ITLOTC 4-3-14

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Lent 2015

Good Friday: John 18:1-19:42

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Meet Our Newest UBCer

Name: Josephine "Josie" Ryan McNamee

 

Birthday: 3/23/15 

Birth Height: 20 inches

Birth Weight: 7 lbs 8 oz. 

Enneagram Number: 2 

Polity Update 

If you have been conversant with our polity discussions you'll know that we are discussing ideas for selecting new leadership team members.  At the conclusion of our last town hall (3-22) I informed everyone that the leadership team would meet before our next meeting (4-22) to discuss this issue after having heard your ideas.  That meeting will  be Monday April, 6.  Please be in pray for our leadership team as we discern and work through this issue. 

Work is Worship 

Greeters:  Gerhard 

Coffee Makers: 

Mug Cleaners: Haines Family 

Shutdown Team: The Cavemen 

Announcements:

  • Sunday Sermon Text: Mark 16:1-8  ... Please be in prayer for Toph who will be sharing the Easter Good News this Sunday.  

  • Marriage Seminar: Our good friends over at DaySpring Baptist Church are hosting a free marriage seminar on April 19th from 3:00-6:00 P.M.  Childcare will be provided.  The seminar will be run by Dr. Don Arterburn. 

 

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

 

,

Setlist 3-29-2015

,

This week, Josh preached from Mark 11:1-11. Our songs were gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday and help us enter Holy Week together. 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 a brief explanation of how this week’s songs fit together. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Here is Our King by David Crowder* Band

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

Lord I Need You by Matt Maher

Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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.

Here is Our King: We sang this song to identify with the crowd of people who were excited about Jesus entering Jerusalem.  When we call Jesus King, we do so knowing that he is a different kind of king than the Jerusalem crowd was expecting (thankfully).

Wandering: This song acknowledges that God is faithful to us even when we fail at being faithful to God, and thinks about ways God uses our mistakes as tools for something greater.

Lord I Need You: We sang this song a few times at the beginning of Lent.  As we near the end, we sang it to prepare us for Holy Week as we rely on God to help us avoid the temptation to pass through Friday and Saturday unbothered by the weight of Jesus' death.

Up On A Mountain: This song paints a picture of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and embraces the fact that Jesus was not serenely waiting for his torture and death to unfold--he was terrified.  Let us not forget that God knows what it is to be afraid and to desperately want things to be different.

In the Night: We will be singing this song for the next couple of weeks, as we have every week this Lenten season, adding a verse each time. Lent is often a rough time for us as we confront who we are and who we are becoming, and this song does a good job at placing hardship and hope side by side.  

Be Thou My Vision: We will be singing this every week in Lent as well--as we close our services, we will ask God once again to be our vision and wisdom as we continue on for another week in the desert of Lent.

-JM

ITLOTC 3-27-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Lent 2015

 

Over these last six weeks of lent, the main article of the newsletter has been a lenten reflection written by someone from our community.   This week's submission brings these writings to a conclusion.  This week I'm honored to have Liz Andrasi write for us.   Liz is in her last semester of work at Truett.  She is also doing her mentoring with us at UBC this semester and has headed this writing project.  I'm grateful for her help.  Enjoy!

Learning Lent

I didn’t observe Lent growing up. When I started coming to UBC and studying at Truett three years ago I was blown away by the rhythm of the liturgical calendar and the perspective it helps infuse into each day – even in ordinary time – but especially in this season.

In our Ash Wednesday services Jamie read this excerpt from Frederick Buechner’s Wishful Thinking:

In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days. After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus.

During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves…It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sack-cloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.

You can see the entirety of the excerpt here.

This year as I approached Lent – with this quote in mind - I was excited to know myself better. I considered it an extra holy time of self-reflection spent with God…if I could just pinpoint the right thing to fast from or rule to add into my life.

I had skewed expectations for Lent. They looked like a self-help book in the making rather than a decision to follow Jesus into the wilderness.

It has been a holy time, but not because of anything I’ve done. Actually, I failed pretty handedly at observing my Lenten practice of the Daily Examen within the first few days of the journey.

If I had to graph my personal experience with Lent this year it would trend downward (which, let’s be honest, is what I should have expected). Overall it was marked by a shadow of inadequacy and realization of my arrogance and failures across pretty much every area of life. I found myself unable to focus on scripture in daily devotionals…unable to keep my thoughts engaged in prayer when I set aside moments to do so…failing to complete tasks on time or up to my usual standards…and doing things that hurt people out of carelessness or callousness. Not at all the picture I had of concentrated, pretty, self-reflection and growth into greater Christ-likeness that I imagined when I started the Lenten journey.

Around the time Jamie first shared the Buechner quote with me - three weeks or so before Ash Wednesday - the Spirit gave me something else to meditate on…I think to help balance and guide me:

“Trust; be present; wait; see.”

Meditating over this became my Lenten practice.

If I’m being honest, I don’t like those imperatives. Not really. (Well, maybe the last one. I like to “see” things come to fruition…but not if that seeing has to come after trusting and waiting.) Even now almost forty whole days later I still feel myself pushing against them. They sound great and spiritual and helpful but I’ve found that in practice it’s a real struggle to be faithful and obedient to these directives.

Trust…be present…wait…see…

Worry…plan…rush…speculate…

I want to plan. I want to achieve. I want to know the reason why I’m being asked to do something. I want to know that I’m not wasting my time investing in something I may not like the outcome of. I want a say in the plan, process, and product. I want control.

Jesus went to the wilderness and was formed. He didn’t do the forming.

He trusted the Spirit’s leading.

He was present to temptation.

He waited on God to act and provide.

He saw the fruit of the wilderness as he journeyed out into public ministry.

He learned what it meant to be Jesus.

What does it mean to be me?

