignant.  I thought about all of those folks who had made those comments out of hurt, frustration and a feeling of being demeaned.  I felt empathy, but Matt's critique was nonetheless biting.  If you lose control of your emotions you'll often lose your voice.   

Lest it seem like I am writing this from a vantage point of my high horse, let me iterate and reiterate a few things.  

1. Matt Walsh consistently writes hurtful mean things. 

2. I do not condone Matt Walsh's writing.  I've felt strong anger and wanted to say mean things back to Matt Walsh. 

3. I don't believe that those who wrote those comments represent the way that all or even most LGBT people and advocates engage conversation. 

4. I'm sure if I looked long enough I could find an example where everything about this situation is reversed.  An inflammatory LBGT advocate writer  who wrote an article in response to the SCOTUS decision, which then received horrible comments in a thread by a mean spirited group of opposition that do not reflect the conversation style of most of its contingency.  

All of that acknowledged, I will admit that Matt stopped me in my tracks.  I imagine myself as David, who when confronted by the story of the prophet Nathaniel, shares in the outrage, until he realizes that he's the source of the outrage in the parable.  

My dad told me it takes a lifetime to develop character and one moment to lose it.  Earning the right to be heard takes so much work.  Losing the right to be heard takes almost no effort at all.  

I believe that the gift that UBC has always had to give is that she is a place that uniquely brings together and holds people of drastically diverse opinion.  I'm probably uniquely aware of how poignantly true this is because I have the great privilege of listening to most of you.  On some Sunday mornings as we worship in our confession, giving, listening, singing and laughing together I think to myself, "now here is something special.  I really can sense the glory of God in the unity of His people."   

 I wrote all of this to tell you what I really want to tell you.  If I had a list of the top five things I've learned in my eight years of ministry, very near the top would be something I learned from Eugene Peterson.  That is this.  Jesus truth, without the Jesus way, will never produce Jesus life.  

Don't lose your right to speak.  Keep your voice.  Love people with your convictions, don't hurt them.  

School Supplies Needed

Every year, Waco ISD partners with local organizations to fill and pass out over a 1,000 backpacks to kids in the area who need it.  This is the last week we are collecting school supplies for Waco ISD students, as the box should be picked up sometime next week.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org  When you bring the supplies Sunday, please place them in the box in the foyer.

Membership

A few years ago, with the blessings of LT, Craig put together a committee to pursue the idea/possibility of membership at UBC.  After some great work by the committee, the LT felt there were still some questions of how this idea of membership would be implemented at UBC, and the conversation was given back to the staff to continue to guide the process.  Over the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with members of the original committee, and we have decided to pick up the conversation again.  Here are some of the reasons we are pursuing this conversation now: how do we create a greater sense of ownership at UBC; how do we foster a greater sense of accountability and discipleship; and how do we discern whose voices should be heard in matters of committee selection?  If you are interested in serving on this committee, or want to recommend someone to serve, please email toph@ubcwaco.org .  The goal of this committee will be to answer some of the questions above, and to help create a system of belonging at UBC that is true to historical tradition within the Church and true to UBC’s unique identity within this historical tradition.  If you have any questions, please contact Toph.  The committee will begin meeting in August.

Grillz and Chillz

The next grillz and chillz will be July 22nd, at 6pm, at the Monroe’s house.  Sign-ups will be in the foyer on Sunday July 12 and 19th.  UBC will provide the main dish, we ask you to bring your own drinks and side dish to share.  If you have any questions, or you would like to sign-up through email, contact toph@ubcwaco.org

Young-Life Camp

Every summer, students who are involved in Young Life throughout the year have the opportunity to attend a week of camp during the summer, but they often need help raising the money to go.  UBC has several students who are involved as leaders in West Waco Young Life and North Waco Young Life, and we have partnered with them to use our building for Club several times over the past few years.  If you have any work projects HS students could do to earn money for a camp scholarship, we have some students who would love to connect with you.  If you have any questions, or would like to help, please email toph@ubcwaco.org   To learn more about Young Life’s ministry, please check out their website:  

Leadership Team

You would be hard pressed to find a better human being than Jana Parker.  So you can imagine our sadness due to the fact that her time on the leadership team is coming to a conclusion.  We are looking for a new leadership team member to begin serving in July.  Please send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org.  The leadership team will select a new member at the July 6th meeting.  

Here is some information from the bylaws about the leadership team: 

Section 1.  Leadership Team

(A) Purpose.  The Leadership Team shall be the primary decision-making body of UBC.  The Leadership Team will oversee all the business and property of the church, as well as make the final decisions regarding hiring and dismissal of staff and the acquisition and selling of assets that are beyond budgetary provisions. 

(B) Composition.  The Leadership Team shall consist of seven members of the UBC community that are not staff, finance team or human recourses and support team.

(C) Qualifications.  Each member of Leadership Team shall have been a member of UBC for at least one year, exhibited an understanding and commitment to the mission and values of the church, and be willing to fulfill all responsibilities in the Leadership Team job description.

(D) Selection.  When a vacancy arises on the Leadership Team the congregation shall be notified immediately at a regularly scheduled Sunday morning worship service, as well as through social media and electronic communication.  At that point a call for nominations shall be made and any member of UBC will be allowed to make nominations.  Not less than three weeks shall pass before the window for accepting nominations will close.  All nominees shall then be vetted and selected by the current Leadership Team.

(E)  Term.  Members of Leadership Team may serve for a duration lasting up to three years.  While they are encouraged to remain the full three years, members may voluntarily remove themselves from their position at any time.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: 

Coffee Makers: Logan and Allyson 

Mug Cleaners:  Tim and Adrienne Lee 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Luke 10:25-36

• Waco dives:  We will meet at  Kitoks, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email josh@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

• July Grillz and Chillz will take place at the Monroe house on Wednesday July 22nd.  More information to come. 

• Over the next few weeks after this Sunday July 5th, I (Josh) will be out of town.  We will have three guest preachers. Dr. David Wilhite, Christina Gibson, and Dr. John White, July 12th, 19th, & 26th respectively.  They will collectively be doing a series on speaking prophetically.   Please be in prayer for them as they prepare. 

