Insights from in and around the association
UBA Voices
La Razón Que #MejorJuntos es Crucial en Momentos Como Estos—Aún en Distanciamiento Social
Este artículo le proporcionará una información útil, enlaces y formas en que podemos conectar juntos a la iglesia para la gloria de Dios durante este momento difícil. Qué hablaremos: ¿Deberían las iglesias suspender sus servicios en vivo? ¿Cómo podemos decidir el tamaño del grupo que pueden reunirse? Algunos consejos para ser juntos, la iglesia. Enlaces de recursos para iglesias. Los creyentes están llamados a amar a Dios y a nuestro prójimo, especialmente en estos tiempos, las personas buscan para compartir y modelar el Evangelio sin temor ni pánico.
Why Being #BetterTogether Is Crucial Now—Even With Social Distancing
There’s a lot of questions about the coronavirus today: Should churches suspend live services? How should we decide what size groups should meet together? How can we be the church, together? Believers in Jesus Christ are called to love God and love our neighbors, and especially in these times, people are looking for us to show and share the gospel without fear and panic. Josh Ellis provides us with some practical information, links, and ways that we can connect the church together for God’s glory during this coronavirus outbreak.
Loving Your Asian Neighbors Amid Coronavirus Concerns
The rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has captured the attention of the media and the public. Many Americans are scared, worried, and have even taken it out on others—especially East Asians. The Christian response to the Coronavirus and to our Asian neighbors should not be one of irrational fear or avoidance. Rather, we should take this opportunity to think critically, lean into our faith, and show Christ’s love in a crisis moment.
St. Patrick and a Missional Mindset
As we learn about the call of Maewyn Succat—better known as St. Patrick, let’s think about our call to Houston for “such a time as this.” We pray for specific UBA initiatives, local events, and various organizations God is using to advance his gospel throughout our city, state, and world.
Deliberate Simplicity—How the Church Does More by Doing Less
I have tried to apply the discipline of simplicity in my personal life. We have a simple home, used cars, and “antique furniture” that was once new but has aged along with us. So when I found a book applying the principle of simplicity to the church, it certainly caught my interest. It was Deve Browing’s Deliberate Simplicity – How the Church Does More by Doing Less.
State of the Church
One of the key services that UBA provides to churches is contextual understanding about the city in which we live. UBA staff do this through research, demographics, conducting church surveys, or interpreting outside data points. We’re regularly asked questions about how current our data are and how it actually affects churches. I’m happy to report there is a new answer to these questions. UBA has been asked to be one of the pilot associations for a brand new national research project that has direct implications for you and your church.
A Layleader's Guide to Reaching the Nations Near You
I was fresh off the boat from two years of mission work when I first heard of diaspora missions. I joined a church that had committed to engaging the West African population nearby and was soon neck-deep in Gambian and Ivorian communities. In spite of my mission experience, this work was harder than I anticipated. But if I can do it, so can you. And so can anyone else in your church.
Consumer Christianity and Sunday Morning Products
This come-and-see model of ministry we’ve developed over the past 100 years has produced several generations of Christians who assume church is about them, for them, and because of them. So they shop around.
But what if we pastors are only sleeping in the bed we’ve made for ourselves? What if we have a consumer-driven Christian culture because we’ve been selling a product instead of embodying a mission?
Wit and Wisdom
I once saw a comment by Jon Tyson—pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Manhattan—regarding the prodigious creative output of our culture. His words struck me as truthful. "So much content; so little wisdom."
Most Americans, it strikes me, are content with cleverness and snark. And, in our ever-increasing desire to appear more nonchalant and funny, something is lost. That something, it seems to me, is wisdom.
Ten Easy Ways to Help a Refugee Thrive
Nearly 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced in 2018. Refugees are forced to leave their homes, their friends and often their family, and everything they know because of threats, violence, inability to survive, or persecution. When a person has spent weeks, months, or most often years in survival mode, it can be difficult to know what thriving can look like, especially in a new country, with a new language, operating in a new culture. There are simple ways that we can help a refugee thrive. Here are ten easy ways that you can help a refugee thrive, not just survive.