Tapestry. The Unified Budget supports Pathways. Service Fair next Sunday. NEXT SUNDAY: Youth Choir/Paradiso and Shekinah resume. This Week at Wilshire

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1 This Week at Wilshire Tapestry Weekly newsletter of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas Building a community of faith shaped by the Spirit of Jesus Christ Volume 63 No. 34 u August 23, 2015 The Unified Budget supports Pathways This is the second of four articles explaining special components of the Unified Budget. When you give to Wilshire s Unified Budget, you re also giving to the Pathways to Ministry Fund. But isn t that covered by some grant money? you might ask. And the answer is, No, not anymore. Wilshire s groundbreaking pastoral residency program got its start with a series of generous grants from the Lilly Endowment. These grants formed the major portion of needed funding for the first dozen years of the program. But as of mid-2014, the grant money was expended as planned and continuing the program fell to Wilshire s own funding. But isn t there a new Wilshire endowment to take care of this? you might ask next. And the answer is, Yes, but we re still building that endowment and hope not to draw any earnings from it until the corpus reaches $10 million. That s why, for now, the $350,000 required annually to operate the pastoral residency and related Pathways to Ministry programs has been made part of the Unified Budget. But here s the tricky part: These expenses are not part of the Operating Budget. Instead, they are one of four special incentives that only get funded when gifts to the Unified Budget overflow the basic operating needs of the church. These basic needs, which form an Operating Budget of $4 million, include all the ministries and missions Wilshire traditionally has supported before the Unified Budget. For now, the Unified Budget notes that Pathways to Ministry and three other Continued on page 5 Service Fair next Sunday Next Sunday, Aug. 30, plan to spend some time in James Gallery learning about service opportunities near and far. The Service Fair will be open from 9 a.m. to noon. Presented by the Advocacy and Missions committees and the Vision 20/20 Serve Team, the Service Fair will provide Wilshire members the opportunity to engage with more than 20 ministries. Stop by to visit with representatives from our advocacy and mission partners and ministries within Wilshire. At the Service Fair you can discover new volunteer opportunities, interact with people already serving and learn more about how Wilshire serves within our church, our community and across the globe. TODAY: Promotion Sunday in Sunday School Blessing of the Backpacks in worship NEXT SUNDAY: Youth Choir/Paradiso and Shekinah resume Today 8:30 a.m. Worship 9:40 a.m. Sunday School 11:00 a.m. Worship 12:00 p.m. Advocacy Committee Room 1205-L 12:00 p.m. Finance Committee Room :00 p.m. Resident Lay Support Team Orientation Parlor 12:00 p.m. Vision 20/20 Grow Team Room 1205-H 2:30 p.m. Nova 5:00 p.m. Memorial service for Teresa Newtown Sanctuary Monday, Aug :00 a.m. 42 Monday Room 1205-G 7:00 p.m. Wilshire Winds Tuesday, Aug :00 p.m. Yoga Room :30 p.m. Adventurers ice cream social Wednesday, Aug :00 a.m. Koinonia Café 12:00 p.m. Meet the new residents 5:00 p.m. Koinonia Café 5:30 p.m. Preschool and children s workers setup 6:00 p.m. Meet the new residents and overview of :00 p.m. Committee on Committees Room 1205-G 6:30 p.m. Watershed kickoff Youth Center 7:00 p.m. Sanctuary Choir Thursday, Aug. 27 1:30 p.m. Knit Unto Others Parlor Continued on page 2

2 Imitation How do we learn the Christian life? Last spring, I attended a worship service during Holy Week. It was Good Friday, and a choir came forward dressed in black. The conductor stood out front and with large gestures led the choir through the hymn What Wondrous Love Is This. The conductor was waving her hands, bringing in the basses here, lightening the basses there, and softening the tenors to a whisper. The choir was singing about the death of Jesus but in a strangely peaceful way. I watched the conductor s hands glide effortlessly through the air. I began to glance around the sanctuary, and I noticed a little girl maybe four or five chairs away from me. She looked about 3 years old. She had messy blonde hair, puffy red cheeks, and she was wearing a little dress. The girl was standing up on her mother s lap watching the conductor. In no time flat, the little girl began waving her hands around. She was