Tapestry. All-church picnic. Wilshire at the Lake

Transcription

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 61 No. 20 u May 19, 2013 All-church picnic Wilshire at the Lake TODAY, May 19 5 to 7 p.m. Fun for all ages Petting zoo and pony rides Live music by Wilshire s own Big Thicket at White Rock Lake Church will provide fried chicken, beans and drinks You re asked to bring a large side dish to share Last names A-H bring desserts Last names I-P bring salads and fruits Last names Q-Z bring vegetables Bring your own blanket or chair Today 7:30 a.m. Blood drive James Gallery 8:30 a.m. Worship 9:00 a.m. Country Critters for preschoolers 9:40 a.m. Wilshire Welcome class McIver Chapel 9:40 a.m. Sunday School 11:00 a.m. Worship 12:00 p.m. Youth snack lunch 12:00 p.m. Children s VBS meeting Second floor 12:00 p.m. Pathways Committee Parlor 12:15 p.m. Carillon Ringers 12:30 p.m. Youth Choir Choral Hall 1:00 p.m. Nova 5:00 p.m. Wilshire at the Lake picnic Monday, May 20 10:00 a.m. 42 Monday Room 1205-G 6:30 p.m. Adventurers program with Dave Lieber Comm. Hall 7:00 p.m. Wilshire Winds Choral Hall Tuesday, May 21 8:00 a.m. Bright Fellow. Bible study Parlor 9:00 a.m. 4-S Ministry Room :00 p.m. Spousal loss grief group Room :00 p.m. Vision 20/20 strategy team Room :30 p.m. Spousal loss grief group Room :30 p.m. Stephen Min. supervision Wednesday, May 22 9:30 a.m. New Song Choral Hall 11:00 a.m. Koinonia Café Comm. Hall 12:00 p.m. This is My Story Comm. Hall 3:30 p.m. New Song outing 6:00 p.m. Library Comm. Room 1205-H 6:15 p.m. New member fellowship Continued on page 2

2 Give here Well, we have something new here at the church, a giving kiosk. It is a place where you can contribute to God s work through Wilshire. It is easy and simple and kind of neat. It is also something that does not come naturally to me. I still feel a little awkward about walking up to a machine and swiping my debit card. Somehow it feels funny. Perhaps you, too, find the technology that lets you pay for your gasoline right at the pump slightly out of place in church. Here are a few ideas that passed through my head as we considered adding this to all the other ways folks find natural to give to the church. x Does the method of giving matter to God? x Have we limited people s generous spirit by not keeping up with the way money is exchanged in the rest of society? x Is this the last straw in surrendering to the consumerism running amok today? x Does this kind of thing make people think the church is really only after our money and not our souls? x What would my grandmother say? After prayer, discussion and listening to others including the Stewardship Committee and Finance Committee here are my responses: The method of giving probably is not an issue to God. If God understands Abraham s Another Voice sacrifice on an altar, God probably does not care about checks, cash or debit cards. In this, the medium is not the message. A huge portion of our population does not carry cash or a checkbook. Many members tell me their contributions to the church are the only checks they write and they have to stop at an ATM to get cash for a Wednesday Bible study dinner. Is air conditioning the church a nod to consumerism? Does selling parking spaces to benefit our youth mission trip cede to consumerist natures? I don t think so. The why is more important. No one who worships here regularly comes to the conclusion that we re only about money. We are engaged in holy work and covenantally have pledged ourselves to grow in our faith and our relationship with God shaped by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. I think my Grandmother would say, It s not for me, but if it is joyous giving to others, I m for that. I hope the giving kiosk becomes just one more way you can demonstrate your faith and experience the joy that comes from giving generously to the good works that happen through this community of believers. Paul Johnson This Wednesday at Wilshire Continued from page 1 Wednesday, May 22 6:30 p.m. Watershed, Youth Center 7:00 p.m. Sanctuary Choir, Choral Hall Thursday, May 23 1:30 p.m. Knit Unto Others, Parlor Koinonia Café menu: Chicken cacciotore, sausage canaloni, grilled zuchhini, spinach and pine nuts, baked tomatoes, cracked wheat salad, ciabatta, Italian creme cake. Summertime fun with Wilshire Adventurers Monday, May 21 6:30 p.m. in Community Hall Dave Lieber Humorist, author, advocate Taco salad bar for $6 Monday, June 3 10 a.m. in Community Hall Jeri Baker Adventures at Yellowstone Lunch served for $6 Followed by table games Tuesday, July 30 6:30 p.m. in Community Hall Broadway and Fun Singer Harry Wooten Make your own sundae Tuesday, Aug :30 a.m. in Community Hall The AChord Trio George Gagliardi, BJ Maclin, Anne Clarke Lunch served for $6 Followed by table games 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 High school graduates 2013 Joshua Bonar Sachse Univ. of North Texas Chelsea Brown Lake Highlands Baylor University Kathleen Francis J.J. Pearce Rice University Lydia Hammons Berkner Dallas Baptist Univ. Nick Jones Lake Highlands Belmont Catherine LaChey Plano East Baylor University Meredith Magee Rockwall Heath Saint Edwards Univ. Marcus Mills Plano West Ithaca College Taubert Nadalini Saint Mark s Univ. of Southern Cal. Lark Pokladnik Naaman Forest Univ. of Missouri William Pumphrey Lake Highlands Univ. of Oklahoma Adam Speer Richardson Richland College Kite Runner author to appear at Wilshire Bestselling author Khaled Hosseini will appear at Wilshire in a special community event on June 11 at 7 p.m. This will be a ticketed event and is presented in collaboration with Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Senior Pastor George Mason and Michael Mershal, books editor for the Dallas Morning News, will moderate the evening. Hosseini will be interviewed about his newest novel, And the Mountains Echoed. The book releases nationwide this week. Present any Barnes & Noble receipt for And the Mountains Echoed to the customer service desk at Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Park beginning May 21 through 5 p.m. June 11 to receive a wristband to save your place in line for the event at Wilshire. Tickets and books also will be available at the door the evening of the event. Hosseini is author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. These novels have sold more than 10 million copies in the United States and more than 38 million copies worldwide. And the Mountains Echoed is a multigenerational novel revolving around parents and children, brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers. Hosseini explores the many ways in which families love, wound, honor, betray and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Set throughout Europe and America, as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hosseini s new novel offers a global perspective on the fine line between right-doing and wrongdoing, how lives inter- twine with so many others, and how losses and kindnesses echo around the world. Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States with his family in 1980, where he went on to train as a doctor with a specialty in internal medicine. In 2006 he was named a United Nations Goodwill Envoy through the United Nations Refugee Agency. Inspired by a trip he made to Afghanistan, Hosseini created the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanis. 3

