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 60 No. 45 u November 4, 2012 Today 8:30 a.m. Worship 9:40 a.m. Sunday School 11:00 a.m. Worship 12:00 p.m. Adult teacher appreciation luncheon James Gallery 12:00 p.m. CPR training Room 1205-L 12:00 p.m. Deacon Nom. Committee Room 1205-H 3:45 p.m. Shekinah 4:45 p.m. Living Your God-given Strengths Room 1205-G 4:45 p.m. Youth Choir and Paradiso 5:00 p.m. Nova Monday, Nov. 5 10:00 a.m. Adventurers program with Dan Gibson 10:00 a.m. Domino group Room 1205-G 7:00 p.m. Wilshire Winds 7:00 p.m. Min. Missions Search Comm. Room 1205-L Imagine a church. What do you see? A steeple. Pews. A choir. A preacher. People. Imagine a church beyond what you can see with your eyes. What do you see now? Fellowship. Prayer. Bible study. Ministries. Music. Care. Preaching. Now imagine what it is that brings all these things to life. What do you see now? Generosity. Generosity is not a habit or an expectation but rather an intangible attitude of readiness to give. Generosity multiplies and magnifies God s blessings. Becoming a community of faith shaped by the Spirit of Jesus Christ calls us to generosity in worship, learning, giving and serving. This fall s stewardship emphasis at Wilshire asks everyone to imagine a church, a church powered by the kind of generosity that runs from the offering plate to the person in the pew, from the Bible study classroom to the place of service in the community. This week, we focus on generosity in worship. Do you remember the children s game where you interlock your fingers, point two fingers upward and join your thumbs while saying, Here s the church, here s the steeple? And then you fling open the thumbs and flip up your interlocked fingers: Open the doors and see all the people. It s a simple child s game, but it points to a deeper truth: The first and primary purpose of the church is to gather in worship of the Lord God. And we worship by joining together on Sunday mornings. How generous are you with your time given to worship God? Imagine a church where we all worship generously. Tuesday, Nov. 6 8:00 a.m. Bright Fellow. Bible study Parlor 1:00 p.m. Spousal loss grief group Room 2370 7:00 p.m. Sanctuary Choir sectional Wednesday, Nov. 7 9:30 a.m. New Song 11:30 a.m. Koinonia Café 12:00 p.m. Bible study 5:00 p.m. Beginning bells Room 2220 5:00 p.m. Children s bells Room 2001 5:00 p.m. Koinonia Café 5:45 p.m. Youth bells Room 2001 6:00 p.m. Bible study 6:00 p.m. Music and Missions Continued on page 2
This year s theme for our preschoolers and children is Growing in Grace Step by Step. We each grow by taking steps. Just as a baby has to crawl before they can walk, we each have new things we want to do. These things require some growth that comes one step at a time. For example, the person who decides to change health habits may have to increase exercise and change diet, and the student who wants to have better grades may have to adjust the way he or she spends time. We all have areas of our lives that need improvement. What about our spiritual growth? Here at Wilshire we often talk about four congregational expectations: worship, learn, give and serve. We can take steps to grow in worship by taking time to worship with others at church and privately by ourselves. One of the things I love about worship is that it s something I get to do with each of you. We may be at different places in the Sanctuary, but we sing together, pray together and listen together. But that one hour a week in corporate worship is more meaningful when we ve spent time in private worship during the week. Learning is another area where we grow step by step. Another Voice Steps As we learn more about God, we can build on what we know in order to learn more. At first children learn that God made them and loves them, and then they begin to realize they can love others too. Regular participation in a Sunday School class is a wonderful way to learn more about God and how to grow as a Christian. Giving is still another area that we think about as we look at the growth steps we take. Preschoolers may begin by giving a quarter to their Sunday School teacher to put in with the rest of the class. Others give online or as the offering plate is passed. As we grow we may increase the amount we give and even the ways we give. Serving is a natural outcome of giving. As we give, we discover it isn t enough just to give our offering. We need to get personally involved by serving others in ways that help them experience God s love. I m glad we don t have to go from point A to point G too quickly. It s wonderful to grow by taking steps one at a time. It s then that we realize the process may be as important as the outcome. Joan Hammons This Week at Wilshire Continued from page 1 Wednesday, Nov. 7 6:00 p.m. MOPS steering committee, Room 3203 6:00 p.m. Centering prayer group, Room 3309 6:15 p.m. Cord of Three prayer group, Room 1205-H 6:15 p.m. Committee on Committees, Room 1205-G 6:30 p.m. Watershed, Youth Center 7:00 p.m. Sanctuary Choir, Thrusday, Nov. 8 10:00 a.m. Writing Life Stories class, Room 3301 Friday, Nov. 9 8:30 a.m. New Song outing 9:00 a.m. MOPS Mothers of Preschoolers, James Gallery This Wednesday at Wilshire Wednesday Bible study New Pastoral Residents Austin Almaguer and Samuel Gunter join with Senior Pastor George Mason to continue a four-week series on the minor prophets. Noon and 6 p.m. in Community Hall. Koinonia Café menu Stuffed bell peppers, grilled pork chops, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, buttered peas, oven rolls, cucumber salad, double chocolate cake. Children s menu available in evening. Adventurers game day and potluck lunch Monday, Nov. 5. Community Hall The church will provide chicken fingers (both fried and grilled) as well as bread and drinks. Everyone else, bring something to share: Last names A - H Last names I - P Last names Q - Z Desserts Salads and fruits Vegetables Banjo player and storyteller Dan Gibson will entertain at 10:30 a.m., before lunch and games. No reservation required. Tapestry (USPS 022025) is published weekly except Christmas week by Wilshire Baptist Church, 4316 Abrams Rd., Dallas TX 75214. Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, TX. Telephone: (214) 452-3100. Website: www.wilshirebc.org. Editor: Mark Wingfield. Contributing writer: Sue Coffman. Postmaster: Send change of address to 4316 Abrams Rd., Dallas TX 75214. 2
What we re learning as foster parents Throughout November, the Tapestry will offer insights about children who are in foster care and those who are in need of adoptive families. Free devotional guides for the month, with an emphasis on understanding these needs, are available around the church for you to take home. The Wilshire library also has several new books for children and adults that focus on foster care and adoption. By Megan and Trey Wilson Foster care is a seed that was planted in me a long time ago and has since lived in the back of my mind. It took root a few years ago during a sermon on the Good Samaritan. George asked the congregation whom we most identified with in that story. Of course, I tried to think of all the ways I was stopping and helping those in need around me, but instead my mind was flooded with examples of when I had ignored the need or was too busy to help. We began our training as foster parents two months after that sermon. Since becoming licensed last year, we have had five babies in our home. They all came from at risk situations, and several had suffered significant, and even horrific, injuries. From our perspective, the most difficult part of this has been saying goodbye and letting them go back home, especially our first little boy. We could not help but think: He was not safe there, he is safe here, and now he is going back? He is better off here. And what that really means is, We are better for him, and we could actually see him growing up in our home, going to our schools, playing on our soccer teams. From a practical standpoint, we know that Texas is a reunification state, which means there is a strong preference for returning a child to his biological family. To be at peace with this reality, we have shifted our focus in this way: fostering is not about us; it is about a child and his family. It is about providing a safe place for the child and giving the family time to prepare itself for the child s return. We think about the child s stay with us as time for a family who has drifted off course, for whatever reason, to shift its direction and change itself for the child s sake and, really, for the family s sake. If you can take the me and the I out of the picture and focus on serving the baby and the baby s family, you can deal with the loss. This is certainly not easy to do, but when we dedicate babies at Wilshire, we pray for them to have a good life, not an easy one. And perhaps by keeping these foster children safe for that short period of time and giving their family time to change itself for them, their life has a chance of being good. When our hearts ache and we question whether we can continue, all we have to do is look at our kids and hear them ask, When do we get our next baby? We hope they are learning about love and grace and forgiveness, but also that being Christian calls us to move beyond what we want or need and to serve someone else, whether that someone is truly vulnerable like our babies or someone you might desperately want to judge and label, like their families. If you re interested in becoming a foster or adoptive parent, or if you re interested in finding ways to support those who are giving themselves in such service, contact Joan Hammons at (214) 452-3141 or jhammons@wilshirebc.org. Briefly u Book fair benefit continues. The Barnes & Noble book fair voucher to support the Wilshire Library may be used until Nov. 8. When shopping online enter ID 10901833 at checkout by clicking on the word change or in the Bookfair Box on the checkout page. u Preschool/children s calendar. The annual Preschool and Children s Ministry Family Calendar is available for pick up (one per family) today and Wednesday. Distribution times today are: 9:25 to 10 a.m., 