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Podcast 6-28-2015

Setlist 6-28-2015

This week, Josh preached from Luke 13:22-30.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of the radical grace of God.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band

This is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham

All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons & Daughters

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.

All Creatures of our God and King: This song runs with the idea of the whole of creation praising God--the idea here is that, in creating the cosmos, God is Lord over all of it, and the very existence of stars, planets, and particles way too small to see, declare the glory of the God who made them all.  We sang this to begin our service thinking about the grandeur of God.

This is Amazing Grace: This song juxtaposes the grandeur of God with the sacrifice of Jesus--in Jesus, this Holy God chose to become human and to endure the worst that the human condition had to offer.  The Incarnation was an invitation for humanity (all of us) to know what the Creator is like, but also to know the Creator.  

All the Poor and Powerless: This song focuses on the significance of the invitation to know God for those who are socially disadvantaged, those who feel they have no hope, etc.  The hand that is extended in Jesus is for everyone--not just those who society lifts up as ideal citizens.

Bonfire: We sang this song to think about the day when God will make all things new, when the things that are broken inside all of us, and in the world around us, will be mended.  All of us are broken in different ways, and we have no ground upon which we may stand and call ourselves somehow better than any other person.  In the end, we will likely be surprised at just how many different kinds of formerly broken people God has drawn together.

Future/Past: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  Last week, we said this about Future/Past: We sang this song to emphasize the fact that to be related to God through faith is to love and be loved by One whose perspective is much greater than our own.  This means that God is worthy of our trust and worship in the midst of suffering, and that we can be confident that God is weaving human history into something more beautiful than we can imagine.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 6-26-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

What To Do with Those Flags? 

The Great Divorce

My favorite book of all time is C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.  No single book did more to pull me out of one paradigm of thinking and set me a path that led into another.  

The book, like much of Lewis's fiction, is an allegory.  It's a story about the journey of a few out of hell and into heaven and how the suppositions of the damned come into conflict with the truth of heaven.  

One of the more memorable hellish characters is referred to as "the big man."  In his brief narratival arc we learn that, above all else, the big man simply wants "his rights."  In the opening chapter, after clocking the "the short man" in the face while waiting for the bus that will take them to heaven , the big man justifies his actions with this qualification, "I"m a plain man that's what I am and I got to have my rights same as anyone else, see?" 

In chapter 4, after arriving in heaven, the big man is furious to find that a murderer he knew during his lifetime has been in heaven all this time while he was in hell.  After offering a litany of justification of works he concludes with, "I never asked for anything that wasn't mine by rights," and again on the next page he reiterates, "But I got to have my rights same as you, see?"

The murderer is the big man's tour guide in heaven.  His reply to the big man's logic is this, "Oh no.  It's not so bad as that.  I haven't got my rights, or I should not be here.  You will not get yours either.  You'll get something far better." 

The Confederate Flag

I grew up in the North.  My presuppositions are Yankee through and through.  It's not that I try indignantly to be Northern, I just am.  As such I admit that I was taught history with a particular lens.  There are nuances about the Civil War that I was not taught including the fact that some northerners were sympathetic with slavery and others were unaware that slavery was a major issue at all.  I heard little to nothing about states rights and Lincoln and Grant were heralded as heroes.  I was taught that General Sherman used "total war" as a military tactic, but was spared some of the gruesome truths of that policy. 

I was taught that the Confederate flag (or the battle flag Robert E. Lee's Northern Virginia Army) was bad.  It was a symbol of treason and represented a desire to keep slavery in America's history.  

I'm not sure if that is fair, but here is what I have learned this week.  

• In 1948 the Dixiecrac Party adopted the flag as a symbol of resistance the Federal government. 
• In 1956 the symbol was featured prominently in the Georgia's flag redesign.   This is conjecture, but it's noteworthy that the Supreme Court handed down a decision to desegregate schools two years earlier. 
• The flag has been used by the Ku Klux Klan, though it is not the official flag of the Klan.  

I have to admit, given these facts and the other articles I've read this week it seems that me that the flag has undoubtedly become a symbol of racism whether or not it was to begin with.  Still because I can accept the fact that I was taught a revisionist history, I want to be careful and slow in drawing conclusions.  

When I find myself in world of epistemic ambiguity I tend to turn from data to story.  That is, I move beyond looking at facts and begin looking to people.  In this case that would mean listening to my African American brothers and sisters.  It means asking them how the flag makes them feel.  

My friend and colleague Delvin Atchison is the Pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Waco.  Delvin is incredibly smart and a gifted preacher.   Delvin is also African American.  For this reason, his voice needs to be louder than mine even if we agree.  I have listened as he has processed the events of the last two weeks.  Delvin has identified the Confederate flag as a source of pain in his life and that of his brothers and sisters.  That is good enough for me.  Delvin offers the definitive word on this issue in my life.  

The Irrelevance of My Rights

There has been an interesting opinion that has emerged with the others with regards tot he flag.  It is the opinion of those who point out that they are not racist, but they want to protect our rights to have the flag.  

When I read these articles and or opinions I think of Philippians 2:6-7:

who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,

Jesus emptied himself and took on the form of the slave.  No one in history had more access to privilege and rights.  And Jesus gave up just that.  Jesus gave up all of His rights. 

Romans 6:18 describes us, Jesus followers.  It says: "having been set free form sin, we became slaves to righteousness."  The Spirit maps us on that trajectory of self emptying.  We gave up our rights and became slaves to righteousness (read right relationships).    

Paul had a problem Corinth.  Some of the formerly pagan now converted Christians believed that eating meat offered to idols was problematic.  Other Christians understood that meat is simply meat and could be eaten in good conscious.  Paul could have spent time educating everyone and convincing them that the meat was fine to eat.  But he did not, he pointed out that the Jesus thing to do would be for the people who have the right to eat meat, to forgo it.  Not eating meat is a practice in being a slave to righteousness. 

Let's suppose that the flag is not a symbol of racism (which I'm not actually conceding).  If the South is as thoroughgoing Christian as it claims to be, then why is not the overwhelming desire of her people to honor our African American brothers and sisters by gladly taking the flag down.  

The gospel does not wait for federal courts to tell us what is right and wrong or even the political correct culture we live in.  The gospel seeks to honor the people that Jesus died to save.  