I’ve found that even in the wilderness the Lord is present and good. I’ve found that even when I’m too exhausted to achieve…I am still loved. I’ve found that anxieties are the antithesis of trust, and mine are rooted deeply. I’ve found that the moments that I am at my weakest I tend to see and hear God most clearly. I’ve found that when I try to force God to speak or act in my life or the lives of others I am living in distortion.

What does it mean to be us…what does it mean to be a community formed into the way of Christ?

Trust…be present…wait…see…

UBC, we will gather on Sunday with palms in our midst. Passion Week is almost upon us.

We journey on…sharing a meal on Maundy Thursday, gathering solemnly on Good Friday, sitting in the uncomfortable waiting of Saturday, and finally  celebrating in the joy and relief of Resurrection Sunday.

In the wilderness and in front of an empty tomb…what does it mean to be ourselves?

 

Meet Our Newest UBCer

Celina Jaye Dracos 

   

 

 

 

Birthday: 2-20-15

Birth Weight: 8 lb. 3 oz. 

Birth Height: 20.5 inches 

Enneagram Number: 5

Holy Week Schedule 

aundy Thursday Service: 4-2-15 @ 6:00 PM

Maundy Thursday is the Christian holy day, falling on the Thursday before Easter. It commemorates the Maundy and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the Canonical gospels.  At UBC we celebrate this day of holy week by sharing a feast together.  We will meet in the backside and enjoy a potluck meal and conclude by sharing communion.  We will read scripture and fellowship in the Lord as we move one step closer to Good Friday. 

Good Friday Service:  4-3-15 @ 6:00 PM 

Easter Sunday Service: 4-5-15 .... SS 9:30 A.M. & Worship 10:30 A.M. 

 

UBC Families at the soccer field

After church this Sunday, March 29th, we'd like to invite you and your family to UBC families at the soccer field.  We will provide lunch at the Baylor soccer field and spend some time throwing a frisbee, and playing european and american football.  if you are interested contact josh@ubcwaco.org 

HR Team Nomination

UBC is looking for a new HR member.  If you would like to nominate someone to serve on the HR team, please email josh@ubcwaco.org.  Here is some information to consider: 

(A) Purpose.  The Human Resources/Staff Support Team shall exist for the following purposes:

a.     To establish procedures for the hiring of ministerial and non-ministerial staff, and to enact those procedures when advised by Leadership Team to do so.

b.    To advise Leadership and Finance teams on issues regarding long-term staff needs. 

c.     To create and implement staff review procedures.

d.    To advise Leadership and Finance teams on matters regarding staff compensation, benefits, grievances and termination.

e.    To be a liaison between the congregation and staff during times of conflict after all attempts at personal, one-on-one resolution has been made.  

(A) Qualifications.  HR/Staff Support Team members shall have been an active participant in the life of UBC for no less than one year, have received a bachelor’s degree (or roughly an equivalent amount of experience in personnel management, ministry, or other related field,) and have a demonstrable understanding of organizational management.  

 

Work is Worship 

Greeters:  

Coffee Makers: Byron & Jake 

Mug Cleaners: Kuhl

Shutdown Team: Golden Glitter Girls 

 

Announcements:

 

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org

,

Your Favorite Albums of 2014

,
,

Setlist 3-22-2015

,

This week, Josh preached from Jeremiah 31:31-34. Our songs were gathered around the theme of deliverance. 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 a brief explanation of how this week’s songs fit together. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture

Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band

Oceans by Hillsong United

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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.

Holy Spirit: This song talks about the hope and freedom that the Spirit brings into our fear and shame.  We sang this last week as well, so be sure to look at last week's post for more thoughts about singing this song in the midst of Lent.

Deliver Me: This song acknowledges that God is the one who is able to free us from the various kinds of oppression we experience in life--both the trivial and the grave.

Oceans: We sing this song as a reminder that when we walk into chaotic or horrific situations, we can be confident that God is there in the midst of them.  God is not simply watching us from afar as we follow plans God made a long time ago--God is among us in our joy and pain, our leisure and struggle, laughing and crying with us and pulling us toward the day when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

In the Night: We will be singing this song for the next couple of weeks, as we have every week this Lenten season, adding a verse each time. Lent is often a rough time for us as we confront who we are and who we are becoming, and this song does a good job at placing hardship and hope side by side.  

Be Thou My Vision: We will be singing this every week in Lent as well--as we close our services, we will ask God once again to be our vision and wisdom as we continue on for another week in the desert of Lent.

-JM

ITLOTC 3-20-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Lent 2015

Over the next six weeks of lent, the main article of the newsletter will be a lenten reflection written by someone from our community.   This week I'm honored to have Brian Gamel write for us.   Brian recently finished his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies.  Him and his wife Breck have three children, Oliver, Bennett and Avonlea.

Gethsemane

It is dark and Jesus is alone. 

In a matter of hours he will be arrested, paraded before various authoritative bodies, condemned, mocked, beaten, stripped, and impaled on a piece of wood. 

In only a few hours he will be exposed and humiliated for hours before a hostile and jeering crowd. 

In just a few hours they will spit on him to show their extreme disdain.  They will sneer at his pretention.  They will all assume God has damned him and gladly assist the deity in revealing his powerlessness and shame and collectively crying out, “Look at this guy – what a joke!” 

In a few hours.

In this hour, Jesus is alone.  He had taken his closest friends to be with him while he goes to pray.  He feels overwhelmed.  He feels upset and nervous and fearful.  “I’m so sad and afraid I could die – can you please be with me just for a little while?”

He goes a little further and then collapses to the ground.  He prays to avoid death.  To avoid pain and suffering and humiliation.  God can do anything – can’t God stop this?  Isn’t there some other way?  “Father you’re all powerful, nothing is too difficult for you – take this away from me! But let what you want to happen, not me.”

He goes back to his friends.  They’re asleep.  He’s incredulous.  Jesus chastises his friends for not even being able to stay awake with him for an hour.  But he’s not done.  He goes back to pray.  The same thing.  Two.  More.  Times.