4 Anoint, Touch, Heal By Richard Cummings Praise him for my constant need to touch, Praise him because he didn t remain a good idea. Duncan Simcoe, artist These beautiful words of artist Duncan Simcoe, whose work appears in the exhibition Touch, Anoint, Heal: God with Us, now on display in the South Lobby, invite us to consider the profound theological connection between the material of the creation and the Incarnation of God. In Christ, God condescended to take on our flesh and to dwell among us. At creation, God breathed life into dust (Genesis 2:7). In forming humankind from the dust, ex creatis, God became the first to sculpt from his own created material the first to shape a new form out of the raw material of his ex nihilo creation. The mystery of the Incarnation is that God glorified dust by filling it with his presence. Christ took on our flesh. The invisible God became visible. The untouchable God became a fragile infant held in a mother s loving arms. Still fully God, Jesus became fully human so that he could reach out his hand to heal those who were broken. He stretched out his arms to take our place on a cross of shame. In triumph over death, his body arose, and in his perfected flesh, complete with scars, he ascended to the right hand of the Father. As Simcoe suggests, Christ didn t just remain a good idea in the mind of God. He came down from heaven so that he could touch. He came to anoint our eyes that we might see. He came to heal us from our shame. He came as our Emmanuel, God with us. Praise is to God, by his Spirit he is with us still. The exhibition Touch, Anoint, Heal: God with Us brings together the work of 30 artists from all across the United States and Europe. As the juror for this exhibit, it was a considerable challenge to choose from the more than 300 artworks sent in for consideration. The title of the exhibition presumes the importance of material physicality and existence. The three verbs in the title necessitate a physical state of being. Touch implies the ability to feel. To anoint is to set something apart. Healing is a restoration to wholeness. The works selected for the exhibition demonstrate the embodiment and relationship between these facets of sensual humanity as they relate to the reality of God s continuing presence in creation. Key to the interpretation of this exhibition is the role of the artist s touch as she or he produces the work. How does the artist employ his chosen medium to set a subject apart as sacred? How does the artist bring healing to a broken world through her work? Touch Touch is communication. It is both enacting and receptive. A punch to the gut tells a different story than the caress of one s beloved. Nonetheless, as one of our five senses, touch offers a unique means of communication. We know by touch differently than we know by taste, smell, hearing or sight. The artist is intimately acquainted with touch; a brush across canvas feels differently than a brush against a wooden panel. A potter throwing on a wheel works primarily by feel. Even the digital artist will, by touch, know the intimate curve of the mouse and the feel of the tablet s pen as knowledgeable fingers instinctively move to keyboard shortcuts without concern for sight. Explore Bruce Herman s The Persistence of Vision or Edward Knipper s Christ and Peter on the Water. The artist s hand is noticeably present, communicating and enhancing by his touch the reality of our embodied souls. Flesh is real, beautiful and frail. Doubt, a mixed media on canvas piece by artistturned-priest Craig Geira, references Caravaggio s famous painting, Doubting Thomas. In it Geira focuses the viewer on the action of Christ as he draws Thomas s hand, and metaphorically our hand, into his wounds. The blackened clerics clothing reminds us of the shame and death that he bore in his body for us. In the wounds of our savior we are reminded of the cost of grace. Anoint Anointing marks a symbolic exchange from one condition to another. In the earliest centuries of the church, the bodies of the newly baptized were anointed with oil immediately upon leaving the water. The word Christ means anointed. By being anointed, the newly baptized were mystically sealed into Christ s inheritance as God s anointed sons and daughters. Michael Buesking s Healing of the Blind Man (above) is a powerful anamnesis of the events of John 9: Having said these things, he (Jesus) spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man s eyes with the mud and said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. Heal Lives are so easily wounded. Our world is full of the broken those who have been scarred by hate, hurricanes, illness, accidents, war, family and our own poor choices. Healing is the restoration of wholeness, a return to the way things were meant to be. Healing requires a past event, a time when something went awry. Perhaps a cell mutated and then multiplied. Maybe two parents were, for a season, present but now there is only one. The artist can be a prophet for healing, and many pieces in this collection reflect this calling. Lorie McCown s mixed media fibers piece, Lazarus II, calls forth recollections of the biblical story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, but it also calls attention to the rituals of preparing the dead for burial, as the figures that are wrapped and bound in their shrouds attest. Tim Lowly s diptych of his wife, Sherrie, and his daughter, Temma, titled Wonder/ Wander, shows the wholeness and healing of the deepest form of love a love that transforms the darkness of guilt into the gift of profound love, loving someone simply for who she is. This healing love is a gift, a gift that anticipates the final redemption and wholeness of all creation in the New Jerusalem. As you view the works in Touch, Anoint, and Heal: God with Us, remain open to the possibility that God may reveal his presence to you through the work. Invite the Holy Spirit, living in you, to connect you to the work of these artists who responded, with their unique voices, to the Spirit s moving. Perhaps the work will touch you in ways you cannot anticipate. 4