Let us give up our flags and our rights and in return get something much better.  

Meet Our New Office Manager 

Amy Smith Carman 

Where are you from?: Los Angeles (but I lived in the Philippines for my first 5 years and also think of it as home)

Why are you in Waco?: My husband is a second year PhD student in New Testament at Baylor

What is your favorite restaurant?: In-N-Out (perfect meal: grilled cheese-animal style, fries, and chocolate shake)

Do you watch TV/Movies … if so what’s one you really love?: Favorite TV shows include Elementary, Agents of Shield, and Once Upon a Time. Favorite Movies: Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and It’s a Wonderful Life

A bible verse/chapter/or book that has been formative for you?: Mathew 5

What is something about you we’d only know if you told us?: I’ve trained in martial arts for the last 5 years. 

Restarting Membership Conversation: An Update from Toph 

A few years ago, with the blessings of LT, Craig put together a committee to pursue the idea/possibility of membership at UBC.  After some great work by the committee, the LT felt there were still some questions of how this idea of membership would be implemented at UBC, and the conversation was given back to the staff to continue to guide the process.  Over the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with members of the original committee, and we have decided to pick up the conversation again.  Here are some of the reasons we are pursuing this conversation now: how do we create a greater sense of ownership at UBC; how do we foster a greater sense of accountability and discipleship; and how do we discern whose voices should be heard in matters of committee selection?  If you are interested in serving on this committee, or want to recommend someone to serve, please email toph@ubcwaco.org .  The goal of this committee will be to answer some of the questions above, and to help create a system of belonging at UBC that is true to historical tradition within the Church and true to UBC’s unique identity within this historical tradition.  If you have any questions, please contact Toph.  The committee will begin meeting in August.

Leadership Team

You would be hard pressed to find a better human being than Jana Parker.  So you can imagine our sadness due to the fact that her time on the leadership team is coming to a conclusion.  We are looking for a new leadership team member to begin serving in July.  Please send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org.  The leadership team will select a new member at the July 6th meeting.  

Here is some information from the bylaws about the leadership team: 

Section 1.  Leadership Team

(A) Purpose.  The Leadership Team shall be the primary decision-making body of UBC.  The Leadership Team will oversee all the business and property of the church, as well as make the final decisions regarding hiring and dismissal of staff and the acquisition and selling of assets that are beyond budgetary provisions. 

(B) Composition.  The Leadership Team shall consist of seven members of the UBC community that are not staff, finance team or human recourses and support team.

(C) Qualifications.  Each member of Leadership Team shall have been a member of UBC for at least one year, exhibited an understanding and commitment to the mission and values of the church, and be willing to fulfill all responsibilities in the Leadership Team job description.

(D) Selection.  When a vacancy arises on the Leadership Team the congregation shall be notified immediately at a regularly scheduled Sunday morning worship service, as well as through social media and electronic communication.  At that point a call for nominations shall be made and any member of UBC will be allowed to make nominations.  Not less than three weeks shall pass before the window for accepting nominations will close.  All nominees shall then be vetted and selected by the current Leadership Team.

(E)  Term.  Members of Leadership Team may serve for a duration lasting up to three years.  While they are encouraged to remain the full three years, members may voluntarily remove themselves from their position at any time.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Haylee and the Robinsons 

Coffee Makers: Timothy and Adrienne Lee

Mug Cleaners:  Haines Family 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Luke 13:22-30

• Waco dives:  We will meet at  Taqueria El Charro Tapatio, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email josh@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

• July Grillz and Chillz will take place at the Monroe house on Wednesday July 22nd.  More information to come. 

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

254 498 2261

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Setlist 6-21-2015

This week, Josh preached from Matthew 13:24-30.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of evil (Or at least trying to make sense of evil in the world while having faith in God).  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

It Is Well by Horatio Spafford

There Will Come A Light by Jameson McGregor

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.

Death In His Grave: We sang this song to reflect once again on the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus changed the course of human life--that the end goal of human existence is no longer death, but resurrection.  

Future/Past: We sang this song to emphasize the fact that to be related to God through faith is to love and be loved by One whose perspective is much greater than our own.  This means that God is worthy of our trust and worship in the midst of suffering, and that we can be confident that God is weaving human history into something more beautiful than we can imagine.

It Is Well:  This song offers a sense of perspective in the face of grief by claiming that regardless of what happens in the world around us, we can be unflinchingly joyful about the future.  Though this is true, I mentioned yesterday that this can come off as somewhat dismissive of the pain that we feel in the midst of evil, and that Jesus' response to the death of Lazarus in John 11 tells us that the fact that things are going to be ok does not mean that they are currently ok, and we do not have to pretend that they are.  With this in mind, when we sing about the future hope that we have in Christ, let us not do so looking past our present pain, but rather into it, saying, "This too is being redeemed by God."

There Will Come A Light: This is a song I wrote for the "Hope" week of Advent a couple of years ago.  Advent songs often explore the darkness of the world searching for the Light that comes at Christmas.  As a result, they can easily transcend the bounds of that short period of the Church calendar and serve as declarations of the hope we have now as we wait for the Kingdom of God to come fully.

Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at the songs we sang two weeks ago (I was on vacation last week).  This is what we said about it then: Though the death and resurrection of Christ have changed what is true about humanity--that we are no longer slaves to sin, destined for death, but rather creatures who are in the process of being made new, destined for resurrection--we are constantly tempted to live as though this were not true.  The Spirit is working within us to transform us into people who live like Christ.  We sang this song to remind ourselves of this, and to express our awareness of our dependence upon God.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 6-19-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Christians:  You'll know us by our Facebook Posts

They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.

Revelation 12:11

I find myself wondering if the decade that is located between 2010 and 2020 bears a likeness to the 60's.  I think the 60's are my favorite decade that I was never a part of.  Swanky clothes and fantastic music accompanied fascinating political development and social change that seems, at least to me looking back from the future, monumental.  

What might we say of the first half this decade?  The music is not nearly as good, the clothes aren't as interesting, but we too find ourselves amidst a culture asking questions about what's sexually normative, demanding our withdrawal of military involvement in wars that have taken many young lives, with a charismatic president whose religious identity is consistently called into question and ... and there are moments that make it seem like the civil rights movement has only been able to inch forward.  

I suppose there is a drastic difference.  We have the internet.  More specifically we ingest the world through social media.  We no longer need to wait for tomorrow's newspaper or even the 6:00 news.  We have literally billions of opinions available to us, all the time.  I realize this church newsletter is one more voice adding to the noise.  In our short time conducting this social experiment that is the internet over these last 20 years some lessons seem vividly clear.  Technology offers blessings and curses.   

I have a confession that I'm guessing at least some of you share with me. I get annoyed with the onslaught of opinions that I encounter on social media.  Lately, even the opinions I agree with. Let's name the obvious, that's my problem because all I have to do is not use social media.  Touché.  I think what annoys me is subtle and probably unfair.  This is how I would describe it.  Reposting an article that identifies one's position is easier than crafting a thoughtful expression of personal conviction.  I'm not sure that's a healthy response from me.  You can share with me how you feel about if you'd like.  I deserve to give you at least that opportunity in response.  

More and more often I find that my personal response to events in the world on social media is to post nothing.  I'm not entirely sure how to use the internet anymore.  I find I much prefer to talk about these events with the UBC staff, my friends over a drink, or with my wife while we sit on the couch in the evenings.  Those are safe environments where I can learn, share insights and be lovingly rebuked when I'm wrong.  

What happened in Charleston has only complicated this for me.  Social media offers an opportunity.  We can collectively name that as brothers and sisters in Jesus we mourn with those who are grieving.  We can collectively condemn this nonsensical act of violence.  And we can name that racism is alive and well and confess our complicity in it even if not were not cognisant of the ways in which that might be true. Those are all good things that can and have happened.  And yet, part of me feels that discussion of the loss of life, even done properly, is something too precious to be tossed around on what has to be the most flippant form of communication in human history.  

I spent the last few days paying acute attention to what had been posted about Charleston and the precious lives that were lost.  What I found most comforting and profound and what proved to me the most effective antidote to the flippancy of the internet, were words found deep within our tradition.   I leave this prayer from Saint Francis as the last word of this post. 

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
 
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Pastoral Associate Introduction

As you may or may not be aware, we are adding pastoral associates to our team this fall.  This is our first time to do this and we are excited about what we are going to learn together.  This last weekend at the town hall we announced who has been selected as the pastoral associates.  They are Liz Andrasi, who you met in the newsletter here, and Luke Stehr.  I'd like to use this space to introduce you to Luke.  

(A picture of Luke and his awesome wife Kelsey taken in Copenhagen, Denmark where they are serving this summer)

Where do you call home?: For now, Waco, but I lived in a town called Bolivar, MO longer than I've lived anywhere else.

What are you doing in Waco?: I'm working on an M.Div. at Truett, and I hang out with Baylor's honors students and chaplain them in the HRC, and my wife Kelsey teaches at Dean Highland Elementary School.

Best restaurant in Waco?: Bangkok Royale

Favorite TV Show?: Parks & Recreation and Avatar: The Last Airbender

A bible verse/book/chapter that has been formative for you?: The end of Psalm 90 has been meaningful to me for a while, as has Luke 15.  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been an incredibly formative book for my life, and I love the way it demonstrates spiritual formation and life's journey.

Something(s) you might not know about me:  The only sport I enjoy watching is ice hockey, and the only ice hockey team I enjoy watching is the St. Louis Blues.  I was also, for a brief period of time, an arson suspect when the building I lived in at the camp where I worked burned down and I was the only person inside (my innocence was confirmed).

Michelle's Last Sunday

This Sunday will be Michelle's last Sunday serving as UBC's office manager.  Michelle will begin her job as a social worker in the ICU for Hillcrest Hospital on Monday.  We are excited about this opportunity for her, which celebrates her gifts, talents and calling. I'd like to share a few things I will miss the most about working with Michelle. 

1. Spunky attitude.  Michelle never failed to make an environment that she was in exciting.  She has an enthusiasm that is contagious. 

2. Honesty.  Michelle embodies authenticity in a way that I have not observed in a lot of other people. As my mom would always say about people like Michelle, "what you see is what you get." 

3. Selflessness:  Michelle is very thoughtful.  Every birthday, and at some point during the Christmas season, I would come into my office and find a card and gift card from Michelle.  She did this for all of the staff, all of the time.  She was always the largest proponent of remembering and caring for people that we may have otherwise forgotten to. 

4. Humor:  Michelle likes to laugh.  She can dish it and she can take it.  

5. A Committed Friend: I suppose this isn't that sort of set up that goes into commendation, but it's honest.  As you might expect from any set of people who work together over a lengthy amount of time, Michelle and I have occasionally had good fights.  What I've come to appreciate about relationships in which I occasionally have fights is that they tend to be more meaningful.  Michelle is the sort of person who can fight and stick around as a friend when it's over.  That means something to me.  

If you see Michelle this Sunday will you take the time to tell her thank you for her service to UBC.  And give her a big hug, she will love it.  Especially if she doesn't know you well.  

UBC Summer Blast - June 28th - Playdium Pool - West, TX

Next Sunday, directly after church, we are going to head to the pool.  We are going to spend the day at the Playdium Pool in West, TX, which is the largest spring fed pool in central Texas!  They have a kids area, zip line, slides, diving boards, and floating docks.  UBC will provide lunch (pizza and drinks), and they also have a concession stand if you want to purchase anything.  The cost for adults is $11, and kids 12 & under are $8.  We need you to sign-up so we know how much food to buy; you can sign-up in the foyer after church this Sunday, or email toph@ubwaco.org by Thursday June 25th.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Toph.  We hope to see you at the pool next Sunday, and don’t forget to bring your swimsuit to church!

