UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading

Pastor Annette's Blog

"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD . . . NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC

Looking Ahead

6/25/2020

0 Comments

 
June 24, 2020

Beloved:

Already this morning I’ve been to the doctor for a check-up and to Walmart for a long list of things like eye drops and laundry soap.  From the store and doctor’s office, I came to work and have been here ever since, except to go out for lunch.  I’ve not actually left the house in two days and "out for lunch" was to the kitchen and back.


So goes the summer in semi-quarantine.  We don’t eat out but we do get carry-out from restaurants.  We don’t have our normal gatherings but we had a picnic at a park for my sister’s birthday, our lawn chairs the appropriate distance apart.  My garden is bigger since I have no travel plans, thus no worries about wasted food.


I have home life figured out, but what of church?  As congregations begin to reconvene for worship, we too are thinking, praying, talking our way to a new way of holding life together, together.  I am so grateful for your thoughtful response to the deacons’ survey and want to share four conclusions I have drawn from what you told us.  If and where I have missed the mark, I count on you to correct me.


The strongest message I received from the survey responses is that you want everyone to be as safe as possible.  Secondly, you very much want to be together in person when such safety is possible.  Third, clarity is important to you — you want to know exactly how gatherings will work before deciding to attend.  Fourth, you want an online worship option to continue for people unable to attend in-person worship gatherings.


Succinctly, I understand you to say these are your priorities, though not necessarily in this order:
  1. Safety
  2. Community
  3. Clarity
  4. Inclusion.
This information is hugely helpful, and it makes me grateful to pastor people whose concern for others exceeds their desire to have their own needs met.  Self-denial for the sake of one another is exactly what Jesus asks of his followers (John 15:13) and is our only means for navigating pandemic faithfully and successfully.  All we have to protect one another from this disease is the fortitude to stay six or more feet apart and wear our masks for however long it takes for a working vaccine to be available.  It will surely take months.  It could take years.  But until then, we have nothing else — only our fortitude, also called faithful obedience to the truth.


As your pastor, let me say this:  if we have to wait a year, two years, three years to gather like we used to, we will wait.  We will wait patiently, joyfully and gratefully for the experience of waiting, as others who have also waited.  People of faith have always waited through times of unknowing, discomfort and fear.  So can we.  So will we.  In the meantime, we will find ways to gather that will be new, that may be strange and, possibly, that we end up loving.  But all these new ways absolutely deny this disease the contact it requires to infect other people.  On my watch we shall not aid the enemy.


To that end, while we still have no definite plans to gather in-person for Sunday morning worship, on Sunday July 5th at 4 PM I’ll be in a lawn chair in the church parking lot, wearing my mask and some bug spray, to host Life Together Live.  You, your lawn chair and your mask are invited to join me.  We will park in the lower back lot and sit up near the front porch in the shady area, 6 feet apart of course.  We won’t hug or shake hands.  We won’t provide refreshments.  We won’t have a sound system, so we will have to talk loudly to one another.  We’ll only stay an hour or so.  If it rains, we’ll take our chairs into the sanctuary and follow the same seating and masking procedures.  Only the upstairs bathroom will be available, with disinfectant wipes for everyone to use on surfaces after every use.


I’ve been thinking about things this way lately:  I would be terribly sad if our building burned to the ground; but wouldn’t it also be terribly exciting to build a whole new building from scratch, a building built to fit our life together, rather than a life together organized to fit our building?  I choose to imagine this pandemic as our chance to build a church program that fits our life together, both now and post-pandemic, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone but you all.


Just one more word:  you have been awesome givers through the first months of the year.  As of the end of May, we are ever so slightly behind budget, about 5%, and I wanted to bring it to your attention so as to get it caught up before we have a problem.  No doubt everyone is busy with so many things.  It’s easy-peasy to give your offering online now at ubcbloomington.org/ give.  You can also mail it to the church, and counters will get it taken care of quickly.  Thanks so much! 

~peace & prayers, 
pastor annette

PS – Don’t forget our plans for participating in MCUM’s safe, socially-distanced annual “Each One Feed One” food drive, as shared by our awesome MCUM donations coordinator.  It will take place this coming weekend, Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28.  This year, due to COVID-19, people in different neighborhoods across town have been recruited to volunteer their homes as drop-off sites for donations. Two UBC-ers' homes will be drop-off sites for church folks and their neighborhoods, and you can just leave items outside their homes in specific spots described in a detailed e-mail.


Each month MCUM distributes over 7,000 pounds of food to more than 200 families.  Now, their food pantry has been hit hard by the pandemic and they have experienced an increase in demand.  They are hoping to raise 12,000 pounds of food through this food drive.  If you aren't able to donate directly to this food drive, please remember that there are lots of different ways to help out right now, including donating to MCUM through their website or through the church; or you could send a donation to our coordinator or one of the UBC staff, and they will shop for the items for you.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC.  It is also posted here. 
     
    Enjoy!  
    Pastor Annette

    Copyright
    Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011

3740 East 3rd Street
Bloomington, IN 47401
812-339-1404
[email protected]

Photo from TheReptilarium
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading