A few weeks ago I traveled to Skopje, Macedonia, with two other CBF clergy. The purpose was twofold: to visit and encourage CBF field personnel Jeff and Alicia Lee and their son, Ethan, and to learn more about what a new global partnership could look like. For...
New program offers rent and utility help
Wilshire has launched a new rental and utility assistance program that will help meet immediate needs in our community. The initiative will be funded by about $81,000 in Missions Plus funds drawn from surplus giving to Wilshire’s 2023 Unified Budget. The program was...
Preparing for Worship
Greg Garrett’s sermon has lingered in my mind and soul all week. As a parent, I’m never really certain what, if anything, my child sitting next to me is absorbing. In Greg’s closing, he reminded us that we don’t have to be so afraid. Without missing a beat, my Jimmie...
Preparing for Worship
Today, 11 Wilshire members are worshiping alongside Primera Iglesia Bautista de Río Piedras in San Juan, Puerto Rico. First Baptist Church Río Piedras is a historic congregation. Established in 1899, it was the island’s first Baptist church and at one time its...
Preparing for Worship, Jan. 14
By Heather Mustain I remember my first missions trip like it was yesterday. I was a freshman at the University of Colorado and had recently come to know Christ. Eager to live into this new life, when the opportunity to spend my spring break in Jamaica serving at a...
Preparing for Worship
Hot take: My least favorite thing about this upcoming holiday season is the American cultural understanding of what is appropriate to eat on Thanksgiving and Christmas. If I’m honest, I’d rather have Mariano’s fajitas for Thanksgiving and Jimmy’s lasagna for...
Preparing for Worship
My mother recently found my first Bible packed away in her attic, a hardback, blue NRSV edition with my name, Heather Beard, engraved on the front cover. Inside the Bible, tucked safely away, we also discovered my first footprints, hospital card and baby bracelet....
Preparing for Worship – Aug 20
Around here we’ve always called the start of our fall activities Promotion Sunday — that being today. It means very little, honestly, particularly for adults — because, well, we don’t actually promote. (We never stop aging, despite our best attempts.) Promotion Sunday...
Preparing for Worship
Preparing for Worship - Heather Mustain, associate pastor. This past Monday evening we hosted an iftar dinner with our Turkish Muslim friends from the Dialogue Institute to learn more about the holy month of Ramadan. Yusuf began the program by discussing four portals...
Preparing for Worship
Preparing for Worship - Heather Mustain, associate pastor. Today is fondly known around Wilshire as Deacon Ordination Sunday. Deacons, in our Baptist tradition, are members of the church who have been nominated and identified from within as those who already...