Waco Dives - June 23 - Dave’s Burger Barn - noon

This week we are headed to Dave’s Burger Barn.  They have a challenge called the Zipper Ripper, what more do we need to say!  We will see you there at noon on Tuesday.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org

Waco PD Support

At church this Sunday I mentioned that we are partnering with other churches from all denominations to support the Waco police officers and their families who are being threatened by biker gangs in the aftermath of the Twin Peaks shooting.  We are raising $500 to send families to Hawaiian Falls for a day of normalcy and peace.  I didn't offer a formal time to give to that specific item on Sunday.  I'm trusting that those who feel compelled to give will do so.  A few people after church approached me to give and we already have $115.  If you would like to give to this cause please bring your cash or check to church this Sunday in an envelope marked "Waco PD."  You can either put it in the offering plate or give it to Michelle.  If you have any questions please email josh@ubcwaco.org 

Leadership Team

You would be hard pressed to find a better human being than Jana Parker.  So you can imagine our sadness due to the fact that her time on the leadership team is coming to a conclusion.  We are looking for a new leadership team member to begin serving in July.  Please send nominations to josh@ubcwaco.org.  The leadership team will select a new member at the July 6th meeting.  

Here is some information from the bylaws about the leadership team:

Section 1.  Leadership Team

(A) Purpose.  The Leadership Team shall be the primary decision-making body of UBC.  The Leadership Team will oversee all the business and property of the church, as well as make the final decisions regarding hiring and dismissal of staff and the acquisition and selling of assets that are beyond budgetary provisions. 

(B) Composition.  The Leadership Team shall consist of seven members of the UBC community that are not staff, finance team or human recourses and support team.

(C) Qualifications.  Each member of Leadership Team shall have been a member of UBC for at least one year, exhibited an understanding and commitment to the mission and values of the church, and be willing to fulfill all responsibilities in the Leadership Team job description.

(D) Selection.  When a vacancy arises on the Leadership Team the congregation shall be notified immediately at a regularly scheduled Sunday morning worship service, as well as through social media and electronic communication.  At that point a call for nominations shall be made and any member of UBC will be allowed to make nominations.  Not less than three weeks shall pass before the window for accepting nominations will close.  All nominees shall then be vetted and selected by the current Leadership Team.

(E)  Term.  Members of Leadership Team may serve for a duration lasting up to three years.  While they are encouraged to remain the full three years, members may voluntarily remove themselves from their position at any time.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: 

Coffee Makers: Logan & Allyson  

Mug Cleaners:  Sara & Vince  

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Matthew 13:24-30

• Waco dives:  We will meet at Daves Burger Barn, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email josh@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

• UBC Summer Party Jun 28th - directly after church at the Playdium in West, TX - we will provide the food and drinks, you will have to pay admission. http://www.discoverwest.org/playdium.php

• School Supply Drive - starting this Sunday, we are partnering with CCMS to collect school supplies for kids in Waco.  There will be a box in the foyer through the month of June to collect the supplies, and attached to the box is a list of supplies needed.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org.

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

254 413 2611

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

ITLOTC 6-12-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Do Not Be Past, Do Not Be Future, Be Now

Those are a few of the words that Kyle Lake wrote in the sermon he never got to preach.  For me they are some of the most profound and also the hardest to live by. 

The World Passing Me By

On my birthday, last July 23, I found myself standing on the shores of south western coast watching the Atlantic waves wash over my feet. With my family back in Wisconsin I decided I would spend the day by myself reflecting.  I turned 33 that day.  We're not exactly sure what Jesus' timeline looked like, but we guess he was that old, 33, when he was crucified.  Kyle was also 33 when he died.  The two facts sent me thinking about my life ... more than I do on most birthdays.  I don't know that I'll think as hard about my life at 40 or even 50 as I did when I turned 33.  I'm not sure if decided if something was going to change this year or if I felt like it would, but the reflection time felt significant.  

I often hear people say something like "young people don't understand their mortality." When I was a kid I thought it was stupid claim.  "Of course I understand that I'm going to die, everyone dies," I would think to myself.  In my 20's I began to discover that old people were right about a lot of things that I'd eventually experience.  I guess it's humility that finally convinced me there was something to that claim even if didn't have any experience with the sentiment.  

My birthday is rolling around again and so I'm forced to ask myself if I've discovered what changed in 33rd year of my life.  I think I've found that answer.  I've realized for the first time that I'm mortal.  I'm starting to get what I couldn't in my twenties.  Today (Thursday) two figures from my childhood passed away: actor Christopher Lee and WWF wrestler Dusty Rhodes.  Those figures were not as big of players in my life as others who passed away this year.  When Stuart Scott died in January I put this on Facebook.  

I was not cognizant of at the time, but Tom Brokaw has been done for years now, Letterman finished just last month and Alex Trebek is signed through 2018, but I can't imagine much longer than that.  

The world I grew up with is vanishing.  

But it's not just my nostalgic past signifying that I'm getting older, it's also my body.  I wrote about having heart palpitations back in January. They've returned with a vengeance.  My doctor and I have determined it's stress and caffeine. I've cut out the caffeine, but I seem to be getting worse at the stress.  

The difference is now my body is no longer immune to the problem. My immunity has worn out with age.  

Now

This week has been slightly more stressful than others.  Tonight I was up at the church working on some stuff I needed to get done.  I left about 9:45 and got about two blocks away before I realized I had forgotten the next Harry Potter book that I promised Roy I'd bring home.  Tired and exhausted, I over dramatically slammed on the brakes and turned around to go get it.  In the world of major problems I realize that that one is negligible, but it seemed to matter a lot in that moment.  

The strangest thing happened to me when I got into my office and reached for that book.  There was a picture resting on the top of it.  I don't often make claims that start with "God said ..." or "God did ..." but there's only one other time in my life when I feel as strongly about saying that God put that there.  I for the life of me, cannot figure out why of the four siblings in my family I have this picture and why it was on the 6th Harry Potter book sitting my office.  I'm sure I set it there without thought at some point, but I can't remember when.  

That's my dad holding my oldest sister Kristin and my older brother Jim.  He's about the age I was when my son Roy and my daughter Lilli were about age of my siblings in this picture.

I took this picture and sat down in my chair and stared at it.  I thought about when this was taken and how much has changed between now and then.  How much good life has happened between now and then. Then I began to think about how much my life is like my dad's in this picture.  A young pastor who has a lot to learn, with a few kids to make things crazy.  And then I thought about how good my life is.  About how gracious God has been to me and my family. 

My mom has always been good about not wishing for any other phase of life.  She'd always tell me "each one is special."  That means she wouldn't trade the world as it is now for her life back in the picture.  But my mom also does everything in her power to get every awesome moment out of everyday, especially when her kids and grandkids are involved. 