_____________________________________________________________

The above is my fairly free rendering of Mark 14:32-42, Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane.  It is in many ways the programmatic text for Lent, the climax of Jesus’ inner anguish right before his final moments as a free man. 

But the church has not always fully embraced this text.  The 2nd century critic of Christianity Celsus cited this scene as proof that Jesus was not divine – no god would behave so cowardly.  The church often accommodated to this criticism.  The Christian theologian Origen, on the basis of a stylistic aspect of the Greek, argues that Jesus began to overwhelmed and afraid but never actually became so.  St. Jerome tries to claim that Jesus was only afraid of Judas or the Jewish people but not for himself.  And Hilary of Poitiers says only heretics say that Jesus feared death since he was of one substance with the Father. 

There are others in the Christian tradition who disagreed.  Aquinas, for example, says that this moment proves Jesus has both a human and divine will.  But I find one voice most helpful in thinking about this singular moment. 

“What has not been assumed has not been healed." 

This comes from Gregory of Nazianzus, a theologian who argued with others about how to understand the relationship between the various members of the Trinity properly.  His point is that if Jesus didn’t take on humanity in its fullest aspects, then those parts don’t get redeemed.  Because Jesus is the savior of all humans and all of each human, then he himself must have been fully human.

I can’t read this text any other way than to come to the conclusion that Jesus was terrified of dying.  That he was overwhelmed.  That he was lonely and afraid and desperate to find any way out.  Of course, he acts in spite of his fear, but those feelings seem present regardless.

I think I often approach Lent feeling either the need to purge my naturally overabundant anxieties and phobias or the license to wallow in them with as much melancholy as needed.  I should either just accept that I’m dust and deal with the fact that I’m returning to it, or forever remain morose about that reality.  I feel as though my discipleship means that Jesus ultimately overcame his trepidation and so should I, or that Jesus was really, really despondent and so I can be as well.  But this is a false dichotomy.

I think we can modify Gregory’s statement.

“What has been assumed has been [and is being] healed.”

My fears and anxieties don’t need condemnation, nor do they deserve to be placated.  They need redemption.  They need to be placed within a larger drama where they are properly understood and felt. 

I think Gethsemane demonstrates that God takes our deepest, vilest, most insecure feelings and terrors with utmost sincerity. Easter does not obliterate my pain and suffering.  It does not render it null and void. 

Gethsemane shows us that Jesus assumed the darkest parts of human experience and that all the things I fear and at which I tremble are known and cherished and valued as deeply as I could desire. 

Gethsemane shows us that God knows what it is like to dwell in darkness, loneliness, confusion, and betrayal and that all those things are deeply important aspects of experiencing the world as a human. 

Gethsemane speaks a powerful word of alienating horror.

But that’s not its last word.

UBC Families at the soccer field

After church on Sunday, March 29th, we'd like to invite you and your family to UBC families at the soccer field.  We will provide lunch at the Baylor soccer field and spend some time throwing a frisbee, and playing european and american football.  if you are interested contact josh@ubcwaco.org 

Town Hall Agenda

This Sunday, March 22nd, we will have a town hall after church.  go get your lunch and come back for the town hall.  we will start at about 12:30. here is the working agenda: 

  • Ordination Candidate: UBC has ordained a few folks  over the last couple of years.  Step one of that process is submitting a letter to the leadership team to begin that process. 
  • Scholarship Approvals:  In partnership with the BGCT and a few other organizations UBC signs scholarship forms for a large number of students.  those forms have to be validated by our executive body. 
  • New Leadership Team Members: self explanatory 
  • New Finance Team Members: self explanatory 
  • New HR Team Members: self explanatory 
  • Pastoral Residents:  For the 2015-16 we are looking at starting a pastoral residency program.  
  • Leadership Team selection:  you may remember that in a past newsletter i said we would address the issue of insularity within leadership team.  this time will be for discussing that process.  

do you have something that you'd like leadership team to talk about?  if so email josh@ubcwaco.org.  

HR Team Nomination

UBC is looking for a new HR member.  If you would like to nominate someone to serve on the HR team, please email josh@ubcwaco.org.  Here is some information to consider: 

(A) Purpose.  The Human Resources/Staff Support Team shall exist for the following purposes:

a.     To establish procedures for the hiring of ministerial and non-ministerial staff, and to enact those procedures when advised by Leadership Team to do so.

b.    To advise Leadership and Finance teams on issues regarding long-term staff needs.

c.     To create and implement staff review procedures.

d.    To advise Leadership and Finance teams on matters regarding staff compensation, benefits, grievances and termination.

e.    To be a liaison between the congregation and staff during times of conflict after all attempts at personal, one-on-one resolution has been made. 

(A) Qualifications.  HR/Staff Support Team members shall have been an active participant in the life of UBC for no less than one year, have received a bachelor’s degree (or roughly an equivalent amount of experience in personnel management, ministry, or other related field,) and have a demonstrable understanding of organizational management. 

 

Work is Worship 

Greeters:  Joy Wineman & Graham Dodd

Coffee Makers: Logan & Allyson 

Mug Cleaners: Kayla & Michael 

Shutdown Team: The Blue Flames

 

Announcements:

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

Jeff Walter: Jeff_Walter@ubcwaco.org 

 

,

Setlist 3-15-2015

,

This week, Josh preached from Numbers 21:4-9/John 3:14-21 on healing brokenness. Our songs were gathered as a declaration of the work of Father, Son, and Spirit in the midst of our Lenten Journey. 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 a brief explanation of how this week’s songs fit together. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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: This song expresses a desire to draw closer to Jesus, who knows just how weak humanity can be, but is strong enough to carry us through our most difficult temptations.

Wandering: This song underscores the faithfulness of God to God's people even when we try to put words in God's mouth and try to use God as a tool for our own success.  As we wander through the wilderness of Lent, we can rest assured that God is faithful to us.