mimicking Another Voice the conductor leading the choir. It was as if the little girl thought she was directing the choir in their singing and perhaps she was in her own small way. There on the back row of the church the subtlety of discipleship was on display. How do we learn the Christian life? We learn it from each other. During the Eucharist the bread and the cup are passed from one person to another. And the officiant stands and recalls the words of institution saying, Drink from it all of you, for this is blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:27). How do we learn that we are forgiven? That grace might be as real as a meal and that God s eternal welcome looks like the welcome of a friend? How do we learn the Christian life? We learn it from each other. What wondrous love is this? Josh Thiering This Week at Wilshire Continued from page 1 Friday, Aug. 28 6:30 p.m. Adoption & Foster Care Ministry, Room 1302 Saturday, Aug :00 a.m. New Baptist Covenant Advisory Team, Room 1205-G This Wednesday at Wilshire The noontime edition of Koinonia Café, from 11 a.m. to noon, carries on, followed by an opportunity to meet the two new pastoral residents at noon during the Bible study time. The dinner edition of Koinonia Café, from 5 to 6 p.m., returns this week after a summer hiatus, followed by an opportunity to meet the two new pastoral residents and hear about adult study options on Wednesdays this fall. Koinonia Café August 26: Carved roast pork tenderloin, herb-seasoned turkey breast, macaroni and cheese, creamed spinach, peas and carrots, roasted cauliflower, dill cucumber salad, Parker House rolls, peach cobbler. Congratulations to: x Jacie and Scott Walker on the birth of their son. Condolences to: x Lee Felts on the death of his grandson, Adam Felts, Aug. 15. x Friends and family on the death of Nathan Nate Murray of San Antonio, Aug. 18. x Larry and Val Phipps on the death of Larry s mother, Elizabeth Phipps, Aug. 14. x Jim Beasley, New Song member, on the death of his wife, Linda Beasley, Aug. 10. Wilshire staff member dies With great sadness, Wilshire mourns the loss of Teresa Newtown, who served as the church s financial administrative assistant for 20 years. Teresa fought a courageous battle against breast cancer and the recurrence of breast cancer over a period of years all the while working faithfully to keep the church s financial records in good shape. In her 20 years on staff, she worked with three business administrators and two associate pastors, but she was the constant force of stability. The staff expresses its love for Teresa and their condolences to her husband, Chris Newtown, and son, Marshall Meyer. A memorial service will be held this afternoon in the Sanctuary at 5 p.m. Tapestry (USPS ) is published weekly except Christmas week by Wilshire Baptist Church, 4316 Abrams Rd., Dallas TX Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, TX. Telephone: (214) Website: Editor: Mark Wingfield. Contributing writer: Sue Coffman. Postmaster: Send change of address to 4316 Abrams Rd., Dallas TX

3 Briefly x Mission team to Peru. A mission team will travel to Collique, Peru, with South Main Baptist Church from Houston Oct Volunteers are sought to work with children, medical and dental care, translation, construction. Contact Matthew Broyles at mbroyles@ wilshirebc.org or (214) x Women s retreat. Save the date for the Wilshire women s retreat, Feb , Location is Pine Cove Retreat Center near Tyler. Registration coming soon. x Foster connections. Are you or someone you know an adoptive or foster family? If so, you or your friend are invited to a special event at Wilshire on Friday, Aug. 28, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. After dinner, the preschoolers, children and teenagers will go to age-group activities. Parents will stay a few minutes to learn about the direction of the Foster Care and Adoption Ministry at Wilshire. After this brief information session, parents are free to go on a date or do whatever they need to do while the preschoolers, children and youth enjoy activities at the church until 9:30 p.m. Dinner and child care reservations should be sent to jhammons@wilshirebc.org or (214) by Tuesday, Aug. 25. x MOPS hiring child care workers. Additional paid child care workers are needed for Wilshire s Mothers of Preschoolers program, known as MOPS. This community fellowship group for mothers meets two Friday mornings a month during the school year. Interested applicants for child care worker positions should