I think there is a relationship between my stress and living in the past and the future.  Sometimes the only emotion available in those places are regret and fear.  When I sat down to look at picture and think about what I loved about the gifts God has given me, I noticed my anxiety levels changed and my heart rate slowed down.  

On one particular trying morning before school I wrote on Facebook that "I'm in no hurry for my children to be teenagers, but I long for the day when the color of child's dishware will not be cause for severe emotional distress."  My favorite professor from college rarely replies to stuff on Facebook, but that day he wrote, "Oh but Josh, those really are the good days."  

I realize that some of the claims I'm making seem absurd.  Some of you who are older than me are thinking, "Josh, you're not old."  To which I say, you are right, I'm not old, but I am getting older.  I've decided that 33rd year of my life will be the year I decided to stop letting mine pass me by unnoticed.  

The last words of that sermon Kyle wrote but never gave are this: "Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because it is mostly definitely a gift."
 

Meet Our Newest Finance Team Member 

Justin Pond 

vocation/job: I just started as a clinic manager for one the Hillcrest family medicine clinics. I have the honor to work with a great organization that is caring for this community in some amazing ways.   

bible verse/chapter/book that have been meaningful for you: Isaiah 40:31 

best television: Pretty much any show where someone is righting the injustices in the world...preferably with a gun

favorite holiday: Christmas

best restaurant in Waco: Lolitas

something we might not know about you?: I once had a summer job diving for golf balls. 

Finance Update 

UBC Financial Status
as of: June 11, 2015

THE PLAN:  Our fiscal year 2015 (July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015) budget is $353,126.  Fixed expenses (staff salaries, and building and office expenses) accounts for $302,441, or 85.6% of the total, and ministry expenses (the many things our church does for our community and for those who attend) accounts for $50,685 or 14.4%.

OUR EXPENSES:  Between the 15th of May and 11th of June, we spent about $29,200; for the year, our expenditures total a little over $288,000.

OUR INCOME:  Our income from tithes and offerings between the 15th of May and 11th of Jun was about $27,788; our annual income from tithes and offerings through the 11th of June totals $292,012.  Income from other sources (building rental, the garage sale, and some designated gifts) totals about $19,000.

If you would like to partner with UBC financially you can by signing up with easy tithe.  We are incredibly humbled and grateful by your generosity.  Thank you. 

Town Hall Agenda Items

Our next leadership team meeting is July 6th.  As of new we just have a few items to address in that meeting.  We will hold a town hall this Sunday after church to talk through these items and take any questions you might have. 

1. job descriptions - with Craig's departure we spent time talking through changes and shifts in responsibility. 

2. ordination candidacy - Kelly Doolittle is going through the ordination process.  if his committee recommends him to leadership team, they will discuss and vote on his ordination. 

3. staff retreat - the pastoral staff recently went on a retreat to talk through a number of things pertaining to church function, logistics and long term planning. 

4. office administrator - we will give an update on that.  

5. Pastoral Associates 

Additional note: because this agenda is comparatively smaller than the last one, we will have our town hall about 10 minutes after church instead of giving the 45 minutes to go get lunch.  My thought was that by this right after church we'd probably still be done by some time during the lunch hour.  Please pick up your children from their class and transfer them to the branch class room if you plan on attending.  

Children's Information

UBCKids families!  We are rolling out our new check-in system this week!  If you haven't added your family to our database, never fear, you can add your family the next time you join us!  We will have a check-in station between the brown room at the end of the hall and the Nurture Room (look for the red desk!) where you can check-in your families and receive your kids' labels before proceeding to their classes!  This is new to all of us, so please have an extra dose of patience and grace!  Also, there is an app that accompanies the new check-in software we're using!  If you are interested in downloading this app, email Emily at emily@ubcwaco.org for login information!

Speaking of the brown room at the end of the hall, the Root Class and Branch Class will be spending their summer in together in the brown room to learn about what, exactly, is in our Bible!  Because we will be meeting together, the Root kids will NOT be enjoying the music, scripture and offertory portions of our service in big church, so that we can be sure that everyone gets to experience the entire lesson!  After checking your kids in and picking up labels, feel free to drop your Branch and Root kids off there!  

Branch and Root kids' Sunday School kicked off last week, but don't worry if you didn't make it!  We will be learning about some of the people in the Bible who met Jesus and how their lives were changed, then we will be working to create stop-motion videos that document their story and teach us all about what it really means to have a relationship with Christ!  Sunday School begins at 9:30!  For more info, email Emily at emily@ubcwaco.org!

Work is Worship 

Greeters:  McNamees, Kareem, Denmans 

Coffee Makers: Emmy 

Mug Cleaners:  Sara and Kayla  

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Luke 18:9-14 (Things Jesus Says Part 3)

• Waco dives:  We will meet at Restaurante La Fe, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email jamie@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

• UBC Summer Party Jun 28th - directly after church - we will provide the food and drinks.  More information coming soon...

• School Supply Drive - starting this Sunday, we are partnering with CCMS to collect school supplies for kids in Waco.  There will be a box in the foyer through the month of June to collect the supplies, and attached to the box is a list of supplies needed.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org . 

• The Next Empty Nester event will be on June 17th.  More information to come.  If you have any questions about this group or would like to be added to the email list please email kim @ tackhaines@msn.com.    

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

254 413 2611

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Setlist 6-7-2015

This week, Josh preached from Matthew 20:1-16.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of redemption.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Chariot

This Is Amazing Grace

Lord, I Need You

Noise

Wayward Ones

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.

Chariot: This song uses two images to talk about God.  The first is a chariot (a la swing low sweet chariot).  The second is a wrecking ball.  We can think of the wrecking ball as God's breaking into human history and breaking through the barriers of our brokenness, and we can think of the chariot as God's drawing us out of our sinfulness.  The refrain, "So we will become a happy ending" is an extremely simple phrasing of the result of these things, but it is no less true.  The "we" who will become a happy ending is more than just humanity--though humanity is certainly included.  It is, rather, the entire cosmos--God is working to redeem the whole of creation.  This "we" also includes God.  God is not making us new simply to abandon us, but to draw us near to Godself forever--a happy ending, indeed.