5 Children s choirs year-end program 5

6 University graduates 2013 Todd Hagler Texas A&M Environmental Scien. Trey Vigil TAMU Corpus BBA Kent McCoy UT Austin BBA Jennifer Wolff Univ. of Arkansas Human Environ. Sci. Jennifer Browder Baylor University BA History Taylor Capps Trinity University Poli. Sci./Inter. Study Mae Krause Otterbein University Equine Business Ian Newman Univ. So. California Theater Kate Pumphrey UT Austin Psychology Ryan Dirting UT Austin BBA Bert Secker Auburn University Hospitality Mgmt. Adventurers program tomorrow Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Dave Lieber will headline a Wilshire Adventurers dinner program on Monday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m. All interested adults are invited to attend. A self-serve taco bar will be offered for $6 per person. No advance reservation is required. Location is Community Hall. Dave Lieber is a humorist, storyteller and award-winning columnist who believes stories about positive change help people change positively. His newspaper and magazine stories of wrongdoing and 6 right-doing have led to countless changes in governments, schools and communities. In his newest project, Dave is leader of Watchdog Nation, a consumer rights movement spreading across America. His book, Dave Lieber s Watchdog Nation, won two national book awards and was one of the top 10 consumer books of the year. Dave has received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and was named Best Columnist in the American Southwest by the Press Club of Dallas. Blood drive today Today in James Gallery. Time is from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reservations not required. Drop-ins are welcome. Help save a life with the gift of blood.