10:35 to 11:05 a.m. and 11:55 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. in the hallway between the library and preschool. Distribution times Wednesday are 5:45 to 6:15 p.m. in James Gallery. Calendars not picked up will be mailed. u Operation Christmas Child. Wilshire s Globetrekkers invite you to participate in Operation Christmas Child, a Samaritan s Purse project that sends shoeboxes filled with Christmas gifts overseas to underprivileged kids. Pick up a brochure in the first floor main church office or at the north entrance. Follow the instructions inside and return your filled box with a $7 donation and label attached to a collection box located near the first or second floor north elevator by Friday, Nov. 16. Be an organ donor next week Next Sunday, you are invited to become an organ donor. Wilshire will join faith communities across the country in observing a National Donor Sabbath on Nov. 11. Donor cards will be distributed in the South Lobby and North Atrium all morning. Volunteers will be available to provide information about how to become an organ donor. One person can save up to eight lives by organ donation as well as enhance many others through tissue donation, said Linda Garner, parish nurse. More than 116,000 people are waiting for organ transplants, and 18 die every day for lack of donors. There is no cost to the donor or the donor s family. All expenses are paid by the recipient or by the recipient s insurance coverage. Wilshire members are asked to consider registering as potential donors, so that at the time of death, evaluation may be made to determine what organs or tissues remain viable for transplantation. You also may register as an organ donor online at www.donatelifetexas.org. If you think you ve already registered as a donor but aren t sure, check your driver s license. Newer Texas licenses bear a small red heart on the bottom, indicating registered donors. In further expression of this important initiative, the Dallas Tissue Bank will hold a special Thanksgiving service at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18, on the UT-Southwestern Medical Center campus. Anyone who has benefitted from any type of tissue donation is especially invited to attend. The service will be held in Gooch Auditorium, located on the medical center s South Campus at 5303 Harry Hines Blvd. To learn more, call (214) 648-2609. 3
Guest speaker here for Alvaro ordination next weekend Pastoral Resident John Jay Alvaro will be ordained to the gospel ministry next Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in McIver Chapel. All are invited to participate in the service. Guest speaker for the ordination and in both morning services next week will be Charles Campbell, professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School and a mentor to John Jay. Campbell also serves as extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch, South Africa. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), he holds degrees from Hendrix College, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, Yale Divinity School and Duke University. His academic work focuses on the biblical, theological and ethical dimensions of preaching. He is specifically interested in the Christological and apocalyptic aspects of preaching, the role of preaching in relation to the principalities and powers, and contemporary homiletical theory. Campbell grew up in Little Rock, Ark. From 1982 to 1988 he served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Stuttgart, Ark. Before moving to Duke in 2009, he taught preaching for 17 years at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. blood drive Next Sunday James Gallery Sunday, November 18 Community Hall Dinner music by Lyndsey Jones Choose from two seatings: 4:45 or 7 p.m. Reserved seating only Purchase in church office Thanksgiving Worship in the Sanctuary between the two seatings at 6 p.m. 4
I Am Wilshire Betsy Lofman Betsy Lofman made history at Wilshire by being the first person to join after the change in the membership policy allowed Christians from other faith traditions to join without being rebaptized. But she was hardly new to the life of the congregation. She was born in Dallas into a strong Czech Catholic family. Beginning at about age 4, she and her family lived in several small East Texas towns before settling in Silsbee. When World War II began, her parents moved back to Dallas to be near her mother s family. My father went to work for Braniff Airways, thinking he would soon be drafted, but he never was, Betsy said. After graduating from high school, Betsy went to work for Southwestern Life Insurance Co. with the idea of going to Southern Methodist University. However, her relationship with her future husband, Lucky, changed those plans. When I was a senior at North Dallas High School, we began dating regularly and argued regularly about religion, Betsy said. He was from a very strong Southern Baptist family. His father, grandfather and brother-in-law were ordained Baptist ministers. When Lucky gave me my engagement ring, our parents