contact Joan Hammons at jhammons@ wilshirebc.org or (214) x Youth Choir resumes next Sunday. With the start of the new school year comes the start of Youth Choir at Wilshire. Weekly rehearsals begin next Sunday at 4 p.m. in Choral Hall. The evening schedule combines Youth Choir rehearsal and a youth group discussion time called Paradiso, led by Minister to Students Darren DeMent. Both Youth Choir and the youth ensemble Shekinah will be directed this year by Jeff Brummel, Wilshire s organist and music associate. All students in grades seven through 12 are invited to Youth Choir and Paradiso. No audition is required. x Refugee ministry seminar. A seminar on refugee and immigrant anxiety this September aims to help participants identify and tend to the emotional needs of the people they assist. Refugees and Immigrants: Examining Anxiety will shed light on the struggles faced by those fleeing their home countries to take refuge in the United States. Participants will learn to understand aspects of the emotional process inside refugee families and communities, identify emotional and spiritual problems within these systems, implement Christ-centered ways to help refugees resolve their emotional problems. The seminar will be led by Gateway of Grace Executive Director Samira Izadi Page. The date is Saturday, Sept. 19, and the time is from 10 a.m. to noon. More information will be provided when you register by Sept. 7. Contact Becky Bridges at becky@gatewayofgrace.org or visit THIS WEDNESDAY Wednesday noon Bible study returns Koinonia Café dinner service resumes Wednesday evening Bible study returns Watershed for youth begins NEXT WEDNESDAY Kids Music and Missions and Bible Skills begins THE FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY New Song senior adult choir resumes Volunteers needed for new prison outreach Six to eight Wilshire volunteers are needed to assist with a special program funded by a Wilshire Missions Plus grant. The heart of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program is the Business Plan Competition, a rigorous mini MBA segment for inmates involving 1,000 hours of classroom instruction over a period of six months. The program culminates in the participant s creation of a full business plan and delivery of a 15-minute pitch to an executive judging panel during a two-day competition, followed by a formal graduation ceremony. For many participants, graduation is the biggest accomplishment of their lives and their first time walking across a stage in a cap and gown. Participants are allowed to invite loved ones to share in the celebration, and oftentimes, it is the first time families have seen their fathers, husbands, sons or brothers truly succeed and accomplish their goals. The next graduation ceremony for the class at the Sanders Estes Unit in Venus, Texas, is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 4. Wilshire s Missions Plus grant has helped fund the graduation and the reception that will follow. Six to eight volunteers are needed to help staff this event at the prison in Venus, located about 45 minutes southwest of downtown Dallas. No heavy lifting is required, and both men and women are welcome to participate. There is an age requirement of 18 years or older. Volunteers for the Sept. 4 graduation ceremony must be cleared by the prison prior to arrival, so it would be difficult to add a last minute volunteer; please respond as quickly as possible to Missions Committee liaison Don Tittle at (214) or don@dontittlelaw.com. Learn more about this program at estes/bpc/. 3

4 A new season of Wednesday evening community is about to begin at Wilshire. You ll find music and missions and Bible skills classes for preschoolers and children, Watershed for youth, and an array of short-term and long-term classes for adults of all ages. Dinner is served in Community Hall from 5 to 6 p.m. each Wednesday, beginning Aug. 26, and then adults may choose from the list of classes below. If you haven t been to Wednesday night at Wilshire in a while, you re missing something great. Come give it a try. Adult studies Fall Wednesdays Traditional Bible study Led by Pastoral residents and George Mason in Room 1205-L, except for Aug. 26, which will be in Community Hall. Aug. 26 Meet the new residents Sept. 2-Oct. 21 Genesis: Characters Welcome A study of key characters found in the book of Genesis Oct. 28 All-church conference and dialogue with George Mason Nov. 4-Dec. 2 Theologian study on the Reformers: Learn about Luther, Calvin, Zwingli