Holy Spirit: This song is a sort of invitation for the Holy Spirit to be present with us.  The Holy Spirit by no means needs our permission to be with us as we worship, and we have no reason to believe that we have the power to command the Spirit's presence.  That being said, the invitation-like form of this song allows us to express a desire to experience the presence of God in a particular way--different from, perhaps, the way we experience God's presence when we walk to the kitchen or drive to work. In the context of Lent, the presence and power of the Spirit is our connection to the story of Jesus--the same Spirit who is present with Jesus in the Gospels is present with us as well.

In the Night: We will be singing this song for the next couple weeks, as we have every week this Lenten season, adding a verse each time. Lent is often a rough time for us as we confront who we are and who we are becoming, and this song does a good job at placing hardship and hope side by side.  

Be Thou My Vision: We will be singing this every week in Lent as well--as we close our services, we will ask God once again to be our vision and wisdom as we continue on for another week in the desert of Lent.

-JM

ITLOTC 3-13-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Lent 2015

Over the next six weeks of lent, the main article of the newsletter will be a lenten reflection written by someone from our community.   This week I'm honored to have Natalie Webb  write for us.  Natalie is working on her Ph.D. in New Testament and she is a gifted preacher.  Her and husband Brandon are expecting their first child soon.  

 

Transformers and Transformation 

For the past few years, one of the most meaningful times in the church year for me has been ubc’s Ash Wednesday service – when we look each other in the eye and say, “from dust you came, and to dust you will return.” Pretty morbid, right? We think about our coming death and the coming deaths of our loved ones, and we cross each other with the ashes. Especially poignant for me is watching as parents place the ashes on their children, marking them with the cross, acknowledging their fragility and humanness and eventual death. This has to be one of the most beautiful and excruciating things I’ve ever seen.

When Brandon and I found out that I was pregnant last August, I was really excited about being “with child” during Advent. You know, the excitement and hope of a coming child, imagining whether Mary had morning sickness, etc… And Advent was really special. But I didn’t think at all about how pregnancy would shape my experience of Lent, though the connection there has been even more tangible. I’ve joked that pregnancy is like an extended Lenten fast. Tell me again how you are abstaining from coffee, alcohol, etc…? Forty days, huh? Try forty weeks!!

And although I have found pregnancy to be, like Advent, a time of excitement and anticipation and hope, I’ve found these last 7 months to be equally streaked with self-doubt (can I be a good mother?), anxiety (is he okay in there? am I getting him what he needs?), an overwhelming sense of the fragility of life (both my child’s and my own), and the helplessness of not knowing and not being able to do anything to guarantee his safety. Don’t get me wrong, this time has been beautiful and wondrous, but also terrifying and vulnerable.

Because there is nothing I can do to hurry it up. It takes 40 weeks (give or take a couple). The only thing to do is wait and hope in the midst of fear and insecurity. I don’t know about you, but I’m not very good at waiting. And no matter how many vitamins I take and foods and drinks I abstain from, I can’t keep his heart beating. I can’t will his organs to develop. I can’t guarantee a happy ending. He’s fragile, and so am I, though this is not something anyone wants to admit.

For me, pregnancy has been a very visceral reminder of what is always true about all of us – that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (as Brandon has reminded me throughout my pregnancy, “Babe! Your body is like a Transformer!”) and that at the same time we are pretty powerless when it comes down to it. We can see this is true in pregnancy, but we can also see it in friendships and marriages and in our other hopes and ambitions. All of the things in our lives that are life-giving and exciting and full of hope are always, at the same time, fragile. From dust we came, and to dust we will return.

Lent is hard, because it makes us wait. It makes us come face to face with our vulnerability. It makes us admit our powerlessness over our lives and the lives of those around us. These are truths we’d rather avoid, and Lent really just shoves our faces in them. So while we’re here, in the middle of Lent, let’s practice waiting. What does it mean for us to embrace our own waiting? What does it look like to acknowledge our fragility? In our family life, in our schoolwork or jobs, in our church? What does it mean to cover these things with the sign of the cross? This year, for me, it started with sitting in my car on Ash Wednesday with some left-over ashes on my finger and crossing my pregnant belly.

Stars Greeting

STARS Test Greeting - Every year, during the season of STARS testing, CCMS (Caesar Chavez Middle School) ask volunteers to greet the students when they arrive for school.  We had a blast doing this last year, and we need volunteers to help again this year.  If you can commit to being a a greeter on Wednesday, March 25th, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org or sign-up in the foyer on March 22nd.

SWCC Volunteers Needed

Our second annual SWCC Easter Egg Hunt is coming up at the community center on Saturday, March 28th.  We need volunteers to help set-up the hunt for kids, and to help clean up afterwards.  This year they are aiming to put out  7,000 eggs!!  If you can help with the hunt from 10am-noon, please email toph@ubcwaco.org or sign-up in the foyer on March 22nd.  

Leadership Team Nominations 

UBC is looking for two new leadership team members.  Here are a few pieces of information from the bylaws.  If you'd like to nominate someone for our leadership team, please send that name to josh@ubcwaco.org.  

(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.  

(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.

Work is Worship 

Greeters:  Tessa & Leigh 

Coffee Makers: Chad & Annelise

Mug Cleaners: Sara & Vince 

Shutdown Team: The Cavemen

Announcements:

  • Sunday Sermon Text: Numbers 21:5-11

  • Our next town hall is March 22nd after church.  

  • UBC families at the Soccer Field, Sunday March 29th @ 12:00 PM.  Email josh@ubcwaco.org for more information. 

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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@baylor.edu

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

,

Setlist 3-8-2015

,

This week, Josh preached from Exodus 20:1-17 on the Law and Christian Imagination. Our songs were gathered around the theme of rest. 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 a brief explanation of how this week’s songs fit together. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

House of God Forever by Jon Foreman

Beautiful Things by Gungor

It Is Well by Horatio Spafford

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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.