This Is Amazing Grace: The verses of this song explore a multitude of great things that God has done/is doing, while the chorus ultimately says, "This same God--who is above and beyond anything we could ever hope to be--has chosen to enter into our story as a human and experience extreme suffering (when even the slightest suffering would have been undeserved) so that we can be saved." Saved from what? Selfishness, pride, isolation, anger, fear, anxiety, nonexistence (death), on and on.  This is grace--amazing grace--because there is nothing about us that deserved this.  God did this freely because that's what God is like.

Lord, I Need You: Though the death and resurrection of Christ have changed what is true about humanity--that we are no longer slaves to sin, destined for death, but rather creatures who are in the process of being made new, destined for resurrection--we are constantly tempted to live as though this were not true.  The Spirit is working within us to transform us into people who live like Christ.  We sang this song to remind ourselves of this, and to express our awareness of our dependence upon God.

Noise: The gap between what it is to be God and what it is to be human has been called by some an un-crossable boundary.  Because of this, we can only attempt to say true things of God--our words always fall short of their mark.  One thing we can talk about with a bit more clarity is that God crosses this boundary to have a relationship with us.  In the Old Testament, God established several covenants (read: promises) with God's people--this binding relationship is something that God chose to initiate with humans.  The people of God time and again fell out of sync with the kind of lives they were supposed to live in relation to God, but God remained faithful and continually found new ways to be God with us.  This culminated in God becoming human in Jesus, breaking through that un-crossable boundary between God and humanity.  In doing this, God became ever-more intimately aware of what it is to be human--of what it is to suffer, and humanity became aware of what kind of life God would have us live, if God were human.

Wayward Ones: We sing this song every time we take communion to remind ourselves of several things.  First, we are a broken people--though we are seeking to become more like Jesus, we often fail at this.  Second, Christ has given Himself for us despite our brokenness.  We take communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, even though we did not, and do not, deserve it.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ITLOTC 6-5-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time

For it is repeated at of a particular kind that give a man a particular character. - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 

There is change in the air and it happens that America's social calendar coincides with big change in the church calendar.  As schools release students into summer vacation, the church releases her people into the largest season--ordinary time. 

I was talking with Emily today and she expressed her disdain for the name "ordinary" time reasoning that God is just as active now as God is at any other point on the calendar.  I suppose this is similar to the struggle we have in reminding people that categorizing life into sacred and secular isn't good for theology while also realizing there are moments that seem transcendent and set apart.  Not having language for that can be frustrating.  Not every day is Christmas or Easter and that is good or else Christmas and Easter would seem just like every other day.  

The problem is, that there isn't even really any liturgy or even cultural artifacts that teach us how to move through the ordinary time.  No Christmas music or Christmas trees.  No Easter bunnies or Easter confessions.  In ordinary time, we practice being Christians without a holiday to remind us what kind.  

I've probably used that Aristotle quote more than any other in sermons.  It cuts to the heart of what I believe discipleship is.  Following Jesus is about learning to how be like Jesus so that you move through world like Jesus would.  Discipleship then is rehearsing Jesus thoughts, words and actions over and over until they become your instinct and your character.  

There used to be sign that hung in the weight room of my high school.  It read, "game day is pay day."  I took that to mean that the day on which I played games I'd be thankful for all the hard work and repetition that i put in during practice.  I suppose that church calendar works the other way around.  Meaning we learn the theology, themes and movement of Christian faith during Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost so that when those things are gone we still look like Jesus people.  Game days teach us how to practice. 

It's easy to wait during advent, fast during lent and celebrate during Easter because that's what everyone else is doing.  But what happens when someone you know dies in June, you grieve in July and your kid takes her first step in August?  We have to learn the life, death, and resurrection during the high points on the calendar so that we can reclaim the gospel in the everyday experiences of life.  Ordinary time is the season in which we learn to live Christian Faith.  

This last Sunday was Trinity Sunday.  It's kind of the like that sign on the highway that warns, "no gas for the next 200 miles."  We won't hear from the Calendar again until Christ the King Sunday calls us to attention in late November.  As part of Trinity Sunday, Jamie read a meaningful quote from N.T. Wright.  Many of you have shared your appreciation for that quote. I conclude by leaving it here. 

“In the church’s year, Trinity Sunday is the day when we stand back from the extraordinary sequence of events that we’ve been celebrating for the previous five months—Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost—and when we rub the sleep from our eyes and discover what the word ‘god’ might actually mean.  These events function as a sequence of well-aimed hammer-blows which knock at the clay jars of the gods we want, the gods who reinforce our own pride or prejudice, until they fall away and reveal instead a very different god, a dangerous god, a subversive god, a god who comes to us like a blind beggar with wounds in his hands, a god who comes to us in wind and fire, in bread and wine, in flesh and blood: a god who says to us, ‘You did not choose me; I chose you.’

You see, the doctrine of the Trinity, properly understood, is as much a way of saying ‘we don’t know’ as of saying ‘we do know.’ To say that the true God is Three and One is to recognize that if there is a God then of course we shouldn’t expect him to fit neatly into our little categories.  If he did, he wouldn’t be God at all, merely a god, a god we might perhaps have wanted.  The Trinity is not something that the clever theologian comes up with as a result of hours spent in the theological laboratory, after which he or she can return to announce that they’ve got God worked out now, the analysis is complete, and here is God neatly laid out on a slab.  The only time they laid God out on a slab he rose again three days afterwards.  

On the contrary: the doctrine of the Trinity is, if you like, a signpost pointing ahead into the dark, saying: ‘Trust me; follow me; my love will keep you safe.’ Or, perhaps better, the doctrine of the Trinity is a signpost pointing into a light which gets brighter and brighter until we are dazzled and blinded, but which says: ‘Come, and I will make you children of light.’  The doctrine of the Trinity affirms the rightness, the propriety, of speaking intelligently that the true God must always transcend our grasp of him, even our most intelligent grasp of him.”