Dec. 9 Preschool Christmas program Making Sense of the Bible Led by Mark Wingfield and Erica Whitaker Sept. 9-Dec. 2 Room 3206 If you missed this study last spring, here s your chance to catch it again. Learn about the history of the Bible and gain tools for reading and interpretation. Living Your God-given Strengths Led by Marilyn Spaulding Sept. 30-Nov. 18 Learn what God has gifted you to be and do and how to apply that knowledge in service and meaningful living. Spanish as a Second Language Led by Faye Lynn Dodge Ongoing Brush up on your Spanish-speaking skills or learn some basic conversational Spanish in this low-stress environment. Beginner and intermediate classes to be offered. Toxic Charity Led by Heather Mustain Nov. 4, 11, 18 and Dec. 2 Sometimes our desire to help others has a dark side that actually does more harm than good. Explore some case studies and concepts about what helps and hurts. Religious Liberty 101 Led by Katie Murray Sept Room 3205 Learn about the important role Baptists continue to play in guaranteeing our nation s religious liberty and what this really means even in changing times. Seeing the Spiritual in Contemporary Art Led by Mike Hill Sept Room 3207 Join Wilshire member Mike Hill, who works at the Dallas Museum of Art, for a fresh look at several periods in contemporary art, with an eye toward seeing the spiritual. Gallery Café James Gallery If you just need a place to sit and collect yourself on Wednesday evenings, come to Gallery Café for quiet conversation, reading, coffee and dessert. Minimalism and Simplicity Led by Tiffany Wright Oct Join in the contemporary movement to escape the clutter that traps us and the unrealistic expectations that harm us. There is another way. 4

5 On Wednesdsay evenings at 6 p.m., an array of studies for adults will be offered. See the chart at left for a summary. See below for a more detailed description of the class offerings. Here s a Bible trivia question: What do the Serpent, Ham, Melchizedek, Hagar, Ishmael, Esau, Lot s wife, Dinah and Tamar have in common? The answer: They re all characters to be discussed this fall in Wilshire s Wednesday traditional Bible study series. Pastoral residents will teach these biblical stories both at noon and at 6 p.m. as part of a series titled Genesis: Characters Welcome. Series begins Sept. 2. Religious liberty and church-state separation These are part of the rich legacy of our Baptist heritage. In fact, it wouldn t be too far of a stretch to say that we have a Baptist minister, John Leland, to thank for the first 16 words of the Bill of Rights. Has the Baptist voice diminished over time in protecting this important freedom? Explore the history of religious freedom in America, looking at the role Baptists and the Founding Fathers played in its inclusion into the Bill of Rights, as well as the Supreme Court s interpretation of the First Amendment over time. Religious Liberty 101 will be taught by Christian Advocacy Specialist Katie Murray, who also has been named a 2015 Fellow with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C. Meets Sept in Room Interpreting the Bible How should we read the Bible? Specifically, how should we understand difficult passages like all the violence in the Old Testament. And what about the creation accounts and Adam and Eve; were they real people? What did Jesus think of the Old Testament? Where did the New Testament come from, and who wrote it? How should we interpret passages about salvation, women and homosexuality? All these questions will be addressed in a semester-long study of Adam Hamilton s book Making Sense of the Bible. This fall class will be co-taught by Associate Pastor Mark Wingfield and Pastoral Resident Erica Whitaker. Meets Sept. 9 through Dec. 2 in Room Find your strengths Do you have any spiritual gifts? And what s the difference between spiritual gifts, the fruit of the Spirit and your natural personality traits? These questions and more are addressed in Wilshire s unique class called Living Your Godgiven Strengths. The class uses the Gallup StrengthsFinder inventory to discover each participant s unique strengths with a positive focus. Many Wilshire members have taken this inventory and class through the years and have found it to give fresh direction to their lives and their service. Taught by Marilyn Spaulding. Meets Sept. 30 through Nov. 18. What do you see when you look at contemporary art? Mike Hill sometimes sees spiritual insights, and he d like to help you see contemporary art differently