7 I Am Wilshire Linda James Linda James is one of the few people who have been a member of Wilshire during the tenures of every one of its pastors and all but two of its ministers of music. To me, Wilshire is not just a building but the people, she said. They mean so much to me, and several are members now who were members when I was a child. I value the history I have at Wilshire and the people I m getting to know now as well as those I knew before. I can still walk in to the Chapel and almost come to tears because there s a peace there and in the Sanctuary, because I feel God s presence. Born in Dallas, Linda lived in Richardson for several years until the family returned to Dallas when she was 8. A friend of my dad who was a Baptist recommended that the family try a new young church close to our home, and that was Wilshire, she said. We joined on a Sunday night on June 15, 1952, in the ice cream parlor. Huber Drumwright was the pastor, and he was so wonderful. Dad joined on promise of letter, my mother came from a Disciples of Christ church, and I came on profession of faith. She and I were baptized at the same time at West Side Baptist because Wilshire didn t have a baptistry. Active in Wilshire s youth group and choir, Linda especially remembers trips to Baylor Hospital. We sang a cappella over the intercom to patients, she said. During high school at Woodrow Wilson, she worked on Saturdays for two years as a clerk at an M.E. Moses store on Greenville Avenue right off Mockingbird Lane. I replenished the bins of merchandise and checked people out, she said. The summer after her graduation in 1960, she worked at the Baptist Student Union at Southern Methodist University through a recommendation. She did clerical work for the BSU director, Jack Greever. The summers after her freshman and sophomore years, she again did clerical work, this time at the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Linda is a graduate of the University of North Texas, which she chose for its excellent teacher education programs. Besides, it was close enough to home but yet far enough away, she noted. She knew very early that she wanted to teach. My kindergarten teacher lived nearby, and she was a model and inspiration, Linda said. When I was very young, I lined my dolls up and taught them, using a blackboard to teach them letters and numbers. Approaching graduation, Linda and two good friends decided to hit the road and teach somewhere far away, she said. We chose Silver Spring, Md. However, I realized that my relationship with my future husband, Ronny, was serious, so I had to back out. She and Ron were married in December 1964 by former Wilshire staff member Bob Feather. The Jameses have one daughter, Elisa. Feather, who at the time of the wedding was minister of education at Park Cities Baptist Church, hired Linda the summer after she graduated, and she decided that it would be a good idea for her to join Park Cities. I worked there until I got a job in September 1965 teaching in a private kindergarten, she said. Then I returned to Wilshire because it was home. In 1976 the family began a series of transfers to Amarillo; Shreveport; Broken Arrow, Okla.; and Lubbock and Linda was active in Baptist churches in every location. She worked with children and youth and in church libraries and participated in prayer groups and Bible study groups. When we returned to Dallas, we joined Wilshire again, she said. I had missed Wilshire so much. Over the years Linda continued to teach in public schools, working with second and third graders until retiring in Since November 2011 she has taught on rotation in Wilshire s Friendship Class. They are fantastic women, and I m so privileged to be with them. Linda has served on the History Committee for several years. We organize memorabilia and important documents that people bring in and keep them safe and in chronological order, she said. She also volunteers in Wilshire s library. Among Linda s favorite New Testament verses is Philippians 4:2, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. She has just found an Old Testament verse, 2 Samuel 22:33, that is now among her favorites. I made copies of it and memorized it, she said: It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. By the numbers Financial report for May 12 Weekly Ministry Fund projected... $64,160 Weekly Ministry Fund received... $67,277 Annual Ministry Fund projected... $3,159,115 Annual Ministry Fund received... $3,178,923 Annual ahead/behind... $19,808 Crossings campaign this week...$3,165 Crossings campaign total received... $3,325,893 Pathways Endowment this week... $765 Pathways Endowment total received... $1,965,245 Special missions for year... $85,463 Sunday School May 12 Officers...18 Preschool...77 Children Youth...65 Young adult...75 Median adult Senior adult Total present Total previous week Total last year Condolences to: Friends and family of Evelyn Anders. Scott and Sherry Garvin on the death of his father, David Garven, May 11. Sherry McCray on the death of her husband, Jim McCray, May 15. New members: Grace Butler Teri Walker Milo Segner Susan Austin Segner Jan Sayers 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) and the three-digit extension: Wilshire Baptist Church 4316 Abrams Rd Dallas TX PERIODICALS RATE Pastoral offices George Mason (132) Debby Burton (132) Mark Wingfield (128) Kathi Lyle (130) Pathways to Ministry Geri McKenzie (159) John Jay Alvaro (154) Annette Thornburg (153) Austin Almaguer (155) Samuel Gunter (152) Business offices Paul Johnson (157) Teresa M. Newtown (131) Susan Kimball (108) Dale Pride (101) Sandy Allen (150; sgallen) Lauren Crain (111) Age-graded ministries Jessica Capps (129) Darren DeMent (102) Julie Girards (103) Joan Hammons (141) Holly Irvin (106) Care ministries Tiffany Wright (107) Debby Burton (132) Missions offices Sandy Allen (150) Music offices Doug Haney (123) Sarah Stafford (121) Barbara Clayton (125) Jeff Brummel (122) Food services John Jost (117) Weekday Education Mary Browder (115) Parish nurse Linda Garner (151) Library Jeri Baker (114) It s time once again for Wilshire s annual summertime tradition of hearing inspiring testimonies during the Wednesday noon Bible study time, as part of Koinonia Café. The evening meal and program have stopped for the summer, but noontime activities are going strong. Come on out and join the fellowship around the tables in Community Hall. May 22 Samira Izadi Gateway of Grace Ministries May 29 Teri Walker Aberg Center for Literacy June 5 New Song concert June 12 Julie Owen Artist, teacher, author June 19 Skip week due to VBS June 26 Bill Jernberg Physician, teacher, musician July 3 James Feltenberger Musician, father, grandfather July 10 Guy Smith Friend of Santa Claus 8