MBCC Blog

It's been a year...

Did you realize that it has been around a year since MBCC officially chartered as a church in the PCUSA denomination?  Yes, it was in December of last year that we advanced from our previous New Church Development (NCD) status.  What a year it's been!  By the very nature of our demographics, we recognize that during the year, some folks will move to other cities while others will move into the area.  This is how MBCC maintains fresh energy and a willingneess to constantly explore new ideas.

Tonight (12/6/09) we had the opportunity to celebrate infant baptism, and also to recognize six new members.  It's an exciting way to start our second year as an official church.  We also welcomed a youth group visiting from another church in our Presbytery, who got to experience MBCC's unique style firsthand.  The surprise feature tonight was baptismal water brought over from the Sea of Galilee by Caden's parents.  Congratulations to our newest members (Joel, Jeanette, Chris, Jamie, Tom, and Denise), and also to baby Caden (plus friends and family).  Welcome!

Isn’t it always the little things?

I joke around quite a bit. Its one reason I feel as though I fit here at MBCC. In my first few weeks, I have joked that I will be ‘browbeating’ folks into signing up to do things, which is part of my job. (The signing folks up part, at least, not the browbeating.) But I have also made some observations about why we do things the way we do at MBCC. Many things seem mundane or small, but they are important parts of our ministry together.  After all, the front of our bulletins say the entire congregation are ministers of this community. What does that mean to you?

 Hospitality

 Worship set-up~ We make tea and coffee to create a warm, welcome space. We place candles in the windows so the room glows. We put information cards in pews with journals; so people can engage worship, engage God, in many different ways. We say hello to new faces while we greet our dear friends. We pull out the café tables and chairs, because not everyone likes a pew. We take special time to create a communion table, a place where we gather to partake and remember.

 Welcome/ Announcements~ This is the official welcome to MBCC worship. We share a little bit of who we are as a community, and we “orient” folks to our way of being.

 Running the digital projector/ soundboard~ A digital projector is not only environmentally friendly (no copies for music!), but also helps people who may not know the words to a song. Some people are visual learners, and we want to be vehicles for God to meet us where we are.

 DINNER~ I’m not sure this needs much explanation! We fellowship together over food each week. It is a special time for us to connect with each other, and food only makes it better.

 

Sharing God…

 Reading scripture~  Reading the Bible gives shape to our church life together. Yeah, the words are sometimes difficult or antiquated, but the message is important.

 Serving communion~ We share one loaf of bread, one cup together. We unite in communion with each other, while we remember the One who made sacrifices for us.

 Sharing music~ Make a joyful noise for the Lord! I am grateful our musicians share their talents with us. Whether we have an acoustic evening or a full band, music punctuates our life as church.

 

Stewardship: it’s not just about money…

 Cleaning up from worship/ dinner~ Its an easy task that not many people like to do… but blowing out candles, putting compost in the compost bins, washing out the coffee urn, or putting things away are the little things that make a huge difference!

 Counting Offering~ You don’t have to be an account to count the monetary gifts of the community. There’s even a cheat sheet and people who are willing to teach you how to make the correct notations.

 

These are little things that make a huge difference in our ministry at MBCC. I also know there are so many more gifts and talents just waiting to be shared or plugged into our community.  How can we help you discover them? Are you ready to try something new?

 

What are the small things in your life that can change your attitude in an instant?

 

Blessings, Erin

 

P.S. Yes, I can sign you up to do any of the above tasks. Please email me or let me know when I see you next!

WMWJA - What meetings would Jesus attend?

Greetings all,

Happy Monday to you all.  Okay, maybe Jesus wouldn't be as concerned with facility issues and classes about a particular church in his day, but who knows how he would react today . . .

We are pretty sure we are moving in some good directions here at MBCC, so we press on trying to be the discern God's will and vision for the church, our roles in it and how we manifest God in the world.

For this reason, I would encourage, prompt, poke you a bit to engage in the life of MBCC in a couple of specific ways.  I mentioned these in last week's eZine, but Leslie and I need to get some more folks confirmed for the following two events.

ONE - Consider getting more involved at MBCC.  If you are committed to finding out more about the Christian faith, have some questions or generally want to find out more about MBCC, you really should attend the three-week series, "Embracing You Inner Bobblehead" lead by Leslie Veen.  From the announcement, " . . . we will be holding three weeks of classes on what it means to be regular attenders of MBCC, how to get more involved in the life and community here, and how to become a member."  [READ MORE]

TWO - If you were at the Town Hall after service two weeks ago, you heard my PLEA for folks to put on their "creativity hat" and be part of the Facilities Task Force that will help think about a fiscal solution to help us stay in and expand our current location.  As they say, no ideas are off the table at this stage so if you are interested, please eMail me with questions and or a commitment to come.  We will be having our first meeting on Saturday, May 3, from 8:00-10:00am at Sundance Coffee on Third Street (Between 20th and 21st).