House of God Forever: This song contemplates Psalm 23, emphasizing that God is trustworthy and has our best interests in mind.  As we continue through Lent, we can rest in knowing that God is at work within us.

Beautiful Things: This song champions the fact that God works in unexpected ways to bring new life into dead things.  

It Is Well: This song grabs for peace in the midst of tragedy.  It is often difficult to sing this song honestly, but we sing it together so those who can sing it honestly can sing it for those who cannot. If everything else we sang about this week is true, we can have "It is well" in the back of our minds in the face of tragedy, even if we can't bring ourselves to say those words.

In the Night: We will be singing this song for the next three weeks, adding a verse each time. Lent is often a rough time for us as we confront who we are and who we are becoming, and this song does a good job at placing hardship and hope side by side.  

Be Thou My Vision: We will be singing this every week in Lent as well--as we close our services, we will ask God once again to be our vision and wisdom as we continue on for another week in the desert of Lent.

-JM

ITLOTC 3-6-15

 

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Lent 2015

Over the next six weeks of lent, the main article of the newsletter will be a lenten reflection written by someone from our community.   This week I'm honored to have Mick Colananni write for us.  Mick is a Truett Student and serves as a resident chaplain at Baylor.  

Brokenness Becoming Beauty

 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  – 1 Corinthians 1:18

            As I have grown into the community of UBC, one thing that has equally grown into me is the middle line of our weekly benediction:  embrace beauty.  The intentionality of UBC to tear down the barriers between the sacred and the secular has opened my eyes to God’s work in places I would not have even thought to explore.

            As we continue our journey together during this season of Lent, we are encouraged to stop and reflect upon the reality of sin.  We are a broken people living in a broken world.  Anxiety and humility heighten when we realize the depth and pervasiveness of our brokenness.  We are naturally tempted only to embrace the things that are currently beautiful in order to shield ourselves from the presently ugly and mangled brokenness that is our own souls and community.

            However, Lent is a period of preparation.  We intentionally look into the humiliating horror of our own tragic brokenness in order to prepare our hearts and minds to look upon the horror of the Cross.  This season is about petitioning the Spirit to search our souls to reveal the places in which we still stubbornly believe the message of the cross is foolishness.  It is precisely in these places where our hearts still cry,  “God, how can you possibly redeem this?!”

            At UBC, we recently were forced to look upon our flaws and struggles with the circumstances surrounding our finances.  Many, including myself, were caught off guard by the brokenness that was uncovered by these series of events.  The temptation is to point the finger and assign blame in an effort to explain it all away, but our communal brokenness runs deeper than finances and church polity shortcomings.  It rends our very souls, as individuals and as a community.  If we honestly look upon this collective brokenness, we are tempted to ask, “God, how can you possibly redeem this?!”

As a community, I believe the Spirit is challenging us to face our brokenness and trust that the message of the cross is not foolishness.  This message declares that at the Cross, brokenness is becoming beauty.  UBC, may we be a community that embraces our brokenness because the message of the cross tells us in doing so, we embrace beauty.       

Day Light Savings 

This is a friendly reminder that we set our clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night.  

Spring Break Trip(s)

Please be in prayer for all the UBCers who will be traveling over spring break.  Also, please for those going on our backpacking trip.  We are asking prayer for their safety and that they would be formed in the image of Jesus through their time spent together.  

Franklins BBQ Spring Break Trip 

On Wednesday, March 11th, we will be taking a trip to Franklin BBQ in Austin for those of you still in town over Spring Break. This trip is for ALL AGES. If you are unaware of Franklin, check out this piece from Anthony Bourdain... http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/anthony-bourdain/video/austin-s-franklin-barbecue... (Note: If you have given up meat for Lent, DO NOT click on the previous link, as it will cause you to backslide.)

We will meet at the UBC parking lot at 6:30 a.m. and carpool to Austin. If you are able to drive, that would be great. If you are unable to drive, please be prepared to give your driver a few dollars for gas. Everyone will also need to bring a chair to sit on during the wait and your beverages of choice to drink as we wait. (We'll bring a couple of coolers.) Check out the menu at http://franklinbarbecue.com/menu/ for an idea of prices.

If you are interested in coming, please email craig@ubcwaco.org, or sign up in the lobby after church on Sunday.
 

UBC Financial Status as of: Feb. 28, 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:  February was the eighth month of our fiscal year; so, we are two-thirds, or 66.7%, through the year.  As of the end of February, we have spent nearly $198,000, which is about 56% of our budget.  While this appears we are not spending as much as we had planned, our expenditures are not, in fact, evenly spread across the year.  There are some obligations that will need to be paid before the end of our fiscal year.

OUR INCOME:  Our income from tithes and offerings through the end of February totals $198,719.  If our requirements were evenly spread across the year (which, as mentioned above, is not the case, but the assumption helps to gauge how we’re doing), we would have needed $235,417 at this point in the year.  So, we are about $37,000 behind.  But, we also receive other income through building rental, the garage sale, and some designated gifts.  If we add that other income in, we are still about $17,000 behind.

OUR STATUS:  UBC’s cash balance is currently about $41,000, with another $81,000 in savings.  We are fortunate that we have no debt.  So, we have the cash to meet a little less than two month’s expenses without dipping into savings.  In other words, we rely heavily on weekly tithes and offerings.  

 

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Evie & Kareem 

Coffee Makers: Emmy & Steve

Mug Cleaners: Haines

Shutdown Team: Golden Glitter Girls 

Announcements:

  • Sunday Sermon Text: Exodus 20:1-17

  • Our next town hall is March 22nd after church.  

  • UBC families at the Soccer Field, Sunday March 29th @ 12:00 PM.  Email josh@ubcwaco.org for more information. 