as well. Mike is a Wilshire member who works professionally as a senior preparator for special exhibits at the Dallas Museum of Art. He has led several Wilshire groups through thematic tours of the museum in the past to excellent reviews. Kasimir Malevich, Black Square Now he s bringing the art (well, at least images of the art) to church for a new four-week Wednesday night class called Seeing the Spiritual in Contemporary Art. The class will meet for four weeks, Sept. 2-23, in Room The content will focus on some specific periods, movements and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The class is not about Christian artists but instead takes a Christian eye to the works of the period. Week 1: We must prepare ourselves by prayer to embrace the sky. This will be an introduction, defining some terms what is meant by art and what is meant by spiritual and explaining some assumptions about how we interact with art, thus laying a foundation for the next three weeks. Week 2: The universal towers high above us. Looking at the first generation of abstract painters, focusing on Wassiley Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich and how the move to abstraction was motivated by a desire to express spiritual truths, especially the idea that there is an unseen order behind visible reality. Week 3: The sublime is now. Considering the Abstract Expressionists, the concept of the sublime, focusing on Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and one other. Week 4: to bear the scars of the world. What contemporary artists have in common is that they all, to some extent, make art that deals with suffering and the fallenness of man. Illustrations from Anselm Kiefer, Mark Bradford, Jim Hodges. 5

6 Unified Budget funds pastoral residents Continued from page 1 new initiatives are areas of targeted growth in generosity. In time, the hope is that giving will prove sufficient year after year to do away with the special buckets and just have a single unified budget. In addition to Pathways to Ministry, the three other special buckets in the Unified Budget are the Building Reserve Fund, the Missions Plus Fund and the Vision 20/20 Special Projects Fund. Current giving trends for 2015 are on track to meet the Operating Budget but are falling short of the full Unified Budget, meaning unless giving picks up this fall, these four special buckets will not be fully funded at year-end. Then how will we pay for the pastoral residency program? you might rightly ask. And the answer is: If giving to the Unified Budget does not fully cover the expenses of the program, the deficit will have to be covered by drawing down other designated funds set aside for Pathways to Ministry, so long as they last. The next step would be either to reduce the size of the program or to begin drawing down earnings from the Pathways Endowment before the corpus is fully realized. So is it more important to give to the Unified Budget or to give to the Pathways Endowment? you might ask next. Great question. The answer is, Please give to both. Regular tithes and offerings are essential to fund the day-to-day expenses and special opportunities of the church through the Unified Budget. For most people, these gifts come from tithing off regular income or from offerings given through accumulated assets. Some people have the capacity to give well above their tithe and are able to make cash gifts occasionally toward the Pathways Endowment. But most everyone has a simpler way to give to the endowment: Through estate planning. One of the key initiatives of the Vision 20/20 Legacy Giving Task Force is to help all Wilshire households understand the importance of including the George A. Mason Pathways Endowment in their wills and in other planned giving instruments. Over time, estate gifts and bequests will help the endowment reach its goal. And in the meantime, generous giving to the Unified Budget will keep the church from having to tap any of the endowment money while it grows. There s one more hidden secret to this plan: When the Pathways Endowment is fully funded and begins paying for the pastoral residency program in perpetuity, that will free up more than $350,000 annually in Wilshire s Unified Budget, which can be allocated to other missions causes. WHAT S IN THE UNIFIED BUDGET $325,000 $350,000 $200,000 $190,000 + OPERATING BUDGET: $4,000,000 6 Wilshire Adventurers Tuesday, Aug. 25 End of Summer Ice Cream Social All adults 65 and above are invited to make your own ice cream sundae for $3 and to hear a musical program by the group Celtic or Not. Location: Community Hall. No reservation required; just show up at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17 Senior Follies at Eisemann Center Join an outing to see the spectacular Senior Follies. Tickets are $25 apiece, which is a discounted group rate. Sign up at the Adventurers table on Sunday mornings or Wednesday noon. Meet at the Mockingbird Station DART station at 12:30 p.m. and ride the train with the group; the train drops off in front of the Eisemann Center. The show starts at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22 Lunch at Trinity Groves Have you been to the new destination on the west end of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge? It s called Trinity Groves, and it includes a large selection of unique restaurants for all tastes. We ll take a chartered motor coach departing the church parking lot at 11 a.m. and returning around 3 p.m. Enjoy lunch in small groups at the restaurant of your choice, then take time to walk across the Continental Avenue pedestrian bridge and see the beauty of the Dallas skyline. No cost for transportation, and lunch is on your own. Advance registration is required to ensure enough seats on the bus. Monday, Nov. 16 Ice! and Lone Star Christmas at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine Get an advance look at Christmas with 2 million twinkling lights, 15,000 ornaments, a 54-foot-tall Christmas tree, an 8-foot-tall gingerbread house, and the Ice! exhibit carved from 2 million pounds of ice. Cost is $25 per person, which includes round-trip transportation and admission to the ice sculptures. Enjoy lunch on your own or in small groups at the Gaylord Texan or spend the time exploring all the lights and decorations.

7 The numbers Report for August 16 Sunday School Officers Preschool...76 Children Youth Young adult Median adult Senior adult Total present Total previous week Total last year Generosity Unified Budget received $43,676 Unified Budget projected $91,377 Unified Budget YTD $2,775,343 Unified Budget projected $3,118,964 Pathways Endowment received YTD $222,036 Pathways Endowment current fund value $3,608,245 December 31 goal $5,076,475 December 1 goal $4,416,533 November 1 goal $4,010,415 October 1 goal $3,655,062 September 1 goal $3,299,708 August 1 goal $2,842,826 July 1 goal $2,462,090 June 1 goal $2,055,972 May 1 goal $1,649,854 April 1 goal $1,269,118 March 1 goal $812,235 February 1 goal $456,882 Unified Budget Bill Ross is a model of what retirees can do to serve their church and the community, although he had been giving of himself for long before retirement. An active volunteer at Wilshire, he serves at The Stewpot, is a member of the Adventurers Committee and helps on occasion with communion preparation and cleanup. Last year he helped with Operation Christmas Child, filling boxes for the children, sorting and storing them. Bill also has volunteered in the community, delivering Meals on Wheels, and through the Visiting Nurses Association he has taken clients to doctors appointments and done their grocery shopping. One of his clients who died requested that Bill be one of his pallbearers. I have a special friend at present who is blind, he added. I help when he needs a ride, and we occasionally have lunch together. I consider these acts of kindness as a way of paying back, something similar to what was done for my mother. Bill was born in Nimrod, Ark., near Hot Springs, the youngest of seven children, six boys and one girl. In 1942, when he was 3, the family moved to a Pine Bluff arsenal housing project where his father was a security guard. The arsenal manufactured ammunition and explosives for use in World War II. His father died in 1951, when Bill was 11. After that my mother and I first lived with his sister and her family in Pine Bluff, he said, and later we lived with an older brother who was 16 years older than me. He was like a father to me. After graduating from high school in 1957, Bill joined the U.S. Navy, which was offering schooling in electronics. After boot camp the Navy I Am Wilshire Bill Ross sent him to two electronics training schools. Graduating as an aviation electronics technician, he was assigned to an anti-submarine squadron based at NAS North Island, San Diego, and made one Far East cruise aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet. I spent my time troubleshooting equipment that was used for detecting submarines, Bill explained. After finishing his time with the Navy in 1960, he returned to Pine Bluff and was employed by Arkansas Power and Light Co., working on a crew that built and repaired cross-country high-voltage power lines all over Arkansas. Six years later, Bill answered a newspaper ad and moved his family to Garland, and he worked as an electronics technician at the LTV plant in Greenville. We repaired and refurbished electronic equipment on Air Force RC-130 and RC- 135 reconnaissance planes, Bill said. After 18 months he transferred to LTV in Grand Prairie, where he spent the next 30 years, retiring in December My work was never boring, he said. We did fatigue and static tests on all aircraft parts. In 1969 I took a refresher course in electronics at Elkins Institute in Dallas. I attended classes five hours a night for 48 weeks as well as working my daytime job. After retiring from Vought Aircraft, Bill held several parttime jobs, including working for a law firm specializing in asbestos and silicosis claims. I now go to the gym five days a week to work out, and after the workout I sit around with other retirees to enjoy a cup of coffee, share life experiences and solve the world s problems, he joked. He also admits to being an avid University of Arkansas fan. Bill met his wife, Virginia, at a singles square dance in 1980, and they were married in February Together they have four children, six grandchildren and one greatgranddaughter, whom they enjoy babysitting. He is especially proud of their educational accomplishments. Our oldest grandson is in medical school, and another graduated from Texas A&M and is currently serving in the Navy in Japan. Still another is a student at North Central Texas College Corinth Campus, he said. One granddaughter graduated from Texas A&M Commerce, another graduated from UC Berkeley, and a third is a student at UC Santa Barbara, he said. When Bill was growing up, his family attended the Church of the Nazarene, which had a female pastor. At the age of 16 I felt the call of the Spirit and walked the aisle to profess my faith in Christ, he said. He joined a Baptist church later and was baptized during his first marriage. The Rosses were invited to Wilshire at a time when they were looking for a new church home. We just loved the music at Wilshire, and we noticed that the Sanctuary was full, which he saw as a sign of a healthy congregation. They joined the church in They are active members of Koinonia Sunday School Class. We enjoy Joe Haag s teaching of the Bible and love the fellowship of the class, Bill said. 7

8 Wilshire contacts To any member of the Wilshire staff, use the first initial with the full last name and then To phone staff, dial (214) 452- and the four-digit extension: Pastoral offices George Mason (3132) Debby Burton (3132) Mark Wingfield (3128) Kathi Lyle (3130) Pathways to Ministry Geri McKenzie (3159) Brent Newberry (3152) Erica Whitaker (3156) Matthew Broyles (3154) Timothy Peoples (3153) Joshua Thiering (3155) Business offices David Nabors (3157) Susan Kimball (3108) Dale Pride (3101) Sandy Allen (3150; sgallen) Beverly Faubion (3111) Adam Scheuermann (3136) Wilshire Baptist Church 4316 Abrams Rd Dallas TX PERIODICALS RATE Age-graded ministries Jessica Capps (3129) Darren DeMent (3102) Julie Girards (3103) Joan Hammons (3141) Holly Irvin (3106) Care ministries Tiffany Wright (3107) Debby Burton (3132) Missions/advocacy offices Heather Mustain (3110) Katie Murray (3126) Sandy Allen (3150) Music offices Doug Haney (3123) Sarah Stafford (3121) Barbara Clayton (3125) Jeff Brummel (3122) Food services Chris Terry (3117) Weekday Education Mary Browder (3115) Parish nurse Linda Garner (3151) Library Jeri Baker (3114) Reception desk (214) Preaching: Suzii Paynter CBF Executive Coordinator Next Sunday, August 30 14th Sunday after Pentecost Acts 26:2-8, Paul has been wrongly imprisoned for several years and finally gets to appeal to King Herod Agrippa II. He argues that his following of the way of Christ consists of fidelity to his Jewish Pharisee heritage, notably hope in the God who raises the dead. This strikes the procurator, Festus, as too much learning that is driving Paul insane. The logic of the resurrection challenges conventional reasoning that is meant to keep the powers in place, since it is ultimately about the reckoning of injustice in the name of mercy. Faith is always endangered by the prospect of what we would have to give up in order to embrace it. Music by Bert Truax, trumpeter and composer... a bold witness to the way of Christ in our time. 8