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us [leslie] [bruce] a note!

Laters - Bruce

Embracing Your Inner Bobblehead

Things are really hopping at MBCC. For several weeks now we've had well over 100 people in our Sunday morning worship services. Among those faces are long-time attendees (well, as long-time as we can get in a highly mobile society). But we've also noticed a large number of newer faces sprinkled in as well. This makes us very happy. We like to welcome new folks into the craziness that is Mission Bay Community Church.

To extend that welcoming spirit even further, we will be holding three weeks of classes on what it means to be regular attenders of MBCC, how to get more involved in the life and community here, and how to become a member. If you would like to explore these topics, please mark your calendars and plan to attend. Attending the classes does not commit you to any hard and fast decision. We would simply like to explore these topics and help those who are ready to join in the craziness at a deeper level to do so.

Here are the important details:

Sunday, May 4, 2008 from 12:30 - 2 pm
"Who You Calling a Bobblehead?"
Explore what makes MBCC what it is and why people are drawn to it.
Light lunch provided.

Sunday, May 11, 2008 from 12:30 - 2 pm
"Set Your Head a Bobbing!"
Find ways to be involved in the life and ministry of MBCC.
Light lunch provided.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 following community potluck until 2:15 pm
"Add Another Head to the Roster"
Discover if membership at MBCC is right for you.
Bring something for the community potluck.

To learn more about these classes or to RSVP you attendance at them, please contact Leslie Veen at leslie at veen dot com.

MBCC: calm in the chaos

Just got this note from someone who used to attend MBCC.

Hi. I moved back to XXXXXXX  just under a year ago after doing some traveling and being a vagabond for about a year. I heard you moved to a new place? How is the ministry going?? I think about you folks pretty often and I should say thank you for being there. It was my comfort place away from home. It was a big breath of fresh air every week to gather and worship, even if it was just for the morning, in such a busy, hectic life in the city.

I get notes like this and all the struggles about stability, longevity, etc. become worth it. For those of us here and now, our call is to continue to be a place where folks find some calm in the midst of chaos.

Sometimes we get it right.

Make Jesus Happy

As we here at MBCC continue our transition from "Me to We" we are introducing a new organizational tool called Stafftool. Stafftool was created by our very own Toby Sterrett (who you may know from his cute baby Paisley or him playing the drums in worship). It is an easy way for MBCC to herd all of you and manage our people, events, and communications in one location that is all online for easy access. MBCC is in the process of transitioning our entire contact information, groups, and event calendar off of Bruce's laptop and  into Stafftool so we need your help. If you would like to help us by maintaining your own information just email Nick [nick@missionbaycc.org] and he'll send you a login account (This would make Jesus very happy). This way the lowly interns don't have to manually enter everyone’s information and then help to maintain it when you all decide to change your email address. Also if you opt-into Stafftool then you can set your own profile of information including what you want to be available to other church members or only to staff.

If you were with us on Sunday and filled out "new" communication card that information is being entered into Stafftool. But you can still get an account (and remember that will make Jesus happy) by emailing Nick. Stafftool doesn't just help staff but also lets you look up other people’s information in the church (that way you can call Tammie to help baby-sit Simona). Plus with Stafftool we can now offer you a subscribe-able calendar that works both with google calendar and iCal [webcal://mbcc.stafftool.com/pub/events.ics]

So make Jesus Happy and sign up with Stafftool [nick@missionbaycc.org]

08/12 - PODcast

Welcome to MBCC Podcasting of Sunday Sermons:

Download and Listen to the Sermon on Baptism at MBCC. Listen to our thoughts on...

08/12 – Baptism Basic :: Bruce Reyes-Chow

07/01 PODcast

Welcome to MBCC Podcasting of Sunday Sermons:

Download and Listen to the parts of the Community Sermon Series on the Book of Esther at MBCC. Listen to our thoughts on...

07/01 – The Butterfly Effect :: Bruce Reyes-Chow

**we apologize for not having the last two PODcast's done, but life got in the way and they didn't get recorded.

05/27 PODcast

Welcome to MBCC Podcasting of Sunday Sermons:

Download and Listen to the parts of the Community Sermon Series "Belonging: Answering the Call to Community" at MBCC. Listen to our thoughts on...

05/27 – PENTECOST - The Birth of the Church :: Bruce Reyes-Chow

5/13 PODcast

Welcome to MBCC Podcasting of Sunday Sermons:

Download and Listen to the parts of the Community Sermon Series "Belonging: Answering the Call to Community" at MBCC. Listen to our thoughts on...

05/06 – Every Part Matters :: Derrick Weston

**There will be no PODcast for 5/20 - We currently do not cast interview sermons**