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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@baylor.edu

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

,

Setlist 3-1-2015

,

This week, Josh preached from Mark 8:31-38 on suffering. Our songs were also broadly gathered around the theme of suffering. 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 a brief explanation of how this week’s songs fit together. 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

Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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: This song explores the fact that God is faithful to us despite the fact that we often try to use God for our own purposes.  In the midst of suffering, we have a tendency to attach a reason to it, sometimes even saying that God wanted some horrible thing to happen.  Though we often try in vain to make God fit into our expectations so that we can understand how God works, God remains faithful to us.

Deliver Me: This song acknowledges that God often does not pull us out of suffering, but instead though suffering.

Fall Afresh: This song is a cry out to the Spirit to be present with us.  This is a reflex we desperately need in the face of suffering.

In the Night: We will be singing this song for the next four weeks, adding a verse each time. Lent is often a rough time for us as we confront who we are and who we are becoming, and this song does a good job at placing hardship and hope side by side.  "In the night, my hope lives on," is an accurate summary of the Christian view of suffering in less than ten words.

Be Thou My Vision: We will be singing this every week in Lent as well--as we close our services, we will ask God once again to be our vision and wisdom as we continue on for another week in the desert of Lent.

-JM

ITLOTC 2-27-15

ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church) 

Lent 2015

Over the next six weeks of lent, the main article of the newsletter will be a lenten reflection written by someone from our community.   This week I'm honored to have Sharyl Loeung write for us.  Sharyl is  a graduate of Truett Seminary and currently works as a resource specialist for the department of Multicultural Affairs for Baylor.  

On Vulnerability 

 

The more I preach, the more I realize that the hardest part is not determining what to say, but what not to say. After careful study, there are usually other ideas floating around that you just can’t explore without derailing your entire sermon. These rabbit trails end up on the cutting room floor if you will. So when Josh asked if I would consider writing this week after preaching, I saw an opportunity to chase some rabbits and do some Monday (or Friday) morning quarterbacking. 

In summary, my sermon explored the approach to Lent that leads us to examine our mortality and sin. When we examine our sin we tend to have one of two responses. The first response comes from deep-seated shame and guilt. We see ourselves as utter failures that just can’t get it together. We are paralyzed in our fear of further failure. The second, often in response to experiences of the former, leads us to choose the dismissal of sin as significant altogether. In this state we refuse to give weight to our actions. Both of these responses fail to allow us to live as people created in the image of God.

In exploring the problem of shame I showed Brene Brown’s TED TALK. Her research collected qualitative data that brought her to the conclusion that the result of people living under the heavy hand of shame is an unhealthy disconnectedness.  We might say it prevents people from “living life to the fullest.” The alternative, Brown says, is a kind of wholehearted living. Her research further uncovered that those who live wholeheartedly have embraced vulnerability. You can see the whole talk here ((http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en)  if you are interested.

 

So here’s the rabbit I wanted to chase…

 

…his name is Winston by the way.

 

                  The God we serve is trustworthy with such vulnerability. Dealing with our sin is part of following Jesus. This kind of life requires a depth vulnerability that most of us try to avoid at all costs. But the God who calls us to follow vulnerably, is a God worthy of such trust. In last week’s text (Psalm 25:1-10) the Psalmist says:

 

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all day long.

 

We know the path that calls us to be lead in truth and wait on God is not an easy one. But the Psalmist continues:

 

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
    for they have been from of old.
 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
    according to your steadfast love remember me,
    for your goodness’ sake, O Lord!

 

Despite the difficulty of the journey we are reminded of God’s steadfast love that casts aside our sin and sees us as more than sinners. There’s a kind of knowing that transcends our ugliness and “remembers us” even when we have trouble remembering ourselves.

 

This week the lectionary sends us to Genesis  17 and the story of the Abrahamic  Covenant. In the midst of Sarai’s barrenness, God promises Abram descendants to be made into great nations and most importantly, to forever be their God. This covenant is capped off with the renaming of Sarai and Abram to Sarah and Abraham, highlighting this covenant relationship. Beyond God promising to do the impossible in the life (and body) of Sarah, this passage highlights the intimacy of God with God’s people. I know at UBC there is a great pride taken in the naming of babies. We have some of the most unique, beautiful baby names around! For anyone that has gone through this process you know the love and care that goes into naming. It is the first truly bonding  experience we have with our unborn children.  It is startling then that in this story of promised greatness, kings , land, nations etc. that God pauses to give these two individuals new names. That’s the God that we choose to follow, worthy of our vulnerability.

This Lenten season may we recognize the God that calls us to follow an uncertain path also promises to walk beside us and knows us deeply.

Emerging Parents

Our next Emerging Parents night is Wednesday, March 4th.  If you'd like more information on emerging parents and what it's about email josh@ubcwaco.org. 

Leadership Team Nominations 

UBC is looking for two new leadership team members.  Here are a few pieces of information from the bylaws.  If you'd like to nominate someone for our leadership team, please send that name to josh@ubcwaco.org.  

(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.  

(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.

Lenten Services ... No Wednesday Communion

Over the next few weeks of Lent, UBC is partnering with some local Waco churches to participate in a series of ecumenical Lenten services.  These services will be on Wednesday over the noon hour.  As such we will not be having communion services at UBC over the Wednesday lunch hour during this time.  Please note that we will not have a service or a communion service at UBC on the week of spring break.  The schedule is listed below.  

 

Screen+Shot+2015-02-19+at+1.37.36+PM.png

Lost & Found Items:

Our lost and found is overflowing with items.  Please take a look at this and reclaim what is yours.  Note: if these are not claimed this week they will be donated to Goodwill.  