A Few Things on Children's Ministry from Emily 

Parents!  We are going to be starting a new check-in system for UBCKids, but I need your help to get it up and running!  This Sunday, we will have our 4 new iPads available in the lobby for you to enter your family information into our new database!  If you will not be here this Sunday, I will be sure to get you set up, but I figured this would help speed that process up significantly!  I will be available for troubleshooting and questions!  Thanks~  Emily

The Roots Class Camp-In for current and upcoming Roots Kids (1st grade and up!) is TONIGHT at 6:00pm!  If you haven't already, be sure to let Emily know if you are planning on being there so that we can be sure to have enough hot dogs and s'mores!  See you 

The Summer is coming quickly and many of the college students (and faithful volunteers!) are headed home for break, but our UBCKids are staying put!  I know that no one wants to do the math this late in the school year, but I'll go ahead and tell you...it means we need some more help!  If you are interested in helping out with kids over the Summer, we are organizing volunteers now and we would love to have you on our team!  Please email Emily at emily@ubcwaco.org for more information!  Thanks!

If you are a parent who DOESN'T feel called or otherwise inclined to hang out in a room with kids, but you value the UBCKids program, we have the opportunity of a lifetime for you!  This Summer we will be starting our PG-13 Team! (No, silly, this doesn't mean that we will use bad language...)  PG-13 is a group of 12 parents (there's the P!), plus the Children's Pastor (see...13!), who help guide the UBCKids program towards success (and there's the G...are you with me now?!)  We will work together to do things like, keep the rooms organized, decorated and updated, greet families, old and new, to make them feel welcome and cared for, show appreciation for volunteers, help with child check-in/check-out and anything else that we find will help UBCKids be more effective and fulfilling for our kids, families and volunteers!  If you are interested, I'd love to hear from you!  Please email me at emily@ubcwaco.org!  

This (June 7th) will be promotion Sunday!  Because kids stay for at least 2 years in most of our rooms, this is a big change for our kids who are promoting!  If your child has turned 2, 4 or 6 during this school year, they will be promoted to the next class up, so help us out by discussing this in the coming weeks and tell them how excited we are that they are growing up SO fast!  We will be having a fun-filled, celebratory Sunday in the three biggest rooms (Bloom, Sprout and Root) to welcome our new friends and to help them get acclimated to their new classroom!  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!  Thanks- Emily emily@ubcwaco.com

Meet Our Newest Finance Team Member 

Lacy Crocker 

Vocation: (could be your job or something you love doing/believe you were made for): Helping people fall in love with the Old Testament. 

favorite movie: To Kill a Mockingbird (It's my favorite book too!)

best restaurant in Waco: Torchy's

Bible verse/chapter/book that has been meaningful for you: Psalm 18

best television show: Does March Madness count?

favorite holiday: National Coffee Day...and Christmas!

something you might not know about me: People like to give me money...I made a profit off my undergrad institution. Hopefully, this skill will come in handy as a new member of the Finance Team. 

 

Office Manager Position

We are excited to announce that Michelle has landed a full time position in her field of social work.  Michelle begins working for Hillcrest Hospital on June 21st.  Yeah Michelle!  That means we will be taking applications for the UBC Office Manager position.  

The office manager position is a part time position that is paid for 20 hours a week.    The Office Administrator performs the daily administrative needs of the church and staff as well as maintains responsibly of all financial duties.  The Office Administrator oversees building rentals and maintenance needs of the church. Interested persons can find more information by clicking here. 

We also have an update on the search committee.  Per the bylaws search committees are formed in the following.  The staff select one member, the HR team selects one member, the leadership team selects one member and the leadership team nominates two individuals from the community bringing the committee to a total of five.  That is the following: 

HR: Maxcey Blaylock, maxceykite@gmail.com

Leadership Team: Kristin Dodson, kschwebke@prodigy.net

Staff: Josh Carney, Josh@ubcwaco.org 

Lay Member: Marcus Mataga

Lay Member: Jess Engblom 

Summer Sunday School: “Faith and Art"

This summer (June 7th - July26th), we will discuss the relationship between faith and art, using Madeline L’Engle’s Walking on Water as our guide.  Note: Artistic experience and a willingness to buy/read this book are not required. If you have any questions, email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Work is Worship 

Greeters:   Gerhard and Blaylocks 

Coffee Makers: Logan & Allyson 

Mug Cleaners:  The Kuhls 

Announcements:

• Sunday Sermon Text: Laborers in the Vineyard - Matthew 20:1-16

• Summer Sunday School Begins June 7th

• Grillz and Chillz will take place at the Carney household on the evening of June 10th.  We will meet at the Carney Casa to enjoy food, fun, and fellowship.  We will provide the main dish (hamburgers and hot dogs), you bring a side and drinks.  This is open to everyone who wants to come: college, young professionals, grad students, families, etc...  Please sign-up in the foyer if you can make it, so we can know how many burgers/hotdogs to buy.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org . 

• Waco dives:  We will meet at Tom's Burgers, on Tuesday @ noon.   Please email jamie@ubcwaco.org if you have any questions. 

• UBC Summer Party Jun 28th - directly after church - we will provide the food and drinks.  More information coming soon...

• School Supply Drive - starting this Sunday, we are partnering with CCMS to collect school supplies for kids in Waco.  There will be a box in the foyer through the month of June to collect the supplies, and attached to the box is a list of supplies needed.  If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org . 

• The Next Empty Nester event will be on June 17th.  More information to come.  If you have any questions about this group or would like to be added to the email list please email kim @ tackhaines@msn.com.  

• Our next Town Hall to review items on the agenda for the next leadership team meeting will be next Sunday, June 14th after church.  

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

254 413 2611

Leadership Team

If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members. 

Chair- Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Jana Parker: jparkerslp@gmail.com

Stan Denman: Stan_Denman@baylor.edu

David Wilhite: David_Wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu 

Sharyl Loeung: sharylwl@gmail.com

Jon Davis: jdavis83@gmail.com

UBC Finance Team

Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.com  

Justin Pond: pondjw@gmail.com

Lacy Crocker: lacykcrocker@gmail.com

UBC HR Team

If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.

Maxcey Blaylock: maxceykite@gmail.com

Mathew Crawford: mathewcrawford@yahoo.com

Callie Schrank: Callie_Schrank@baylor.edu

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

Rob Engblom: Rob_Engblom@baylor.edu

Podcast 5-31-2015