were livid. Lucky never asked me to leave the Catholic church, but he couldn t accept the church s demand that our children be raised in the Catholic faith. Before their marriage in 1951, the Lofmans began attending Highland Park Presbyterian Church. One Sunday Betsy s prayers for direction were answered, as she heard a silent message that she was doing the right thing by marrying Lucky and that it would work out. The solution was that they be married by a justice of the peace rather than by a minister, because a civil marriage could be annulled. Still, their marriage was opposed by both families. God brought us through this hard time, but when our daughter was born in 1954, things began to change for the better, she said. It s amazing what a 6-pound baby girl can do. When our son was born in 1957, it was like icing on the cake. The Lofmans raised their children in the Presbyterian church, but after they became empty-nesters, they found many things to do on Sunday mornings other than attending church. One day Lucky said to me, You know, we both were raised in the church maybe it s time for us to get back, so we started the church search I was so ready, Betsy said. They visited several churches, including a Bible church they really liked, but just about the time they were ready to join, the pastor announced his resignation. Then they visited Wilshire and felt good from the beginning, she said. And then Bruce McIver announced his retirement as pastor. On the way home that Sunday, Lucky said, Maybe we should go for the church and not the preacher, she recalled. And so we did. Clemmie and Bill Waters were very instrumental in our decision, and we thank them so much. The Lofmans became members of Charlie s Angels Class, and we have met and grown to love many special people there, she said. When George Mason came to Wilshire, we knew we d made the right decision, she said. We not only had found the right church, but the church had called the right pastor. George soon asked Betsy to meet with him, and he asked about her baptism. I told him that I wasn t comfortable with a second baptism, that I felt like I would be betraying my parents, she said. George said: Don t worry. If it weren t for your parents, you would not be where you are in your Christian walk. Coyle Stephenson gave me the same reassurance. Over the years she continued to feel that she wasn t quite there in terms of membership. When the congregation voted to change Wilshire s bylaws, she emailed George to say how excited she was about the possibility of becoming a member. On Sunday, Oct. 16, when George issued the invitation, I found myself walking down the aisle, Betsy said. I had no plans to do this at that moment, and Lucky thought I might be leaving because I was sick. The next Sunday I affirmed my baptism and am now a full-fledged member of Wilshire. George said, Now I can be your pastor in every way. What a blessing this experience has been. I had no idea that I would be the first to make this affirmation. And about that possible annulment of marriage? Lucky and I will be married 62 years next April, she said. So I guess we did it right, and I know our parents would be proud of us. By the numbers Financial report for Oct. 28 Weekly Ministry Fund projected... $77,540 Weekly Ministry Fund received... $56,735 Annual Ministry Fund projected... $1,008,754 Annual Ministry Fund received... $965,200 Annual ahead/behind... -$45,553 Crossings campaign this week...$3,983 Crossings campaign total received... $3,047,857 Pathways Endowment this week... $190 Pathways Endowment total received... $1,938,156 Special missions for year... $12,346 Sunday School Oct. 28 Officers...19 Preschool...79 Children...104 Youth...74 Young adult...76 Median adult...221 Senior adult...216 Total present...791 Total previous week...774 Condolences to: Linda Garner on the death of her mother, Imogene Garner, Oct. 27. Family and friends on the death of Flo Loper, Oct. 21. New members: Rebecca Currie Patrick and Sarah Rose Stewart & Hillary Campbell Bill Hall Megan and Kevin Koronka Adam Cox Matt Powers David Butler TJ and Ellen Hurt 5
Wilshire contacts To e-mail any member of the Wilshire staff, use the first initial with the full last name and then add @wilshirebc.org. To phone staff, dial (214) 452-3 and the three-digit extension: Wilshire Baptist Church 4316 Abrams Rd Dallas TX 75214 PERIODICALS RATE Pastoral offices George Mason (132) Debby Burton (132) Mark Wingfield (128) Kathi Lyle (130) Pathways to Ministry Geri McKenzie (159) Scott Dickison (156) 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) Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive Food services John Jost (117) Weekday Education Mary Browder (115) Parish nurse Linda Garner (151) Library Jeri Baker (114) It s time to gather up Thanksgiving food donations for Wilshire s local mission partners. Pick up a grocery bag at several locations around the building today, fill it with the items suggested, and then bring it back for the Thanksgiving service on Sunday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m. 6