- Small, white toy cat that moves it's legs

- Tiara w/ pink gems

- Brown & Blue scarf

- Navy Blue umbrella

- Blue jacket

- Celtics beanie

- Female, grey mossimo short sleeve shrug

- Furry brown neck warmer

- Toddler play phone

- Women's short sleeve, blue shrug

- Size 6, white, abercrombie & fitch shorts

- Pink hairbrush

- Black Sparkly headband

- Orange/White striped tank top

- Gold Mardi Gra beads

- Laura Geller Lip Gloss

- Brown Hair Claw

- Green pacifier with clip

- Nissan Car Key Fab

- X Sports Sunglasses

- Micro USB chord

- Curling Iron

- NASB Brown Bible with cross on front

- Reusable Baylor Bag

- Kids Red Jacket - size 18-24 month

- Tan Message Bible

- NRSV Black Bible with Apocrypha

- Size 3-6 month baby black hoodie with skeleton outline

 

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Kelsey Lawson 

Coffee Makers: Jake & Byron  

Mug Cleaners: Michael & Kayla 

Shutdown Team: The Blue Flames 

Announcements:

  • Sunday Sermon Text: Mark 8:31-38

  • Our next town hall is March 22nd after church.  

  • UBC families at the Soccer Field, Sunday March 29th @ 12:00 PM.  Email josh@ubcwaco.org for more information. 

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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@baylor.edu

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

,

Setlist 2-22-2015

,

This week, we were fortunate to have Sharyl West Loeung preach to us from Psalm 25 about Lent. Our songs were also broadly gathered around the theme of Lent. 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 a brief explanation of how this week’s songs fit together. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Come Thou Fount

Beautiful Things by Gungor

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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: This song proclaims God's carrying us through difficult times, despite our tendency to try and take matters in our own hands.  In Lent, we know that we are to put effort into living whatever different lifestyle we have chosen, but that God will be the one to actually form us into something new.

Beautiful Things: As we contemplate our sin and seek to allow God to form us through obedience during this season, we cling to the fact that God's creative trademark is making gloriously beautiful art out of unlikely materials.

Lord, I Need You: We sang this together to proclaim that as we enter Lent with the intention of making ourselves live in a certain way for the next 40 days, God is our strength.

In the Night: We will be singing this song for the next five weeks, adding a verse each time. Lent is often a rough time for us as we confront who we are and who we are becoming, and this song does a good job at placing hardship and hope side by side.

Be Thou My Vision: We will be singing this every week in Lent as well--as we close our services, we will ask God once again to be our vision and wisdom as we continue on for another week in the desert of Lent.

-JM

ITLOTC 2-20-15

 ITLOTC

(In The Life Of The Church)

Lent

Over the next six weeks of lent, the main article of the newsletter will be a lenten reflection written by someone from our community.   This week I'm honored to have John White write for us.  John is the Harold and Dottie Riley Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and director of the sports chaplaincy program at Truett.  

Kyrie, Eleison

Over the last couple of weeks the news junkies and pundits have excessively watched and debated the whys, whats and hows concerning the tragic fall of NBC’s Brian Williams. David Brooks, NY Times Op-Ed columnist, comments, in his imperturbable manner, that it is certainly sad whenever we go to such lengths to secure others’ admiration, which in Williams’s case it appears that (on a few important occasions) he did not let the truth get in the way of telling his stories. And, yet, Brooks also puts us uncomfortably in the dock when he points the finger at how barbaric our response can be to scandal. He writes, “When somebody violates a public trust, we try to purge and ostracize him. A sort of coliseum culture takes over, leaving no place for mercy.” I believe his final point about mercy steps into Lenten territory, in that, our journey during this season of our Christian calendar reminds us that God’s good news calls us to change our perspective and posture on how we respond to our and others’ failures.

One particular enemy that Lent can have us examine and turn from is the temptation to allow our coliseum culture to referee our exercise of mercy. This culture’s haughty spirit relishes the power that comes with standing in judgment to declare which public performances verifiably meet its bar of approval. If thumbs are up, your spectacle is praiseworthy, but if down, blameworthy. This is exponentially true when people fail morally and spiritually; this is David Brooks’s point.

From the first week of Lent readings, Psalm 25:4-5 prayerfully orients whether our Lenten focus will faithfully keep in step with God’s way or not. The psalmist humbly petitions God for direction: “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.” God’s will and ours confront us at every turn, especially in our coliseum culture. When our will is done, we enter into the vicious cycle of death, withholding the life-giving teaching of the God of our salvation. This bent of the will sees failure first and foremost and seeks to make people pay for their wrongdoings. How do you respond to failure? When we trust and wait on God’s instruction, however, we un-learn those life-denying strategies that can easily separate us from one another, bringing kindness rather than smugness and self-righteousness. Kyrie, Eleison (Lord, have mercy).

 

The psalmist continues with a direct appeal to God’s character (vv.6-7), his mercy and steadfast love, as the basis for what he wants his God of salvation to remember or be mindful of when attending to him. With the psalmist as our voice, we confess to a past strewn with sins, and thus, we recite and embrace Kyrie, Eleison (Lord, have mercy).

The Genesis 9:8-17 reading adds a little twist to God’s mercy, for it not only portrays God’s promise after the flood as him graciously and freely entering into a relationship with all humankind, but it also shows God extending this covenant to include every living creature. The wideness of God’s mercy gives us pause to marvel how mercy triumphs over judgment. This reminds us that God makes the first move in light of our sinful predicament. This is the God we observe in Jesus, for his salvation rescues us, and it was this good news he came preaching (Mk. 1:15), calling us to repent from our ways, the coliseum’s way, of evaluating others’ successes and failures as the true measure of who we are.

My father is a recovering alcoholic. He regularly tells me how AA’s protocol at their meetings is for members to introduce themselves before talking by saying, “I am John. I am an alcoholic.” My dad has boldly leaned into confessing this reality along with his life reflecting compassion toward others’ past sins and brokenness. His example in AA echoes these Lenten readings’ underlying assumption that we are all sinners. Furthermore, when we appropriate God in Christ’s grace and mercy, it follows that we should show mercy and forgiveness toward others. I am thankful for my dad’s life, because he sacramentally witnesses to God’s way of mercy.

David Brooks describes this aspect of forgiving others as pre-emptive mercy. He explains, “In this view, the forgiving person makes the first move, even before the offender has asked. She resists the natural urge for vengeance. Instead, she creates a welcoming context in which the offender can confess.” This kind of mercy is gospel logic, since it initiates (because God in Christ first moved) by hospitably opening space for others to learn and trust in God’s way over against the coliseum’s way. 

Although I do not completely understand how justice and mercy meet, I do trust that Easter satisfies and sums it up. UBC, as we make our Lenten trek together, let us receive one another on Sundays with God’s “yes” of mercy, so that we are prepared to turn from and resist the coliseum’s temptation to say “no.” Now that’s a true thumbs up! Kyrie, Eleison. 

 

Lenten Services ... No Wednesday Communion

Over the next few weeks of Lent, UBC is partnering with some local Waco churches to participate in a series of ecumenical Lenten services.  These services will be on Wednesday over the noon hour.  As such we will not be having communion services at UBC over the Wednesday lunch hour during this time.  Please note that we will not have a service or a communion service at UBC on the week of spring break.  The schedule is listed below.  

 

Screen Shot 2015-02-19 at 1.37.36 PM.png

Lost & Found Items:

Our lost and found is overflowing with items.  Please take a look at this and reclaim what is yours. 

- Small, white toy cat that moves it's legs

- Tiara w/ pink gems

- Brown & Blue scarf

- Navy Blue umbrella

- Blue jacket

- Celtics beanie

- Female, grey mossimo short sleeve shrug

- Furry brown neck warmer

- Toddler play phone

- Women's short sleeve, blue shrug

- Size 6, white, abercrombie & fitch shorts

- Pink hairbrush

- Black Sparkly headband

- Orange/White striped tank top

- Gold Mardi Gra beads

- Laura Geller Lip Gloss

- Brown Hair Claw

- Green pacifier with clip

- Nissan Car Key Fab

- X Sports Sunglasses

- Micro USB chord

- Curling Iron

- NASB Brown Bible with cross on front

- Reusable Baylor Bag

- Kids Red Jacket - size 18-24 month

- Tan Message Bible

- NRSV Black Bible with Apocrypha

- Size 3-6 month baby black hoodie with skeleton outline

Clean Team

Trying to figure out how to get more involved at UBC? Consider joining the clean team! It is a once a month commitment to clean a specific area of the church. Just sign up with your name and email on the Work is Worship Board outside of Josh's office and Michelle will contact you to explain the details!

BU Basketball Faith & Family Night

Interested in going to the last home basketball game this season? On March 6th it's Faith & Family Night and tickets are $10/piece if we get 20 or more people to go and rep UBC at the Ferrell Center! If your Mi Casa/Small Group, group of friends, etc. are interested please contact Michelle@ubcwaco.org to let her know. Please send an email by February 28th so that we can see if enough interest has been generated in order to get the $10 tickets. Michelle will let you know if enough people expressed interest by 2/28 so that you can make plans! 

 

Sunday School Update 

1. The "Life Together" class will be meeting this Sunday at Rudy's BBQ for breakfast at 9:30.
2. This Sunday will also kick off a Lenten Sunday School class taught by Craig.

 

Finance Team

UBC is looking for a new finance team member.  If you would like to nominate someone for the finance team you can do so by emailing the name of that nominee to josh@ubcwaco.org.  Here is some information about the role from the bylaws: 

(A) Purpose.  The Finance Team shall exist for the following purposes:

a.     To serve as the primary advisory group for the Leadership Team in all budgetary and financial aspects of the church. 

b.    To oversee, in coordination with the ministerial staff, yearly budgetary processes, working to create a financial ministry plan in alignment with the ethos, mission and values of UBC.

c.     To advise the staff and Leadership Team on any emergency financial matters that may arise with regards to the physical infrastructure of the church building, as well as those matters pertaining to compensation and benefits of personnel.

d.    To assess the current financial status of the church on a monthly basis and advise the staff and Leadership Team on matters concerning changes in planned ministry expenses.

e.    To advise the Human Resources/Staff Support team on all financial matters regarding new and existing personnel, including available resources concerning salaries, salary increases, insurance, taxes, etc.

f.      To advise the church body on all matters relating to stewardship, financial integrity, etc.

(A)  Qualifications.  Finance Team members shall have been an active participant in the life of UBC for at least a year, have received at least a bachelors degree level of education (or roughly an equivalent amount of experience in business or finance,) and have at least a basic understanding of financial reports and budgets.

Work is Worship 

Greeters: Graham & Joy 

Coffee Makers: Allyson & Logan 

Mug Cleaners: Team Kuhl

Shutdown Team: The Cavemen

Announcements:

  • Sunday Sermon Text: Psalm 25:1-10.  Please be in prayer for our guest preacher Sharyl who will be preaching this Sunday as we celebrate Martha Stearns Marshall Women in Ministry month.  

  • Our next town hall is March 22nd after church.  

  • Q is coming to Waco, check out this video.

  • Emerging Parents, Wednesday March 4th @ 5:30.  Email josh@ubcwaco.org for more information. 

  • UBC families at the Soccer Field, Sunday March 29th @ 12:00 PM.  Email josh@ubcwaco.org for more information. 

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

254 366 9779

Leadership Team

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

Chair: Teri Walter: terijan@gmail.com

Jana Parker jparkerslp@gmail.com

Kristin Dodson: kschwebke@prodigy.net

Kaley Eggers: kaley.eggers@gmail.com

David Wilhite: david_wilhite@baylor.edu

Byron Roldan: Byron_Roldan@baylor.edu

UBC Finance Team

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

Tom Haines: thomas_haines@baylor.edu

Josh McCormick: Josh.McCormick@dwyergroup.com

Chris Kim: chris_kim@alumni.baylor.edu

Hannah Kuhl: HannahKuhl@hotmail.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@baylor.edu

Michael Heins: mheins@hot.rr.com

UNIVERSITY BAPTIST 


1701 Dutton Ave. Waco, TX 76706

254-752-1401

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

STAY UPDATED

Cart (0)